Accelerating Data Science
with a Cutting-Edge Business
Analytics Program
B
ig Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence have moved from
emerging technologies to become core tools in organizations
today. These technologies enable enterprises to dive deeper into
ever-growing volume of data to solve multifaceted business problems. In
an interview with Analytics Insight, Melissa Bowers, PhD, Director of the
Master’s in Business Analytics (MSBA) program at the Haslam College of
Business, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville shares how the college
offers a cutting-edge business analytics program to train the next
generation of data scientists for today’s forward-thinking organizations.Kindly brief us about your role in the Haslam MSBA program and
your journey in this highly promising sector.
I am the director of the Master’s in Business Analytics (MSBA) program in
the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
We launched the first MSBA program in a college of business in the
fall of 2010. I was on the initial curriculum design committee formed in
2009 where we started from scratch to build a curriculum specifically
designed to meet the analytics needs of industry. I became the director
of the MSBA program in the summer of 2014.What is the edge your Analytics program has over other institutes
in the industry?
Our success comes from a powerful combination of 1) a well-designed,
innovative curriculum that develops in each student a fundamental
understanding of business, strong analytics skills, and a set of soft skills
demanded by industry; 2) a one-of-a-kind, real-world capstone course
experience; and 3) multiple links to industry so that our students gain real-53
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