May 25, 2018 – Conference on Data Science for Business and Economics
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM Welcome and Introductions
Opening Statement & Welcome: Purdue President Mitch Daniels
Good morning everyone. I think most of you know me, but just in case, my name is Mitch Daniels and I am the President of Purdue University and former Governor of Indiana.
On behalf of Purdue’s Krannert School of Management, I am honored to welcome you all to the inaugural conference on Data Science for Business and Economics. (That’s a mouthful!). Thank you all for coming.
I want to talk a little bit first about data science in general. You’re saying, ‘It’s not a “sexy subject”, right? Well, except for data scientists, maybe?’ Actually, I disagree with that. Data science is one of the most important fields of study today. It has practical applications for everyone here, whether you are faculty, students, or members of the business community.
We use data here at Purdue to help make decisions about how to make students’ experience more rewarding.
The data shows us what works and what doesn’t work, and we can make changes accordingly.
We use data to help us do the same thing in state government. If you work for the police, and you manager manpower and resources, then you need to find out where and when is best to send out the most officers. You would base your decision on data that shows where the highest crime rates exist, and when it is most likely to occur, so that you can increase the concentration of force at those places and times.
Another example: if you’re a major retailer, and you want to know why sales are down for the quarter, you need data. The data might show you that the products you sell in that area no longer appeal to that demographic, and you update your stock to keep up. Or the data might show that your core demographic is getting older and you should start diversifying to appeal to younger customers.
A network of hospitals in a metropolitan area might gather data on the volume of emergencies that come in on certain days of the week for each member hospital to see if there can be a better way to distribute casualties to lessen the possibility of overburdening the resources of any one.
Community government can gather data on how services are being delivered and make decisions based on feedback data.
Animal rescue groups can gather and study data to find out how to best connect with those interested in pet adoption.
So, maybe it doesn’t sound sexy: data science. But it kind of is!
Today, you’ll hear some great insights into other ways this works in the real world, and how important it is that we keep working on making advances in this field.
It gives me great pleasure to kick off this event, as we have some exceptional speakers here today and I know you are excited to get going. So let me make way for our first guest, a leader in this field…
*Created as part of the requirements for a writing assignment and not meant to be published nor to represent the organization(s) listed herein
