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INDUSTRIAL VISIT 2
ASEAN DATA ANALYTICS EXCHANGE : ADAX
INTRODUCTION
Last 26th October 2018, on Friday we went to ASEAN Data Analytics eXchange : ADAX for our second industrial visit. This visit was organised by the School of Computing for the data and software engineering students. There were 56 data engineering students, 10 software engineering students and escorted by 2 lecturers. This physical data exchange based in Bangsar South, Kuala Lumpur is a MDEC-led initiative.
ADAX is an initiative by MDEC to enable businesses, governments, academia and professionals to rapidly adopt Data Analytics as a tool to empower decision making and innovation. ADAX seeks to be the definitive Data Analytics Exchange Hub for knowledge, information, resources and collaboration for the ASEAN region. The main goal of ADAX is to develop the ecosystem, build a critical mass of talent pool in the big Data Analytics category and to foster collaboration amongst businesses, start-ups, academia and professionals so that Data Analytics becomes an integral part of business innovation and decision making.
Source from http://adax.asia/
DETAILS OF JOURNEY
|
Time |
Activity |
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8.30 a.m – 9.15 a.m |
Arrival at Tower B, Vertical Business Suites and registration |
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9.15 a.m – 10.00 a.m |
Breakfast |
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10.00 a.m – 10.45 a.m |
Welcome and ADAX & DataCamp Session |
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10.45 a.m – 11.10 a.m |
UG Development Program Session |
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11.10 a.m –11.35 a.m |
Fusionex and Data Hero Session |
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11.35 a.m – 12.30 p.m |
SAS Session |
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12.30 p.m – 1.00 p.m |
Lunch and Closing |
ADAX & DataCamp by Mr. Mohamad Nazir Ismail
He stated that ADAX is a one-stop hub to pull data technology ecosystem together to create solutions and adopt the technology. ADAX is data physical exchange that develop talent, promote technology and proliferate adoption. In line with the Malaysia goal to develop 20,000 Data Professional by 2020, ADAX have facilitated the development of nearly 8,000 Data Professionals. He also described about programme for data technology adoption, (Data Technology Partnership Program and Data-Driven Decision Enterprise Adoption Program). These programmes help to accelerate data technology and develop/drive Data-Driven Decision (DDD) Enterprises and develop funnel for high impact use cases to benefit national interest .Data Technology Partnership Program is an ecosystem for collaboration partner to catalyse data technology adoption. For DDD Enterprise Adoption Program is a two-pronged approach covering the whole spectrum of DDD maturity level. Besides, he talked how ADAX promote their technology by worked with private sector, universities, industry organisations, and NGOs on areas such as (Industry Pain Points, National Challenges, Societal Issues) via channels (events, workshops, Hackathons and meet ups). Other than that, he explained about DataCamp which is the first online learning platform that focuses on building the best learning experience specifically for Data Science. On DataCamp, we will learn by solve interactive coding exercises, complete spaced-repetition practice challenges, and build guided projects to apply what they learn to real-world problems. Lastly, he asked and suggested us to sign up for the DataCamp.
Premier Digital Tech IHLs by Ms Josephine Ong
The speaker explained about one of MDEC initiative to attract the students who are qualified to be given the priority access to pursue studies in digital tech related courses. From The Premier Digital Tech Institution, they help to produce graduate meeting industry expectations. This platform aims to focus on IOT, Cloud, Ecommerce, BDA and platform and sharing economy. School leavers who are interested in pursuing to IT field are welcome to apply for Digital Tech IHL courses and they will guide you until you secure a placement in any industry. The objective of this Premier Digital Tech IHLs is to create a sustainable talent pipeline for industry as well as a recognition for future digital talents. A great step has taken by this Digital Tech IHL to ensure that everyone is aware and confidence in digital tech career and how it is growing rapidly around us.
For undergraduate program, there will be a program under the Premier Digital Tech University where students need to have excellent soft skills as those are the importance criteria to secure a job in the industry. Soft skills such as problem solving, strategic thinking, critical thinking, communication skills and teamwork are important for an individual. Adding on with certain specialization, an undergraduate will later be qualified by the Premier Digital Tech and will be promoted for the industry immersion for internship and employment.
FUSIONEX By Mr Gan Chun How
As we all know, Fusionex is an established multi-award winning data technology provider that specializes in BD, AI, Industry 4.0, E-commerce, Machine Learning and Analytics.
FUSIONEX help clients manage, make sense of and derive useful insights and information from the vast amounts of structured and unstructured data at their disposal.( derived from https://www.fusionex-international.com/About-Us/Overview )
We were exposed about FUSIONEX capabilities in advanced analytics and AI. For example business influencers, forecasting, CHATBOTs, What If Analysis, Customer segregation or profiling and machine learning.
