Data Mining Comes to the North Carolina Community College System

north carolina community college

In a digital transformation, the North Carolina Community College System, a statewide network of public community colleges, has incorporate a custom machine-learning “Brain” across its 58 institutions.

The North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS), working with Tanjo, an award-winning artificial intelligence and machine learning company, is incorporating a custom machine-learning “Brain” across its 58 institutions. NCCCS’s “Brain” will continuously and automatically map, understand, and organize information throughout the community college network. This superhuman approach to data mining allows for optimal content discovery and is a necessary first step in digital transformation.

With about 700,000 students and more than 30,000 faculty and staff members, NCCCS produces countless educational innovations, courses, and best practices. With valuable content spread across 100 counties, traditional methods for sharing and storing are limiting. In addition to helping NCCCS map all its available content, the “Brain” allows the faculty, students, and administrators to harness the power of machine learning. For example, custom brain-scraping bots can be easily set up to notify users to new and relevant content related to a subject of interest. The “Brain” can further draft documents or create custom curricula for faculty based on knowledge shared.

“With so much content available to us across our network, it became apparent that we could do a better job of organizing and sharing that knowledge when and where needed more efficiently and effectively,” says Jim Parker, NCCCS CIO. “Tanjo’s machine-learning technology allows us to improve our collective intelligence while simultaneously mitigating otherwise tedious and costly tasks associated with data mining.”

All of the algorithms and search visualizations are created specific to the fundamental features of the content used by the NCCC system—ensuring greater adaptability and ease-of-use. Unlike third-party software or open web service, the “Brain” resides under the NCCC system’s control and bars data from flowing outside the NCCCS network.

www.tanjo.net

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management March 2019 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Indiana University Launches Capital Campus in D.C.

    Indiana University recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new IU Capital Campus in Washington, D.C., according to university news. The eight-story facility will provide a central hub for the university’s existing programs and business operations based in D.C., uniting them under one roof and providing the opportunity to expand.

  • Photo credit - Chuck Coates

    Florida District Modernizes Central Energy Plants at Two High Schools

    Flagler Schools, a public school district in Flagler County, Fla., recently partnered with Matern Professional Engineering to modernize the central energy plants at two of its high schools, according to a news release. The project is part of a larger, district-wide effort to reduce energy costs and operational expenses.

  • Secret to Efficient, On-Time School Infrastructure & Modernization Projects is All in the Preparation

    Warmer weather and longer days make summer the ideal time for construction and modernization projects at educational facilities. School boards and construction firms must coordinate effectively to ensure that these projects do not extend even a single day into the school year and impede classroom operation.

  • Johns Hopkins Starts Construction on New Residence Hall, Dining Facility

    The Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., recently began construction on a new residence hall and dining facility, according to university news. The work involves demolishing the existing Alumni Memorial Residence Hall I, which was built in 1923, to make room for the new facility.