“Everything at JADS breathes data science and entrepreneurship”
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JADS’ unique curriculum, its vibrant community and successful MKB Datalab
The labor market is squeaking and creaking. There is a huge shortage of data specialists, along with almost unlimited technological opportunities. How does JADS respond to this and the pressure from its partners? How is JADS stimulating and facilitating entrepreneurship? And is its own brand strong enough to meet the challenges? Interview with Liesbeth Leijssen, director of business and member of the JADS Management Team: “I feel the dilemmas and the struggle within companies that knock on our door.” And inspiring quotes from leading staff and partners in addition to cases that characterize the uniqueness of JADS.
Liesbeth Leijssen: “We started as a new kind of university, where a thousand flowers could bloom. JADS is a place where people are given the freedom to experiment with all kinds of innovative approaches that contribute to our brand promise ‘We do cool stuff that matters, with data’. I sometimes compare JADS to the small medieval universities with their major impact on their environment. That’s how we work as well. Everything at JADS breathes data science and revolves around entrepreneurial learning, community and building an ecosystem.”
JADS is now moving from the startup phase to a mature phase. The parent universities can let go of the child more and more. But their expertise is still needed. Moreover, Liesbeth suggests, “JADS is still a relatively unknown brand, not yet as well known as the two parent brands. In order to remain competitive, JADS has to execute its Master’s recruitment in close relationship with Tilburg University and TU/e, with JADS Den Bosch as the location.”
Society will need thousands of people skilled in digital technologies in the coming years. The demand for talent and knowledge has increased extremely, also according to a survey conducted by JADS. Liesbeth: “Today businesses want a say in how their employees should be trained now the labor shortage is so severe. They don’t want to wait two years for someone to graduate from our Engineering Doctorate program. So we have to adjust our way of working to that.”
Liesbeth: “We maintain a portfolio of more than 2,000 contacts with more than 300 partners. We actively collaborate with these partners in numerous projects and events, from (professional) education to strategic research projects, from being part of our startup incubator up to the MKB-Datalab. MKB stands for small and medium-sized enterprises, SME)”
Looking at how JADS implements entrepreneurship, three elements stand out:
- a cross-over curriculum with the startup Playground
- a vibrant community network of (former) students, scientists and business partners, and
- the MKB Datalab
Crossover Curriculum
Liesbeth: “Our DNA contains the best of Tilburg and Eindhoven. We have a crossover curriculum with crossover subjects, not just about data engineering but also about business development, ethics and privacy aspects. We have developed a whole new range of propositions. And in the active Playground, led by Jonie Oostveen, students discuss the ins and outs in setting up their own startup.”
In recent years, ambitious students have started very successful businesses. Liesbeth: “And, I think it’s nice and distinctive that they all want to play a meaningful role in society, in an ethical, sustainable and caring sense.”
Community
From the start, a constant stream of organizations spontaneously crossed the monastery threshold to be part of the JADS community. Liesbeth: “What keeps inspiring me is JADS’s intrinsic culture of an open community that fosters change and innovation. Everything here revolves around the community, small-scale project-based and challenge-based education. An entrepreneurial student at JADS values our ‘Hogwarts-approach’, in which entrepreneurs, partners, talent and scientists find each other. This small scale community concept must be safeguarded in the future.”
“The convent building is a wonderful setting for our concept, full of hot spots, small spaces and study workstations. In four buildings on campus data-driven businesses are housed; they prefer to be physically close to JADS. Hybrid working is not so important here, actually an impoverishment within our community-concept. Still, we are well equipped for digital education and have our own studio. JADS has so much to offer. I experience that every day when I walk through the corridors with guests, and talk passionately about JADS, inspiring them. No, I never regretted my move to JADS.”
MKB Datalab
Most companies want to know what to do with their data. When such a request comes in, the impact team is immediately ready to start and make a plan, together with scientists and the Playground. For example, a hospital with many logistics data asked in what way their data could be used smarter, so that doctors, the outpatient clinic or the nursing department can be set up smarter. Liesbeth: “In such cases we want to know, what is the exact problem? What is the low hanging fruit? How can we build a good relationship and which JADS events fit in? Liesbeth: “Getting everything into a sustainable collaboration is a sport. The case can then be picked up in professional education, by a scientist or in the MKB Datalab.”
