Imagine being able to track an emergency incident or monitor a natural disaster using people’s tweets and Facebook statuses.
That’s just what researchers at Griffith University are doing in the Big Data and Smart Analytics lab, with students soon able to take a course in this emerging and powerful field.
The lab’s director, Professor Bela Stantic, said big data mining could be used to track food poisoning cases or emergency response teams to track the movement of people and their needs following a natural disaster.
Social media sentiment analysis is also being used to research restaurant and food quality or hotel value during a particular time and space.
The new Big Data and Social Media course, which primarily targets business students. is being offered in trimester 3 and can also be taken as an elective by Master students.
“Big Data analytics has been regarded as one of important emerging technologies in different fields,” Professor Stantic said.
“The course is designed to stimulate interest in big data analytics in a popular scenario through social media. Students will be shown how to extract the information hidden in huge volume of social media data and its importance for many businesses to understand the sentiment or opinion of their service product.”
Professor Stantic will present a public lecture on social media and the power of big data analytics on Friday during Griffith University’s National Science Week events at Westfield Garden City.
Source: Griffith University