BITS Pilani conducts 5-day Faculty Development Program in Data Analytics for 80 higher ed institutions
New Delhi : The BITS Pilani Work Integrated Learning Programs (WILP) division recently conducted a five-day workshop for academicians, doctoral researchers and industry practitioners to equip them with the know-how of data analytics and its significance in the area of marketing and retail in today’s times. Held virtually in collaboration with ATAL Academy, the Faculty Development Programme (FDP) was titled “Analytics for Marketing and Retail”.
Professors from around 80 institutions across India participated in the programme held recently, to upskill themselves in order to further educate learners in the field of marketing and retail. The FDP was replete with experiential learning, and was the perfect amalgamation of business, mathematics and technology. It was spread over 15 sessions and conducted by an eminent panel comprising professors from BITS Pilani, IIM Udaipur, and ISB Hyderabad.
The FDP began with a very insightful welcome address by Prof. Krishnamurthy Bindumadhavan, from BITS Pilani, in which he stressed upon the importance of data-driven decision making in businesses.
The programme was organised keeping in mind the need for the advancement of human resources who can work on the acquired data, understand it, derive insights from it, and come up with business solutions. Dr. Gaurav Nagpal, the FDP Coordinator and a Faculty of Decision Sciences, Analytics and Operations at BITS Pilani, said, “If faculty members of higher education institutions who teach the courses related to management and business are trained in the use of data analytics for marketing and retail, they can produce industry-ready professionals. They’ll be able to transform learners into professionals who will be highly comfortable with working on large datasets. This will enable the industry players to integrate the knowledge of business, data science, and technology to create a unique competitive advantage for themselves.”
The FDP taught participants the significance of strong data-driven business decisions in marketing. It covered descriptive, predictive as well as prescriptive analytics in marketing and retail. There were sessions on text analytics and ethics in marketing analytics too, and the FDP had the right blend of workings on XL, R, and Python.