SAP HANA @ University Alliances Initiative

[M_Nuernberg]

The SAP HANA @ Universities Alliances initiative is in development as part of the UA program; it was an important topic at the recent EMEA Academic Conference. Below I've shared an update about the program based on a few frequently asked questions.

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What is the SAP HANA @ Universities program?  How can it help professors, lecturers, and students?

In-Memory Computing and specifically SAP HANA are transforming the way we perform analytics. In addition to speed, SAP HANA represents instant access to accurate answers of business questions that previously required lengthy programming efforts. The SAP University Alliances (UA) team wants professors, lecturers and students to be exposed to the benefits of SAP HANA.

The first SAP HANA curriculum for use in UA classrooms is being developed within our global SAP HANA @ UA initiative. The course contains knowledge about more than one SAP product. We cover the end-to-end scenario from the data source, via data replication into the SAP HANA database, through modeling and the graphical representation of the data in analytics dashboards.

When do you expect to go-live with the SAP HANA curricula and software? What are some of the activities happening now and in the future?

The curriculum development phase is nearly complete as the pilot course materials (i.e. lecture, exercises and a case study) are being finalized. We have a globally distributed group of professors and lecturers (“lighthouse faculties”) who will teach the curriculum in the first 2 quarters of 2013.

As a result, we have planned “Train-the-Trainer Workshops,” starting in EMEA, in conjunction with the SAP Academic Conference in Dresden, Germany. The feedback we collect will be analyzed and used to adjust the materials to their highest quality and confirm they are aligned with academic standards.

Following these workshops we will expose it in a pilot set of classrooms with our lighthouse faculties. After the pilot teaching period, the UA team will start a Ramp-Up phase, bringing more and more universities, lecturers and students in touch with SAP HANA. More details will be shared throughout the process.

How does SAP HANA @ Universities benefit students in their careers and working within the SAP Ecosystem?

This initiative will provide both hands on experience using SAP HANA and classroom materials which embed the end-to-end scenario from data source to a decision maker’s dashboard. Gaining this knowledge will provide a graduate profile that is highly attractive for prospective employers including: customers, partners and, last but not least, SAP.

Are there any materials or resources available now?

To get some first impressions, I always recommend the self-study materials available at Experience SAP HANA (https://www.experiencesaphana.com).

On this site you can explore the capabilities of SAP HANA and visit the “Solutions” area to “test drive and demo” the software including SAP Business Objects Explorer which showcases the use of tremendous amounts of data through a visualization and interactive experience.

The demos are done in a very nice quiz style where you can gain points for quick data analysis. So, you may want to start a kind of tournament for your team (or classroom) to see who’s doing the best.

Furthermore, books that introduce SAP HANA are available such as “SAP HANA Essentials” by Jeff Word (Free download – Code 0FED1038) and “SAP HANA: An Introduction” by Dr. Bjarne Berg and Penny Silvia.

In addition, the Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering (HPI) offers free online courses starting in September for all who are interested. The first online course, “In-Memory Data Management,” starts on Monday, September 3, 2012, and is taught by Hasso Plattner, HPI founder and chairman of the SAP Supervisory Board. Registration is now available.

The SAP HANA @ Universities site has many quick links and additional background including a free 30 day trial.

A follow-up blog has been posted to share a status update and what's next: SAP HANA @ University Alliances Initiative - What's Next?

[Former Member]

Hi Michael

Good blog.  Some other HANA resources which UAP members might be interested can be found at the SAP Developer Center  http://scn.sap.com/community/developer-center/hana

Some of the resources include:

Learning Materials

SAP HANA Database - Development Guide (pdf)

SAP HANA Modeling Guide (pdf)

SAP In-Memory Database 1.0-SQL Reference Guide (pdf)

SAP In-Memory Database 1.0-SQL Script Guide (pdf)

Documentation (help portal)

SQL Script in Nutshell (video, 5 min)

SAP HANA Test and Evaluation Access - Getting Started (video, 9 min)

SAP HANA Modeler (video, 30 min)

SAP HANA Calculation View (video, 6 min)

How to load CSV files into HANA (video)

SAP HANA Pocket Book for Developers (pdf)

Frequently Asked Questions (doc)

Predictive Analysis Library-Reference Manual (blog, pdf)

Developer Freebies

Get 30 days of trial access to a hosted HANA test and evaluation environment

These may be the same as the Experience HANA site.

I am reluctant to put this reference to a recent blog which outlines what should be studied to pass the HANA Consultant Certification exam without touching HANA.  But if SAP Education deems it important enough to test then it can be assumed that this is a good summary of HANA skills.

http://scn.sap.com/community/hana-in-memory/blog/2012/08/27/my-experience-on-hana-certification

Good Luck

Paul Hawking

SAP Academic Program Director

Victoria University

Australia

SAP Mentor

[Former Member]

One more good place to get All Hana technical documents, presentations, links, samples, and guides about HANA.

https://www.experiencesaphana.com/docs/DOC-2171

[Former Member]

Hi

Another new blog for beginners https://www.experiencesaphana.com/community/blogs/blog/2012/09/07/sap-hana-for-beginners

Paul Hawking

SAP Academic Program Director

Victoria University

Australia

SAP Mentor

[Former Member]

Hi

A good blog by SAP Mentor and HANA guru, John Appleby, about careers with SAP HANA. 

http://peopleprocesstech.com/2012/09/09/the-sap-hana-career-guide-part-1-overview/

It would be interesting to understand how the HANA curriculum addresses the different career paths.

Paul Hawking

SAP Academic Program Director

Victoria University

Australia

SAP Mentor

[M_Nuernberg]

Hello,

today I’d like to share the information that we’ve conducted the very first SAP HANA @ University Alliances Train-the-Trainer Workshop in Dresden last week (September 4^th,
2012) - right before the SAP Academic Conference EMEA.  In addition, we offered 20 seats in a hands-on session for conference participants.

The feedback was very positive – the scope of the training, the exercises, the case
study – and especially “touching” SAP HANA via the HANA studio was the highlight.

Further TTT workshops in the US (mid October 2012) and India (November 2012) are scheduled. Of course I received many questions, how additional faculties can get access to the SAP HANA curriculum. Once we gained experience on the scalability of our system landscape we set up for the HANA curriculum #1, a broader Ramp-Up will be announced – including a “how-to-apply” instruction.

Stay tuned!

Michael

P.S.: Special “Thank you” to Paul and Thiru for adding valuable HANA references!

[M_Nuernberg]

Hi Paul,

thanks for linking to the HANA related careers blog.

Inded, we also had - from the very beginning - several HANA courses in mind that could build the entire SAP HANA curriculum. To see where the demand is most, we added a section into the feedback form we hand out in our Train-the-Trainer workshops as one source of guidance. Additional recommendations from your side are appreciated as well.

Regards,

Michael

[Former Member]

Hi Michael

Unfortunately we are not HANA Lighthouse University or in a region where the curriculum will be available.  However we have some HANA hardware partners and industry specialists who have offered to help. Anything we create we will post for other UAP members.

Good luck

Paul Hawking

SAP Academic Program Director

Victoria University

Australia

SAP Mentor