SKA Partners With Industry For First Big Data Careers Event
The Square Kilometre Array South Africa (SKA SA) has joined forces with a number of industry partners that includes Tracker Connect Pty Ltd, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, CAPITEC Bank, amongst others to host the first ever Big Data Careers Event in South Africa. The event showcased the ever increasing role of data scientists in global research projects such as the SKA, as well as their future need within industry and the financial sectors.
The SKA SA recognizes the need for data scientists not only within large science projects but also within the general South African economy and world-wide. The SKA will need at least 50 data scientists to manage, analyse and distribute the huge volumes of data expected from the telescope itself – data collected by the SKA in a single day would take nearly two million years to playback on an ipod! The SKA is therefore expected to play a global leader in data science as we enter the data revolution era with an even larger demand for data scientists across various sectors of industry.
With this need for data scientists, the SKA SA is leading an initiative that showcases the career opportunities available to aspiring data scientists within some of the world’s leading organizations in technology and innovation. Dr Bonita de Swardt, project officer of strategic partnerships for human capital development at the SKA SA, explains that the initial idea of hosting such an event came through an unusual partnership between the SKA SA and the Banking Sector Education and Training Authority (BANKSETA). Through this partnership 25 first year data science students from the Sol Plaatje University in the Northern Cape Province were funded to participate in this event.
“This event will not have been possible without the involvement of the different partnering organizations”, was noted by Ms Paulette Bourne, Manager of Work Integrated Learning & Bursaries at BANKSETA. She further explains how the event has grown since the initial concept was proposed by the SKA SA with a tremendous interest from her partners within the banking sector.
Through this event the students were exposed to vibrant presentations by industry and academic research partnering organizations. Microsoft contributed to the event through a hands on training session with the students that demonstrated some of their data analtics software. In addition, students worked on a data project that was presented at the end of the event. Prizes were awarded to the best project presentations which were sponsored by Tracker Pty Ltd.
“I hope to one day work as a data scientist at the SKA SA or a big research organization” commented Heidi Hlungwani, a student from Sol Plaatje University. “We are very grateful for this opportunity and we will take this inspiration back with us to Kimberly.”
The SKA SA is looking at making the Big Data Careers event an annual event and invites partnerships from various organizations who would like to demonstrate the importance of data scientists within their industry.
