Our M.S. in Analytics practicum projects span eight months (September-April) and culminate with an executive-level report and presentation to the sponsor. The institute oversees each stage in the project. Student teams of 4-5 perform their work under confidentiality agreements and the results are the sole property of the respective sponsors. There is no sponsorship fee.

Our students are equipped with a variety of skills: statistics, data cleaning, data modeling and visualization, computer programming and knowledge of industry-standard analytical software tools. Students also receive instruction in business problem framing, teamwork, project management and professional communication.

Timeline

• First round proposal review: April 1
• Second round proposal review: July 1
• Sponsors selected by Aug. 1
• All arrangements including non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and secure data transfer completed by Sept. 1
• Project kick-off meetings held between Sept. 15-30
• Midpoint review meeting: early December
• Final presentation to sponsor: late April

Project Selection

Projects are selected based on the proposal’s alignment with the MSA program’s educational goals. It is helpful, but not required, for organizations to have experience working with universities and specifically with sponsoring student projects. The main criteria used to select projects include:

• Educational value
• Likelihood of success
• Level of challenge and complexity
• Clarity of project goals
• Sponsor motivation and commitment
• Type and quantity of data
• Accessibility to specialized software tools, if needed

Sponsor Commitments

Each practicum project sponsor is required to:

• Provide the NDA to be signed by student team
• Securely transfer the promised data on the specified timetable
• Assign a liaison, who will be the team’s primary point of contact to resolve issues as they may arise
• Provide technical and strategic guidance, as needed, to ensure the project remains on the desired course
• Host the team for the project kickoff and/or final presentation on-site, if possible

The sponsor is not expected to provide ongoing project management and oversight — the institute handles this.

Sponsorship Fees

We do not charge a fee for practicum sponsorship. However, we would be grateful to the sponsor for deferring all or part of the travel expenses, if any, to have the student team visit the sponsor location for the kickoff meeting and/or final presentation.

Practicum Teams

It’s become a tradition for each team to take a photo during their kickoff meeting

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Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a key element of how the projects are conducted. Unlike a master’s thesis, which is published, the practicum does not have a public disclosure requirement. Only members of the team have access to their sponsor’s data. Sponsors do not under any circumstance provide personally identifiable information (PII), and will only share data in a manner that is consistent with their third-party data transfer governance rules.

The institute provides students instruction in data privacy, security and the law with respect to non-disclosure agreements. Because students are not employees of the university, they must individually consent to the sponsor’s NDA before being assigned to a project.