Axiata, Asia School of Business to host Malaysia’s largest datathon

Axiata, Asia School of Business to host Malaysia's largest datathon

By Digital News Asia September 4, 2018

First of a series of datathons Axiata plans to organise across its regional footprint
Looks to expose, nurture and develop a greater pool of specialists

Axiata, Asia School of Business to host Malaysia's largest datathon

AXIATA Group Bhd partners with Asia School of Business (ASB) to host Data Unchained Malaysia 2018 with the aim of helping to build capacity and talent in the field of data sciences and analytics.

Data Unchained Malaysia 2018 is set to be Malaysia’s largest datathon and the first of a series of datathons Axiata plans to organise across its regional footprint in South East Asia and South Asia.

As big data and data analytics become more integral as a tool to better understand customer needs and assist in business decision making, Axiata and ASB are looking to expose, nurture and develop a greater pool of specialists in this fast emerging area of expertise and skills required in an increasingly connected world.

Data Unchained Malaysia 2018, designed as an intense weekend-long competition, is Axiata and ASB’s inaugural collaboration and is also intended to provide a platform for top Malaysian talent, data scientists and enthusiasts to show how their data-driven insights and business solutions can create real impact on the everyday lives of Malaysian citizens. Considered a data-focused hackathon, the datathon will present participants with complex datasets and the challenge to develop models and insights over the weekend that lead to practical solutions which can impact real-life businesses.

Participants will also have an enhanced experience from being mentored and guided by Axiata’s leading industry professionals who are part of Axiata’s very own analytics centre, providing a once in a lifetime experience for the participants.

Dr Wijayasuriya, Axiata’s corporate executive vice president and regional CEO, said, “In our broader goal of Advancing Asia, we aim to bring together the best in the region in terms of innovation, connectivity and talent. Through this datathon, we aim to develop, harness and build a talent pool of Malaysian experts in data science to meet the burgeoning opportunities in this sphere on the global landscape.

“The datathon also provides for an opportunity to imbue talents with similar passion for data in society, and to demonstrate and seed the social impact that data-driven solutions can deliver to Malaysia and the wider region.”

Building upon this, Pedro Uria Recio, head of Axiata Analytics Centre adds, “As one of Asia’s largest telecommunications groups and leading digital companies, Axiata has been a pioneer in the development and utilisation of data science and data storytelling to create a better customer experience and delivering better services to our over 350 million subscribers in 11 countries.”

Willem Smit, Professor of Marketing at the Asia School of Business and International Faculty Fellow at MIT, “The Asia School of Business has always aimed to create change-makers and we believe that this collaboration with Axiata contributes to that. The Data Unchained Malaysia 2018 datathon will be a great opportunity for talented minds to grow and highlight their capabilities to drive change in their society through data.”

Google Malaysia, Ericsson (a network equipment manufacturer), TM Forum (a non-profit association of telecommunications companies) and Lynx Analytics (a consulting company focused on analytics) will also support the datathon.

Challenge details

Data Unchained Malaysia 2018 is open to both students and working individuals. All backgrounds, from data scientists, programmers, graphic and interface designers, data journalists, data community activists, IT project managers and so on are welcome to participate.

The datathon will kick-off on Friday, Nov 2, 2018 with a preview into the data and a basic brief to prepare participants for the hack days to follow. The following two days, Nov 3 and 4, 2018 will see the release of the complete data set and participants going into full gear as they flex their analytical muscles to develop their data-driven solutions.

The judging panel will then select the top five teams to pitch their ideas, after which three teams will be selected as winners. Axiata is offering RM30,000 worth of prizes, for its team and individual categories.

Registration for Data Unchained Malaysia opens on Aug 15, 2018 and interested individuals can register at this link: www.axiata.com/dataunchained. For more information, please email [email protected].