ASEAN Data Science Explorers 2023 Enablement Session
The Department of IT of the Central Luzon State University, alongside its student organization the Builders of Information Technology Society, has successfully hosted a virtual training workshop on March 30, 2023, as part of the ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ASEAN DSE) program. This training workshop is an enablement session to encourage participation in the ASEAN DSE program. Particularly, the workshop introduces the use of SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) as a tool for data analytics. There were a total of 54 participants, composed of IT faculty members and junior BSIT students enrolled in the course Data Scalability and Analytics. The workshop commenced with an overview of the ASEAN DSE program presented by Mr. Ilan Asqolani (from Indonesia), who is the current Project Manager of the ASEAN Foundation-SAP Joint Initiatives. The workshop proper was conducted by two SAP data analytics experts: Ms. Sri Lakshmi Gaggara (Solutions Architect, Globalization and Services Unit, SAP Labs India) and Mr. Sreedharan Arumugam (Director, SAP Solution Engineering and Business Technology Platform, Singapore).
The ASEAN Data Science Explorers (ASEAN DSE) program is a competition aimed at promoting data literacy and encouraging the use of data to solve real-world problems. The program is organized by the ASEAN Foundation and SAP, in partnership with universities in ASEAN countries. Participants work in teams to develop data-driven solutions to socio-economic issues in their respective countries, particularly addressing the 6 UN Sustainable Development Goals: Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production, and Climate Action. The competition has two major stages: the national finals and the regional finals. During the national finals, teams present their solutions to a panel of judges, who select the winning team from each country. The winning teams then proceed to the regional finals, where they compete against teams from other ASEAN countries. In 2022, CLSU was represented by two BSIT students who qualified for the national finals ????
Dr. Khavee Agustus W. Botangen, who is currently handling the Data Scalability and Analytics course, said that his students’ participation will advance classroom learning, particularly in the use of industry level data analysis and presentation tools. Because of this training workshop, students and faculty members of the department are now entitled to a FREE dedicated access to SAC until December 31, 2023 (SAC access usually costs $21/month). He further added that this workshop will broaden the students’ perspective on the use of data for community development, and inspire them to pursue careers in data science.
It is worth highlighting that SAP (Systems, Applications, and Products) is a leading and globally popular enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solution provider, that is for the management of business processes, effective data processing, and information flow across organizations. It has over 425,000 customers and 200 million users worldwide. It offers a range of data analytics solutions, such as the SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) which is a cloud-based analytics platform that offers capabilities for predictive analytics, augmented analytics, and data visualization.