“For many people, ‘data scientist’ is the most exciting job of the century”, says Wil van der Aalst, professor of Information Systems and lecturer of the TU/e’s new MOOC. “The growing volume of available data in society means there’s more need than ever for engineers who not only can handle this big data, but can also get valuable information out of it for companies and organizations.” Van der Aalst believes the large number of registrations for the MOOC confirms today’s strong interest in this professional field.

In this free online course, called Process Mining: Data Science in Action, Van der Aalst introduces analysis techniques that link data from actions and events to the underlying business processes. “Companies and organizations aim to follow processes that are defined on paper, but it often doesn’t work out like that in practice”, says Van der Aalst. “In our field we call these techniques process mining. They let us show where the behavior of people, machines and organizations differs from the model, and where the bottlenecks are located.”

For example: a hospital promises patients that it will treat them within one month, but doesn’t succeed in that – why does that happen? “Process mining shows you how to make a process like that more efficient. In a case like this, it can mean big cost savings”, says Van der Aalst. The course also looks at using data mining to improve customer service in big companies, understanding consumer browsing behavior on a travel booking site, or ways to fighting fraud. Participants are also encouraged to apply the techniques they’ve learned directly using open datasets from Twitter or Facebook, for example.

Van der Aalst is one of the world’s most frequently cited computer scientists, and is scientific director of the Data Science Center Eindhoven (DSC/e) at TU/e which was set up last year. He wants to use the MOOC to strengthen the position of Eindhoven as international data science center. It’s a kind of missionary role, says Van der Aalst. “We want to show the world what we can do here. The course offers the opportunity to link ourselves to top international talent. The MOOC lets us reach many times the numbers of students in our own department.”

This is the second MOOC to be held by TU/e, following prof.dr.ir. Bert Blocken who kicked-of the series with an audience of more than 13,000 about the role of aerodynamics in sports and buildings. The MOOCs let everyone with an internet connection follow lectures at TU/e. Participants can see short films of around 10 minutes over a number of weeks. They are presented with control questions and homework assignments, which are discussed on a forum. TU/e offers its MOOCs on the international educational platform Coursera, on which a choice of more than 400 top-level courses are now available worldwide.