Data Science Nigeria Hosts Big Data Evangelist, Professor Raj Krishna, Unveils 2018 Agenda

Data Science Nigeria (DSN) and the hosted the Professor Raj Krishna, a Microsoft Big Data Evangelist and a faculty at the IIT Chicago, USA tomorrow in an interactive session on Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

At the event, Profesor Krishna spoke on the latest trends in Artificial Intelligence with a specific focus on how businesses can use Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology as a marketing edge. He listed the functions of Natural Language Processing to include Question Answering, Reputation Monitoring, Ad Placement, Market Intelligence and Regulatory Compliance. He also explained how NLP is being used to filter spam emails and helping to solve the problem of unwanted emails.

Prof Raj krishnan is now speaking on the application of artificial intelligence & Natural language processing #DataScienceNigMeetup @DataScienceNIG pic.twitter.com/kUnLUJez4h

— James Oyanna (@JamesOyanna) December 14, 2017

Profesor Krishna also introduced the audience to ways through which they can build a chatbot with the Microsoft Azure bot service.He informed the audience that using Bot Services will speed up development by providing an integrated environment that’s purpose-built for service delivery.

Unveiling the 2018 Agenda

As part of the event, DSN officially unveiled its 2018 agenda to the attendees. The session was anchored by the convener of DSN, Mr Bayo Adekanmbi. The agenda entailed a list of mega-events focused on BIG DATA FOR DIGITAL/FINANCIAL INCLUSION.

These include an Inter-School machine learning awareness/competition for students from Universities and Polytechnics across the country (BSc to PhD) with the aim of introducing 10,000 students to possibilities in AI, ML, Data science. MR Adekanmbi explained that the aim of the event is to broaden the reach of the group as well as introduce more Nigerians to Data Science.

The cardinal programme of DSN in 2018 will be the 3rd Data Science Bootcamp and Hackathon. The Bootcamp is designed to explore emerging trends in Natural Language Processing, chatbot development and Deep learning.

According to Mr Adekanmbi, new stringent rules have been put in place to ensure that attendees have been properly screened and well prepared for the Bootcamp. These include a ten steps virtual training, participation in the Kaggle competition and scoring above in 80% in all tests. The group also plans to organize a quarterly Kaggle competitions that will aim to address business/social issues through a gamified platform.

He emphasized the Town&Gown Research-driven innovation Hub that will support postgraduate research works with a focus on solving pressing social and business problems. He explained that the programme relies on a tripartite model that will involve a rigorous academic research, industry Research and development support and business incubation.

The other programmes include an Executive Masterclass on Everything Big Data/Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence, an AI/Big Data for Marketing/Sales/Customer Service Excellence Summit and the 2nd Big Data Economy Summit that seeks to explore emerging algorithms, applications and approaches in inclusive solutions for the next billions.

You can get more details by clicking on the link below:

Data Science Nigeria unveils its 2018 programme with monthly details
Theme:Big Data for Financial/Digital Inclusionhttps://t.co/m1bOEudvRT pic.twitter.com/08lv54oxll

— DSN – Data Scientists Network/Data Science Nigeria (@datascientistsN) December 14, 2017

About Data Science

Data Science Nigeria is a non-profit initiative with a vision to accelerate Nigeria’s development through a solution-oriented application of machine learning in solving social/ business problems and to galvanize data science knowledge revolution, which can position Nigeria to become the outsourcing hub for international Data Science/Advanced Analytics/Big Data projects, with an opportunity to access at least 1% share of the global big data and analytics market, valued at $150b in 2017 ($203b in 2020).