Ryerson Brings Education and Industry Together

Data Science Lab Professor and Director Dr. Ayşe Başar Bener

explains why Ryerson is Canada’s top comprehensive innovation university, with professional programs, research centres, and innovation zones that position it as a valuable partner to solve industry, government and community problems.

1

How is Ryerson at the forefront of applied learning when it comes to data analytics and machine learning?

In the data science research cluster, we work with postgraduate students to conduct research into building machine learning algorithms by analyzing data to build predictive models and achieve certain outcomes. The problems we work on differ depending on the industry. For finance, for example, we build models to detect change points and trade patterns. We’re also building a context aware intelligent algorithm for IBM’s Watson product to improve the relevancy of its recommendations — research that could apply to a wide variety of industries.

2

How do these relationships benefit your industry partners?

Simply put, we help organizations fill their talent pipelines while also providing solutions to business problems. We have a certificate program in data analytics, Big Data, and predictive analytics, and a master’s program in data science and analytics. Both of these programs graduate people who will go directly into industry as data analytics professionals, data scientists or chief data science officers. One of our recent graduates worked on our project with IBM Toronto Labs to use analytics to predict software defects. He now works at a company performing similar tasks. Our PhD students are able to develop novel algorithms and high dimensional data analysis techniques to improve wellknown algorithms, and to complete the theoretical work that needs to be done before creating a commercial application.

3

Who are some of the partners you’re currently working with?

We’re working with two different software development teams at IBM, as well as the IBM Watson-Analytics group. We’re also working with data analytics and research teams at St. Michael’s Hospital, and partnering with the Toronto Stock Exchange to understand change points in the market. We also work with Toronto Police Services, Communication Research Centre Canada, Manulife and Mozilla.