Advising Student-Driven Analytics Projects: A Summary of Experiences and Lessons Learned

Aaron Babier (), Craig Fernandes () and Ian Yihang Zhu ()
Additional contact information
Aaron Babier: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G8, Canada; Vector Institute, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1M1, Canada
Craig Fernandes: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G8, Canada
Ian Yihang Zhu: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G8, Canada

INFORMS Transactions on Education, 2023, vol. 23, issue 2, 121-135

Abstract: In this paper, we describe a course project in which teams of undergraduate students propose and execute an end-to-end analytics project to solve a real-world problem. The project challenges students to implement machine learning, optimization, simulation, or a combination of these three techniques on real-world data that they collect. A designated project advisor helps each team refine its project and assesses the quality of the resulting work. In our analysis of 58 past projects, we show that students developed solutions for a wide range of topics by employing various methodologies. However, most teams encountered similar challenges that project advisors helped them overcome with tailored feedback. Based on feedback from 106 previous students, the project experience was largely positive and helped them prepare for their future careers. We believe that this type of hands-on project is conducive to the development of important data analytics skills.

Keywords: analytics education; active learning; operations research; machine learning; optimization; simulation; data mining; communication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/ited.2022.0275 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orited:v:23:y:2023:i:2:p:121-135

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in INFORMS Transactions on Education from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().