More than 140 students, educators and industry professionals are registered to attend the Colloquium on Analytics, Data Science and Computing at Minnesota State University, Mankato in Edina.
Presentation topics include big data applications; business management and strategy; emerging technology; data analytics; data ethics; data infrastructure and computing; data management; machine learning and artificial intelligence; and security.
CADSCOM 2018 is the culmination of a faculty-led effort to establish the first-of-its-kind research event by the new Twin Cities (Minneapolis) Professional Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery, with generous co-sponsorship by the Minnesota State IT Center of Excellence.
The event, Oct. 26-27, is to create a venue where those involved in research and development on established and emerging data science and computing topics can come to learn and collaborate, said Wilson Garland, executive director of the Minnesota State IT Center of Excellence.
Dr. Firasat Khan identified the need for an academic research presentation and publication venue across MN and surrounding states. Khan is associate professor in the Management Information Systems department and director of Graduate MIS Programs. He set out to fill this gap with the help of peers across Minnesota and successfully pitched for IT Center funding in April 2018 and in the summer worked with a strong team of faculty across Metropolitan State. This collaboration included Dr. Wei Wei and Dr. David Jacobson of the Math Department, and Dr. Dalia Sulieman and Dr. Ismail Bile Hassan of the Computer Science and Cybersecurity Department), and as seven other Minnesota State institutions.
“Launching the first CADSCOM with about 25 original research works by 40 faculty and student authors, panels engaging industry leaders and faculty practitioners, and capped off with two stellar keynotes, is just very gratifying to see and we look forward to sustaining and growing the event in the coming years,” Khan said.
Khan, also serves as chair of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis) Professional Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery, which was launched by faculty and professionals in Minnesota to benefit dissemination of original research and insights into computing disciplines throughout the area and Upper Midwest region.
“There are a lot of industry events with data science and analytics as their focus, but Minnesota has not had a place where researchers, faculty, students, and industry can come together to discuss and explore the latest research going on here in Minnesota related to data science and computing,” Garland said. “This is the first year, but as this grows, we hope that it becomes the premier academic event in this exploding field within the Upper Midwest.”
The conference opens at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26 with an industry panel presentation and networking dinner (concluding at 8 p.m.). Saturday, Oct. 27 events are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and include research keynote presentations and paper presentations.
The event is not open to registered attendees. For more information, contact Rajeev Bukralia, faculty member in Minnesota State Mankato’s Department of Computer Information Science and vice chair of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis) Professional Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery, by phone at 507-389-1437 or by email at rajeev.bukralia@mnsu.edu.
“Data science is a high-demand field as organizations are looking to leverage data to foment innovation and solve complex problems,” Bukralia said. “This conference is a great opportunity to connect the academic community with industry to respond to data science needs and share trends in the field.”
The Minnesota State IT Center of Excellence is part of the Minnesota State college and university system. Its mission is to engage employers, students and educators to build a more robust information technology workforce in Minnesota. The IT Center, located in St. Paul, Minn., is hosted by Metropolitan State University but works to support all Minnesota State institutions and their information technology-related programs.
Metropolitan State University’s Management Information Systems department is part of College of Management, and the Math and Computer Science and Cybersecurity departments are part of the College of Sciences.
Minnesota State Mankato’s Department of Computer Information Science is part of the University’s College of Science, Engineering and Technology. Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with approximately 15,000 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 30 colleges and seven universities.