Data Analytics

International Women’s Day Celebration Today

emdecker — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 20:24:38 +0000

International Women’s Day Celebration Today emdecker March 8, 2022

Today, March 8^th, is the annual observance of International Women’s Day, a day celebrating the significant impact of women to all aspects of our society. In addition to this single day observance, the entire month of March is also dedicated to honoring the influential women who have contributed to the important societal, economic, political, and cultural changes seen throughout history. This year’s themes are: Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow and #BreaktheBias. On social media, many are posting photos of themselves with arms crossed, symbolizing an “X”, as in X-chromosome and also “stop” the bias.

Taking time to celebrate these contributions is important to the empowerment and encouragement of women to seize opportunities in historically male-dominated fields. Diversity in these fields notably increases creativity and cultural insight, ensuring representation and engagement of all genders, as well as drives the advancement of STEM areas.

Over the month of March, Capitol Tech invites you to partake in our retrospective honoring the many amazing women who have contributed to innovations in STEM. The following biographies outline the lives of women who redefined their fields. From programmers, engineers, hackers, and celebrities, click through the links below to learn more about these pioneering women:

Amanda Finnerty: Director of Internal Operations for Commodore Builders
Danielle Dy Buncio: Co-founder and CEO of VIATechnik, a Construction Technology Firm
Rebecca Clark: Operations Executive for Skanska, a Global Construction Firm
Dr. Nina Tandon: Co-Founder of the First Company to Grow Human Bones for Reconstruction
Ada Lovelace: The Mother of Computer Programming
Hedy Lamarr: Star of the Silver Screen and Inventor of a WWII Changing Communications Device
Edith Clarke: A Trailblazing Leader for Women and a Pioneer in Computing and Engineering
Katherine Johnson: In Commemoration of the Mathematician and Computer Scientist Responsible for the first U.S. Moon Landing
Ana Sol Gutierrez: "I wouldn’t follow the role they attributed to me"
Kimberly Bryant: Accomplished Electrical Engineer and Founder of Black Girls Code
Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski: The Young Woman Dubbed the “Next Albert Einstein”
Velma P. Scantlebury, M.D.: the first black female transplant surgeon in the U.S.
Mae Jemison: Doctor, Teacher, Founder of Two Technology Companies, and the First African-American woman in Space

Judith Milhon: Programmer, Civil Rights Activist, Hacker

Judith Love Cohen: Aerospace Engineer, Feminist, Actor Jack Black’s Mother

To read about past Capitol Tech Women’s Day celebrations, click here.

Categories: Cyber and Information Security, Data Analytics, Engineering Technologies, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, Women in STEM

Predictions on the state of data in 2021

zqureshi — Mon, 24 May 2021 20:24:43 +0000

Predictions on the state of data in 2021 zqureshi May 24, 2021

Stop and think about how much data you transmit over the web in a day – visiting social media platforms, doing Google searches, checking email. Consider your job or your school work. Creating Word documents, Excel files, simple tasks like emailing co-workers or complex tasks like programming security software. Then take that amount of work and repeat it day after day after day. Just how much data is there?

According to Gil Press, for Forbes, “From 2010 to 2020, the amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed in the world increased from 1.2 trillion gigabytes to 59 trillion gigabytes, an almost 5,000% growth.”

Press looked at that past growth and predicted what the next ten years will look like in the world of data. While Press highlights a total of 54 items, we have highlighted some of the most fascinating statistics from the article. View his original article for the full list and accompanying references.

