KUCHING: SAS, a key player in the global analytics market, has announced a partnership with Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus to jointly set up a Centre of Excellence (COE) for collaborative advanced analytics.
This marks the first university partnership for SAS in Sarawak.
Slated to be operational in January next year, the centre also aims to collaborate with local businesses and at the national level to bring analytics to the core of business innovation.
The centre aims to be a leading institution in research and development for data analytics and management as well as a key education provider for Sarawak in the field. Graduates from the programme will serve Sarawak’s Smart City goals, and support Malaysia’s overall national digital plan.
SAS Malaysia managing director Cheam Tat Inn said it was proud to partner with Swinburne University to provide local talents with the necessary skills to thrive in.
“At the heart of a smart city is data, and our ability to successfully analyse and leverage its insights to improve the quality of life for citizens.
“With Sarawak’s exciting plans to pilot the Smart City beginning with Miri and followed by Kuching by 2030, data skillsets are set to become the new oil for Sarawakians in the future,” he said.
The development of the COE will utilise SAS’s latest technologies, which serve as a platform for Swinburne University and SAS to jointly offer educational, consultancy and research products and services. Selected faculty members from the university will also be trained, certified and accredited in SAS Training and Certification to become a SAS Accredited Training Provider.
To aid students in their understanding of the real-world use cases for analytics, SAS will also provide advisory support for projects as part of the programme.
These advanced capabilities will allow Swinburne University to offer courses for working adults, in addition to its undergraduate degree offerings. In total, the programme will see about 200 data graduates being trained in 2020.
In addition, Swinburne and SAS have identified three key areas that the COE can support especially in the areas of healthcare, Industry 4.0, as well as business and social innovation, with the potential to expand into many others as Sarawak moves towards its Smart City model.
Since 1986, SAS has been supporting customers in Malaysia for industries including financial services, government and manufacturing, among others.
Worldwide, SAS education has been a primary philanthropic focus for SAS for more than 25 years and was a key pillar of a USD1 billion (RM4.2 billion) AI investment announced earlier this year.
