Professional Certificate in Data Engineering Foundations

Dr Ganesh Neelakanta Lyer

Dr Ganesh Neelakanta Lyer is a Lecturer in in the Department of Computer Science, National University of Singapore. Prior to this, he worked as a lead DevOps engineer at Salesforce.com. He had also served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore. He has received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering (University first rank) from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India in 2004 and Masters and PhD degrees from National University of Singapore in 2008 and 2012 respectively. He brings in a decade of industry experience in various companies including Sasken Communication Technologies, NXP semiconductors and Progress software. He has handled several roles in the software industry including QA Architect, Technical Support Manager, Engineering development and Technology Evangelist.

He has strong inclination towards Game Theory. He applies game theory for handling conflicts, enforcing cooperation and for multi-agent systems. His technical knowledge and experience are in various areas including Cloud/Edge/Fog Computing Paradigms (including cloud platforms, containers and Kubernetes), Computer Networks, Software Engineering practices (Agile) and Quality Analysis, Economic models (Game Theoretic principles) and current day practices on cloud-based enterprise architectures, Machine Learning and technology for traditional Indian dance (such as Kathakali) popularization. His mathematical interests include game theory, graph theory, optimization principles etc. Over the past several years he has acquired practical knowledge and experience in various cutting-edge software engineering methodologies including Agile framework and has experience formulating and implementing various software engineering principles using Agile for large and small product development teams.

Dr. Iyer is active in doing practical industry-oriented research on the above topics of his interest. He also aspires to do research on technological innovations to popularize traditional classical arts such as Kathakali and Koodiyattam.

He has published two book chapters in the “Encyclopaedia for Cloud Computing” in 2016 in addition to several book chapters, journals and conference publications. Dr. Iyer has delivered several practical workshops and talks on various cutting-edge technology topics in many academic and industry events in several countries including USA, Europe, Australia and Asia. Many of these were on the contributions made by him in his industry engagement for software quality analysis with current day software engineering principles such as Agile for application development involving cloud platforms, mobile platforms and IoT based systems.

Dr. Iyer is an IEEE Senior Member. He has been a reviewer of many internationals Journals including IEEE Transactions on Computers, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems and several international conferences. He was also the program chair for several international conferences including ICCCI and ICIWE.

Dr. Iyer has strong teaching skills and boundless passion for teaching. He was a visiting faculty at IIIT-H (International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad), and has been teaching various subjects including “Game Theory for Computer Science”, “Computer Networks”, “Advanced Computer Networks” and “Scripting and Computer environments” for which, he has framed the syllabus, developed the materials and references, structured the grading scheme and formulated continuous assessment strategies. Further, he was a member of Board of Studies at JNTU-H (a premium university in India) where he participates in framing the syllabus for the university’s upcoming academic year.

He is also an expert in performing Kathakali, a traditional Indian dance. He has composed a story in Kathakali and he spends a considerable amount of his personal time to uplift this traditional art by organizing Kathakali performances, workshops and demonstrations and performance by himself. He has also composed a Kathakali story “Sri Mookambika Mahathmyam” which has been staged in multiple venues in India.

Ms Samantha Sow

Ms. Samantha Sow is currently a Senior Lecturer in the department of Information Systems and Analytics at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She has over 8+ years of experience in Business Analytics and Data Science and she conducts training for both government agencies and corporate clients. Before joining NUS, she lectures at Temasek Polytechnic, teaching Business Analytics and Data Science to professionals, managers and executives (PMEs). Prior to being an academia, Samantha worked in the research and development at Infineon Technologies. Her research and project areas include Business Analytics, Data Mining, Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics.

She has a passion for engaging and inspiring participants to enhance their workplace analytics capabilities and increase business intelligence quotient within their organisations. Her interests lie in the applications of data analytics, predictive modelling and optimization techniques to derive actionable insights for commercial effectiveness. She is familiar with typical analytics tools such as Python, R, and SAS, SPSS and Tableau. She also has working knowledge in the area of Analytics, Data Science and Machine Learning.

Samantha completed her Master of Education from University of Sheffield and graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor’s in Engineering, First Class Honours. She has also completed THEC (Teaching in Higher Education) and ACTA (Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment). She is a member of the adult associate educator (AEN) by Institute for Adult Learning (IAL), Singapore.

Her certifications include:

Microsoft Certified Azure Data Scientist Associate. Microsoft Certified Data Analyst Associate. SAS Certified Predictive Modeller in SAS Enterprise Miner. Tableau Certified Desktop Specialist.