Our Story• Looking for team members to start a

Data oriented student group

• Introduced through mutual friend over

Facebook chat

• Met up at the SLC to discuss idea in

March

• Saw poster of Big Data book Dr. Murtaza

Haider, a Ted Rogers Professor is

creating in a TRSM hallway contacted

through e-mail, right away, he is on-

board to be industry advisor

• Presented to RCS in beginning of April

• Idea of Business Analytics Zone in May

What is Business Analytics?

• Business Analytics: skills and technology

that focuses on past business

performance for future insight

• Applications of Business Analytics:

– Energy

– Sports

– Finance

– Marketing

– Real Estate

– Pharmaceuticals

Why Business Analytics?• Inexpensive computing power + vast amounts

of digital storage = large volumes of data ready

to accurately re-tell the past, predict the future

• McKinsey report: USA alone, has a shortage of

1.5 M professionals w/ Business Analytical skills

• 40% of companies unprepared for Big Data

http://blog.linkedin.com/2014/12/17/the-25-

hottest-skills-that-got-people-hired-in-2014/

Ryerson’s Current Initiatives

• Ryerson’s study on Canada’s Big Data

Talent Gap• http://www.ryerson.ca/provost/partnerships/talentgap.html

• Privacy & Big Data Institute• http://www.ryerson.ca/pbdi/

Ryerson’s Current Initiatives

• The Big Data Consortium, in partnership

w/ Deloitte, TMX, Dalhousie U, etc • http://www.ryerson.ca/provost/partnerships/talentgap.html

Ryerson’s Current Initiatives

• Chang School’s Big Data & Advanced

Analytics Certificate• http://ce-online.ryerson.ca/ce/default.aspx?id=3635

• IBM’s Watson 2nd CDN School• http://ryerson.ca/ryersontoday/data/news/2014/12/20141215-ryerson-

students-to-put-ibm-watson-to-work-in-big-data.html

Ryerson’s Current Initiatives

• Business Analytics focused at the

undergraduate level

– No current initiatives

Educational Enhancement• Collaboration:

– Engineering Software, computer, mechanics

– Computer science Programming, algorithms

– Mathematics Data scientists, “quants”

– Business Analysis, decision making efficiency

• Events:

– Hackathons

– Startup competitions

– Case competitions

– Industry speakers/workshops + networking

– Conference (first ever in Canada?)

Sample Student Group Collabs.• ITMSA Databases & business intelligence

• RUFS Analytics to predict portfolio value

• HRSA Analytics & turnover correlation

• RENRA Analytics for energy efficiency

• RSBA Analytics & sports performance

• RMA Social media data mining

• EMSCU Analytics & regional econ. growth

• And more…

Future Goals

Data Incubator partnered with

Ryerson University

Data Incubation Bootcamp

based in the United StatesDMZ startups using data analytics

• Provide statistical analysis to companies for a discounted fee

– Students working with a professor as a mentor for these projects

• Creation of an incubator focused on Business Analytics

– The zone can house data driven startups

Return on Investment

• 40% of businesses not ready for Business

Analytics. Ryerson develops the skills

students hired reputation/alumni of Ryerson

is enhanced

• Target corporate partners:

Sponsorship Opportunity?

• Joe Fresh gave a $1 M sponsorship to the

Fashion Zone to re-brand it to the ‘Joe

Fresh Centre for Fashion Innovation’

• Huge opportunities in Business

Analytics

Ryerson = Innovation

• Watson 2nd CDN university to receive

• Chang School Big Data Certification = one of

few in Canada

• = #1 in CAN, #5 in World

• = One of the 1st in Canada

• Business Analytics Zone = 1st in Canada?

Current Progress

• Support from RCS and RESS

• Prof. Murtaza Haider as Industry Advisor

• Partnership with OneEleven, Data startup incubator

• IBM’s new Big Data University

• Approval from TRSM Dr. Steven Murphy, will aid in

funding if approved

Student Response

• 555/600 (92.5%) Students support the creation of a

new zone focused on Business Analytics

• 581/600 (96.8%) Students would like to see

additional resources for training in Business Data

and Analytics

• 443/600 (73.8%) Students believe that Ryerson’s

curriculum doesn’t prepare them with the skills to

be proficient in a data centric world

92%

8%

Student Support

Yes

No

26%

74%

Curriculum Preparation

Yes

No

97%

3%

Students Wanting More Business Data and Analytics

Resources

Yes

No

Student Testimonies

• Business intelligence and data analytics tools paired with the recent growing phenomenon of

big data technologies have arisen opportunities that can contribute to better decision making

for management in organizations

• With experience from the ITM618 Business Intelligence & Analytics course I set out on

designing a interactive Dashboard using a service called MicroStrategy. With use of concepts

learned from the course and some tinkering I was able to create a precise and usable tool that

helped management in resource allocation

- Uzair Chawala

• Any student can benefit from the zone, whether they're in business, architecture, social

studies, history, etc.

• Getting students involved and realizing the potential of how much big data can influence our

daily decisions can lead to so many opportunities that we haven't realized before

• As a student, we all thrive to learn something new, or find trends in data that was not known to

anyone before, and it's kind of exciting to find answers to questions we hadn't asked before.

- Shawdi Fereidooni

• Business Analytics is informative, a lot of people don't understand what big data is right now

but its literally talked about everywhere. Students don't understand how they can leverage that

kind of information

• People always talk about how much info Google records about us. They get freaked out

because of privacy. Students have no idea why Google wants that kind of data

- Monia Naguib

More Information

Email:

president@rcsonline.ca

Appendix A:• Slide 5: http://blog.linkedin.com/2014/12/17/the-25-hottest-skills-that-

got-people-hired-in-2014/

• Slide 6: http://www.ryerson.ca/provost/partnerships/talentgap.html

http://www.ryerson.ca/pbdi/

• Slide 7: http://www.ryerson.ca/provost/partnerships/talentgap.html

• Slide 8: http://ryerson.ca/ryersontoday/data/news/2014/12/20141215-

ryerson-students-to-put-ibm-watson-to-work-in-big-data.html

http://ce-online.ryerson.ca/ce/default.aspx?id=3635

• Slide 11: https://dmz.ryerson.ca/team/gridcure/

https://dmz.ryerson.ca/team/sampler/

http://dmz.ryerson.ca/team/physicalytics/

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2015/04/07/john-tory-wants-to-use-

data-to-ease-congestion.html

https://www.thedataincubator.com/

http://www.oneeleven.co/