It’s clear that local demand for data science and analytics skills among South African enterprises far exceeds the current supply. This is unsurprising, as the existing requirements call for thousands of data experts with the technical skills to solve complex problems, while South Africa is presently only producing hundreds of data scientists and data analysts on an annual basis.
With this in mind, analytics and data science firm SAS has, since the beginning of 2019, implemented regular, informal ‘data science meetup’ sessions. These are designed to encourage diverse members of the data science community to come together to learn more about the field and to gain firsthand experience in what the company terms its ‘Escape Room’.
Last month (November), a large group, including data science students, full-time data analysts, corporate executives and others participated in an event that encompassed both theory and practice, providing those in attendance with a chance to not only learn more about the field, but to undertake a practical lesson in using data analytics for good.
“The main idea with these ‘meetups’ is to provide support to the data science community, enabling them to hopefully learn something new about the latest trends in this space, as well as to offer them a chance to improve their own skills in this field,” says Kelly Lu, a specialist in Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence at SAS.
“Such lessons are necessary, because the nature of the data scientist’s role is such that they have to constantly stay on top of the latest trends and industry knowledge. In essence, they are not expected to merely be a jack-of-all-trades, but, in fact, a master of all of these.”
She says delegates were not only exposed to the fundamentals they should look for in a modern data science platform, but were also informed about the intricacies involved with one of the field’s most recent additions, namely text analytics.
“Of course the highlight of the evening was when we introduced them all to the SAS Data Science Escape Room. Basically, those involved are divided into teams of four and are challenged to test their problem-solving skills by utilising data science to stop a cyber-attack and catch the hacker – within just 20 minutes.
“Not only is this a fun, interactive and practical way to demonstrate the value of data science, but because you don’t need to have any prior software skills to participate, it really is for everyone. The Escape Room is all about activating one’s own problem-solving skills and thinking outside the box. And, of course, from a SAS perspective, these meetings are our way of supporting the community and demonstrating just how much fun and how accessible data science can be,” she concludes.
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