The Institute’s Industry Advisory Board (IAB) held its second meeting of 2009 today on Centennial Campus at the Park Alumni Center. The meeting included a series of presentations and feedback discussions focused on the MSA curriculum. The IAB includes nearly 40 companies from across the country representing a broad cross-section of industries. The Board’s input plays an instrumental role in keeping the MSA curriculum relevant and on the cutting edge.
Executive Guest Lecture – Randy Jones
We are delighted to announce that Randy Jones, vice president for Strategy, Architecture at GlaxoSmithKline – North America Pharmaceuticals IT, will deliver the third executive guest lecture of 2009. The topic will be: Pharmaceutical Marketing Data–How the Pharmaceutical Industry Searches for and Takes Advantage of Information. The Institute gratefully acknowledges the generous support of SAS as sponsor of the guest lecture series. Continue reading “Executive Guest Lecture – Randy Jones”
Suchismita Nandi Named Finalist
Among three competitors from the MSA Class of 2009 that submitted entries in this year’s M2009 Data Mining Shootout, one has been named a finalist in the competition. Congratulations are in order for Suchismita Nandi. Additionally, Dr. Simon Hsiang, who teaches Data Mining and Survival Analysis to MSA students, participated as faculty adviser. There were a totally of 47 teams that registered to participate in the Shootout from 13 universities. The winner of the competition will be announced at M2009 Data Mining Conference in Las Vegas on October 27.
Students Complete Summer Boot Camp
The MSA Class of 2010 enrolled in late June and proceeded at a breakneck pace through a six-week boot camp covering basic statistics and statistical programming. In addition to completing 5 credit hours of the MSA curriculum, 75% of the class also succeeded in passing the optional SAS Base programming certification. It is expected that over 90% will complete the certification before year-end, and half will complete the certification for advanced programming. Congratulations to the 39 members of the Class of 2010 who succeeded in completing the summer portion of the MSA program.
Executive Speaker Caps Summer Program
The Institute is pleased to announce Ian Gordon, senior vice president for Commercial and Government Operations at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, will deliver the Analytics Executive Guest Lecture at a special ceremony on August 6 to mark the completion of the MSA summer program. Gordon has more than 25 years of experience in health insurance, financial services and consulting. His talk is titled “Using Analytics to Power the Business.” The Institute gratefully acknowledges the generous support of SAS as sponsor of the guest lecture series. Continue reading “Executive Speaker Caps Summer Program”
Job Placement Tops 90-Percent
Despite the challenging economy, the MSA Class of 2009 job placement rate has topped 90-percent within 30 days of graduation. Average starting salaries including signing bonuses exceeded $75,000. During the 120-day placement period beginning in February, the Institute had more employers interviewing (70), hosted more recruiting visits (18), and averaged more interviews per student (7) compared to the same period in 2008. Continue reading “Job Placement Tops 90-Percent”
Class of 2009 Celebrates Graduation
Today thirty-five candidates were awarded M.S. degrees in Analytics at the NC State University spring commencement exercise. A celebration for students, family and friends was held at the Park Alumni Center on Centennial Campus. Over one hundred were in attendance to applaud the graduates as they received their diplomas. The commencement exercise is only the second for the Institute. With the addition of the Class of 2009, the MSA Alumni Society now numbers 58 members. Congratulations to all of the graduates!
MSA Class of 2010 Set to Enroll
The MSA Class of 2010 is set to arrive on June 29. The cohort of 40 students was selected from a pool of over 160 applicants. Seventy percent of the incoming class are residents of North Carolina, forty-five percent are women, and nearly half hold a prior graduate degree. The Class of 2010 has a median age of 29, and a median 5 years since earning their last university degree. The class is internationally diverse, representing nine countries of origin.
International Cooperation
The Institute has signed a letter of cooperation with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) to support their effort to launch a degree similar to the MSA in 2010. BME is Hungary’s leading technical university. As a first step in the agreement, the Institute will host a BME Ph.D. candidate for 2009-2010. The agreement also includes the exchange of visiting faculty, as well as cooperation in curriculum development. This is not the first such partnership between NC State and BME. An earlier agreement was signed in the area of computer networking. BME has 14,000 students and issues 70-percent of Hungary’s engineering degrees each year.
Students Complete Practicum Projects
The MSA Class of 2009 completed seven team projects as part of the company-sponsored analytics practicum. Students worked with large amounts of data usually provided by their sponsor. The practicum culminated with a written report and presentation to the sponsor in the last week of April. All projects were completed to the satisfaction of their sponsors. The sponsors this year included: Detica, Hallmark, IBM, NetJets, Travelocity, and Wachovia/Wells Fargo. Many thanks to our sponsors for their participation!