Data by the Numbers

The amount of data created over the next three years will be more than the data created over the past 30 years
5 billion: the number of internet users in 2023, up from 3.9 billion in 2018
29.3 billion: the number of web-connected devices in 2023, up from 18.4 billion in 2018
222 million: the number of video streaming users in the U.S. in 2024, up from 170.5 million in 2018
$6 trillion: the cost of cybercrime worldwide in 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015

The Pandemic Impact

66 percent of employed Americans agree that they would prefer a mix of in-office and remote work after the pandemic ends
A 300 percent increase in remote work compared to pre-COVID-19 levels
60 percent of businesses that pivoted to virtual events will incorporate real-time/real-space experiential elements into marketing experiences by 2023

Advancing Technology

65 percent of medical imaging workflows by 2026 will use artificial intelligence (AI) to detect underlying disease and guide clinical intervention, while 50% will use teleradiology to share studies and improve access to radiologists
50 percent of CIOs will accelerate robotization, automation, and augmentation by 2024
$110 billion: global spending on artificial intelligence (AI) in 2024, up from $50.1 billion in 2020

How We Do Business

60 percent of B2B sales organizations will transition from experience- and intuition-based selling to data-driven selling by 2025
A 100 percent additional business value from analytics investments that will be realized by 2021 by organizations that offer users access to a curated catalog of internally and externally prepared data
20 percent of all new cars will be sold entirely online by 2025, up from less than 1% in 2020

With this explosion of data, data science fields and careers will also be in demand. Capitol Tech offers bachelor’s degrees in analytics and data science as it specifically pertains to cybersecurity. As part of the program, students learn to apply basic data science techniques to an organization's data management challenges and security-related decision making. Many courses are available both on campus and online. To learn more about Capitol Tech’s degree programs, contact admissions@captechu.edu.

Categories: Data Analytics, Cyber Analytics

Data Analytics in the Time of COVID-19

amschubert — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 20:30:17 +0000

Data Analytics in the Time of COVID-19 amschubert March 4, 2021

Capitol Tech sat down with Pam Phojanakong, an epidemiologist with a PhD from Drexel University, to discuss the challenges facing data scientists in the midst of a global pandemic. Pam currently works as a data scientist for CORMAC, a Baltimore-based data management and analytics firm, supporting a contract that works with data submitted by post-acute care providers. Pam was instrumental in developing a COVID dashboard, which looks at COVID rates compared to Census data for key occupations and social characteristics.

What are the biggest challenges surrounding data and COVID?

Analysis is an iterative process. With all hands on deck for the pandemic, what we know is changing from day to day and week to week, which makes iterative processes difficult to sustain. I have had the luxury up until now of having a good handle on what the trajectory of the outcomes that I’m working on are going to be – what “normal” changes look like, but with COVID, there is no normal.

It’s nice that people are mobilizing resources and forming collaborations to share analyses, but it’s hard to make sense of the noise because there is so much data coming out at once. Many times, articles and information are shared, but in the end it all comes back to the same data source.

Because it’s such an urgent crisis, everyone is making decisions in an emergency state which isn’t the best framework for analytic thinking.

Data for nursing homes is a great example. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the nation’s 15,000+ nursing homes, wanted to make nursing home COVID data as readily available as possible. To do that, they let nursing homes to roll up their COVID cases through May 24, instead of having to go back and retrospectively report and separate counts. It’s obviously less labor and resource intensive and it gives us a starting point quickly, but that doesn’t provide the specific “when”. Say a home reported 45 cases. When did those 45 cases happen? It’s important to look beyond the fact that there are 45 cases as of May 24.

What do you think data analytics students can learn from COVID?

Everything is moving at a pace much faster than in a normal time. You are living through a simulation study – but it’s real life.

The more you learn the more you learn what you don’t know. In the general sense, as you get more experience in analytics, you learn about the shortcomings of the data you’re working with and, in hindsight, that there is almost always a better approach than the one you landed on. With COVID, hindsight comes up much faster. COVID has exposed our vulnerabilities at every stage – our ability to get data is dependent on small, local, territorial offices. It’s not a top-down effort, but we make decisions in a top-down manner. We think we have a great IT infrastructure, but then we discover not every health provider has equal infrastructure to support reporting or resources to devote to reporting.

