Panel: Addressing the Shortage of Big Data Skills with Inter-Disciplinary Big Data Curriculum

Abstract

One major challenge faced by enterprises in contemporary era is the shortage of big data and analytics (BDA) professionals. These professionals possess skills to analyze and derive intelligence from big data generated by enterprises. Currently, universities and colleges have not been able to produce sufficient professionals to meet the ever-growing demand for data analytics skill sets. A possible reason for this may be the narrow focus and lack of interdisciplinary approach to big data analytics education. To address this challenge, this panel brings together practitioners, researchers and educators in big data and analytics; to explore the potentials for developing an interdisciplinary curriculum that will deliver data analytics skills to students across all other academic majors. This might help to produce more agile data analytics professionals and close the gap between demand and supply of those professionals.