CBS invites entries for case competition on big data and crowdsourcing

CBS students are invited to participate in “The Business Data Analytics Crowdsourcing Competition”.
Photo: Jakob Boserup


The benefits of using big data are comparable to studying animals in the zoo versus on the savannah. Animals can be observed in captivity but the best way to examine their behaviour is in their natural surroundings. Using big data corresponds to analysing animals in their natural habitat, which is an opportunity now available to students through the Business Data Analytics Crowdsourcing Competition hosted by the CBS Center for Business Data Analytics. Students have access to completely anonymised big data from real-world consumers provided by the following companies: TDC, Coop, Danske Bank and Jyllands-Posten, explains Professor Jan Damsgaard, CBS Department of IT Management, and one of the competition’s organisers.
 
“It’s exciting for the students to have a large variety of data to work with that isn’t artificial but stems from actual consumers. Companies can see the potential of using big data but they hesitate when it comes to applying it, which is why it’s perfect that companies and students can work together,” says Damsgaard.
 
Professor Ravi Vatrapu from the CBS Center for Business Data Analytics backs this point of view:
 
“The primary objective of the competition is to provide students specializing in big data analytics at CBS to work with real-world business data from Danish organisations. The main benefit for the participating companies is to explore the potential business value of their big datasets from students’ outsider perspectives in terms of big data analytics techniques and methods.”

And he adds that from a scientific perspective, big data analytics challenge some of the assumptions on the relationship between theory, method and data.

“Particularly in the social sciences, students are taught that ‘correlation is not necessarily causation’, but with big data analytics we need to teach our students that there is ‘no causation without correlation’. The challenge for the students is to establish the ground truth for the big data sets in the business domain and to weed out spurious correlations.”

Datasets are more correct
The datasets are currently available to students, just as the participating organisations have drawn up various business challenges to choose from, such as: how organisations can use data to predict the size of their revenue or students are asked to create models to provide better segmentation of consumers. During the process, students will be invited to workshops in the company whose business challenge they are working on.

Damsgaard encourages students to participate in the competition to gain experience in a field that will have numerous job opportunities in the future, while also emphasising that consumers need not be concerned about firms collecting and using big data.

“Companies are more interested in the tracks people leave behind as opposed to who people are,” he clarifies, returning to the image of animals in their natural habitat:

“Animals leave visible footprints on the savannah. We don’t know for sure which leopard that passed by, but we can see that it’s been there and that’s what’s of interest.”

Convinced that the excellent opportunities big data provide should be put to use, Damsgaard states:

“Datasets are more correct because they’re based on behaviour and not what people think they do. You can ask people how often they buy organic products and get one answer, but when you look in their shopping trolley, it might tell a slightly different story”.

Cash prizes for finalists
Student entries are due 28 February 2017. Finalists will then be selected and asked to present their business challenge solutions to a panel of judges and other interested parties. There is a first, second and third place winner, who will receive a cash prize of 50,000, 40,000 and 30,000 Danish kroner, respectively.

Interested students can sign up until December 31 2016. The competition is for students studying Big Data Analytics, Big Social Data Analytics, Big Data Management and Big Data Analytics for Managers.
“There is quite a lot of hype about big data. CBS Center for Business Data Analytics’ objective is to transform big data sets into business assets. The pedagogical philosophy of our courses is ‘doing’ business data analytics and not merely ‘talking’ about it,” explains Ravi Vatrapu.

He continues:
“We train our students on four key dimensions of big data analytics: conceptual knowledge, procedural skills, analytical methods, and informational reports. The outcomes of big data analytics projects are meaningful facts, actionable insights, valuable outcomes and sustainable impacts. I am confident that students will be able to transfer course learnings to the real-world business data sets.”

Interested CBS students can learn more about the business challenge requirements of the Business Data Analytics Crowdsourcing Competition and the practical details involved " Business Data Analytics Crowdsourcing Competition".

Follow the competition on the Center for Business Data Analytics’ website.
 
For administrative and business aspects of the competition, please contact Dr Thorhildur Jetzek. For technical inquiries on dataset attributes, methods and tools, please contact Dr Raghava Mukkamala.