Business Data Observatory Coming Soon to Van Houten Library
A room in the university library is being rebuilt as the Leir Business Data Observatory, providing a dedicated high-tech space for graduate students and faculty from Martin Tuchman School of Management to collaboratively study data science as it pertains to business and finance.
Data science is typically associated with the world of computing, for which NJIT offers several degrees, a seminar series and a research center. However, data science also impacts fields outside of core STEM such as digital design and management. The room will be available to anyone in the university when Tuchman members aren't using it.
"Data does not belong to one discipline. Interpretation of data to run a business is what we do," Tuchman Dean Oya Tukel noted.
"Now that all of these disciplines are interacting with each other — data science interacts with finance, finance interacts with psychology — a lot of scientific tools are sharing things with each other," Tukel said. "Data scientists need collaborative spaces."
"You create ideas, you discuss ideas. That's what the purpose is. You can dial-in scientists and researchers from around the globe and they're all looking at the same thing. The screens are gigantic so you can see everything in front of you," she said.
Tukel said she considers the data observatory as being similar to the university's makerspace, which is adjacent to Newark College of Engineering and Ying Wu College of Computing but is open to the whole NJIT community. Although she anticipates Tuchman graduate students being the primary users, she also envisions undergraduates exploring it.
Construction began in March this year and an opening is planned for January 2021. The room's star attraction is three Epson overhead projectors which turn ordinary whiteboards into touchscreens. They use infrared cameras to detect the X, Y and Z coordinates of your finger position and then relay that data as a mouse click to the attached computer, the technicians who installed it explained. The room is abundant with network jacks, comfortable chairs, large monitors and mobile meeting tables that adjust for sitting or standing heights. Users can access collaboration software from Miro.com.
Funding was provided as part of the same $1.5 million grant behind the management school's Henry J. and Erna D. Leir Research Institute for Business, Technology and Society, which opened in 2018.
Tukel also recently announced a new undergraduate major in financial technology that will admit its first students for the fall 2021 semester. State-of-the-art facilities such as the Leir Business Data Observatory will help with recruitment, she said.
