YESSENOV DATA LAB FOR ANALYSTS

— We have carried out a market research and realized that existing programs (for example, Kaspi Laboratory) do not cover even the demand of the Kazakhstani market. Therefore, in partnership with the leading business University in the country we have decided to open our summer laboratory, — said the program Manager of the Yessenov Foundation Ilzira Aldagarova. — The purpose of the program is to train analysts, promote the use of data analysis in science and stimulate research activities in this area, the use of data analysis skills in Kazakhstani organizations and companies, – she added.

According to the project initiators, the school will not be a summer recreational camp: during 8 weeks, participants will learn how to collect, process and visualize data, to study large amounts of data containing disparate information, and on the basis thereof  to optimize existing business processes and to make decisions. During the lessons, participants will be  recognizing images, working with natural language (NLP), solving problems on the Kaggle.com. The last 2 weeks of this school course participants will devote to solving project problems, which will be a kind of exam. Participants completeingthe course successfully will receive a Data Science specialist certificate.

Leading experts in this field will lecture at the school. Negotiations are underway with Dmitry Kotovenko (AGT International, Frankfurt), Marina Gorlova(Yandex.Money, St. Petersburg), Mikhail Lipkovich and Dmitry Russanov (EPAM Systems, St. Petersburg), as well as AlmaU professors Kuanysh Abeshevand Timur Bakibayev (received their PhDs in the United States and Germany).

The Foundation has already started the receipt of applications to participate in this competition. Both students and employed professionals with strong analytical thinking will be able to participate in the competition. The Expert Board, that will decide the fate of 20 grants, first of all, will pay attention to the analytical skills of applicants, their knowledge of fundamental principles of statistics and algebra. Candidates with programming experience, technical education and knowledge of English not lower than of Intermediate level (IELTS 6.5/ TOEFL 90) will be preferable. Candidates can apply in any language (state language, Russian, English).

The competition will be held in 3 stages. The programme regulations and the application are published on the Foundation’s website.

— After evaluation of received applications, we will have the second round in April – an exam in logics, programming, knowledge of fundamental principles of statistics and algebra. The main emphasis will be on the evaluation of logical thinking of candidates. The exams will be taken at our University in Almaty and at trusted exam centers all over Kazakhstan. We will inform everyone admitted to participate in the second round about the dates and addresses of such centers, — said Professor of Almaty Management University Timur Bakibayev.

During the third round, which will be completed by mid-May, all applicants will be interviewed by the Expert Board’s members. The names of all 20 winners of the grant competition — students of the first summer school Yessenov Data Lab — will be disclosed by the end of May. All the flight costs on the territory of Kazakhstan, as well as accommodation and meals will be covered for those winners of the competition who live outside Almaty. The term “Big Data” appeared in 2008, and the profession of a “Data Scientist” is officially registered as an academic and cross-industry discipline at the beginning of 2010. The need for a profession is caused  by the fact that today we are talking about extremely large amounts of data that need to be processed and  standard means of mathematical statistics cannot cope with them anymore.