Grant: College and Community Innovation Program

Algonquin College's Data Analytics Centre (DAC) will enable the College help company partners harness 'big data.' This will be accomplished by connecting company partners with teams of College students and professors who will work together on company project ideas. Two main groups of business partners will be assisted: 'Adopters' and 'Providers'. The Adopters are 'main-street' companies and other non-technical organizations who seek to use data technologies to help them streamline their processes, increase efficiency, make smarter decisions, and enhance their overall competitiveness. The Providers are companies who are developing and marketing their own analytics solutions. College teams will help these partners with proof-of-principle, software development, user-experience design, prototyping, testing and even market research - anything that will help the partner move toward commercialization. Data technologies are currently among the greatest opportunities in engineering and business. Instead of developing new fundamental research, the DAC will focus on harnessing existing state-of-the-art algorithms, best practices, and tools in applied data science and engineering. This will include business intelligence, data sourcing and integration, cloud processing, machine-learning for predictive analysis and data visualization. Algonquin has been working with a growing number of companies in these areas and is ready to become a regional data analytics development hub. Thanks to NSERC funding, the DAC will allow the College to assist dynamic small- and medium-size enterprises in becoming a part of the new knowledge-based economy and to enhance prosperity for the Ottawa region. The DAC will complement, and extend, existing big data-related initiatives at local universities, in industry and research support organizations. Inside the College, the DAC will provide opportunities for faculty development and student training in applied research projects with 'live' industry partners. This will alleviate the shortage in IT workers with practical skills in data technologies.