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SAS/University of Alabama Team to Offer DM Courses

SAS Institute, a market leader in business intelligence, announced that it is teaming with the University of Alabama's Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration to create four credit-carrying data mining courses. Beginning this spring, students can take two courses in data management that teach the skills needed to collect, manage and process data. Two courses in data mining complete the proposed sequence. The University will teach both the theoretical basis and practical applications of common data mining analytical tools such as neural networks, decision trees, cluster analysis and association analysis.

Michael Hardin, professor of statistics at the University of Alabama, helped design the proposed sequence of courses. Having worked in the field of data mining for several years, Hardin observed a tremendous business need for individuals who could build predictive models and accomplish other data mining tasks. "By partnering with SAS, I believe we could more quickly provide an educational experience for our students to meet the growing marketplace demand," said Hardin.

The courses will utilize leading SAS analytic and data warehousing technologies as well as SAS' award-winning data mining tool, Enterprise Miner. "The company is internationally recognized for providing data management, data warehousing, Internet solutions and data mining solutions," Hardin added. "Partnering with SAS was the obvious choice."

For University of Alabama students, the partnership offers the advantage of working in project teams using real data. Dr. Roger Thompson, University of Alabama registrar, says the university will provide large data sets for class projects as well as encourage its staff members to participate in the program sequence. "I think this is a tremendously exciting opportunity for our students and for the University of Alabama. The projects will provide a rich learning experience for the students, while concurrently providing insights into some of our data that would never be realized otherwise." In addition, the partnership will provide students with the opportunity to become acquainted with the latest analytical approaches needed in today's business environment, including customer relationship management, credit scoring and e-commerce.

For SAS, the program offers another example of the company's dedication to providing institutions of higher learning the latest SAS technology and exposure to its software. "Programs that teach SAS, like the one we're developing with the University of Alabama, will not only provide students with tremendous analytical skills, but will allow future business leaders to easily use SAS when they enter positions as decision makers," said Jerry Oglesby, SAS' director of higher education consulting.

About SAS

SAS provides software and services that enable customers to transform data from all areas of their business into intelligence. SAS solutions help organizations make better, more informed decisions and maximize customer, supplier, and organizational relationships. Solutions from SAS, the world's largest privately held software company, are used at more than 37,000 business, government and university sites around the world. Customers include 98 of the top 100 companies on the Fortune 500, and 90 percent of the Fortune 500 overall. For 25 years, SAS has been giving our customers The Power to Know. For more information, visit www.sas.com.

About the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration The Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, University of Alabama, was founded in 1919. It has been consistently ranked in the top 3 per cent of the nation's business schools. The Techno-MBA program has been ranked as high as fourth nationally by ComputerWorld, the MBA program is ranked 21st among regional universities for return on investment by Forbes Magazine, and the undergraduate program is ranked 49th by U.S. News and World Report among 1,500 business schools. For more information, visit www.cba.ua.edu.

Contact Larry LaRusso, SAS Institute, 919-531-1276.