The Institute is delighted to announce its practicum sponsors for the Master of Science in Analytics (MSA) Class of 2021. Student teams are tasked with projects from 24 sponsoring organizations. Once again this year the Institute welcomes an impressive line-up of new and returning sponsors to work with our students over the next 8 months, including our first projects with Verizon, Microsoft, Aquent, Church & Dwight, Cape Fear Collective, Raleigh Water, and the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.
“We are extremely grateful to all of the sponsoring organizations for providing our students this valuable opportunity to hone their skills,” said the Institute’s director Dr. Michael Rappa. “The practicum is core to the MSA learning experience. It’s terrific to have our students working on challenging projects with such a diverse group of sponsors.”
The Institute received over 60 proposals for consideration during its open solicitation period earlier in the year. The proposals were reviewed by a panel of faculty and staff members who weighed the scope, challenge, and learning value of the project. All of the projects are conducted under confidentiality and there is no fee for sponsors to participate.
Since 2007 the Institute’s students have been engaged in 227 team projects with 124 lead sponsors from industry and government. Interested organizations are welcome to contact the Institute to learn more about practicum sponsorship.
Advance Auto Parts (Roanoke, VA) – Advance Auto Parts, Inc. is a leading automotive aftermarket parts provider that serves both professional installer and do-it-yourself customers. As of 2017, Advance operated 5,054 stores and 129 Worldpac branches and employed approximately 71,000 Team Members in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Company also serves 1,218 independently owned Carquest branded stores.
Aquent (Boston, Massachusetts) – Aquent, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is the world’s largest creative staffing agency serving complex, global brands including two-thirds of the Fortune 500.
Asurion (Nashville, Tennessee) – For more than 20 years, Asurion’s innovation and dedication to delighting customers has made it the preferred provider of technology protection to the world’s largest wireless carriers, trusted retailers and popular device manufacturers. Asurion’s 16,000 global employees support its 305 million consumers with an award-winning experience delivered through products and services that have set the standard in the industry.
Bank of America (Charlotte, NC) – Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. In the United States, the company serving approximately 67 million consumer and small business clients. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world.
Building Clarity (Cary, North Carolina) – Building Clarity develops and delivers an IoT-enabled managed service called Activate that integrates facility data and business systems with analytics to deliver valuable results that can improve both building and business operations.
Cape Fear Collective (Wilmington, North Carolina) – Cape Fear Collective, founded in 2019, is a collective impact and data science nonprofit backbone organization. Born out of the corporate sector, CFC’s mission is to scale big data, fundraising, social innovation, and large-scale initiative management to a six-county region in Southeastern North Carolina. CFC employs data scientists, strategists, journalists, and process improvement experts who partner with anchor institutions from across the region. Together, they create sustainable impact programs that address social progress across a variety of sectors including economic development, health and human services, climate change, and housing.
Church & Dwight (Ewing, New Jersey) – Church & Dwight is a major American manufacturer of household products. While it manufactures many items, it is best known for its Arm & Hammer line which includes baking soda and a variety of products made with it, including laundry detergent.
Dude Solutions (Cary, North Carolina) – Dude Solutions is a leading provider of cloud-based operations management software to optimize facilities, assets, and workflow.
Elevate (Ft. Worth, Texas) – Elevate Credit, Inc. has originated $5.9 billion in non-prime credit to more than two million non-prime consumers to date and has saved its customers more than $4 billion versus the cost of payday loans. Its responsible, tech-enabled online credit solutions provide immediate relief to customers today and help them build a brighter financial future.
Fifth Third Bank (Cincinnati, Ohio) – Fifth Third Bank, established in 1858, is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Cincinnati. Fifth Third is among the largest money managers in the Midwest, and as of June 30, 2019, had $399 billion in assets under care. It operates 1,200 full-service Banking Centers in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina.
