UNH partners with IBM Watson to beef up data skills

Students will get a subscription to Watson Analytics Student Edition at no cost

Impressed with the caliber of students at the Peter T. Paul Entrepreneurship Center's hackathon on data analytics last fall, IBM Watson Analytics has partnered with the University of New Hampshire to provide a free access to its student edition of the smart data analysis and visualization service.

“UNH is proud to partner with IBM Watson Analytics as we continue to embrace data-driven discovery across all of our academic programs and campuses,” said Nancy Targett, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “UNH is a leader in data-driven science and analytics at all levels and promotes applied interdisciplinary learning by putting students in partnership with faculty and real-world data from industry and the public sector. Partnering with IBM Watson will considerably enhance the analytic options students now have to explore our data rich world and promote new insights.”

In addition to providing free access to the tool for 16,000 students, a 90-minute training will be provided for faculty on how to use it in their classes on Thursday, April 6 in Durham. 

“The end goal is to prepare our students for the new demands of the workforce,” said Robert McGrath, director of graduate analytics and data science at UNH. “We believe Watson Analytics will help prepare the next generation of ‘citizen’ data scientists and be instrumental in helping close a critical skills gap identified in the workforce. Organizations no longer rely on just data scientists or IT to prepare and interpret data. Now marketing, sales, operations, finance and HR professionals are being asked to get answers from all types of data on their own.”

IBM Watson Analytics and UNH first connected at the hackathon, after IBM became a sponsor of the event.

UNH students can register for an access code here.