On September 7, 2020, Tianjin University held the online opening ceremony of “China-ASEAN Online Program on Data Science and Big Data Analysis”.Thirty-five students and instructors from ASEAN countries such as Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia and other countries along the Belt and Road met online.

Hu Wenping, vice President of Tianjin University attended the ceremony and delivered a speech on behalf of Tianjin University. He expressed warm congratulations on the opening of the project and sincerely welcomed guests and friends from ASEAN and other countries along the Belt and Road.

“Since the establishment of the‘China-ASEAN Association of Engineering Universities’, the cooperation between Tianjin University and ASEAN universities in higher education has continued to deepen.An international exchange and cooperation mechanism for engineering higher education has been established, and a platform for engineering education information sharing and international academic exchange has been set up”, said Hu. He then briefly reviewed the activities launched by the two sides and the fruitful results accumulated in recent years. He pointed out that as the world was undergoing rapid and profound changes,Tianjin University which has been actively implementing emerging engineering education relied on the first batch of national applied mathematics centers to organize this project,aiming to fill the talent gap in the fields of data science and big data.

“We hope that the project will not only help cultivate talents in the fields of mathematics and big datafor ASEAN countries and relevant Asian countries,but also promote the mutual learning in mathematics and big data education inthose countries,” noted Hu.

Liu Na, vice dean of the School of Mathematics, introduced the project background, training arrangements, instructors and the advantages and characteristics of Mathematics discipline at Tianjin University. Marbun Elizabeth, a student from Institute Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember in Indonesia, and Alibabar, a computer teacher from Pakistan spoke respectively as the representatives of trainees.

Elizabeth expressed her strong interest in data science and big data technology, and expected to promote her mathematical literacy and data processing ability through this project. She cherished the precious opportunity provided by Tianjin University and extended her gratitude to the organizers and staff of the project.

“This is the first time for me to participate online learning,” said Alibabar. He hoped that he could adopt to online learning as soon as possible and try his best to study. Through the project,Alibabar intended to grasp data science knowledge, improvehiscomputer programming skills, and apply what he has learned to his research subject. “Eventually, the learning will help me make a better career planning.”

The program mentors and teaching assistants also met with the trainees one by one and exchanged with them the course content, training requirements and the use of online platforms.

“China-ASEAN Online Program on Data Science and Big Data Analysis”is a specially funded project for Asian regional cooperation approved in 2020. Sponsored by Tianjin University’s School of Mathematics, the project will last for three months to carry out training in data science and big data technology for teachers and students from ASEAN countries and other countries and regions along the Belt and Road. The project started enrollment promotion in March 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Tianjin University has overcome many difficulties and changed offline training into online teaching. In order to ensure the effect of online teaching in English, the courses and practices are equipped with competent academic tutors and student assistants, and professional personnel are employed to take charge of the project operation. Trainees will learn core courses such as Introduction to Data Science, Social Network Analysis, Python Basics and Big Data Statistical Analysis within three months to build a solid theoretical foundation of data science, and follow the instructors to complete the design of scientific research and practical subjects.

By the School of Mathematics

Editor: Eva Yin