I've found that one of the advantages of resuming my university studies while working in the business world is that I appreciate school a lot more the second time around.\nIn particular, I enjoy being immersed in the optimism and desire to do good that are a natural part of college life, especially here at the University.
Even better, the optimism is warranted. Despite the many serious problems that beset the world today. I truly believe that now is a great time to be hopeful about the individual's ability to change society for the better. But to be effective, people must have the right skills.
The past decade illustrated the high price paid by those who didn't understand how to manage the risk inherent in business and in life. Corporations and governments have learned from events as diverse as Hurricane Katrina and the subprime mortgage meltdown that they must do a better job of predicting and avoiding crises whenever possible.
Fortunately, the world is becoming a lot smarter. I don't mean humanity's collective IQ is improving. Rather, for the first time in history, digital and physical infrastructures are converging - creating the potential to improve society in fundamental ways.
At the heart of this transformation is the burgeoning science of analytics, which employs logic to provide greater insight into natural and man-made processes.
Practitioners skilled in analytics can create algorithms that determine, in real-time, the cumulative risk in a diverse portfolio of thousands of securities. Another set of algorithms can study brain scans to identify dangerous aneurysms.
Still other algorithms can help fire departments predict where a fire is likely to occur. Or assist police officers in understanding changing crime patterns to forecast where new threats will emerge in the future.
The young people who master this area will be in demand. What skills are required to succeed? Facility with mathematics, of course, the language of prediction. But the job-seekers who are most successful will not be pure theoreticians. They will have the business savvy necessary to apply math to real-world problems, including expertise in a particular industry or two, whether it's health care, financial services or green energy.
The University has a number of excellent programs that prepare students for this new world. Courses in marketing, finance, statistics and technology can provide excellent foundational analytics skills.
But more must be done. High schools across the state should teach advanced courses like calculus to a greater number of students, grounding them in the kind of critical thinking that is essential for the analytics jobs of tomorrow. This will require changes in curricula, not only in high schools, but in middle schools, where preparatory courses like algebra would have to be expanded as well.
Our desire to fuel innovation right here at home should kindle increased collaboration between businesses and the University community in the development of advanced coursework as well as opportunities for students to gain practical experience while still in school. IBM's Academic Initiative, for example, offers a wide range of technology education benefits including curricula, tools, training and books.
It's great to be optimistic, but it's even better to be prepared. The next decade and beyond will offer many chances for individuals to change the world for the better. The first step is ensuring that young people have the skills they need to make their most ambitious goals a reality.
Wade Little, who works in Analytics at IBM,
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