With exponential growth in the trend of big data and artificial intelligence, it is inevitable that from 2023 and beyond, the demand for data-driven jobs will continue to grow in industries such as manufacturing, logistics and transportation, healthcare, business, and governance. Sunway University's Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Industrial Statistics equips students with fundamental, advanced, and specialized mathematics and statistics knowledge, the key to producing a dynamic, in-demand, and skilled workforce for almost every industry.

A series of well-planned SAS Preparatory Courses (SPC) were conducted and offered to industrial statistics students, which helps to prepare them to sit for exams offered by SAS. SAS is a statistical software suite developed by SAS Institute for data management, advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, criminal investigation, and predictive analytics.These exams lead to the award of the globally recognized SAS Certified Data Scientist qualification. The modules include Data Curation for SAS Data Scientists, Prediction Modelling, Advanced Predictive Modeling, Text Analytics, Time Series, Experimentation, and Optimization.

Chai Pei Leng achieved the amazing feat of passing the SAS Predictive Modelling exam in her very first year of study. She attributed her success to her lecturers and the dedicated hours spent revising the study materials. She added that the revolutionary field of data science has huge potential in the current job market, especially considering that many companies are adopting digital transformation.

Another Year 2 student, Firni Kirit Shah, commented that passing the exam helped her gain more confidence in her field of expertise. She also pointed out that effective time management and commitment were keys to passing the exam.

Lim Wei Kit, a Year 3 student, highly encourages his juniors to take the initiative and participate actively in the SPC classes conducted by the school. He added that knowledge in the domains of artificial intelligence and data analytics would provide added value to graduates.

Chew Jian Xun, Tan Tze Jin, and Matthew Liu commented that throughout the weeks of learning Predictive Modelling using SAS Enterprise Miner, they have learnt a lot about the software as beginners and the classes have enabled them to learn how to perform complex data manipulation methods with just a few clicks. They appreciate the opportunity offered by the school to expose them to such useful applications and further enhance their technical skills and would definitely recommend the class to their juniors.

Dr Ang Siew Ling
School of Mathematical Sciences
Email: @email