Data Science and Computational Thinking [inc Big Data and Internet of Things]

Responding to the growing demand for data skills in the workforce, the Center for Innovation at Rutgers University is rolling out a new online certificate program focused on data analytics and big data. The 44-week skills-based program was developed in partnership with professional learning company Experiential Teaching Online (XTOL Corp.).

According to a press release, graduates of the Data Analytics/Big Data program will:

Gain a broad range of job-ready skills (technical and business) in numerous fields;
Receive a Certificate of Completion;
Complete a portfolio of professional-quality work to present to prospective employers; and
Leave with end-to-end project experience working on real life challenges.

Big data has launched a boom industry in data analytics and science. To find out where this revolution is headed and how companies can get a competitive advantage, The Wall Street Journal’s Rebecca Blumenstein spoke with Hilary Mason, chief executive and founder of Fast Forward Labs and former chief scientist at Bitly, and Andreas Weigend, director of the Social Data Lab and former chief scientist at Amazon.com Inc. Here are edited excerpts of the discussion.

Research firms predict the future of the Internet of Things

The IoT will drive a shift from selling products to providing service.

IoT security will become a significant component of security budgets and security concerns will slow IoT adoption

What if everything that happened in the environment was immediately recorded and made available to everyone in real time?

This is the idea behind a bold 10-year research programme run by Australia’s government research agency CSIRO to build a complete digital representation of the country.

Oznome – named to echo the Human Genome Project – aims to become a “historical, current and future digital representation of everything” in the country by 2025, starting with environmental data.

“Like the Human Genome Project, Oznome is a big crazy idea that many people will say isn’t possible,” says David Lemon, a research team leader at CSIRO.

DOE-funded, DNV GL-led project will embed startup’s software in batteries and other smart microgrid loads.

[Opinion] Shodan is not the devil, but rather a messenger which should make us take responsibility for our own security in a world of webcams and mobile devices.

By day, Alice Allen runs software and IT training programmes for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the US central bank, in Washington DC. But in her spare time, she edits the world’s largest registry for software in astrophysics and astronomy research — the Astrophysics Source Code Library (ASCL).

Allen talked to Nature from the sidelines of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Florida about the importance of maintaining code registries — and why she hopes other disciplines will adopt them.

Want to know what is the role of Bid Data in eLearning? Check this technology trend called Big Data and how it is set to make a big impact in eLearning. 

The Wi-Fi Alliance, the organization that dictates and advances Wi-Fi standards, has announced the latest iteration of its increasingly indispensable technology. Called HaLow, it promises to double the range of standard 2.4GHz Wi-Fi connections, while also doing a better job of penetrating walls, floors, and other obstacles that can make your Wi-Fi sputter and skulk.

Called the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF), tech companies such as Microsoft, Samsung, Qualcomm, GE and Intel will help each other “unify IoT standards so that companies and developers can create IoT solutions and devices that work seamlessly together.”

The stated goal is to have all of the various IoT devices unified under one set of standards “regardless of manufacturer, operating system, chipset or transport.” If it succeeds, the OCF will create a more balanced IoT universe.

The Linux Foundation has unveiled Zephyr, an open-source project aimed at the creation of a real-time operating system suitable for Internet of Things (IoT) and connected devices.

Announced on Wednesday, the Zephyr Project hopes to bring vendors and developers together under a single operating system which could make the development of connected devices an easier, less expensive and more stable process.

It turns out that no one knows what the heck big data is, and about the same number of companies are actually doing anything meaningful with it, according to a new study from Dresner Advisory Services.

Surprised?

You shouldn't be. After all, despite years of big data prognostication, most companies still struggle to even put little data to use.

This isn't to suggest that big data isn't a big deal, or that companies aren't deriving massive value today from their data. It is and they are. But, to get value from big data, companies first need to get real.

IBM data scientists break big data into four dimensions: volume, variety, velocity and veracity. This infographic explains and gives examples of each.
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This Threat Landscape and Good Practice Guide for Big Data provides an overview of the current state of security in the Big Data area. In particular, it identifies Big Data assets, analyses exposure of these assets to threats, lists threat agents, takes into account published vulnerabilities and risks, and points to emerging good practices and new researches in the field. To this aim, ongoing community-driven efforts and publicly available information have been taken into account.

Several CAS members have been working hard for some time on this newly published document discussing computational thinking for both primary and secondary schools.

This guide aims to help develop a shared understanding of the teaching of computational thinking in schools. It presents a conceptual framework of computational thinking, describes pedagogic approaches for teaching and offers guides for assessment. It is complementary to the two CAS guides published in November 2013 (Primary) and June 2014 (Secondary) in supporting the implementation of the new National Curriculum and embraces the CAS Barefoot and CAS QuickStart Computing descriptions of computational thinking. Computational thinking lies at the heart of the computing curriculum but it also supports learning and thinking in other areas of the curriculum.

Download the computational thinking guidance

We humans have spent a good proportion of the last half-century building amazing computer brains. Driven by the ‘fabricated intelligence’ that we construct using algorithms, computer power is used to drive our financial markets, help us connect to the Internet and even allow us to play games. The question we must now ask is, can we apply this computer-powered algorithmic logic to the world’s most pressing problems in order to prevent human, political, economic and perhaps even natural disasters?

Does collecting more data lead to better decision-making? Competitive, data-savvy companies like Amazon, Google and Netflix have learned that data analysis alone doesn't always produce optimum results. In this talk, data scientist Sebastian Wernicke breaks down what goes wrong when we make decisions based purely on data — and suggests a brainier way to use it.