He shared that we must have knowledge of statistics and python to become a data hero.
He explained about life cycle of a data science which have seven steps. Starting with identifying the problem. Then, identify available data sources before identify additional data sources are needed then do statistical analysis. Data processing and management for the fifth step. Next we should communicate results and the last step is maintenance.
FUSIONEX have generate more awareness in Big Data Analyst and IoT and has invented fresh food replenishment using machine language as a solution for retailers that are constantly having to make difficult trade-offs when placing orders with fresh food suppliers. As the impact, reductions of up to 80% in out-of-stock rates and gross-margain increases of up to 9%
SAS By Dr Mark Chia
He that was born in Malaysia, grown up in Singapore but have worked in UK before decide to come back to Malaysia to work with SAS Malaysia. SAS was founded in 1976 and have been in the country for 32 years. They have more than 100 employees and 150 clients just in Malaysia. It is specialized in Sales, Sales Support, Professional Services, Technical Support and Training/ Education. Furthermore, they have conquer 35.4% market in the local analytic market and provide a direct access to a strong global support system. He also explained that market observation nowadays focus on Analytic Platform starting 2017 than Productivity and Operational Platform.
Analytics Lifecycle Industrial Revolutions
There are 3 revolution drivers which is physical, biological and digital that give impact on individual, society, business, national and economy. Moving on to AI at SAS, their belief is AI augments human abilities and becomes a part of our digital world, so they approached by turn insights into action by embedding AI within the SAS Platform. In order to make that works, they improving areas with AI such as fraud, security & customer intelligence, risk and IOT. He ended his talk by introducing the SAS Experiental Analytics program which is an intensive and structured 18 months program.
Achievements
Within a year of ADAX was established, the organization has facilitated the development of 1,800 individuals from 298 companies in 19 industries as data practitioners, data managers and data leaders. Therefore, IDC has recognized the achievement of ADAX achieved through the collaboration of 19 training partners. Among the ADAX training partners are Iverson, Databyte Academy, Dream Catcher Consulting, Quandatics, ABeam Consulting (Malaysia), The Center of Applied Data Science, HELP College, UiTM and etc.
In achieving the mission of ADAX to meet KPIs of 20,000 data professionals by 2020, ADAX training colleagues, SAS have been able to record an increase of more than 170% in certificates awarded from 2016. As a result, Malaysia is top 15 countries in the world. The Department of Statistics, Malaysia have nine SAS certified data scientists and also the first and largest national department in the world. In 2017, ADAX contributed to more than 30% of the data professionals delivered.
Organization
Launched in 2017, ADAX is MDEC’s initiative to drive the Big Data community in Malaysia to greater heights. A joint-effort between ADAX, MDEC and renowned industry players, Data Star programme will help Malaysia achieve 20,000 data professionals by 2020; a goal set by the Government in 2015. Sharala Axryd is the Chief Executive Officer of ADAX. By July 2018, ADAX have taken a drastic change and moving on to the next phase, namely ADAX 2.0 that focuses on AI.
REFLECTION
Alia
Through this industry tour, I have acquired a lot of information related to future job demands, how big data and artificial intelligence help industry problems and preparation for the upcoming work and industrial era. Additionally, exposure of DataCamp has opened up opportunities for me to learn, practice and solve coding exercises and build a project. Because of that, the courses help me to solve and apply what I have learn to real-world problems and design new IT solution. This visit has taught me in order to be a data worker, we must have soft skills such as teamwork skills, problem solving, communication skills, critical thinking and strategic thinking. I think that as a student, we must be brave to try something new to develop our ideas and our ability to do something.
Ain
I am aware that I need to broaden my short-term thinking. As workers are promoted up, fewer jobs become available yet continuing to grow skills and experience should still be a priority for people obtaining value from and adding value to their career. I need to explore lateral moves to broaden and deepen my experience by attending classes, programmes, events and training sessions to increase my knowledge.
Afiqah
I learned to grab every opportunities that have been provided. For example, most of the company have offered programs to develop the graduate to a level where they become professional, training graduates about their technologies and providing mentored work experience within a variety of departments. Thus, we must make full use of these opportunities before it is gone.
Nina
I am more keen to go beyond in this course of my choice. I am starting to gain higher confidence level since ADAX has open up a brighter future to us as a Data Engineering student by providing training and improving soft skills. They stressed out the demand of this job and explained clearly the job scope as a data analyst. After the talk, I became more clear about my future since I am aware with the risk and challenges I am going to face later in the future regarding management of data and how to be able to manipulate raw information into a valuable information. The speakers shared some of their experiences in data field and the process of data really excites me somehow. ADAX would provide a full training for applicants who are eligible to apply and that motivates me to be better everyday so that I could fulfil my dream. I really am interested to apply and earn more skills and knowledge upon training.