At his installation ceremony today, Chancellor Randy Woodson used the special occasion to highlight NC State’s MSA degree in his speech to faculty, students and friends of the university. The MSA, now in its fourth year, is the nation’s first full-fledged graduate degree program in Analytics. The success of the MSA program can be attributed to several factors, namely the rapidly expanding importance of Analytics throughout the economy, the speed and agility of the Institute as a college-wide collaboration overseeing the MSA, the innovative and intensive cohort-driven educational model with its extensive use of team learning, the close collaboration with industry and strategic partnership with SAS, and the talented and dedicated Institute staff members who are deeply committed to student success. NC State is internationally recognized as the pioneer in Analytics education, providing a first-rate education to the citizens of North Carolina and beyond.
Excerpt from Chancellor Woodson’s speech:
When we look across the history of NC State, we see a willingness to think big about the possibilities and an energy to bring those possibilities to life. It was there in the conversation of the Watauga Club members who believed North Carolina needed a land-grant university. And extends all the way to Dean Kamphoefner imagining a world-class College of Design right here in Raleigh and Governor Hunt imagining what a new research and innovation campus could be. It was there when we helped to create the Research Triangle Park. It was there when we created a one-of-a-kind analytics degree program. It was there when we re-imagined how you teach large-lecture physics classes and created a new paradigm. It was in the conversation when we built the first university-operated nuclear reactor and the first electric guitar… and when we helped to launch SAS, Cree and Biolex. It was there when Trudy Mackay became our most recent member of the National Academy of Sciences.