The Institute is delighted to announce its practicum sponsors for the Master of Science in Analytics (MSA) Class of 2022. Student teams are tasked with projects from 21 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 Daimler Trucks, OneSource, Stride Learning, and Terminix.
“We are extremely grateful to all of the sponsoring organizations—new and returning—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 real-world projects with such a diverse group of sponsors. I applaud their commitment to support our educational mission.”
A total of 40 practicum proposals where received through an open solicitation 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 250 team projects with 128 lead sponsors from industry and government. Interested organizations are welcome to contact the Institute to learn more about practicum sponsorship.
Advance Auto Parts (Raleigh, North Carolina) – Advance Auto Parts is a leading automotive aftermarket parts provider that serves both professional installer and do-it-yourself customers. As of July 17, 2021, Advance operated 4,748 stores and 215 Worldpac branches in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The company also serves 1,306 independently owned Carquest branded stores across these locations in addition to Mexico and various Caribbean islands.
Asurion (Nashville, Tennessee) – For more than 20 years, Asurion’s innovation and dedication to customers has made it the preferred provider of technology protection to the world’s largest wireless carriers, trusted retailers and popular device manufacturers. Every day its team of 10,000 experts helps nearly 300 million people around the world solve the most common and uncommon tech issues.
Cigna (Bloomfield, Connecticut) – Cigna Corporation is a global health service company dedicated to improving the health, well-being and peace of mind of those we serve. Cigna delivers choice, predictability, affordability and access to quality care through integrated capabilities and connected, personalized solutions that advance whole person health.
Daimler Trucks (Portland, Oregon) – Daimler Trucks North America, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is the leading heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America. Daimler Trucks North America produces and markets commercial vehicles under the Freightliner, Western Star and Thomas Built Buses nameplates. Daimler Trucks North America is a Daimler company, the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer.
Dude Solutions (Cary, North Carolina) – Dude Solutions is a leading provider of cloud-based operations management software to optimize facilities, assets, and workflow.
Elevate Credit (Ft. Worth, Texas) – Elevate, together with the banks that license its marketing and technology services, has originated $9.2 billion in non-prime credit to more than 2.6 million non-prime consumers to date and has saved its customers more than $8.5 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. The company is committed to rewarding borrowers’ good financial behavior with features like interest rates that can go down over time, free financial training and free credit monitoring.
Live Oak Bank (Wilmington, North Carolina) – Live Oak Bank is a digitally focused, FDIC-insured bank serving customers across the country. Live Oak puts a groundbreaking spin on service and technology to redefine banking. Its products help customers buy, build, and expand their business, and high-yield savings and CD products to grow their hard-earned money.
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.
OneSource (Oceanside, California) – OneSource is an electrical and industrial distributor with 19 locations across California, Arizona, Hawaii and Baja California, Mexico. The company serves the commercial, residential, utility, contractor and industrial markets and is an operating company of Sonepar, an independent family-owned company with global leadership in B-to-B distribution of electrical products, solutions, and related services.
Primrose Schools (Atlanta, Georgia) – Primrose Schools is the leader in providing premier early education and care to children and families in the United States. Founded in 1982, there are 450 Primrose schools in 32 states today. Each school is independently owned and operated by Franchise Owners who partner with parents to help children build the right foundation for future learning and life.
Putnam Investments (Boston, Massachusetts) – Founded in 1937, Putnam Investments is a leading global money management firm. Putnam has over $175 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 and surrounding 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 the community.
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.
SAS Institute (Cary, North Carolina) – Through innovative software and services, SAS empowers and inspires customers around the world to transform data into intelligence. The company is continually recognized globally as a best workplace and pioneer of workplace culture for its meaningful sense of corporate community building and commitment to employees.
Stride Learning (Herndon, Virginia) – Stride is a premier provider of K-12 education for students, schools, and districts, including career learning services through middle and high school curriculum. For adult learners, Stride delivers professional skills training in healthcare and technology, as well as staffing and talent development for Fortune 500 companies. Stride has delivered millions of courses over the past decade and serves learners in all 50 states and more than 100 countries.
Terminix (Memphis, Tennessee) – Terminix Global Holdings is a leading provider of residential and commercial pest control. Terminix provides pest management services and protection against termites, mosquitoes, rodents and other pests. Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., with more than 11,400 teammates and 2.9 million customers in 24 countries and territories, the Company visits more than 50,000 homes and businesses every day.
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 Communications (New York, New York) – Verizon Communications Inc. is 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. It employs 135,000 people in 150 global locations.
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.
Zencos (Cary, North Carolina) – Founded in 2001, Zencos is known for delivering practical and reliable analytical solutions designed to meet the complex data challenges businesses face today. Our service offerings include strategy, architecture, implementation, analytics, and administration & support services to multiple industries.