Sabancı University Business Analytics Workshop

Sabancı Business School held the 3rd Business Analytics Workshop on Friday, November 18.

Delivering the opening speech of the event, Nihat Kasap, Dean of Sabancı Business School, said that the event, which brought together experts from both academia and the sector, aimed to address the current trends, obstacles, and solutions in the growth of business analytics in Turkey and around the world, and to shed light on the future of the emerging business analytics field.

Vispera CTO Erdem Yörük, who was the keynote speaker of the event, discussed the developments in the field of artificial intelligence from the perspective of historical and business applications, and gave information about the solutions offered by Vispera, which was previously selected as one of the top 3 startups in Turkey. Yörük pointed out that artificial intelligence technology continues to develop rapidly, and that a qualified workforce, and data quality and quantity are among the prominent needs in this field.

At the Business Analytics Workshop event, Emrah Ahi of Özyeğin University, Ahmet Onur Durahim, Principai Founder and CEO, Ferhat İşyapan, Yemeksepeti Business Intelligence Director, Deniz Yosun, HepsiJET CTO, Uğur Cakova, Trendyol Growth Analytics Leader, Mert Hakan Hekimoğlu from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Supply Chain Management and Analytics Unit, and Dursun Delen, Business Analytics Consultant, also gave speeches.

Business Analytics Workshop: Hosted at Sabancı University

Sabancı University  hosted Business Analytics Workshop for the second time, following the resounding success of the inaugural event in 2017. Held on April 19, 2019, the workshop drew significant attention from industry professionals, academics, and students alike, with close to 250 participants in attendance. Representatives from various sectors including automotive, energy, retail, manufacturing, and technology contributed to the diverse and dynamic discussions.

The event served as a platform for thought leaders and experts to explore the latest advancements, strategies, and innovations in the field of business analytics. Keynote speaker Radhika Kulkarni, Vice President of Advanced Analytics at SAS Institute, Inc., delivered an inspiring address focusing on the intersection of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Optimization, highlighting the vast opportunities for interdisciplinary innovation.

The workshop featured a series of technical sessions covering a wide range of topics crucial to enhancing business profitability through analytics. These sessions included presentations by prominent figures such as Burçin Bozkaya from Sabancı University, who discussed the pivotal role of behavioral attributes in predicting financial churn, and A. Gürhan Kök from Koç University and Invent Analytics, who shared insights on leveraging analytics for optimizing retail operations and profitability.

Additionally, the event delved into cutting-edge techniques such as automatic interpretable retail forecasting (FAIR) for budgeting and planning processes. Presenters like Özden Gür Ali from Koç University and Melek Ateş from METU expanded on predictive modeling frameworks and technology acceptance models in the context of business analytics.

The workshop also addressed industry-specific challenges and solutions, with sessions focusing on demand forecasting and transfer decisions in the retail sector, presented by Onur Ersoy from Deloitte Turkey, and the road to personalization in e-commerce, explored by Erdem İnan from Trendyol. Deniz Tosun from Hepsiexpress shared insights into implementing a Transportation Management System for optimized package delivery, showcasing practical applications of analytics in logistics.

Participants praised the workshop for its depth of knowledge, practical relevance, and networking opportunities. The event provided a valuable platform for professionals and academics from diverse sectors to exchange ideas, collaborate on innovative projects, and stay updated on the latest trends shaping the future of business analytics.

Sabancı Business School Hosted Business Analytics Workshop

Sabancı Business School  hosted the first Business Analytics Workshop. The workshop took place on Friday, October 13, 2017, in the Cinema Hall.

The opening speech of the workshop was delivered by dean Füsun Ülengin from the Sabancı Business School . Ülengin began her remarks by noting the growing trend in business analytics. She stated that business analytics includes the ability to derive insights from data using techniques such as statistics, mathematics, econometrics, simulations, optimizations, or other methods to aid businesses in making better decisions.

Highlighting that real-world problems involve big data, Ülengin emphasized that analyses without big data are merely mathematical and statistical tools and applications. She added that business analytics combines big data and analytics with the computational power of modern computers to transform information into intelligence. "In this workshop, we decided to analyze the use of business analytics in different sectors and the application of new methods," she concluded.

Following the opening speech, the keynote address was given by Gül Ege, Senior Director of Advanced Analytics R&D at SAS. Gül Ege spoke about the Business Value of Advanced Analytics and Current Trends, providing examples from various business areas. She discussed the challenges of new data sources, the performance requirements of streaming data, and the importance of analytical capabilities to realize maximum business value from the potential created by data, technology, and computational innovations.

Gül Ege noted that analytical leadership creates a competitive advantage across all business areas. She said that the scale, nature, and speed of data growth make algorithms and technology critical due to the need for analytical innovations. She added that data-driven business decisions would need to be reviewed more quickly and in real-time.

In the first session of the event, titled "Marketing Analytics," Mustafa Gökçe Baydoğan from Boğaziçi University presented "The Power of Analytics: Two Applications in Ready-to-Wear," Barış Depecik from Bilkent University spoke on "Who Benefits from Brands Exiting the Market? Why?" and Birol Yüceoğlu from Migros gave a talk titled "Using Data Analytics for Predicting Customer Trends: A Case Study for an Online Retailer."

After the first session, the first software training was provided by BonAir.

In the second session, titled "New Methods," Cem İyigün from Middle East Technical University presented "Are Labels Informative Enough? Semi-Supervised Probabilistic Distance Clustering and Uncertainty Classification," Deniz Yenigün from Istanbul Bilgi University spoke on "Maximum Correlation and Variable Selection in Regression, Distance Relationship," Ece Egemen from Sabancı University discussed "Independent Agent Segmentation for the Insurance Sector," and Gökhan Göktürk from Sabancı University presented "Detection of Insurance Fraud: A Network Modeling and Behavior Analytics Approach."

After the lunch break, the second software training session was conducted by SAS.

In the final session, titled "Health Applications in Analytics," Kemal Kılıç from Sabancı University presented "A Decision Support System for the Contract Negotiation Processes of Health Insurance Companies," Mehmet Gönen from Koç University discussed "Identifying Significant miRNA-mRNA Regulatory Programs in Cancer Using Bayesian Reduced-Rank Regression," and Enis Kayış from Özyeğin University spoke on "Scheduling the Stochastic Operating Room with Historical Data."

The event concluded with the final software training session provided by TIMI.

During the conference, a competition was held where graduate students presented their projects as posters. The competition was won by Furkan Gürsoy from Boğaziçi University's Computer Engineering Department with his poster titled "Maximizing Influence in Social Networks Under the Deterministic Linear Threshold Model."