Big Data Wave of the Future

Big Data is the estimated 2.5 quintillion bytes of data that we create per day from conducting our daily lives, posting on social media, using rewards cards at stores, making insurance claims, surfing the internet, etc.

Earlier this month, the statistics department hosted their annual Big Data Symposium for the fifth year in a row. There were six faculty members in attendance, including David Nickerson, Ph.D., chair of the statistics department. In addition to faculty, all graduate statistics students were invited.

During the symposium, professionals within the statistics field spoke to students about analytics, statistics and much more.

At noon, just before their lunch break, a panel discussion was held by five professionals on life after completing the “Data Mining” program.

The symposium is held every year to give students the opportunity to meet local business partners.  They have the chance to find full-time jobs and summer internships in these meetings.

15 business partners were in attendance at this year’s symposium: Florida Blue, Everbank, Wyndham, Sodexo, SAS, Orlando Magic, JM Family, Hertz, Disney, MicroBilt, HealthFair, CHEP, Darden, UCF Library and Universal.

According to Morgan Wang, Ph.D., statistics professor and chair of Data Mining at UCF, was in charge of organizing the event. According to Wang, the symposium went very smoothly and there were even a few prizes handed out to students.

“UCF students won the first and third place of Everbank Data Analysis Contest sponsored by Everbank,” he said. “This is a statewide data analysis contest and UCF students placed the first place three years in a row.”

Master’s student Justin Mooney was the recipient of the first place prize, and Robert Norberg placed third.

Wang further added that each student graduating in May, who attended the symposium, will likely get two job offers.