The M.S. in Business Data Science and Analytics (MS-BDSA) degree is a unique cross-disciplinary program designed to be completed in one calendar year (January–December). There are three main themes that drive the educational experience in our program: business strategy, data tools and management, and experiential learning. The curriculum is the result of an educational partnership between the College of Business, College of Natural Sciences and College of Engineering to ensure our students have a strong background in business, statistics and computer programming. With a strong focus on real-world data, corporate partnerships are integral to our program’s curriculum.
Our goal is to train students to have the talent required to be successful data advocates, users, and translaters across multiple business functions.
Every spring and fall, we feature live big data projects sponsored by corporate partners. Our spring project involves the ACC 822: Project Management course, where the entire cohort is guided by faculty through a corporate-sponsored project. Our Fall Capstone project aligns with ITM 888. Each project is assigned a faculty coach and a team of students to work remotely on the topic presented over approximately 10 weeks. These students are expected to function in a consultancy-style capacity, communicating directly with the corporate team providing deep analysis and development for the sponsoring organization.
We are thrilled to have PACCAR Winch on board as our spring 2021 corporate sponsor!
Due to COVID-19, we provided students the opportunity to perform their capstone project in Spring term and graduate one term delayed. We are grateful to our capstone sponsors for the Spring 2021 term for providing this opportunity for our students: Commonwealth Engineering, Apple, Michigan Lottery, MSU IPF, MSU OPB, and Stryker.
Past sponsors include Amway, Accident Fund Insurance, Auto Owners Insurance, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Carhartt, Consumers Energy, Diageo, Dow, Farm Bureau Insurance, GM, Great Expressions Dental, Meijer, MGM Resorts, Michigan Lottery, MSU Advancement, MSU Federal Credit Union, MSU Hockey, NSF, Old Nation Brewing, OnStar, Owens Corning, Quicken Loans, Sunset Grown, State of Michigan, Steelcase, Stryker, Urban Science, USA Tech, USAA, Valassis, Vertafore and many more.
We recruit throughout the year for the corporate project piece of the program. Please contact the program director for more details on how to sponsor a project.
Employers are welcome to recruit in a manner that works best for their needs. Please contact the program director to set up a recruiting plan that works for you! We also have two formal events during the year:
Resume books are available upon request to connect directly with the students.
Host a one-hour information session to showcase opportunities at your company and then conduct interviews the following day to screen for talent.
Visit the students in class to speak directly on a current topic. Contact the program director for details.