GoDaddy (Scottsdale, Arizona) – GoDaddy empowers everyday entrepreneurs around the world by providing all of the help and tools to succeed online. With 19 million customers worldwide, GoDaddy is the place people come to name their idea, build a professional website, attract customers and manage their work.
Microsoft (Redmond, Washington) – Microsoft enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
NC Department of Public Safety (Raleigh, North Carolina) – The mission of the NC Department of Public Safety is to afeguard and preserve the lives and property of the people of North Carolina through prevention, protection, and preparation with integrity and honor.
NC Joint Underwriting Association / NC Insurance Underwriting Association (Raleigh, North Carolina) – The North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association (NCJUA), also known as the FAIR (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) Plan, is a tax exempt association of insurance companies licensed to write and engage in writing property insurance coverage in North Carolina. The Association was created by law to act as a market of last resort to provide adequate basic property insurance to property owners having insurable property in North Carolina. The North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCIUA), also known as the Coastal Property Insurance Pool, is a tax exempt association of insurance companies authorized to write and engage in writing essential property insurance coverage in North Carolina. The Association was created by law to act as a market of last resort to provide adequate essential property insurance to property owners having insurable property in the Beach and Coastal Areas of North Carolina.
Putnam Investments (Boston, Massachusetts) – Founded in 1937, Putnam Investments is a leading global money management firm. At the end of April 2017, Putnam had $162 billion in assets under management. Putnam has offices in Boston, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney.
Raleigh Water (Raleigh, North Carolina) – The City of Raleigh Public Utilities Department, now also known as Raleigh Water, provides water and sanitary sewer services to about 198,000 metered customers and a service population of about 600,000 people in Raleigh, Garner, Wake Forest, Rolesville, Knightdale, Wendell and Zebulon areas. Its mission is to provide safe, sustainable water services for our customers while protecting public health and contributing to the economic, environmental and social vitality of its communities.
Red Hat (Raleigh, North Carolina) – Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to provide reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As the connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT.
Revenue Management Solutions (Tampa, Florida) – Founded in 1994, Revenue Management Solutions (RMS) supports a robust suite of flexible data-driven solutions providing clients with a customized approach that considers the unique business environment and operational constraints that exist in every brand. Leveraging premier consulting services and patented methodology in the use of statistics and quantitative modeling for the restaurant and retail industries, RMS takes the guess work out of crucial business decisions while optimizing gross profit and protecting brand value.
Trillium Health Resources (Greenville, North Carolina) – Trillium Health Resources is a local governmental agency (LME/MCO) that manages mental health, substance use and intellectual/developmental disability services in eastern North Carolina. Trillium’s mission is to transform the lives of people in need by providing them with ready access to quality care. Trillium is investing in innovation to meet the unique needs of the individuals and communities we serve, and remains focused on delivering the right services, in the right amount, at the right time.
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (McLean, Virginia) – The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an independent government agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior U.S. policymakers.
Verizon (New York, New York) – Verizon Communications. Inc. was formed on June 30, 2000 and is celebrating its 20th year as one of the world’s leading providers of technology, communications, information and entertainment products and services. Headquartered in New York City and with a presence around the world, Verizon generated revenues of $131.9 billion in 2019. The company offers voice, data and video services and solutions on its award winning networks and platforms, delivering on customers’ demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity, security and control.
Visionist (Columbia, Maryland) – Visionist provides engineering, software development and analytical services to U.S. government agencies and commercial companies. The company specializes in the following technology areas: Designing and developing visualization applications for data analysis; Signals and Cyber-related Analysis (i.e. packet and network traffic analysis); Network Penetration Testing, Vulnerability Assessment and Network Security; Database design and administration to support data analysis and reporting; and Software and hardware digital signal processing (DSP) of high-bandwidth data.
Wounded Warrior Project (Jacksonville, Florida) – Since 2003, Wounded Warrior Project® has been meeting the growing needs of warriors, their families, and caregivers – helping them achieve their highest ambition.