Professional Year Program: ACS Event Report - Data Analytics and ICT

This report summarizes an Australian Computer Society (ACS) event featuring Peter Worthington-Eyre, Chief Data Officer of the South Australian Government. The event focused on data analytics, data sharing, and data management within the ICT sector. The speaker discussed key projects, challenges in data quality, and the importance of strategic data management. The report details advice on starting a career in data analytics, new insights gained regarding ACS and ICT, the relevance of the event topic to future work, and networking opportunities. The author highlights the importance of choosing a specialized field within data analytics, such as data engineering, and emphasizes the need for continuous learning and networking within the industry. The report concludes with strategies for networking and career advancement in the field of ICT.

Professional year program

Table of Contents
Question 1- Summary of the speaker’s message....................................................................................1
Question 4- Advice on how to get started in the industry......................................................................2
Question 5- New ideas gained for the understanding of ACS and ICT..................................................2
Question 6- Event topic relevant to future work....................................................................................3
Question 7- Next networking opportunity.............................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................5

Australian Computer Society Event Report
Question 1- Summary of the speaker’s message
The speaker of the event was Peter Worthington- Eyre who is the chief data officer of the
Premier and Cabinet department of the South Australian Government (Big Data Analytics,
2017). He is an experienced professional who handles data sharing, analytics, service design,
etc. for the policy development within the government.
In his speech, he highlighted the major projects under him and how to manage data
effectively. Therefore some of the major areas he discussed are:
 Data Analytics
 Data Sharing methodology
 Issues in data management
 Importance of data quality
 The issue of data volumes
 Strategic plans for data management
 Techniques of data consolidation
He discussed these topics to provide an idea to the audience about the growth opportunities,
scope, and challenges in this sector. As he is one of the successful and experienced
professionals, he discusses the importance of this sector for other business areas and
identifies the drawbacks which are holding this sector from further development.
In a manner, he motivates the future generation to identify these developmental gaps and
propose a solution in order to grow with this technological development. He also suggests the
precautionary actions which should be taken by any expert working in this field.
One of his biggest concern areas is data quality due to which most of the time of the experts
is used in data cleaning. Thus he proposes to come up with strategies of data management to
achieve the desired goal in a most strategic way.
Question 4- Advice on how to get started in the industry
The advice on how to get started in the industry was based on the scope of the data analytics
in various sectors of an economy. He suggested that data analytics is one of the growing areas

which has its application almost everywhere and in everything. He discussed the tremendous
growth opportunities in this field. Thus if I want to pursue my career in Data Analytics and
Data Science, I should first choose a field (Campbell, 2014). For example, there are various
fields like data engineer, data scientist, machine learning, data visualization, etc. Thus
depending upon the interest and background, one should choose the appropriate field.
As my area is information and communication technologies, the appropriate field for me
would be data engineering. This field involves, developing, constructing and maintaining the
data processing system which assists the big organization and government institutes to
operate at an efficient level. This career option has high responsibilities and analytical
decision-making skills.
Thus for starting the career, he suggested me to would look for specialised course options
which provide knowledge in this field and help to grow as a professional. I would also be
applying for the projects in this field under the guidance of experts so that I get the
opportunity to gain knowledge through real-life applications directly.
Question 5- New ideas gained for an understanding of ACS and ICT
The event by Australian Computer Society has helped to gain a great understanding of the
scope of Information and Communication Technology. For example, Mr. Peter Worthington
deeply discussed various aspects of Data Science used in Information and Communication
Technology.
He highlighted the issues of data sharing and data management in this field. Some of the
learning from his speech are as follows:
 Information Technology has to deal with data from multiple sources.
 The technological innovation in this sector is not keeping pace with the growth of the
business.
 There are a huge amount of data created which have no value
 The data used for decision making is highly unstructured.
 The cleaning and processing of data involve a huge amount of time of the experts.
He also highlighted the fact that data volume is one of the major issues of this industry and
indicated the strategic plan to deal with it. This is as follows:

 Facilitating the analytics community by sharing relevant and clean data.
 Maintaining the culture of the profession through data-driven decision
 Up skilling the knowledge of the employees working in this area of data management.
 Setting standards of data security to avoid any illegal issues.
Based on these, some new ideas gained by me are as follows:
 Information and Communication Technologies is one of the growing areas which help
in transfer of data across various devices and to remote locations of the world.
 The growth in information and communication technologies has changed the way;
organizations operate across the world (Cao, 2016).
 This technological development has increased the operations of the multinational
organization.
 This technological development is faced with many challenges of data security and
data management.
 This technology uses computer hardware and software to transfer and allocate data.
 This sector is one of the growing sectors for career opportunities as there is a
significant gap in quality solution and services.
Question 6- Event topic relevant to future work
The event topic related to the projects and data analytics application in the South Australian
government department provides an idea about future growth opportunities in this sector. It
provides me with an idea about which area of my study has maximum application in a real-
world situation and motivates in to take future course work in that particular area.
For example, Mr. Peter Worthington discusses the importance of data cleaning and the
quality of data in decision making (Purwoko, 2011). Thus I would like to take up internship
work where I develop the strategies for cleaning the data and managing than in a structured
manner for the decision-making process. The main goal of data management is to assist in the
decision-making process which helps the organizations and government to take up
opportunities.
Thus further study in the area of strategic data management and data engineering is expected
to boost my career at a level which would allow me we evolve professionally.

Question 7- Next networking opportunity
Networking opportunities are important as it helps to develop contacts and identify the areas
of problem. The practical problems of real-world situations provide the basis for further
research and development (Survey Paper on Big Data Analytics in Real Time Satellite Data,
2017). Therefore identifying these areas help a researcher or a student to take further
coursework which assists them in future development.
 The strategies which I would use to network with other Information and
Communication Technology professionals are as follows:
 Attend the events and discussions related to the Information and Communication
Technology developments.
 Discuss ideas and my topic of research work with the eminent professionals and
experts in the industry.
 Try to work in any projects or take up internship work under the experts in this field.
 Study the papers published by the eminent researchers and experts to identify the
areas which are highly discussed.
 Conduct research based on any issue faced by an organization under experienced
professionals.
 Further, take up studies to directly work under a professor in this field.
The manners in which the above strategies of networking opportunities are executed are as
follows:
 Contacting the organizations and institutes through emails for any available internship
in the information and communication technology area.
 Applying for the project work under various institutes which specialises in this field.
 Applying for further education in this field, through appearing for exams in
universities.
 Keeping track of all the events, discussion and debates taking place in this area.
 Being active on social media to connect with the experts and identify the problem
areas in the field.

References
Big Data Analytics., 2017. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), 6(1),
pp.932-935.
Campbell, L., 2014. The founding of the Computer Society of South Australia. Australian
Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 2(2).
Cao, L. (2016). Data science and analytics: a new era. International Journal of Data Science
and Analytics, 1(1), pp.1-2.
Purwoko, P., 2011. Auditing Information System : Delivery Product Service. CommIT
(Communication and Information Technology) Journal, 5(1), p.21.
Survey Paper on Big Data Analytics in Real Time Satellite Data., 2017. International Journal
of Science and Research (IJSR), 6(1), pp.1135-1139.