Big Data at GVSU

The Big Data Initiative was a decade-long program at GVSU to elevate data analytics throughout the curriculum, in scholarship programs, and in co-curricular activities. This archived site contains information about the BDI, including agendas for on-campus conferences, a list of faculty participants, and resources for faculty and student support. Please contact Ed Aboufadel ([email protected]) if you have any questions.

The Digital Studies program encouraged me to pursue all of my varying passions at a time when I thought they only existed at odds with each other. I love writing, graphic design, web design, programming, art, sociology, history, and philosophy. The program's focus on production and culture gave me not only the tools to shape the digital world, but the knowledge to understand how the digital world shapes us. (Sarah Wood, GVSU Class of 2019)

Grand Valley State University has many talented faculty, staff, and students working in the field of data analytics. We offer courses and programs in the field of data analytics, as well as speakers and other events open to the GVSU community and the public. Use the menu "Programs and Contacts" menu at the top of this page to learn about: our Digital Studies minor; our Data Science minor; masters programs in Data Science and in Health Informatics; and our Study Abroad program in Switzerland. We also have a new adult completion program in applied data analytics. There are also courses in our curriculum that address our students' need to understand how “Big Data” is transforming our everyday life, and what role they will play in shaping its future. 

“Big Data” refers to the sharp increase of the size, arrival rate and complexity of data that is being generated and collected by business, government, non-profits and other organizations. The rapid increase in the amount of data will create new opportunities that will transform many fields of study, such as business, health, the sciences, and politics. It will also create new challenges as organizations try to learn how to store, manage, analyze, and preserve our ever-increasing bodies of data. “Data Science” or “Data Analytics” is the name of the academic area that studies “Big Data,” but different disciplines have their own terminology for it, such as “business intelligence,” “marketing analytics,” or “information management.”

The effects of big data are profound. Everything from tracking disease across the world, managing cities and crisis situations, employing marketing techniques to specify individual consumers, targeting business solutions, and winning elections are just a few of the ways that our society has been changed by big data. And the most obvious effect is the ethical implications of all of this -- questions of privacy and ethical use.