At the end of October, a new Fundamentals of data science programme was kicked off at the Brightlands Institute for Smart Society (BISS) in Heerlen. This programme introduces professionals to the world of data science and smart services. BISS offers the programme in collaboration with UMIO. About twenty participants attended the introductory session led by Prof. Dr. Rudolf Müller.
Maastricht University founded the Brightlands Institute for Smart Society (BISS) to connect the university’s academic knowledge and expertise in data science with societal needs. The institute is part of the Brightlands Smart Services Campus in Heerlen.
The Fundamentals of data science programme is one of the four educational programmes of BISS. Any professional interested in data science and smart services can participate.
Three topics
Rudolf Müller, who is the scientific director of BISS, made it a very interesting introductory session. In an interactive way, he dealt with three topics: Digitization, Economics of digitization and From Quantitative Methods to Data Science. Müller explained, among other things, the differences between descriptive analytics, diagnostic analytics, predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics. He also mentioned the pros and cons of these four variants. According to Muller, the purpose of this session was to get participants to think, provide them with a framework, and help them to identify opportunities.
Important role in society
Jan Kerckhoffs is one of the participants in the introductory session. He works as a manager at Thuis in Limburg. “We manage an online platform for (potential) tenants in Limburg”, Jan says enthusiastically. “As a result, we have a lot of online data. With the help of these data, we try to gain more insight into the rental property market in Limburg and the search behaviour of home seekers.
I participate in this programme because I am very interested in data science, which plays an increasingly important role in our society.”
Nine educational sessions
The participants of the Fundamentals of data science programme follow nine educational sessions in smart services and data science, which are essential for the understanding of the key concepts, such as Business Process Management, Data Visualisation and Artificial Intelligence. It is also possible to choose one or more individual sessions of preference.
More information
Are you also interested in data science and smart services? Then have a look at the trainings we offer on our Education webpage.
