EBA Students Explore Data Extraction and Descriptive Statistics
James Nevin Dives into Data Extraction and Statistics
Students from the Entrepreneurial Business Administration (EBA) programme at Wittenborg were given a practical look into the world of data during an online guest lecture by James Nevin, a researcher currently working in Tokyo. The session was part of the Data Analytics module and focused on how to find, collect and understand data—skills that are becoming more and more important in nearly every industry.
Nevin, who holds a PhD in Computer Science and has a background in Mathematical Finance, has over six years of experience in data science. In his lecture, he explained how understanding data sources and learning how to work with them are essential for making better decisions in business. “Data are used in all industries,” he told students. “Knowing how to collect them is incredibly important.”
He introduced four common ways that businesses extract data. The first is through local files—like Excel spreadsheets, CSVs or text documents—that are often stored on a computer. The second method involves using APIs, which are tools that allow different programmes to communicate and share data automatically, without manual downloads. The third approach, web scraping, involves using code to pull useful information from websites. Finally, he discussed SQL databases, which are structured systems that store large amounts of information in organised tables and are often used by companies to manage customer or product data.
Once students understood how to gather data, Nevin moved on to the basics of analysing it. He explained how simple statistics like the mean and median can help describe the average or middle value in a dataset. He also talked about standard deviation, which shows how spread out the numbers are, and correlation, which helps identify relationships between two different sets of data. These tools, though basic, are key to making sense of large amounts of information and spotting trends that matter.
Although the lecture was held online and interaction with students was limited, Nevin offered clear advice to those interested in pursuing data-related careers. “Take your time with the tools,” he said. “Don’t be afraid to try things yourself.” He emphasised that learning to work with data isn’t just about theory—it’s about experimenting, exploring and applying what you learn to real situations.
To help students go further, Nevin also shared several helpful online resources where they can find data and practise their skills. These include sites that offer real datasets, economic and financial statistics, public government data, and tools for accessing APIs. He also recommended Python libraries like Pandas and BeautifulSoup, which are popular among beginners and professionals for analysing and collecting data.
WUP 31/07/2025
by Erene Roux
©WUAS Press
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