$2 Million 5-Year SAS Grant Gives Baylor Students, Faculty Increased Access To Software
Baylor University today announced that it has received a five-year, $2 million software grant from SAS Institute, the market leader in e-intelligence and data warehousing software and services and the world's largest privately held software company based in Cary, N.C.
In addition to providing Baylor with significant new technology, the grant reduces usage costs for faculty, staff and students by providing access to various SAS software and other applications designed to streamline administrative tasks and help faculty and staff members with their teaching and research.
"This grant allows Baylor University to utilize the outstanding SAS software to further research, extend the learning experiences of students and demonstrate the significant decision value that SAS e-intelligence and data warehousing software can provide to institutions of higher education," said Dr. Reagan Ramsower, associate vice president and Baylor's chief information officer. "We will be working closely through our SAS partnership to integrate the SAS software into our research and curriculum, and to implement administrative e-intelligence solutions that will enhance our institutional knowledge."
This is only the fifth grant provided by SAS this year to higher education institutions, which include the 16 campuses of the University of North Carolina school system, North Carolina State University, the University of California's 10-campus system and Pennsylvania State University.
"Higher education institutions are critical to technological progress, and supporting progress is core to our strategy and philosophy at SAS. We're forging partnerships with Baylor, as well as the other recipients, as an investment in the future," said Jeff Babcock, vice president of U.S. public sector sales and marketing. "Our contribution helps equip students, educators and researchers with the tools and knowledge they need to surpass all prior accomplishments."
Earlier this year, SAS honored Baylor with the 2000 Enterprise Computing Award for Academic Applications, specifically recognizing the university's use of data warehousing and data mining for both administrative and educational purposes.
-more-
addone/SASGRANT
Administratively, Baylor is using SAS software to build a university-wide data warehouse that will provide accurate and accessible information. Baylor's Graduate School is implementing this system first due to its pressing need for comparable data. "We have almost a hundred separate graduate degrees and programs, each with distinct missions and unique data," said Dr. Larry Lyon, dean of Baylor's Graduate School. "The Graduate School must integrate these programs to ensure that the overall mission of the university is served. Without comparable, reliable, accessible data, that job cannot be done."
On the educational side, Baylor is introducing students in the Hankamer School of Business to SAS software and solutions, offering them "real world" business skills in data mining and data warehousing. "Data mining and knowledge management are hot topics across corporate America," said Dr. G.W.K. Willis, professor and chair of the information systems department, and director of the Center for Applied Geographic and Spatial Research. "Our students will be learning current practices that will help them be more competitive in the marketplace."
Additionally, Baylor, in conjunction with SAS, has developed a data mining and knowledge management center, enabling students and faculty to search for relationships and correlations within data.
Software from SAS is used at more than 35,000 business, government and university sites in 110 countries and enables its customers to turn raw data - including the vast quantity generated by e-business - into usable knowledge.
For more information, contact Ramsower at (254) 710-3493 or Reagan_Ramsower@baylor.edu or Mary Ann Campbell-Hickland, SAS editorial contact, at (919) 531-6997 or MaryAnn.Hickland@sas.com .