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  1. Aug 3

    Teaching Analytics in the Age of AI - Zoltan Toth

    Privacy and the AI StackBuilding the right data infrastructure before you find product-market fit is a trap. So is delegating the thinking to AI before you understand the system it is building for you. The question AI in data engineering education must answer now is not how to teach more tools. It is how to teach students to know what is sufficient, and when to push back on AI-generated results. In this episode of our series, our guest explores how ten years of teaching at CEU has shifted his focus from courseware volume to hands-on depth, how AI has simultaneously delighted and concerned him in the classroom and what universities are getting dangerously wrong about how they try to regulate student AI use. Our host Eduardo Ariño de la Rubia is joined by Zoltan Toth, a Professor of Practice in the MSBA programme at Central European University. A data engineer and educator with twenty years of experience, he is a bestselling Udemy instructor with more than 60,000 courses sold and a board member of the Vienna Data Science Group.  THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT- From web developer to CEU faculty: Zoltan's twenty-year journey into data engineering- Why hands-on practice outperforms courseware volume in data education- The AI hackathon moment that was both impressive and alarming- Why debugging skills are now worth more than implementation skills- What universities are getting wrong about regulating student AI use GUEST DETAILSZoltan Toth is a Professor of Practice in the MSBA programme at Central European University, where he teaches cloud computing, modern data platforms, and AI engineering. He is a bestselling Udemy instructor with more than 60,000 courses sold, a former solutions architect and instructor for Databricks, and a board member of the Vienna Data Science Group, which organises meetups for data professionals across Austria. QUOTES- "I think that there is a danger there. So if you integrate some code, you still want to understand it." - Zoltan Toth- "What we should meditate on is what is the kind of work that we delegate to AI, and what is the kind of work where we need to accept the cognitive pain of going through thinking and solving and just sweating it through." - Zoltan Toth- "What we need instead is to give students a great mental model about how everything is built, so that they can take a look at the problems from an architectural point of view." - Zoltan Toth- "We should embrace that we need to suffer through a few problems if we want to understand those problems." - Zoltan Toth- "I think we are underestimating how much AI our students use, and we are overestimating our power, how much we can regulate how much AI students should use." - Zoltan Toth KEYWORDS #DataEngineering #AIEducation #TeachingAnalytics #DebuggingSkills #HigherEducation

    Teaching Analytics in the Age of AI - Zoltan Toth

  2. Jul 22

    Teaching Analytics in the Age of AI - Naida Dzigal

    SHOW NOTES Ask the Right QuestionsEntering the analytics profession and discovering that 80 per cent of the job is cleaning dirty data is a reality check that no course prepares you for. Some say that analysts who thrive in an AI-augmented data science career, will be defined not by their ability to prompt a model, but by their capacity to ask the right questions and critically evaluate the answers. Today we learn how the team at RBI is building knowledge graphs to ground LLMs in real organisational context, why SQL coding skills are declining in value while critical analysis is rising and what should change about the MSBA curriculum, including a stronger focus on ethics, data lineage, and AI-augmented workflows. We are joined by Naida Dzigal, a 2023 graduate of the CEU Master of Science in Business Analytics programme and IT expert at Raiffeisen Bank International. With a PhD in technical physics and prior experience as a nuclear specialist at the International Atomic Energy Agency, Naida brings a rare combination of scientific rigour, multilingual diplomacy, and real-world analytics leadership to this conversation.  THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT- From nuclear physics to banking analytics via the MSBA- Dirty data, frustration tolerance and the analytics reality check- Using AI for 80 per cent of the working day at RBI- Building knowledge graphs and context layers to ground LLMs- Redesigning the MSBA curriculum for an AI-augmented analytics world GUEST DETAILSNaida Dzigal is an IT expert at Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), where she is part of a strategic data transformation team reshaping how data is managed across the bank's entire network, influencing data processes that affect billions of euros annually. A physicist by training, she holds a PhD in technical physics from Technical University Vienna and previously served as a nuclear specialist at the International Atomic Energy Agency. She completed her Master of Science in Business Analytics at CEU in 2023 and speaks five languages, bringing scientific rigour and cross-cultural professional experience to the field of data and AI. QUOTES- "I was just so surprised that I was getting paid for essentially cleaning up data and spending maybe 20% of my time actually doing real analytical work." - Naida Dzigal- "The biggest experts always have the highest frustration tolerance." - Naida Dzigal- "I think where we fail most of the time is in our critical analysis of the answer." - Naida Dzigal- "LLMs are very powerful. AI in general is very powerful, but it lacks context." - Naida Dzigal- "The students that will succeed are the students who are able to ask the right questions." - Naida Dzigal KEYWORDS #AiDataScience #AnalyticsCareer #KnowledgeGraphs #DataTransformation #BusinessAnalytics

    Teaching Analytics in the Age of AI - Naida Dzigal

  3. Jul 3

    Teaching Analytics in the Age of AI - Gabor Bekes

    Taste Over TechniqueTeaching data analytics in the age of AI demands a fundamental rethink of what students need to learn, how they are assessed, and what analytical competence actually means when AI can write the code, run the models, and produce the results. This episode explores the rapid collapse of traditional assessment, shares why taste may be the most valuable skill a data analyst can develop, and explains why working in teams of humans and AI agents is the direction the entire profession is heading. Our guest also reflects on how his Data Analysis with AI course at CEU has had to be redesigned with each passing semester and what universities must do differently if they are to stay relevant.Our guest is Gabor Bekes, Professor of Economics and Programme Head of the MSBA at Central European University, Budapest. An applied economist whose research spans international trade, open source software collaboration, and industrial policy, Gabor is co-author of Data Analysis for Business, Economics, and Policy, published by Cambridge University Press, and has been teaching data analysis for over 15 years.  THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUT- Why asking good questions matters more than choosing the right method- The Data Analysis with AI course and what students discover- How rapidly improving AI models overhauled the curriculum- Taste as the emerging signal of analytical competence- Zero-tech exams, dark factories, and the future of curriculum design GUEST DETAILSGabor Bekes is Professor of Economics and Programme Head of the MSBA at Central European University, Budapest. An applied economist whose research spans international trade, open source software collaboration, and industrial policy, he is co-author of Data Analysis for Business, Economics, and Policy (Cambridge University Press) and has taught data analysis for over 15 years.

    Teaching Analytics in the Age of AI - Gabor Bekes

  4. Jun 21

    Rulers, Subjects and Loyalty in Thirteenth Century Poland

    In this interview, Michał Machalski discusses his recent thesis research into rulers, subjects, and loyalty in 13th Century Poland’.   The thirteenth century in Poland was a period of intense turmoil and fragmentation, with many of the nobility battling for supremacy, and for the right to be King, while the Teutonic Knights made increasing incursions into Polish lands.In this complex and fractured period, Michał looked at aspects of loyalty between the rulers from the local Piast dynasty and their subjects; how this loyalty was expressed, enacted, enforced, rewarded, and when lacking, how disloyalty was punished.  Although loyalty within the church was beyond the scope of his research, Michał explains how senior Bishops became arbiters of loyalty and guarantors of oaths.  Michał shows how through declarations and demonstrations of loyalty, the Polish society was held together and enabling Kazimierz III the Great to gain the throne and unite Poland. This podcast is part of a series of interviews covering central Europe in the medieval period for MECERN and CEU Department of Historical Studies.Image - Duke of Wroclaw & Krakow Henryk IV Probus, from Codex Manesse 1305-40 (27668147667)

    Rulers, Subjects and Loyalty in Thirteenth Century Poland

  5. Jun 13

    Cultures of Hate and Oppression: Podcasts of the students

    The Collaborative Seminar Cultures of Hate and Oppression was coordinated to address the complexities of these topics that are of urgent global importance in our era of continuing discrimination, forced migration, socially sanctioned violence, and war.2026

    Cultures of Hate and Oppression: Podcasts of the students

  6. Jun 13

    Cultures of Hate and Oppression: Faculty Reflection on the course

    The Collaborative Seminar Cultures of Hate and Oppression was coordinated to address the complexities of these topics that are of urgent global importance in our era of continuing discrimination, forced migration, socially sanctioned violence, and war.2026

    Cultures of Hate and Oppression: Faculty Reflection on the course

  7. Jun 7

    Care, Solidarity, and Academic Life in Exile: A Conversation with Volha Davydzik

    In this episode of the Protecting Academia at Risk podcast, we speak with Volha Davydzik, a Belarusian researcher working at the intersection of social and political philosophy, feminist theory, and protest studies.Drawing on her experiences across Belarus, China, and Germany, Volha reflects on academic displacement, mobility, care, solidarity, and the challenges of rebuilding an academic life in exile. The conversation explores the hidden labour of migration, the tensions between academic mobility and personal stability, and the ways in which gender and caregiving shape academic careers.The discussion also delves into Volha’s research on the 2020 Belarusian protest movement, examining infrastructures of care and solidarity, affective politics, protest art, and forms of collective resistance under authoritarianism. Together, we reflect on how care can function not only as a response to violence, but also as a political practice capable of sustaining collective life and imagining alternative futures.Volha Davydzik is a Belarusian researcher working in the fields of social and political philosophy, feminist theory, and protest studies. Her research focuses on the 2020 Belarusian protest movement, infrastructures of solidarity and care, affective politics, and forms of collective resistance under authoritarianism.Recent work:Davydzik, Volha. (2026). Choreography of Spaces and Bodies During Social Rebellion: the Case of the Belarusian Revolution. Journal of Belarusian Studies. https://doi.org/10.30965/20526512-12350039DAVYDZIK, Volia (2025) FROM UTOPIA TO VULNERABILITY: THE FEMALE BODY IN BELARUSIAN ART OF THE 20TH-21ST CENTURIES. URL: https://chrysalismag.org/project/female-body-in-belarusian-artDAVYDZIK, Volha. (2025). CYBERFEMINISM AND THE BELARUSIAN UPRISING: DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURES, AFFECTIVE SOLIDARITY, AND POLITICAL IMAGINATION. Topos, (1), 226-243. https://journals.ehu.lt/index.php/topos/article/view/1486/1195DAVYDZIK, Volha, STEBUR Antonina. (2024) INVISIBLE NETWORKS: TECHNOLOGY’S DUAL ROLE IN CARE AND POLITICS IN BELARUS// https://jordanrussiacenter.org/blog/invisible-networks-technologys-dual-role-in-care-and-politics-in-belarus.DAVYDZIK, Volha, STEBUR Antonina. (2023) FEATURES AND EFFECTS OF THE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN THE BELARUSIAN PROTEST, Digital Icons, (22), 23-44.

    Care, Solidarity, and Academic Life in Exile: A Conversation with Volha Davydzik

  8. May 25

    What Keeps a University Alive? Resilience and Crisis with Verena Régent

    In this episode of Protecting Academia at Risk, Elena Trifan speaks with researcher Venera Régent, WPZ Research, about universities living through war, armed conflict, and systemic crisis.The conversation explores the Erasmus+-funded project CLOUD HED - Disaster Resilience in the Higher Education Sector via a Cloud University Model, which investigates how higher education institutions adapt under conditions of disruption and uncertainty. Together, they discuss academic resilience, digital infrastructures, institutional survival, well-being, and the human relationships that sustain academic life in times of crisis.The episode also discusses the forthcoming volume Higher Education in Times of War and Crisis: Institutional Resilience, Responses, and Preparedness in Contexts of Armed Conflict and Systemic Disruption, expected to be published by Brill in late 2026.Listen to the Protecting Academia at Risk podcast series via the CEU Podcast Library:https://podcasts.ceu.edu/series/protecting-academia-risk-towards-new-policy-agenda-thriving-culture-higher-education-europeFollow Protecting Academia at Risk on Facebook and LinkedIn for future episodes and updates.The volume in press, Higher Education in Times of War and Crisis: Institutional Resilience, Responses, and Preparedness in Contexts of Armed Conflict and Systemic Disruption, explores how higher education systems respond to extreme disruption caused by war, displacement, destruction, and political instability. Through case studies ranging from Ukraine and Israel to World War II, the former Yugoslavia, and the anticipatory cases of Poland, and Latvia, the book examines institutional resilience, crisis preparedness, and continuity strategies in higher education.The volume is a deliverable of the Erasmus+-funded project Disaster Resilience in Higher Education Systems via a Cloud University Model, which investigates emergency-driven digital transformation in higher education and the conditions for resilient, crisis-sensitive teaching and learning in virtual environments. More information on the project can be found at https://www.cloud-hed.eu/ or via https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/cloud-hed/posts/?feedView=all .

    What Keeps a University Alive? Resilience and Crisis with Verena Régent
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All CEU podcast episodes

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  • Creator
    CEU
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    378
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    CEU Podcasts