I think one of the biggest lessons is that there’s not going to be a single thing that’s untouched by this. From the epidemiology standpoint, we talk about causality, necessary vs. sufficient causes, confounders, mediators, etc. For a lot of analytic work, there’s an implied search for a root cause or constellation of factors, to distill complex processes into a neat table of results and be able to say “these variables are driving your outcome and there were some things that look like they were related, but they’re really not.” Everything is related now. Having come from academic research studies to working with CMS, you find everything is interdependent. You think if you have a “clean” data set, and your model holds, then you’re fine, which isn’t necessarily true.

People are putting a lot of stock in the quality of data but not questioning what is coming in, what gets missed, or what the assumptions are. This is probably the only time a student gets to live through a teachable moment when we’re all learning together, watching assumptions being made and really experiencing the consequences of those assumptions—right or wrong.

To use the example of machine learning – I am learning as it is learning. We are learning as the data evolves. Normally, you think of it the other way around. We train the algorithm. Right now, I think we are being trained and informed by our models.

How do you determine which data is the best to use?

It’s important to understand the limits of the data you have, what you can and cannot do. For the CORMAC dashboard, the intention was to combine social determinants of health factors with the geographic distribution of cases in the DMV area, but once we realized we were not going to get patient-based data on individual cases, we pivoted to a place-based approach to the issue: what area social characteristics are associated with county burden of disease? The county level was the smallest area I was willing to work with that I trusted; we had access to reliable information and we were also on solid theoretical ground --- where you live impacts your health. It’s a similar mindset with using the nursing home data to try to build a predictive model. It’s not at the patient-level, which would be the most informative if you’re thinking about cases, but it is at the nursing home level, which may help CMS understand which providers are going to be vulnerable to an outbreak and shed light on measures and protocols that are especially important in a crisis. Working through assumptions and coming up with solid reasoning is key.

There is also a soft skill that can be hard to teach and grasp – understanding there’s more happening than what’s on the page. This is a great working case of that. Everyone is watching dashboards and the numbers on the news, but not thinking through what’s driving the numbers. If you’re really curious and wanting to be the best analyst you can be, you have to know what you have and what you don’t have. You have to be able to identify what is missing so you can a) go get it and try to fill in those gaps or b) if you can’t find it, then you need to know the limits of your model and what conclusions you can or cannot make.

What impact does COVID have on those pursuing a career in data analytics?

In some ways, the pandemic and has brought out the best in analysts and analytics. The number of civic hackathons is going up and it’s heartwarming to see people sharing their code and resources, from large firms to individuals who are just really passionate. People are sharing their insights in real time and I personally have learned a great deal in a very short time span and from people I might not have ever interacted with. I hope it encourages women, including women of color, to take up the data sciences. I hope it inspires people.

Want to learn about analytics? Capitol Tech offers bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in data science. Many courses are available both on campus and online. To learn more about Capitol’s degree programs, contact admissions@captechu.edu.

Categories: Data Analytics

Data analytics thought leader Dr. Herman Felder brings his expertise to STEM education

zqureshi — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 14:31:05 +0000

Data analytics thought leader Dr. Herman Felder brings his expertise to STEM education zqureshi April 6, 2020

From a young age, “I had a dream to build things, either with my hands or computers,” explains Dr. Herman Felder, a three-time Capitol Technology University graduate. He has his Bachelor’s in Information Assurance, Master’s in Information Assurance – both of which are now part of Capitol Tech’s programs in Cybersecurity– and his PhD in Business Analytics and Data Science.

His passion – which began as a childhood love for circuit boards and Legos – has led to a cutting-edge career in data analytics. Today, Dr. Felder is Chief Data Architect at Information International Associates where he works with clients like the NSA to innovate complex data analytics and technology solutions, and is a thought leader in his field. You can also find him on the Capitol Tech’s Laurel, Maryland campus teaching as an adjunct professor.

“Last semester, I taught Introduction to Data Science, which is a course that I developed. I taught the Capitol Tech freshman class the real tools that we use in data science,” said Dr. Felder. “I think it was an eye-opener for students to see what data scientists, software developers and engineers are using.”

