Utah State University’s Analytics Solutions Center (ASC) is redefining technology and data analytics education. The ASC, a part of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, aims to empower students through hands-on, real-world challenges, becoming both a hub of innovation and an economic driver for its external partners.
“We want to be the premier center in the Intermountain West for applied academics at the forefront of data analytics and technological innovation,” Dr. Douglas Derrick, the ASC’s director, said. “The ASC is committed to experiential student development, providing a vibrant curriculum, experiences, and mentorship that are unique. If higher education is going to stay relevant, we must provide differentiated experiences for our students.”
The ASC’s experiential learning model allows students to apply academic knowledge to real-world challenges, enhancing their educational journey and preparing them for the modern workforce. Wes Smith, a student at the ASC, shared, “My experience was not just educational; it was transformational in terms of career readiness and understanding what working on a high-functioning team in the industry is like.”
USU ASC | Industry Panel, where panelists Carter Rees, Madison Sperry, and Ryan Beus discussed the power of leveraging LLMs in data careers.
The ASC is also a significant economic contributor, providing tremendous value to its external partners by bridging academia and industry. These public/private partnerships enhance students’ educational experiences and benefit external partners, adding to the region’s economic vitality. Many organizations of various sizes sponsor projects in the ASC, allowing students to be paid for their efforts and providing exceptional returns on investment for the partners.
The ASC has collaborated with companies such as Meta, The Larry H. Miller Company, Zions Bank, NuvoH2O, and Monumetric. Mike Bailey, Founder of the Social Capital Lab at Meta, commented, “We had an incredibly positive experience working with the ASC, and they exceeded all of our expectations. The projects were complex and required solving problems from multiple angles, including developing and validating advanced ML models, finding data errors, developing impact stories, and creating data visualizations and interactive tools. The ASC team delivered on all areas beyond what we were expecting and ahead of schedule.”
Besides benefiting external sponsors, the ASC is becoming a hub for technological innovation, with multiple businesses spinning out from ASC students and faculty. The ASC is dynamic and forward-thinking, embracing change and pursuing innovation to stay at the cutting edge of technology and analytics.
USU ASC | Utah State hosted the 2024 Association for Information Systems (AIS) Student Chapter Leadership Conference, where students from all over the United States gathered for workshops and competitions.
Hope Johnson, an ASC student, launched her company, Metric Tracking Solutions (MTS), with mentorship and a grant from the ASC. MTS is a professional fieldwork tracker for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). To become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), one must obtain 2,000 hours of supervised fieldwork under a current BCBA. The requirements are specific and difficult to track, typically taking two years to complete. Despite this, the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) does not provide any method to track these hours, leaving individuals to manage this complex task independently. MTS aims to remove this barrier to entry into the field.
Johnson explained, “The ASC has been instrumental in starting my business. Without their support, MTS would not exist. The mentors here are incredibly intelligent and always eager to help, even with projects they aren’t directly mentoring. The knowledge we gained while working on this project has been transformative for our careers, and we couldn’t have learned it all without the support of the ASC.”
Utah State University’s Analytics Solutions Center is driving experience-based learning in higher education. With its student-centered approach, commitment to innovation, and strategic focus on real-world applications, the ASC is educating the next generation of leaders in technology and analytics and significantly impacting the region’s landscape.