Capstone Project

 

The MS Analytics Program Capstone is a graduation requirement. It consists of a five semester individual project where students utilize real data from their organization and partner with a faculty member to build a predictive model. It is the cornerstone of the program and is considered to be a career enhancer. Graduates have gotten significant raises as a result of the capstone.

“My company really benefited from the capstone. It gave us a tremendous amount of insight. I’m now tasked with leading that division across the
organization!”

-Class of 2017 Program Survey.

 

Examples of capstone projects submitted by our students:

2019 Capstone Projects

 

Capstone Project Frequently Asked Questions

We will begin discussing the capstone project in orientation, but you won’t have to submit an initial topic proposal until the end of the first semester.

Your data never leaves you and is not stored on university servers. We recommend you anonymize, rescale, and sanitize your data. Your project coach can sign a non-disclosure agreement to further ensure confidentiality.

The answer really depends on your business problem/question. Our definition of big data is n=all. You will discuss data with your project coach to determine what variables are needed.

Students typically do not publish their findings due to company confidentiality agreements. Peer presentations are made, but specific variables and findings do not have to be shared as we are interested in the process of modeling more than the specific outcomes.

Our capstone project is an individual project specific to each student and his/her organization or interests. It is a unique feature of our program which is both time and resource intensive, but yields enormous return on investment.

Think about what keeps your boss up at night? What is her/his (or your) bonus based on? Typically a project that is interesting to your employer makes a great project.