In addition to teaching classes, Dr. Felder works with other Capitol Tech professors to develop coursework that addresses up-to-the-minute issues in data science, business analytics, and cybersecurity. With the rapid pace of technology development, it’s more important than ever to understand the latest technology trends and challenges. Dr. Felder explains that new concepts like wearable tech leave the average person more vulnerable to cyber-attack. The pace of advancement alone brings a new set of pros and cons. For example, “it used to be every 18 months or so your laptop will be out of date. Because of how quickly new technology will come out and push the envelope, it’s become almost every quarter,” he adds.

Building a Bridge to New Knowledge

“I saw a gap in the knowledge,” Dr. Felder explains, which is what led him to earn a PhD in Business Analytics and Data Science.

His doctoral dissertation focused on data quality management in big data warehouses, and methods to measure the quality and consistency of this data. However, this was far from the end of his learning. “Technology changes all the time. I'm constantly looking at newsfeeds, different articles that are published, talking to my coworkers. When I encounter something that I don’t know, I investigate it further, which sends me down a rabbit hole and I’ll keep learning new information about my field.”

“I’m still adding to the building blocks of my knowledge. But now, I'm also helping to build those blocks to lay that foundation for the students that are coming up under me. That’s part of the reason why I wanted to go back to Capitol Tech – to help cultivate the next students who will defend our nation in cyberspace,” he says.

Confidence Comes with Experience

“As a visual and hands-on learner, being able to apply what I’m learning and get muscle memory in place makes me retain information so much faster,” Dr. Felder explains. While he found that many programs lack this vital learning component, this was not at all the case at Capitol Tech. “My confidence in my knowledge on how to configure and run routers and switches, the different commands, swap out hard drives – that’s all thanks to Capitol Tech and the hands-on labs,” he says.

Dr. Felder was always a focused student and began honing his technology skills quite early in his education. In high school, he became certified in CompTIA+ and Network+ through a computer engineering technology program. While completing his Bachelor’s in Information Assurance at Capitol Tech, Dr. Felder explains that he was equally focused on being proactive about what he would do with his degree after graduation. He credits the university for supporting and assisting him in this process.

“Capitol Tech did a great job in laying out a path for me,” he says, “they had workshops to help us to shape and mold our resumes.” In the summer before his senior year, he began an internship with a contracting company that allowed him to work with the NSA. Dr. Felder adds, “when I got that internship and learned about the security clearance process, that's when I understood what the NSA actually does and how to properly defend the nation from a cyber perspective.”

He felt ready to enter the workforce – immediately finding ways to apply the skills he learned in his Capitol Tech courses on the job and has continued to do so throughout his career.

“There were multiple classes that gave me the networking skills that I needed to work not only in small business, but enterprise-level architecture,” he says. However, he ultimately chose to go straight into his Master’s in Information Assurance program. “I wanted to keep the momentum going.”

More Than a Number

Capitol Tech wasn’t the only school that Dr. Felder and his mother, Blanche Jackson, investigated during his college search. The warmth of Capitol Tech’s campus community made the university stand out from other institutions.

“When Herman and I found Capitol Tech, we just fell in love. It was important to find a STEM school where he wouldn’t just be a number,” Blanche says. “The simple fact that you could stand in the middle of the campus and look around and see the whole school – that itself is heartwarming,” she adds.

Dr. Felder did find a community at Capitol Tech – and not just academically and professionally. His wife is a Capitol Tech graduate, who also has a Bachelor’s in Information Assurance.

“I would call myself a ‘Capitol Tech evangelist’ — any chance that I get, I say that I'm from Capitol Tech and I say it with pride,” Dr. Felder says. He stays involved with the university as much as possible, through alumni programs, volunteering to interview incoming freshmen for the Capitol Scholars Program,and by regularly speaking with faculty about different teaching opportunities. “I remember what the faculty did for me back when I was in my undergrad, and that inspires me to do more.”

