JADS in Den Bosch faces a Golden Future
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Three governers of JADS look to the future full of enthusiasm and positivism. JADS appears to be a golden opportunity in training data science talent that companies have a serious need for. And this need will remain unchanged in the coming years. The Master’s Data Science in Business & Entrepreneurship and Executive Eduation programs can still grow. Unique is the project-based approach toward start-ups a nd the cross-fertilization in communities of students and companies. Application areas, such as crime & safety and agrifood, in relation to societal problems, have the potential to develop into unique top areas. Furthermore, globally, there is a need to increase brand awareness. A trialogue with an eye to the future.
Robert-Jan-Smits, CvB van de TU/e.
Fotografie Vincent van den Hoogen
Robert-Jan Smits, president of TU/e, one of the parent universities, praises the founders of JADS who saw the niche in the market very well at the time. “The joining of forces between Tilburg and Eindhoven produces a concept with fantastic application areas. Entrepreneurship with data offers enormous opportunities in education and research.” A recent site visit confirms the added value of JADS. “We passed with flying colors. There is now a solid foundation for growth and further development of our executive education together with the business community. Plus, we have to make sure that the excellence gets even better. Yes, JADS is going to have a golden future.”
New phase
Jos van Hillegersberg, Academic Director JADS adds: “We are very satisfied with what has already been achieved so far: the connection with companies that value us, and who provide real data coming from practice from which our students derive knowledge. We are entering a new phase. We will expand what has been established. It is difficult to predict exactly where we will be in five or ten years; we are on a unique journey of discovery.”
Jos van Hillegersberg
Fotografie: Frans Nikkels
Wim van de Donk, Rector Magnificus of Tilburg University, notes that technology has been a driving force since the blacksmith and the water wheel. “Data science is creeping into every field now.
It’s going on all over the world, and talent is needed everywhere. So you better invest up front in people who are thinking about application areas of technology. The competition is tough now, but we must dare to trust our own choices and keep working. The bread-and-butter (as in bottom line) is that you just have to struggle to build your own position.” Wim refers to a recent MIT report on the future of IT and data science, which once again outlines the limitless possibilities. “But that golden future doesn’t just happen by itself; you have to keep making it. It is extra vulnerable to develop something outside your own familiar university. You have to organize ownership well and perpetuate the legitimacy of JADS.” Jos: “It is also not about an extra move in an algorithm or an even larger data set, but about the question where we can create value with this new technology, sustainably and ethically.”
prof. dr. Wim van de Donk rector magnificus Tilburg University
What is going to Den Bosch?
Data science talent!
Unique in Den Bosch is also the educational approach. Jos: “We bring separate disciplines together in innovative cases and projects. That is a new interdisciplinary branch. Programs reinforce each other, in cohesion, they create added value. Therefore, no separate silos, but professional students who work together with Master students, a PhD researcher who is active in a company, small communities working together on a specific problem.”
And so JADS prepares young people for a responsible position in society, equipped with the latest knowledge about data science. Robert-Jan: “Talents we train immediately find a job, even when the economy is down. They make a meaningful contribution to society, in application areas such as digital & social entrepreneurship, crime & safety and nature & agrifood.”
Without domain expertise, such as econometrics or psychology in Tilburg and Eindhoven with its own technical spearheads, you can’t do much with data, Wim argues. “You have to organize complementarity. Our combination of domains, close to the ecosystem, is truly unique. This requires being reciprocal, like Brainport or in entrepreneurship, a growing field in Tilburg at the interface of behavior, data and services. I also see a fourth university core task here, Lifelong Learning, in which JADS occupies an interesting position.”
Global Appeal
Although many companies know how to find their way to the technological oasis in Den Bosch, brand awareness could certainly still improve, especially because of JADS’s international ambitions.
Jos: “It is still too well-kept a secret that the city offers a highly regarded Master’s program in such a beautiful building. That is why we want to put Den Bosch even more on the map as a student city with a university education that offers golden opportunities for talent from all over the world. That’s our dream.”
Robert-Jan hopes that, in ten years, students, companies and researchers will know how to find their way to Den Bosch. “It would be wonderful if a few great start-ups would recommend us by saying. “We are so successful because Den Bosch has provided us with the knowledge’.” Wim concludes: “The combination of AI and data science will only become more radical. In my view, with the profile combination of Tilburg and Eindhoven, together with the dynamics within JADS, we are not yet at five percent of our potential power, intellectually and research-wise. I hope JADS, partly privately supported, is able to take care of itself and may become champion in one or two domains. I also hope we will operate even more strongly on the cross roads, after all, innovation is often at the cutting edge of themes in new combinations.”
In short, we cannot just sit back and relax after five years of pioneering. JADS continues to work, fight, laugh and wonder, under the motto: We do cool stuff that matters, with data.
