Dimensional Insight, a developer of business intelligence (BI) software, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), today jointly announced they are partnering to establish a laboratory for education and research in the rapidly expanding discipline of computer data mining, business intelligence, and analytics.
Dimensional Insight has donated more than $300,000 in software licenses, training, and support services to enable WPI students and faculty to use its Diver Solution business intelligence platform for the next five years. The company has also donated $50,000 to fund WPI student research projects in the new Analytics Laboratory.
"We are grateful for the support of Dimensional Insight, and we look forward to developing a vibrant laboratory that attracts students and faculty from a wide range of fields who want to learn and apply the techniques of data mining, business intelligence, and analytics to their work," said Karen Kashmanian Oates, WPI's Dean of Arts and Sciences.
One of the early areas of focus for the Analytics Laboratory will be business intelligence for healthcare. Several research groups at WPI are working on various aspects of healthcare delivery design and operations, such as electronic medical records adoption and managing real-time clinical data flows for infection control and remote patient management. In each case, using advanced tools to mine and understand large data sets is important.
"For more than 20 years, we have seen our customers derive revolutionary gains in efficiency and profitability by extracting data from disconnected business systems and analyzing key trends," said Fred Powers, chief executive of Dimensional Insight. "Some of our most rewarding work is in the field of healthcare, where BI insights can contribute to the greater good of improving the quality and affordability of care. We are pleased to support the continuing advancement of business intelligence practice by exposing the next generation of its practitioners to the Diver Solution."
Brenton Faber, who has worked in healthcare analytics and business intelligence and is now a professor of writing and rhetoric at WPI, is the founding director of the laboratory. "Situating the Analytics Laboratory in the Department of Humanities and Arts is unique," Faber noted. "The concept is to blend WPI's strengths in computer science, advanced software, and engineering optimization with the humanities' focus on meaning-making and narrative. Through projects in this lab, students and researchers will integrate quantitative findings with strategic decision making, policy formulation, and knowledge building."
Working with Faber, as advisors and co-founders of the new laboratory, which is located in the Salisbury Laboratories building, are Andrew Trapp and Renata Konrad, assistant professors in WPI's School of Business.
About Dimensional Insight
Dimensional Insight is a leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions. The company offers a comprehensive set of BI capabilities ranging from data integration and modeling to sophisticated reporting, analytics, information portals and dashboards. Founded in 1989, Dimensional Insight has thousands of customer organizations worldwide. Dimensional Insight's Diver Solution consistently ranks as a top performing business intelligence platform in customer satisfaction in its core market segments including healthcare, manufacturing and distribution industries.