“If any high school student has a focus in cybersecurity, business analytics or computer science, I tell them to make Capitol Tech their first choice,” Dr. Felder says. As a community, Capitol Tech students, alumni and faculty are making a name for themselves while helping one another succeed. He explains that years later, all the faculty and staff who are still at Capitol Tech from when he was in undergrad remember him – there’s great comfort in that. Echoing his mother’s initial sentiments, he says “it’s one of the things I loved about Capital Tech – you’re not a number, you’re a name.”

As Washington D.C.’s Premier STEM University, Capitol Technology University offers students the right combination of hands-on learning, career guidance and community support to achieve their highest potential. Dr. Herman Felder is one of many students who has graduated to go into a cutting-edge science and technology career. Capitol Tech students have the advantage of learning from him and other professors who are established professionals and give Capitol Tech curricula up-to-the-minute relevance.

Categories: Data Analytics

Top 5 Entry-Level Analyst Careers

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 14:44:30 +0000

Top 5 Entry-Level Analyst Careers Anonymous (not verified) September 4, 2018

In our data driven world, analytics experts are a critical part of any good modern day business. There are many different types of analytical specializations out there, but do you know which fields are the most in-demand?

Here’s our list of five of the top positions accessible to people with an analytics degree:

1. Data Analyst – Average entry level salary nationwide? $55,000/yr.

Data analysts inspect, clean, and model data to gather information that will help guide their company in the right direction. They are able to take the data they gather and make it much easier to see and understand. A similar but slightly more complex position from data analyst is that of a data scientist. Data scientists typically have the additional ability to create new algorithms to collect and manage relevant incoming data.

2. Business Analyst – Average entry level salary nationwide? $58,000/yr.

Business analysts dive deep into a company’s processes and systems to develop technology based solutions to increase overall efficiency and effectiveness. They do this by analyzing company data, examining anything from sales numbers to social media likes. Business analysts can be general analysts or they can specialize in a certain aspect of industry.

3. Financial Analyst – Average entry level salary nationwide? $58,000/yr.

No surprises with a title like financial analyst, this position is just what it sounds like. Financial analysts examine financial data to help guide company decisions regarding spending, investing, and any other major financial decisions.

4. IT/Security Analyst – Average entry level salary nationwide? $61,000/yr.

IT/Security analysts use the data that they gather to advise companies on how to protect their network and systems. This career path would be ideal for someone studying cyber analytics, as security analysts often work to prevent and address cyber threats to organizational data.

5. Technology Analyst – Average entry level salary nationwide? $69,000/yr.

Technology analyst is an umbrella term that can involve a number of different responsibilities. Generally, these analysts are responsible for assessing a business’s technology and figuring out how to best use what they have to meet the needs of that business or their clients. Technology analysts are often expected to assume a managerial or leadership role, and can be required to have certain programming or technical skills depending on the position.

At Capitol Technology University we have several data, business analytical, and technology based programs to get you ready for your career in analytics. We take preparing our students to be ready for the workplace so seriously, that we’ve made a commitment.

With our Capitol commitment, if you graduate with a qualified bachelor’s degree, we believe that you will find a position in engineering, engineering technology, computer sciences, information technology or business within 90 days of graduation. If you don’t, Capitol will provide up to 36 additional undergraduate credits — tuition free — while you continue your job search.

“Numbers and data should drive the decisions that administrators make for their mission, vision, and value of their respective organizations,” says Capitol professor Dr. Michael Fain. “As a student here we teach you how to take data, or numbers, and plug these numbers in to help leadership come up with a strategic plan.”

All salary data was taken from Payscale.com. Salaries in your area may vary. To schedule an appointment with career services for guidance on what kind of job might be the right fit for you, please email careers@captechu.edu.

Categories: Data Analytics

Cyber Analytics Careers: Who’s Hiring?

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Aug 2018 13:21:30 +0000

Cyber Analytics Careers: Who’s Hiring? Anonymous (not verified) August 7, 2018

Cyber Analytics: it’s a swiftly growing field that melds cybersecurity with sophisticated data analysis tools and skills, allowing threats to a company’s digital assets to be sealed off with greater precision and effectiveness. It brings a crucial new dimension to the fight against hackers and other information-age adversaries.

