About BIG DIVE

BIG DIVE is an intensive training where high value datasets are the raw material in the hands of a group of ambitious smart geeks tutored and mentored by experts in three key areas: Development, Data Science and Machine Learning, Data Visualization, and Data Engineering.


Since 2020 TOP-IX, as BIG DIVE organiser has been recognized as a member of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition that brings together Member States, companies, social partners, non-profit organisations and education providers, who take action to tackle the lack of digital skills in Europe.

BIG DIVE OFFERS TRAINING PROGRAMS TO BOOST TECHNICAL DATA SKILLS AND RESOURCES TO SUPPORT ORGANIZATION’S DATA-DRIVEN TRANSFORMATION.

The “Data Revolution” is changing our society in an irreversible way at a pace that we have not foreseen:

  • Data aims to become the fuel for decision-making processes at different levels: from (smart) cities to national governments.
  • In the private and the public sector, analysis of (BIG) Data is now a de-facto approach and Data + Machine Learning or Data + Artificial Intelligence are actually considered as the “new stack” to build effective value propositions.

On the other side, the unexplored lands are still huge and the debate on data democracy, ethics, bias and human rights has never been so crucial and intense.

Leveraging data-driven approach is often considered as an opportunity to improve processes but
what is the right trade-off between cost and safety, optimization and human experience, form and function, robustness and complexity?

Even CEOs and scientists from different industries are taking part of the discussion from Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to Max Tegmark.

The “global picture” is something difficult to tackle and we strongly believe that an holistic vision must consider the scenario in all its faces:

  • At the foundation level, we have THE INFRASTRUCTRE – 
From the bare network interconnection to the most advanced analytics tools and data frameworks. The fast-growing decentralization trends is a prove of the existing gap between implementations and tomorrow’s ICT infrastructures.
  • On the top of infrastructure, we build DATA SERVICES – 
Applied Data Science is tremendously affecting traditional services as well as it is enabling a new set of “products”, therefore it’s essential to stay up to date on the current state of the technologies and methodologies.
  • Most of the data-driven products/services affect real people. AWARENESS / OPENNESS / TRANSPARENCY ACTIONS in this space are strongly required to preserve people rights when a proper regulation is still under definition. The General Data Protection Regulations will be implemented in May 2018, a deep understanding of the latest regulatory changes is a must for any data expert.
  • At the highest level of CONCEPTUAL & KNOWLEDGE FRAMEWORKS, experts, scientists, policy-makers, philosophers and thinkers must keep the focus on long-term trend evolution instead of only on practical nowadays open issues.

BIG DIVE NUMBERS

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DIVERS
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BIG DIVE Open Editions
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BIG DIVE DataViz Editions
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BIG DIVE for organizations
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BIG DIVE Workshops for Organizations

In this fragmented and ever-changing scenario, BIG DIVE program aims to raise its educational purpose: from teaching the skills to manage (big) data to providing the toolbox to have an active role in sustainable development, measuring and impacting concrete human progress.

      Data gives scientists great Superpowers and with great power comes great responsibility.     

In its evolution, the pillars of BIG DIVE training program remain the same:

  • Strong scientific validation.
  • An open agile approach.
  • Solid inter-disciplinary contamination.
  • Team perspective.
  • A bits-on and hands-on state of mind that leverages the learn-by-doing.
  • Priceless life and work experience fruitfully spendable in any future job.

Our goal is not to “create” utopian multidisciplinary professionals but to provide a complete overview of the BIG DATA value chain, from data to impact, and to reproduce a real data-team workgroup.

DISCIPLINES

DEVELOPMENT

Software versioning
/ GIT

Python and Javascript
/ Python language features and paradigms
/ Python ecosystem for scientific computing (Numpy, Pandas)
/ Python Web Framework and API
/ Crash course in JavaScript

Data Engineering
/ Storing data into databases (SQL and No-SQL)
/ Apache Spark for Big Data processing

DATA VISUALIZATION

Theory and History
/ Key principles of visualization projects
/ Paradigms, tools and frameworks to present datasets

D3.js and the Art of Prototyping
/ Rapid prototyping as learning tool
/ Introduction and basics with d3.js library
/ Using d3.js to get confidence on data structure
/ Data exploration in order to sketch ideas
/ Interaction Design principles

DATA SCIENCE

Statistics & Data Analysis
/ Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
/ Cleaning, transforming, exploring data
/ Statistical graphical representation using Matplotlib, Seaborn and Bokeh

Machine learning and Deep Learning
/ Supervised, Unsupervised and Deep Learning
/ NLP basics

Network science
/ Network Science theory and practice

ORGANIZERS

BIG DIVE is a project by TOP-IX Consortium. Axant.it, ISI Foundation and TODO are key partners of the project.

TOP-IX

TOP-IX is a non-profit consortium set up in 2002 with the aim of creating and managing an Internet Exchange for the exchange of Internet traffic in North West Italy. In 2006 TOP-IX launched Development Program to diffuse the use of broadband Internet and to foster innovation by providing support to early stage Internet ventures.
www.top-ix.org

AXANT.IT

Founded in early 2007 by talented and smart researchers of Turin’s Polytechnic and other professionals with deep experience in innovation and hi-tech fields, Axant mitigates founder’s experties from free software and academic environment into business reality, with truely innovation. Axant follows agile methodologies refined over years to accomplish tasks as accurate as possible within defined timeframes, hence our Just In Time‘s motto.
www.axant.it

ISI FOUNDATION

Established in Turin in 1983, the ISI Foundation is an international leading research institution in the fields of complex systems science and the data science. From its offices in Italy and New York, ISI Foundation coordinates the work of dozens of researchers, with an approach strongly oriented to the scientific exchange between different disciplines (physics, biology, mathematics, computer science, linguistics, social sciences) and important collaborations with institutes, universities and companies.
www.isi.it

TODO

A next-gen design studio based in Italy and founded in 2007. While designing near-future projects today, Todo focuses on dialogue, exchange and community through the integration of ideas, interactivity and technology.
The outcome is a steady stream of new experiences that question and redefine the relationship between technology, products, services and smart environments for the twenty-first century.
www.todo.to.it