Today more than ever we need to learn. Any time, any place is a good time. This is something most of us already understand. Contact with learning sources, which are many and varied, must be ubiquitous and persistent. It only depends on our attitude, we must always be willing, because our mind, like parachutes, only works when it is open.
But what if that were not enough? With so much to know, with how fast everything changes… We need accelerators to our learning capacity.
With this ‘foregone conclusion’ we explored the possibilities that artificial intelligence can give us if we want to expand the capacity of our brain, and the result was shown at the ALWAYS LEARNIND DAY event, organized by Netmind at LA NAVE in Madrid on June 27th.
Although it is true that we have obtained some answers (which we are now going to summarize) I think we are still talking about ‘foregone conclusions’ because this AI – which is here to stay – has only just arrived. When it develops its full potential, when we know everything we are going to be able to do, then we will have ‘real’ conclusions. Fortunately, we just have to ‘wait and see’.
Have a problem that needs a solution.
To have a wide audience that wants to participate.
In this article, we are going to present how the same format of a Hackathon can be used in the data domain. We can refer to it as a Datathon, and then we are going to look at its characteristics and the benefits of promoting it in an organization.
1. Transcribe and summarize videos
To begin this journey we will start from the most elementary concept, how to ‘apprehend’ (i.e., acquire) more concepts in the same time or how to apprehend concepts faster.
One option, without Artificial Intelligence, is to put those videos with which we so often train ourselves in 2x speed. But, to avoid the headache and that when you go back to your ‘real’ life people look like they are snoozing, AI offers us a solution.
How Video HighLight works
- A long technical video, such as the one in the example, can be transcribed and summarized.
- The summary is divided into sections with a description of each session.
- In addition, the summary includes a minute summary so that you can access the part of the video you are interested in.
2. Extract information from text with ChatGPT
Gimme Summary AI is a Chrome extension that, when you click on it in your browser toolbar, opens a predefined “Gimme a summary in a simple language” query to ChatGPT (you must have an account in this application).
This produces the expected result. It gives you a summary of the web page you are on (in English) regardless of how the text is written. It is very useful for analyzing articles published online (and, yes, it is also possible to ‘upload’ a pdf you have locally to the web to be analyzed).
But, the best thing is that you can edit that predefined query. And this is where the magic happens. You can ask it to look for something specific in the text, to translate it, or to make the summary stick to a paragraph… Whatever you want.
In the video in the next video, we put it to a difficult test. How do you think the author of the article thinks? The ability to interpret is amazing.
Talent development
The most obvious advantage. We are challenging people with certain knowledge and skills to put them into practice by solving a problem (real or fictional) in a safe environment, where they can feel more comfortable and come up with more creative and innovative ideas.
If we also add the variant of solving it in teams, we will also be allowing the development of other more “soft” skills such as presentation and communication, time management, critical thinking, collaboration, etc.
Even if it is a challenge that, in addition to data science, involves other knowledge disciplines such as software development, UX/UI design, etc. where collaboration is necessary for its resolution, it is possible to organize multidisciplinary teams that also generate networking within the organization, which can further enrich the experience.
Commitment to the organization
Underlying talent development, an organization that provides space for these types of competitions can often see a positive impact on engagement with the company. Datathons can provide a valuable learning experience and an opportunity to collaborate with other professionals and foster innovation, which can increase a sense of belonging and job satisfaction.
By participating, professionals can feel that their company values and supports their development and this fosters greater commitment and loyalty to the company, which can have an impact on talent retention in an industry (data science) where demand typically exceeds available supply.
Profiles such as data engineers, data analysts, data scientists or any variant within an organization can benefit from this.
Talent identification
The competition can serve not only to help us develop internal talent, but also to attract and identify talent outside the organization in case we want to open it to an external audience as well.
By using the right channels to promote our datathon, we can reach a wide number of data science and analytics enthusiasts with new ideas, ways of doing and thinking that can potentially end up joining the organization as collaborators or junior talent development programs.
Business value
Data-related technical profiles aside, the business units of an organization should be the biggest stakeholders in promoting these types of competitions.
Accepting that you have complex and challenging problems to solve or that you would like to explore opportunities for improvement and giving the opportunity to collaborate with other (responsive) professionals within an organization is one of those things that enhance its culture.
In addition, business people can also be involved and work as a team, contributing their insight and knowledge to analyze data and create predictive models to solve specific problems, such as predicting product demand, optimizing supply chain performance, or improving operational efficiency.
Meanwhile, those people linked to the business can also better understand and even develop in the medium/long term their skills around data analysis, modeling or visualization and storytelling with data, which at the same time can improve cohesion and communication between the different business units and the more technical areas and shorten that ‘gap’.
On top of that, gaining awareness of the so-called Data-Driven mindset, understanding how data generates value for the business, for the organization and being part of it.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, a datathon is a great opportunity for an organization to challenge a community of technical professionals in the field of data, generate commitment, encourage innovation, continuous improvement and raise awareness among the rest of the organization about the importance of making better decisions based on data.
Netmind can help you from the conceptualization of your Datathon, through the design of the business challenge and the treatment of the data that can be used to the management and communication of it. Each of its experts involved provides an end-to-end vision from the birth of the idea to the final result with the winning proposal.
If you would like more information about this and other solutions that we can offer you in the field of Data, do not hesitate to visit our catalog and contact us so that we can advise you.