Business Analytics Symposium Kicks off Jan. 31 at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The two-day third annual Business Analytics Symposium begins Thursday, Jan. 31, at the Hotel Capstone on The University of Alabama campus. .

Organizers say there still is time to register online at http://bit.ly/14exE69. The event will run through Friday and is sponsored by The University of Alabama’s Institute of Business Analytics, part of the Culverhouse College of Commerce.

The symposium will feature a variety of speakers from industry-leading organizations such as Walmart,  DirecTV, Teradata, Nielsen, Regions Bank and Travelers Insurance. A variety of representatives from SAS, the world’s largest private software company and a major developer of analytics software, will also be in attendance and presenting. Networking opportunities for practitioners, faculty and students will be available throughout the symposium.

“Our annual Business Analytics Symposium sets the stage for The University of Alabama to be recognized as a leader in analytics education,” said Denise McManus, director of the Institute of Business Analytics and the James C. Lee, Jr. Faculty Fellow.

Symposium topics range from data mining, forecasting, predictive modeling, text mining, operations research and credit scoring to corporate/academic partnerships.

For more information on the Business Analytics Symposium, including speaker abstracts and biographies, please see http://mycba.ua.edu/basymposium.

The Culverhouse College of Commerce is celebrating a decade of leadership in analytics education. Analytics has been a growing point of emphasis for many organizations in recent years. Students of business analytics are trained in data mining, a practice that helps better gauge the performance of an organization. By detecting hidden patterns and relationships among massive amounts of raw information, data mining produces knowledge that leads to action that produces results.

“Business analytics is a key component for every business in the world, and our faculty are keenly aware of the importance business analytics will play in the future success of our students,” said Dr. J. Michael Hardin, dean of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration.

UA’s Institute of Business Analytics is an applied research center within which data mining techniques are used to extract information from vast amounts of corporate data and predictive models are constructed to enhance the ability of an organization to make better decisions. The center serves as a key focal point for business intelligence research within the Culverhouse College of Commerce and for university/industry partnerships involving applied research in all aspects of business analytics.

Contact

Bill Gerdes, UA media relations, 205/348-8318, bgerdes@cba.ua.edu