ABINGTON, Pa. — An international data science expert will teach a course this fall with Penn State Abington Continuing Education on maximizing data performance.
Charles W. Ormsby III, who leads software development teams in India, Russia and Ukraine, will train business people to organize and interpret the mountains of data their organizations accumulate.
“You need to make sense of core data, which companies collect from orders and other interactions,” the longtime consultant said. “Once I demonstrate how to organize data, we will talk about running analytics and making robust business decisions around the results.”
The course, "Maximizing Data Performance: Leveraging Your Organization’s Data to Make Smarter Decisions," will run 6-8 p.m. Thursdays, Oct. 4 through Nov. 15, at Penn State Abington, 1600 Woodland Road, Abington, Pennsylvania. The cost is $695 and registration is required.
The quantity and level of information are directly related to the maturity of the business, but startups can benefit from the course as much as long-established companies.
“Every business has the same issue: a universal need to make sense of the data,” Ormsby, the founder of two software companies, said. “I teach a repeatable process so you can do smarter things with data on an ongoing basis.”
Ormsby said the course will be comprised of four main components:
- Exploring the most commonly used data management tools and their strengths, and learning to select which tool will work best for a particular challenge.
- Learning data modeling and manipulation and conducting different types of analysis to draw useful, data-based conclusions.
- Using visualization tools to optimize data mining insights.
- Tips, techniques and tools Ormsby will share from his vast experiences in the world of data science.
The course is for professionals in a myriad of positions including business owners, salespeople or financial managers.
“Basically, any position where you collect data, and your progress is measurable would lend itself to this course. For most of us, what we do is measurable,” he said. “Once you learn this, you can teach others in your company the same structures.”
Ormsby urges students to bring practical examples of issues into the classroom for discussion.
Ormsby earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer engineering at Lehigh University.
Penn State Abington provides an affordable, accessible and high-impact education resulting in the success of a diverse student body. It is committed to student success through innovative approaches to 21st century public higher education within a world-class research university. With nearly 4,000 students, Penn State Abington is a residential campus that offers baccalaureate degrees in 19 majors, undergraduate research, the Schreyer honors program, NCAA Division III athletics and more.
