Cincinnati’s Data Science Community Makes Interdisciplinary Connections at 2024 Analytics Summit

(US and Canada) The University of Cincinnati Center for Business Analytics held its 12th annual Analytics Summit in April, attracting more than 250 attendees to dive into real-world applications of business analytics.

The summit’s two keynote speakers and choice of 14 track sessions demonstrated the interdisciplinary implications of the data science field in everything from finance and leadership to health care and retail. Opening keynote speaker, futurist and author Thornton May got attendees talking to one another in response to various prompts around the role of analytics in business and society.

“You have to migrate from delivering insight to igniting discourse,” May advised.

Attendees could choose from 14 breakout sessions organized across five tracks: “Leading the Way,” “The AI Revolution,” “Tell the Story,” “Data and Analytics Essentials in Industry,” and “Digital Transformation through Analytics.” Track speakers ranged from data scientists or technologists and business professionals positioned to use analytics to meet company objectives or communicate the value of analytics to company leadership.

In “Data Storytelling is Hard: Let AI Make It Easy,” The Hidden Speaker’s Christopher Chin employed audience input for ChatGPT prompts to create the text and images for a PowerPoint presentation in Marp. In his live demonstration, Chin underscored the importance of framing data storytelling around the intended audience. 

In “Can Generative AI Help Predict Asset Returns?” University of Cincinnati Associate Professor of Finance Mehmet Sağlam, PhD, presented his research on the effectiveness and accuracy of generative AI tools in predicting asset returns in high-frequency trading.

“We already had high-frequency trading, but that was primarily on traditional price data,” said Saglam. “Now with generative AI, we can exploit much more vast amounts of data that is primarily text to generate new trading sequences.”

During lunch, attendees heard from Carl H. Lindner College of Business Dean Marianne Lewis, PhD, and representatives from Lindner Career Services about the ways industry and academia can partner to advance data science through cooperative education (co-op). Co-op empowers students to explore career options through multiple, paid work experiences related to their area of study while creating an important talent pipeline for employers. Steve Wanamaker, publisher of the CDO Magazine, also spoke to the audience about how the Cincinnati region is becoming a recognized center of practice for business analytics and AI.

Closing keynote speaker Richard Harknett, PhD, wove many of the interdisciplinary learnings of the day together in speaking about governance, policy, and ethics of AI. As Professor of Political Science and Director of UC’s School of Public and International Affairs, Co-director of the Ohio Cyber Range Institute, and Chair of UC’s Center for Cyber Strategy and Policy, Harknett added an important perspective to the day’s conversation: that it’s not so much the code or data collection itself, but the role and responsibility of that data in the organization, that makes an impact.

"As we navigate the complexities of AI integration, let's shift our focus from viewing technology as mere products or tools to understanding them as agents with defined roles and responsibilities,” said Harknett.

About the Author:

Tim Cholvat is the Executive Director of the University of Cincinnati Center for Business Analytics. Housed in the University of Cincinnati Carl H. Lindner College of Business, the Center for Business Analytics serves the data science community through leadership development, public events such as the annual Analytics Summit and Data Science Symposium, a broad portfolio of training opportunities, consultation services, and student engagement programs. Learn more at business.uc.edu/analytics-center.