A tidal wave of digitization has ushered in a new eon of technology. Data science has significantly every aspect of the education and learning domain. Among other things, the data science industry is becoming a leading factor for businesses across the globe. From making breakthroughs in medicine to the contribution of making revolutionary inventions in astronomy, data science is bound to transform most industries.
Organizations have realized that they cannot ignore technology progression. Thus, the expanding usage of data science, AI, and machine learning is seen across organizations. Everybody wants to get into the bandwagon, but the question is, how many people understand the value of data science and can be utilized?
As a result, the world needs more professionals who can analyze data and bring actionable insights and solve complex problems. This is where the challenge lies – one of the major reasons why data science initiative is crucial for businesses today.
Introducing the World Data Science Initiative (WDSI)
Launched early this January 2020, the World Data Science Initiative (WDSI) commits to building data science talent across the globe, approximately 250,000 by 2022. This initiative will illuminate technology schools and thousands of universities by offering global programs in multiple fields related to AI, machine learning, and data science.
Troves of data get generated daily, so must our ability to analyze data and provide insights for business purposes. Drawing insights from data require the individual to understand the working principle in data science. Thus, skills in mathematics, statistics, machine learning, and data visualization, etc. is a must-have. Besides this, the individual needs to have hands-on experience working with the tools and technologies.
WDSI intends to fulfill requirements for data science learning by providing university grants and subsidies to technical schools and universities.
• WDSI plans to grant subsidies worth over USD 300 million to institutions and universities
• Within three weeks to the launch, the initiative had registrations from 23 countries from over 30 higher education institutions
• Institutions registered for the subsidies and grants are also looking forward to setting up centers of Data Science excellence within their campus, also called the International Centers of Data Science
• The talent development projects to spread across nearly 14 regions as seen below:
- North America
- Central America
- South America
- East Africa
- West Africa
- Central Africa
- Southern Africa
- West Asia
- East Asia and APAC
- South Asia
- Oceania and Australia
- Eastern Europe
- Central Europe
- Western Europe
Ever since its launched, the World Data Science Initiative has managed to gather universities, technical schools, education project bodies of the United Nations, the World Bank, universities, and personnel like researchers, professors, education regulators, and data science educators to help develop the next batch of data science talents.
The university grants offered by WDSI will help students and universities in myriad disciplines. Therefore, allowing them to stay connected with the latest data science knowledge that will shape the upcoming generations.
The World Data Science Initiative is built upon the solid bedrock by getting accredited through one of the world’s largest vendor-neutral certification bodies – the Data Science Council of America.
The subsidies and grants will cover the charges for procurement of the content, certification, the process, knowledge, and other services related to global accreditation. However, the grant does not cover the following charges – fee for the consultants, infrastructure, salary of the staff, equipment, computers, third-party software, and hardware.
The goal of WDSI is to support institutions and universities from under-developed and emerging nations who are in dire need of subsidies and grants.
2020 and beyond will see the transformation data science will cause. Thus, the talent development project started by WDSI is just the beginning.
