Program supports the next generation of data leaders; provides hundreds of students with Alation and real-world experience

Alation Inc., the leader in enterprise data intelligence solutions, announced three new universities participating in its philanthropic initiative, The Data Intelligence Project. New universities include The University of Arkansas at Little Rock in Arkansas, The University of Cincinnati in Ohio, and The University of Stirling in Scotland. More than 420 students have used Alation in their courses to date, with this year’s global cohort providing real-world experience to hundreds of new students via Alation.

The Data Intelligence Project, launched in 2021, builds a more data-literate, curious, and rational world by nurturing the next generation of data professionals. As part of The Data Intelligence Project, Alation brings its data intelligence platform, free of charge, into academic institutions and provides undergraduate and graduate students with a hands-on learning experience using a collaborative data catalog.

Through the program, students and faculty have access to Alation guest speakers with subject matter expertise and presentation topics spanning analytics, data science, data intelligence, IT and engineering, and more. Additionally, students have access to professional quality training content via Alation University to help them master technical skills and guide their use of the data catalog.

“At Alation, our vision is to make a more curious and rational world, where all decisions are data-informed,” said Aaron Kalb, CDAO and co-founder at Alation. “Our data intelligence software helps achieve that vision, but that utopian world also requires a data-literate workforce. So, it’s our responsibility to help academic institutions train the workforce-of-the-future. By adding more universities to the Data Intelligence Program, we’re providing students around the world with real-world experience using data and technology. We’re proud to partner with these vision-aligned educators to inspire and empower the next generation of data users and decision-makers.”

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One of the program’s earliest participants, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, now enters its third year in the program as it continues to see success in educating the next generation of data professionals. The institution relies on it to foster students’ passion for the data intelligence field and equip emerging leaders with the skills necessary to excel in their careers. In addition to supplementing existing engineering courses, the program makes students more marketable to the more than 450 enterprises that leverage Alation as they search for career opportunities. Alation customers include AbbVie, Cisco, General Mills, Hertz, Munich Re, NASDAQ, Pfizer, Raiffeisen Bank, Riot Games, Salesforce, The University of Virginia, The Very Group, Vattenfall, Virgin Australia, and more.

“Data intelligence is one of the fastest-growing occupational fields, a highly sought-after role nearly every industry is hiring for,” said Dr. Maria Haigh, Assistant Professor at The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. “However, many undergraduate programs do not provide the technical data literacy skills or real-world experience students need to succeed beyond the classroom. Partnering with Alation allows us to tailor our curriculum to real-world demand and provide our students with the tools and experience they need to ignite their career paths, no matter the industry.”

“Alation is foundational to the class I teach, Data Technology Administration,” said Russell McMahon, Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati. “It brings a sense of reality, fun, and excitement to learning, which can be challenging as a professor. What’s more, data governance is a relatively new field, and understanding how to manage data is extremely important. Data governance demands working with many individuals at all levels of the organization, a skill we can now foster with Alation as a pillar of the curriculum.”

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