But who is hiring Cyber Analysts? With a degree in this area, where should you be sending your resume and looking for available openings?

The Big Players

Major defense contractors with divisions spanning multiple industries have been ramping up their cyber analytical edge. Boeing Intelligence and Analytics, a division of the aerospace giant, primarily serves the U.S. intelligence community, helping its customers “understand the strengths and vulnerabilities of potential adversaries.” BI&A is located in Annapolis Junction, Maryland, near the Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) airport.

Lockheed Martin recently established a new Cyber Works Centre in the United Kingdom, with a mission of fighting cyber crime and supporting the British government’s National Cyber Security Strategy. But you don’t need to move to the U.K. to be part of Lockheed’s cyber operations: the contracting giant has made cyber operations a mainstay at home as well, with cyber analyst positions offered nationwide. Desired skills vary by position, and can include proficiency in data modeling, familiarity with cybersecurity principles, understanding of computer hardware and software, and experience with encryption, malware analysis, and computer forensics.

Based in Linthicum, MD, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems (NGMS) boasts nearly 30,000 employees, with offices in 50 states and more than 20 countries. Its activities cover everything from “creating a citywide wireless network for our first responders, to protecting our nation from cyber threats, to building software-defined radios that change how our military communicates.” One of four Northrop Grumman business sectors, NGMS has a Cyber Analytics Division that is pioneering new ways to strengthen the company’s mandate of helping to defend the United States and its global allies.

Other major companies that hire cyber analysts include Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics Information Technology/CSRA, and SAIC.

Local Subcontractors

Landing a job at one of the big contractors can be a challenge for new cyber analytics graduates, as these companies are often looking for candidates with significant professional experience. So how does a new entrant in the field looking to build a career get that expertise?

According to Sarah Alspaw, Director of Career Development and Student Success at Capitol Technology University, the big players are supported by hundreds of smaller subcontractors, and many of these provide an excellent way to get a foot in the door.

“You don’t hear their names so often, compared to the primary contractors, but a lot of the best opportunities are with these smaller organizations. Many of them are based in Howard County, Maryland, not far from our campus here at Capitol Technology University,” Alspaw said. “These subcontractors will often seek out a candidate who has one very specific set of skills – for example, systems analyst skills. That’s because the subcontractors need to show the primary contractor that they are able to meet specific requirements in the contract.”

How to connect with these smaller companies? “The local chamber of commerce is a good place to start,” Alspaw said. “Also, tech councils – such as the Chesapeake Tech Council and Howard Tech Council -- can be especially valuable in linking you up with local companies that aren’t household names.”

Interested in building a cyber analytics career, or adding analytics to your existing computer science or cybersecurity skill sets? Capitol offers a bachelor’s degree in cyber analytics, as well as an online master’s program tailored for working professionals. Contact admissions@captechu.edu to learn more!

Categories: Cyber Analytics, Data Analytics

To Make the Most of Big Data…Visualize it!

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 20:00:06 +0000

To Make the Most of Big Data…Visualize it! Anonymous (not verified) July 19, 2018

Where there is data, there is a need for visual aids that can help us readily make sense of it. Consider the following examples:

Transportation officials use dashboards, live mapping, or data-based simulations to identify hazards to pedestrians and cyclists, accident-heavy intersections, or areas prone to rush hour congestion.
With the help of Google Analytics and social media metrics, business owners gain at-a-glance information about how many potential customers visit the company website – and how many of those visits result in a purchase.
In 2016, the Office of Management and Budget unveils an interactive tool that allows citizens to make clearer sense of the federal budget. Visitors can use the tool to “explore where your tax dollars would go and what portion of the federal budget is dedicated to different program areas.”
For sports enthusiasts, a tool created by Column Five Media assesses the longevity and success of top franchises across multiple sports. Viewers can instantly gauge franchise value (indicated by circle size), the number of championships won, and the number of years the team has competed.
An animated .gif created by the Pew Research Center shows the aging of the US population – with the traditional “pyramid” (more younger people, fewer older ones) becoming a rectangle (growing numbers of elderly).

In all these cases, a graphic or animation provides a way to quickly and effectively convey the significance of gathered data. While data visualization tools have always been important to business analysts, they are arguably becoming even more so in the era of high-volume, high-velocity information, sometimes referred to as Big Data.

Business analytics at Capitol is expressly focused on preparing students to thrive in data-driven environments. Through the university’s programs, students have access to visual analytics software developed by industry leader SAS.

With the help of these data visualization tools and resources, students can become experts not only at accurately interpreting large volumes of data, but also at presenting it – in ways that will convey key information to executives and decision-makers.

“Visualization tools give us the power to quickly pull out the relevant data points and identify the trends we are most interested in,” notes Dr. Helen G. Barker, chief academic officer at Capitol Technology University and one of the architects of the school’s business analytics programs. “It might even help us identify and grasp more difficult concepts or identify new patterns we may not have otherwise been able to identify as relevant.”

“With visualization we create more opportunities to turn data insights into action.”

Interested in learning to use data visualization tools to create compelling, data-based narratives? As a business analytics student at Capitol Technology University, you’ll gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art software and resources for visualizing Big Data. For more information, contact admissions@CapTechU.edu.

Categories: Data Analytics

How business and data analytics is changing the transportation industry

skozelnik — Tue, 22 May 2018 20:20:01 +0000

How business and data analytics is changing the transportation industry skozelnik May 22, 2018

Every time you fly on a plane or check into a hotel, you generate data – information that can, in theory, help companies beat their competitors while providing customers a richer, more personalized experience.

The right analytical tools, however, are needed for the transportation and hospitality industries to convert data points into findings that can drive business strategy. An increasingly rich array of sophisticated software can help companies navigate the flood of information and identify the trends that are most significant to their operations.

Meanwhile, a new generation of business analysts – trained in the use of such tools – is poised to transform strategic decision-making at their organizations.

“Having professionals on board who can understand and interpret the data from a business perspective is no longer simply an attractive option, but a necessity,” says Dr. Helen G. Barker, vice president of academic affairs at Capitol Technology University. Barker has been instrumental in developing the university’s new undergraduate and graduate degree programs in business analytics undergraduate and graduate degree programs, where the focus is on data-driven decision-making.

The transportation industry is a particularly fertile arena, due to the massive volume of information that service providers have been amassing for decades – often without being able to utilize it systematically. Being able to make effective use of data can yield an array of business advantages. Here are a few:

In a hypercompetitive market, being able to accurately forecast demand, and allocate resources accordingly, is crucial. “Vacant rooms, idle fleet, unoccupied seats or empty containers represent lost revenue,” a recent IBM report notes. At the same time, events such as severe weather – or a major sporting event – can alter the picture. Better analytics means being able to respond to fluctuating demand more quickly and effectively.
Companies can improve their pricing strategies if they have analytical tools that enable them to better gauge market conditions – and forecast conditions in the future, with the help of predictive analytics.
Airlines and hotels can better understand their customers, how to market to them, and how to attract them with special deals or packages.

The promise of data-driven decision-making is not limited to the private sector. It can also help federal, state, and local authorities better manage the nation’s transportation infrastructure, roadways, and public transit systems. Among the benefits:

Public transportation systems can use live data to pinpoint route activity and better allocate resources. That means fewer empty buses cruising past stops where nobody waits, and fewer angry passengers struggling to secure a seat on a crowded bus at rush hour.
Roadwork can be scheduled at low-volume times of the day or night; projects can be coordinated to cause the least amount of disruption to commuters.

“The great thing about data analytics is that you’re really in a position to bring about needed change,” Barker says. “You have tools and knowledge that can help organizations, whether public or private, improve the user experience.”

Want to learn more about how business and data analytics is revolutionizing transportation and other industries, and how Capitol programs can help you build a successful career in the field? Contact our admissions department today at admissions@captechu.edu.

Categories: Cyber Analytics, Data Analytics