On September 26-28 the first university event dedicated to Lithuanian researchers, students and professionals working at the field of big data KTU “Big Data School” was hosted at KTU “Santaka Valley”. The event was organized by KTU Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The event‘s initiator and chairperson assoc. prof. Bronė Narkevičienė emphasizes that international experience is essential for the development of big data professionals: “The need for big data analysts is widely known not only in Lithuania but in other countries of the world as well. However, an important aspect is that we not only need to fill the market, but we need to do it by preparing really professional big data analysts. KTU “Big Data School” is for the development of already existing knowledge, focusing not only on the theory but on the practical skills as well, and that is done with the help of lecturers from other European countries.”
Big data analysts often faces various technical barriers in their work and those difficulties are common between professionals around the world. KTU “Big Data School” was organized to gain knowledge from specialists who came from Spain, Great Britain and Denmark. Professor Kim Christensen (University of Aarhus) came to Lithuania to share his knowledge about estimation of financial risk measures from big data. As he said, talking about his practice internationally is very important: „In my opinion, it is absolutely essential to share knowledge, because it helps raising general level of education and awareness around the world. As a scientist, I feel a strong obligation to disseminate my research. If nobody knows about your research, what’s the use of it for the society? ”
The event took part for three days and covered a number of topics relevant to data analysis and participants were extremely involved. A lecturer, who shared his knowledge about machine learning methods, dr. Luca Citi (University of Essex), was happy about the involvement and interest from the participants: ” The students looked very engaged and they seemed to enjoy the day. It’s hard to believe that this kind of university event was organized for the first time”. Assoc. prof. Bronė Narkevičienė says that the success of the event came from a lot of work: “Creating something new and unusual always makes you feel anxious because you don’t know how it will work out. I am very glad that KTU “Big Data School” team did a perfect job and the usefulness of the event was noticed not only by the Faculty staff, but also by our social business partners, graduate students from different universities – by all of those who are studying, working or are interested in big data.”
The lecturers dr. Diego Jesus Garcia Gil (Granada University), dr. Salvador Garcia Lopez (Granada University), dr. Luca Citi (Essex University) and dr. Kim Christensen (Aarhus University) shared their knowledge about big data preprocessing, machine learning methods and estimation of financial risk measures from big data. Each of them talked about their research, experience, assigned some practical tasks for the participants and helped to solve them. “Another great aspect – a chance for cooperation and further communication between the participants and lecturers. The success of KTU “Big Data School” inspired us to organize it again next year. “- said assoc. prof. Bronė Narkevičienė.
