ICBD 2016: Big Data ushering in a new era

Due to the tremendous growth in information and communication technology and in social networking services, Big Data management has attracted extensive attention and developed rapidly in recent years. A report from the World Economic Forum, Big Data Big Impact, indicated that a flood of data is one of the factors of production and a great asset for business; through abundant data and analytic techniques, businesses will have more possibilities to gain commercial opportunities, and provide innovative products and services in the future.  

In order to foster university-industry cooperation in Big Data Analytics, the School of Big Data Management of Soochow University (SCU) held the 2016 International Conference on Big Data (ICBD) at SCU, Taipei, Taiwan on October 22-23. Academicians, practitioners as well as industrial professionals from around the world were invited to exchange research on Big Data and present developmental activities in related fields such as the Internet of Things (IOT), Hospitality & Tourism, FinTech, Smart City, E-commerce, Information Security, Open Data, and others.

In his opening remarks, Wei-Ta Pan, the president of Soochow University, said, “Big Data is a revolutionary way of thinking. SCU established the School of Big Data Management, the first and only one in Taiwan, providing a new platform for industrial professionals and researchers to communicate and to establish innovative ways of gathering business intelligence with strong partnerships in this innovative industry.”

Following the president’s remarks, the honorary dean of the School of Big Data Management, Shan-Cheng Chang, identified three elements—innovation, insight, and intelligence—integrated by Big Data. To explain them clearly, he shared his own experience and highlighted its significance and prospects for government and business decision-making. He said when he was deputy prime minister, Big Data was used to investigate adjustments in Taiwan employee salaries for the past three years. The results accurately revealed problems and helped the government formulate appropriate policies. “The era of Big Data is coming,” Chang added, “If we don’t want to be left behind in this race, we need to seek closer university-industry cooperation to increase the number of skilled workers in Big Data.”

Keith B. Carter, affiliate professor of the Business Analytic Centre, the National University of Singapore, took Google Translate as an example of how Big Data has been used in daily life. He used Google Translate on his cellphone to translate a Korean article into English and read out its summary. He explained that the reason why users could have a basic idea of translated passages within a few minutes is because the translation tool has been being refined by a huge amount of user experience data over a period of many years. Engineers have also removed and corrected mistakes in the data. In his opinion, Big Data allows people to develop practical software making it convenient for users while increasing profits for businesses. Carter encouraged students in the School of Big Data Management to carry out their bold ideas with what they’ve learned in school, encouraging them not to be afraid of making mistakes and going beyond the theoretical.