Doctorate on Big Data wins award
Lucerne – The German Society for Higher Education Research has honored the work of PhD student Philippe Saner on Big Data at the University of Lucerne. He investigated the origins of data science. The University of Lucerne has already incorporated the field in its teachings.
The University of Lucerne has once again yielded a successful PhD student. Philippe Saner’s thesis has been presented with this year’s Ulrich Teichler Prize by the German Society for Higher Education Research (GfHf). His work focused on the topic of Big Data. Saner investigated the emergence and establishment of data sciences as a transversal discipline.
“By looking at the origins of data sciences as a field in Switzerland, his work had a very topical focus at the interface of university and scientific research. Philippe Saner did so in a way that was fascinating, thorough and innovative,” said the jury’s chairman Dr Roland Bloch from Centre for School and Education Research at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in a press release about the award.
Saner commented on the latest developments in data sciences at the University of Lucerne. Alongside research, the university had launched initiatives to more strongly incorporate the hybrid field of data sciences into teaching, he explained. For example, the interdisciplinary and cross-faculty Lucerne Master in Computational Social Sciences has interlinked data and social sciences in coordination with the political sciences seminar since 2019. Furthermore, various faculties have held lectures and seminars on key aspects of data sciences.
