Prof. Manoj Kumar Jena is the Head of the Business Analytics Department at KIIT School of Management. He is an alumnus of IIT Bombay & IIM Calcutta. He has over 22 years of experience in the engineering field. His skills include Machine Learning, Data Science, Exploratory Data Analysis, Statistical Modeling, Data Analytics, etc.

KIIT School of Management

As Head of the Analytics Department, what are your roles and responsibilities towards the students?

I make sure that the students are aware of analytics, and its application in industries and prospects. They can assess themselves about the right fit for the analytics industry. They know the application software and programming languages to add value to industry requirements.

How do you tend to establish healthy relations with the students and fellow faculty?

I tend to establish healthy relations by following intensive classroom engagement, creating curiosity to frame relevant questions, and establishing learning-oriented approach to build a foundation.

How do you try to bring in a practical approach towards subjects and make it industry-oriented?

By remaining updated with industry trends and applications, and discussing with industry experts about the recent uses and type of project works. Kaggle and other worldwide real-time competition websites bring practical experience as well.

What does the department offer as best practices to the students which help them gain necessary skills?

The pedagogy of the Business Analytics area include 4-5 core papers. 20+ elective papers related to various domains and core applications for descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. Programming skills such as R/ Python specifically for data science, Database knowledge using SQL, Application software knowledge related to TABLEAU/ POWERBI, and adequate number of continuous evaluation through quizzes, data projects and assignments.

What are your views upon the placements and higher education about the students from Analytics Background ?

In Indian scenario the best is yet to come. The most of the companies yet to build a team of analytics professionals and in search of proper resources. Thus placement is definitely there and going to rapidly increase in the domain. With the progress of AI, analytics is a must have in almost every area of higher education. The students from analytics will have an edge in higher education.

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Do you have any extracurricular activities clubs/ programs to enhance the skills of the students or expose them to real-world challenges?

Yes, we have OPTIX -the Analytics Club of KSOM which engages in creating innovative analytics games and nation-wide competitions. We do analytics conclave for industry-academia connect which helps to add exposure on latest real-world challenges and applications in analytics.

When you came to KIIT School of Management, what was your vision and how are you trying to achieve the same?

The vision was to bring the learning experience from top technology and top B-schools of India to KIIT School of management. Its heartening to see the reflections of it here to the best possible extent. 

How does the curriculum of the Analytics department ensure the best practice of the industry?

The curriculum is designed and updated every year through an extensive set of discussions with corporate managers from the Analytics industry. The companies visiting the campus for placements also go through the analytics curriculum to check the relevancies for their requirements. The to and fro suggestions help to build a robust curriculum which ensures the best practices as per the industry needs.

What do you see as the Analytics department of KIIT School of Management’s greatest strengths and how it can be enhanced?

Faculty from diverse domains and student’s learning attitude are the greatest strength in KIIT School of Management. It can be further enhanced by strengthening the infrastructure for analytics such as adoption of latest application software, top worldwide database repository, building computational labs and various STEPs programs. KSOM is very supportive of all the suggestions given by the department.

What valuable advice would you like to give the students for them to have a prosperous career ahead in Business Analytics?

Focus largely on Applied Statistics/ Probability and Discrete Mathematics. Build a willingness and curiosity to explore what data can speak. Keep reading non-fictions from world-wide authors. Extensively remain active on Kaggle & stackoverflow sites. Follow the analytics personalities over twitter and read the updates.