Rourkela, Aug. 31: The National Institute of Technology (NIT) has come up with an innovative course for those interested in data handling -MTech in advanced analytics and decision sciences.

The course is an initiative of two NIT-Rourkela alumni - Venkata Narasingham Peri, a 1991 MCA graduate and Amresh Tripathy, a civil engineering graduate from 1999. Both Peri and Tripathy work in the US, while the later teaches advanced analytics and decision sciences.

The course will be run with active co-operation of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the US. Peri has set up the Lakhmana Rao Peri Centre for Advanced Analytics and Decision Sciences in memory of his father. To mark the occasion, on August 28 NIT-Rourkela hosted a workshop on "Advanced data analytics: Principles and applications".

Mirsad Hadzikadic and Joshua Hertel, faculty members from the US varsity, were present on the occasion. "Big data analytics refers to the process of collecting, organising and analysing large sets of data and to discover patterns and other useful information," said Hadzikadic. "The initiative at NIT is really encouraging and will help the country immensely," said Hadzikadic.

. At present, faculty members from management, mathematics and computer science will be involved in teaching the new course and gradually teachers from other disciplines will also take part"As it is multi-disciplinary course, we will have doctors, statisticians and economists as faculty members. In fact, two seats have been reserved for students from medicine, economics and mathematics," said Tripathy.

The MoU also gives opportunity for faculty training and exposure to cutting edge research along with faculty exchange programmes and joint publications. Besides, external stakeholders, namely the state and the Central government will be invited for initiatives such as health care and smart cities, so that the research and findings have a direct impact in the society.

"The students will visit the University of North Carolina campus for an eight-month advanced training and research programme during their second year," said Sarangi.

During the interaction session, Hertel said: " There are many dimensions to the misuse of the massive data available but at this moment let us only concentrate on the benefits of it."

"We have decided to open a centre for health care and analytics at NIT-Rourkela to study the disease patterns of the state," said B.B. Mohanty, president of the institute's alumni association.