KCA launches data analytics lab

By David Odongo

KCA University will launch a unique Data analytics and Visualisation Research lab, the first of its kind amongst Kenyan universities.

The lab to launched on April 18 2013 will combine automated analysis techniques with interactive visualisation for an effective understanding, reasoning and decision making on the basis of large and complex databases.

“We shall be creating new tools and novel techniques that will enable researchers and practising managers who work with large databases to synthesise information and detect the expected and discover the unexpected trends.”

Said Prof  Ddembe Williams, dean faculty of computing and information Management.

“This is an exciting moment for KCA University to put in place such innovative concept. For example many corporate organisations and government Departments have amassed terabytes of data since Independence and continue to collect statistics till the present day. It means now means that application of Visual analytics to these rather large and complex databases can significantly support the process of gaining useful knowledge and identifying unexpected phenomena”.

Speaking during the lunch, information and communication permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo said nationally, there is lack of human resource capacity trained at Masters or PhD level in the field of Data analytics and visualisation in general “This greatly impedes on the research capacity to explore these massive datasets in terms of health policy development, emergency management, astrophysics, climate change, meteorological catastrophes, business intelligence and disease epidemics.” Said Ndemo.

“Establishment of such a research Lab will certainly improve our understanding of the world we live in to forecast trends or to identify recurring situations. Other areas of application for example in Kenya’s case could be fraud detection, analysis of consumer data for unique insights and social data for policy interventions. We have also developed new courses that will support this research Lab for example the MSc in Advanced Databases and Visual analytics and the MSc in Information Systems Management currently recruiting for May intake” added Ddembe.