The analysis of big volumes of data, paired with a strong knowledge of the business/operations of the organization and with due ethical questions safeguarded, allows us, among other objectives, to try to predict future situations.

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With a growth of 74% in the past year, the Artificial Intelligence Specialist profession (including different titles with the same skills) was considered n.º1 in the top of emerging professions in the USA, based on data from Linkedin. Around the world, schools and universities launch several options of courses and training programs in Data Science to keep up with the demand for this type of skills. According to a study by the Open Data Barometer, carried out in 92 countries, 55% of the participants indicated that they have open data initiatives in place (available online, free of charge). In Portugal, examples such as the Cascais City Hall, through the Cascais Data corroborate this trend.

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There is a widespread rush in this direction - collection, monetization of data and extraction of insights by companies; demand for courses for the development of skills by professionals. Nova SBE, for its part, launched this year the Master in Business Analysis and, in partnership with Le Wagon, a 24-week Data Science Bootcamp , which starts in June 2020.

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But what is the potential benefit that all this convergence can bring to our society?

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The analysis of large volumes of data, combined with a strong knowledge of the organization's business / operations and with due ethical issues safeguarded, allows us, among other objectives, to try to predict future situations.

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This way, we have been contributing to the increase in the number of vaccinated children in Croatia (with the CIPH - Croatian Institute of Public Health and other local organizations), the creation of plans for a more sustainable tourism (with Turismo de Portugal and Tuscany Promozione Turistica ), the reduction in the number of road accidents in the Netherlands (with Rijkswaterstaat , under the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment), the support of long-term unemployed in Portugal in (re) entering the labor market (with the IEFP, FEUP and the Foundation for Science and Technology) or the early identification of the risk of nephropathy in the diabetic population (with APDP - Associação Protetora de Diabéticos de Portugal, Fundação “la Caixa” and BPI).

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These are some examples that have been developed, since 2017, by NOVA SBE Data Science Knowledge Center , many of them within the scope of the Data Science for Social Good SF (started at the University of Chicago, now at the DSSG Foundation).

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This article can be found in Portuguese here, in Exame.

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