New Jersey Big Data Alliance launches Spring 2023 workshop series
The New Jersey Big Data Alliance (NJBDA) is partnering with several organizations to provide several free workshops and panel discussions for data practitioners and those interested in big data. This workshop series is part of NJBDA’s effort to build and leverage collaborations to increase competitiveness, generate a highly skilled workforce, drive innovation and catalyze data-driven economic growth for New Jersey. This robust series of workshop events complements “Big Data in FinTech” – the NJBDA’s tenth Annual Symposium on May 9 at Seton Hall University.
Big data workshops
The series begins tomorrow, April 4, with a virtual Smart Ports Workshop to discover the benefits and opportunities for innovations in the port systems. Members of government, faculty, students, port-related businesses and the general public are invited to attend this event. This workshop is hosted by NJBDA and the New Jersey Institute of Technology Institute for Data Science, and supported by the US Economic Development Administration (US EDA).
Confirmed speakers include Beth Rooney, Port Director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; Dennis Monts, Chief Operations Officer at Advent eModal; and Anne Strauss-Wieder, Director, Freight Planning, at the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority. David Bader, Director of the NJIT Institute for Data Science, will moderate, with an introduction by Peggy Brennan-Tonetta, NJBDA Co-Founder and Past-President, and Director, Resource and Economic Development, Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers University.
The NJBDA workshop series continues on April 21 with a Garden State Open Data Index forum on Open Data and Artificial Intelligence. This event will include a discussion of the value creation potential of aligning open data with AI, especially generative AIs like ChatGPT and Bloom, with reflections on public policy.
Panelists include Poonam Soans, Chief Data Officer & Director of Application Development at the State of New Jersey, Rakesh (Teddy) Kumar, PhD, Vice President, ICS, Center for Vision Technology at SRI International; Clint Andrews, PhD, Professor & Associate Dean at the Bloustein School, Rutgers University; and Rachel Rosenthal, editorial board member at Bloomberg. Jim Samuel, Executive Director at the Bloustein School Informatics Program will moderate.
The third event in the NJBDA spring workshop series is “Advanced Manufacturing Efficiencies through Technology” on April 28. Speakers include Donald Coakley, Principal at Plant Automation Group and Frank Catalana, Vice President of Operations at Cumberland Dairy. Nolan Lewin, Executive Director, The Food Innovation Center at Rutgers University will moderate.
“Big Data for Small Business: Leveraging Data for Business Growth” is the fourth event in the spring workshop series, on May 3. The NJBDA, the US Economic Development Administration, Edge and the Center for Business Analytics at Rider University’s Norm Brodsky College of Business invite small business owners to learn how to leverage big data.
Two workshops and a networking lunch highlight this event. Panelists for “Challenges and opportunities in the adoption of technology and use of data by small businesses” include Laura Glotzbach of LGS Marketing Services; Joe Hudicka of Neurored; Ramesh Gudalur of Cognitive Operations; and Stuart Altschuler of Trenton Health Team. Panelists for “Role of ecosystem stakeholders in helping small businesses leverage big data and related technologies” include Elayne McClaine of the NJ Small Business Development Center at Rutgers, New Brunswick; Jeffrey A. Robinson, PhD of Rutgers University; Judith Sheft of NJ Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology; and Jasmine Ward of TechUnited. Panel moderators include Emre Yetgin, Director, Center for Business Analytics at Rider University; Forough Ghahramani, Assistant Vice President, Research, Innovation & Sponsored Programs at Edge; and Linda Lindner, Managing Editor at ROI-NJ.
The “Cyberinfrastructure for Research Data Management” two-day workshop on May 23 and 24, 2023 is designed to help research computing professionals deploy next-gen cyberinfrastructure that can effectively support data-intensive science. Princeton University, Edge, Globus, and EPOC (TACC and ESnet, partners of EPOC) are hosting this in-person workshop at Princeton.
The workshop will consist of two days of presentation material that focus on the concepts of the Science DMZ, Data Management using Globus, perfSONAR network measurement, and other affiliated Research & Education best common practices that are designed to operate modern research and education networks to support data intensive science. For the draft agenda and speakers, visit njedge.net.
NJBDA Annual Symposium
The 2023 NJBDA Symposium will be held at Seton Hall University on May 9, 2023. The Annual Symposium is New Jersey’s premier conference for big data & advanced computing, consistently attracting 200+ attendees from industry, government, and academia.
Keynote speakers for the “Big Data in FinTech” symposium include George Calhoun, Professor and Founding Director of the Quantitative Finance Program at Stevens Institute of Technology; Kjersten Margaret Moody, Chief Data Officer at Prudential Financial; and Stephen Ward, Managing Director at Insight Partners.
The symposium also includes several workshops and sessions on AI/Machine Learning for FinTech, Data Assets and Privacy, Entrepreneurship in FinTech, Workforce Development for FinTech, Cryptocurrencies and Risk Management, and Research Presentations in FinTech, as well as student research poster presentations.
More spring NJBDA activities
The NJBDA is also partnering with the New Jersey Pathways to Career Opportunities Initiative to expand articulation agreements through convening New Jersey’s community colleges and four-year colleges and universities on April 18. This is an opportunity for the institutions of higher education to develop more collaborative relationships and increase the number of articulation agreements between them.
https://njbda.org/news/new-jersey-big-data-alliance-launches-spring-2023-workshop-series/
David A. Bader
Distinguished Professor and Director of the Institute for Data Science
David A. Bader is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science at New Jersey Institute of Technology.