Professors, staff members and students learned how to use the tool for guided data exploration, automated predictive analysis and dashboard creation.
Elon’s Center for Organizational Analytics hosted a Watson Analytics Workshop on Nov. 16 to introduce faculty, staff and students to the revolutionary approach to analytics that is smart data discovery.
Randy Messina, the worldwide public sector leader for Watson Analytics, led the workshop, showing participants how IBM Watson Analytics, a cloud-based data analytics service, can guide data exploration, automate predictive analytics, and create dashboards and infographics.
Messina’s Watson Analytics colleagues Sunil Patel, technical sales manager; Samantha Soohoo, client technical specialist; and Laura Trouvais, worldwide academic programs administrator; walked participants through using the tool to discover the power of collaborative analysis combining data from Twitter, Cognos Enterprise Reporting systems, standard relational databases and cloud data storage sources.
“Watson Analytics offers our students an exciting opportunity to use data discovery and visualization to uncover patterns and meaning in their datasets,” said Associate Professor Haya Ajjan, director of the Center for Organizational Analytics. “It will be wonderful for all our students to learn this valuable skill before joining the workforce.”
About the Center for Organizational Analytics
Elon’s Center for Organizational Analytics serves as a hub to bring together faculty, students and industry thought leaders to disseminate best analytics practices, solve organizational problems, and promote teaching, outreach and research in the area of analytics. The Center accomplishes this through student projects, consulting and professional training to demonstrate how analytics can be used to provide solutions for problems faced by organizations today.