The magazine for alumni and friends of the UB School of Management
Issue link: http://ubschoolofmanagement.uberflip.com/i/261286
B B Spring 2014 Students who want to go deeper typically learn the skill of computer programming—they "code." Some graduate students also are taking advantage of the Data Intensive Discovery Initiative, a newly devel- oped collaboration among several UB academic units that provides greater computing power than the departments could muster separately. "Typical PhD students, whatever they have to do, they do it on a computer," says Tiu, who coordi- nates the doctoral program for finance students. "Our students do code, but they need this expertise. It's very interesting to be able to go to a computer scientist and ask, to what degree can I do this?" Raj Sharman, associate professor of management science and systems, notes that the school's influence in big data is also being felt worldwide as part of the international Workshop on Information Technology and Systems, held in December 2013 in Milan, Italy. Sharman served as one of two program chairs for the event, and the UB School of Management co-spon- sored the workshop with Indiana and Penn State universities and IBM. No magic bullet An old axiom of computer programming says, "Garbage in, garbage out," and the School of Management professors emphasize that the mere existence of big data is no guarantee of high-quality results. Says Sharman: "Currently we are peddling what we know: predictive analysis and data mining. For the practitioner, this is fine. For a researcher, sipping on that old bottle of wine is a recipe for obsolescence. New methods have to come in." One concern, he says, is that information can be gathered and analyzed at a speed beyond human capacity. "If a manager is given information faster than he is digesting it, then you have information overload and a cognitive problem," Sharman says. "It is the task of business and researchers to deal with that data and provide it to each individual at the rate he can consume. If they don't do that, we have exceeded human competence. The researcher and the analyst have to cook the meal so it is digestible." In the stock market, Tiu notes that one concern about the velocity of big data is that regulators, such "If a manager is given information faster than he is digesting it, then you have information overload and a cognitive problem." Raj Sharman Associate Professor, Management Science and Systems