One of our current Master of Science of Business Analytics (MSBA) Applied Projects was featured in an article in the Sept/Oct issue of Cityvision – The Association of Washington Cities Magazine. The MSBA team is partnering with the City of Puyallup to help them develop a Covid-19 post-pandemic plan to reinvent their economy in the region. Before the pandemic, Puyallup had a robust economy and a downtown core that was thriving. But like similar cities across the nation, many sectors were hit hard during the pandemic and city leaders are seeking data-driven strategies to proactively address their economic recovery.
Last spring, Meredith Neal (City of Puyallup Economic Development Manager) reached out to Dr. Haluk Demirkan (Assistant Dean of Analytics Innovations; Founding Director of Center for Business Analytics, Master of Science in Business Analytics & Undergraduate Minor in Business Data Analytics) and Dr. Michael Helser (Milgard Center of Business Analytics Program Manager) to see if our students could help the City of Puyallup reinvent their economy. We encouraged her to submit an Applied Project proposal for the MSBA students to work on in 2020/21 and it was one of the 15 projects accepted for this academic year.
Our UW Tacoma MSBA students will apply the business analytics skills they are learning in the MSBA program on this challenge. This fall, our students are applying descriptive and diagnostic analytics to depict what has happened to Puyallup’s economy. In winter quarter, students will apply predictive analytics and machine learning to demonstrate what could happen to their economy moving forward. And in spring quarter, our students will complete the project by applying prescriptive analytics and artificial intelligence to identify strategies to help Puyallup proactively recover from the pandemic.
Dr. Margo Bergman (Associate Teaching Professor, Milgard School of Business, UW Tacoma) is the academic advisor for this MSBA applied project team and the MSBA student project manager is Trish Wells. In the Center for Business Analytics, Dr. Haluk Demirkan, Dr. Michael Helser and Merve Kayhan Serter (Technical Program Manager) work together to mentor the MSBA students and support all 15 of this year’s applied projects including project management, partner relations and technology resources to host and manage project data.
If you’d like to learn more about how your city can partner with our students in the MSBA program to work on similar challenges in your community, please contact Michael Helser at helsem@uw.edu
