Introducing Dr. Ning Jia, Director of the MS in Applied Data Science
Big Data is a Big Deal.
“Due to advances in technology, data has permeated many aspects of our daily lives. Such an explosion brings great opportunity for data analysis, the results of which can have great potential in changing how we conduct our everyday lives, and certainly how we conduct most businesses,” states Dr. Ning Jia.
Even as a young girl in China, Jia was comfortable with numbers. It helped that her father was a mathematician, and in her family the subject of math was seen as a powerful tool that could open doors. When she attended Fudan University in Shanghai, China, she majored in finance and was able to marry her fascination of the theoretical with the practical applications of business. Her journey to the arena of applied data science was just beginning.
After earning her PhD, Jia spent several years in industry, including the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, The Hartford Financial Group, and the Affinion Group. From working in the health, business solutions, and insurance areas, she gained great insight into the range and application of data analysis, from building math models to interpreting and influencing consumer behavior. Jia believes the greatest strength she brings to the classroom is the wealth of experience she has had in these various markets.
“To stay relevant, businesses and organizations must use data to drive decision making. I have come to appreciate that it is more than collecting large sets of data—this is where the role of the data analyst is critical. Data can be overwhelming, and a good data analyst needs to communicate what the data represents in a way that people understand.”
In Bay Path’s MS in Applied Data Science, Jia’s focus is to develop students to become able and proficient data scientists, with much hands-on practice with real world big data sets. The program will also cover a broad array of advanced methodologies developed in recent years to attack big data—methodologies that are critical for students to master in this fast-growing area.
Secondly, Jia wants to develop students to be the “bridge” between traditional data scientists and business decision makers. Through her work in various industries, she has become keenly aware of the great importance of communication between data scientists and business decision makers. Many innovations and ideas that can be gleaned from data analysis can only be discovered when there is effective communication between the groups with business knowledge and deep data analytical skills. With management courses in the program particularly geared toward business intelligence, management of intellectual capital, and strategies of information management, Jia hopes to nurture students to become well-versed in many aspects in the business decision-making process, whether they will be working on or leading a data science team.
Based on Dr. Ning Jia’s experience, it’s apparent that data is a big deal. And, she adds, it’s just going to get bigger.
Click here to take the next step to earning a MS in Applied Data Science