Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

British BP and the ADA University have announced about creation of the first Scientific-Research and Training Center Big Data in Azerbaijan.

BP will support the establishment of the first Big Data, Data Sciences Instruction and Research Centre in Azerbaijan on behalf of its co-venturers in the projects that it operates - the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG), Shah Deniz, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil export pipeline and the South Caucasus Pipeline projects.

The project is part of BP and its co-ventures’ commitment to supporting education, training and capacity-building in the country. It is designed to have a wider impact by providing opportunities for utilization of the resources of the new centre by public institutions and private sector representatives.

Gordon Birrell, BP’s Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey said that BP and its co-venturers are pleased to support this project, which is expected to provide an opportunity for establishment of a new area of development in Azerbaijan.

“The project is specifically about developing qualified data scientists, data and information engineers and big data analytics professionals for the country. We believe this will help improve analysis capabilities in a range of areas and disciplines in both private and public sectors,” he said, addressing the project launch event held in Baku on October 19.

Birrell emphasized that this is also an opportunity for BP and its co-venturers to expand their cooperation with the Education Ministry and to enter into a new partnership with the ADA University.

ADA’s Rector Hafiz Pashayev, in turn, noted that BP is one of the largest investors in Azerbaijan.

“BP's support is very important for us. The establishment of Big Data center at the ADA University thanks to this support will contribute both the expansion of our university and the development of its activities in various fields. The Centre will meet the needs of not only the ADA, but also the whole Azerbaijan in this sphere,” said Pashayev.

The expected outcomes of the project also include expansion of the capacity of the ADA University School of Information Technologies and Engineering to enable development of new areas of local expertise in a range of best-in-class software and hardware technologies.

The center to be established at Baku’s ADA University, will also result in commencement of a new Master’s Degree program in Big Data Analytics and Data Sciences which will help meet the needs for data scientists and big data analysts.

The project will be implemented by the ADA University. The duration of the project is 15 months starting October 2016 through December 2017. The cost of the project is $410,000.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz