2024 AIChE Annual Meeting

(459h) Data & Analytics Literacy at Dow: Empowering Our Workforce to Read, Write, & Communicate with Data

Authors

Wilmot, N. - Presenter, The Dow Chemical Company
Digitalization and the use of Data & Analytics in the chemical/materials industry is crucial for the future success of organizations and individuals who are trained and work in this field. Traditionally, university programs, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, did not emphasize the basics of Data & Analytics as part of science and engineering curricula. However, as Data & Analytics becomes more pervasive, it is essential that we address the education gaps that exist to enable everyone from students to professionals, to fully leverage the existing capabilities. At Dow we recognized this need in early-2022 and launched our enterprise Data & Analytics Literacy program. Through 2022 and 2023, we collaborated with a group of over 100 global experts and representatives from across the company to create a training program that could be both comprehensive for use across our >35,000 employees and adaptable enough to suit the specific needs of organizations and individuals within the company. We have created and/or deployed content across the Data & Analytics ecosystem including - data collection & management, data analysis & decision making, data visualization, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and are in the process, as of Spring 2024, of launching the content across Dow to help individuals meet their role specific needs. We will focus our presentation on the specific reasons for building the program, the development of personae and role based curricula, tools used to create and deploy content, and learnings gained through the implementation of the initiative.