The Computer Science Department of the Faculty of Computing and Information Systems (FOCIS) has hosted an exciting Data Science and Analytics Seminar and Boot camp from 25th to 28th June 2024 at the main campus.

The event featured a two-part programme designed to equip participants with essential competencies to gain hands-on experience with the latest tools and technologies in data science and analytics.

Giving his remarks at the seminar, the Dean of FOCIS and Chairman of the event, Dr. William-Brown Acquaye, indicated that data science and analytics provide insights that enable informed decisions and reduce the risk of relying on intuition or incomplete information.

“In today’s world, you will agree with me that from the medical field, sports and entertainment, data are the heart of what they do. The question is, what can we do with data and how can we monetize data,” he said. Dr. Acquaye elaborated that GCTU is poised to tap into the fourth industrial revolution agenda of the country, making the seminar and boot camp timely.

According to Dr. Acquaye, data scientists and analysts are making huge sums of money in the USA and it is a rapidly growing field that would only continue to experience significant growth in the coming years. He charged the participants to start exploring data science and analytics. “Start thinking about data, once you understand data, you will understand all areas,” he emphasized.

Dr. Andy Asare, Assistant Professor (Teaching), at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and Resource Person, gave a presentation on “Unveiling the Power of Data Science and Analytics.” In his explanation on Science, Dr. Asare said that it combines principles from mathematics, statistics, computer science and domain-specific knowledge to analyze and interpret complex data sets.

Dr. Asare, highlighted the phases of data science and analytics, namely, descriptive analytics- (using data to answer the question what happened?); diagnostics analytics- (why or why did it happen?); predictive analytics- (what is likely to happen?); prescriptive analytics- (what actions should we take?); action analytics- (implementing recommendation strategies) and evaluation analytics- (evaluating the data analytics recommendation performance). He delved into the “steps in the data science workflow”, namely, data collection, data cleaning, data exploration and visualization, modeling and algorithms, interpretation and reporting.

The second part of the programme was a three-day boot camp and it was an immersive and intensive training session. It focused on building specific skills and knowledge, that gave participants real-world experience with applications, case studies and practical approaches to leverage data and to gain a competitive edge in a short, but rigorous period.

Dr. Andy Asare, covered topics including Setting Up Google Analytics Account, Dimensionality Reduction, Text Mining and Sentiment Analysis. He gave hands-on exercises and project work and incorporated feedback sessions.

Giving the closing remarks on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor and the Dean of FOCIS, the Head of the Centre for Online Learning and Teaching (COLT), Dr. Emmanuel Freeman expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the resource person and the participants.

He emphasized that Africa has to take data science and analytics seriously to unlock its potential, drive development and improve the lives of its citizens. Dr. Freeman urged the participants to make the most of the knowledge acquired thoughtfully. He called for collaborative research among faculties and departments to apply data science and analytics techniques to solve complex problems.