A group of students in the Questrom School of Business is launching the Boston University Analytics Club — in an effort to provide students with the skills necessary to succeed in the field of data analytics after college. The group will be hosting its first meeting Wednesday, introducing interested students to the executive board and sharing its mission.
The club’s creation stems from the increasing demand for data analysts in the business industry, according to club President Ben Wu, a junior in Questrom. The idea for the club, Wu said, came after he and fellow Questrom junior Jordan Murray, and vice president of the club, developed a mutual appreciation for the field after they worked as teammates in another analytics group.
“We felt like there’s a really big need for analytics,” Wu said. “Big data is a very big, good skill set … So many jobs are hiring data analysts. It’s exploding right now.”
One of the long-term goals of the club, Wu said, is to ensure its members are better qualified for positions requiring data analysis.
“We’re going to set the long-term goals [at the first meeting], which is making Questrom [students] more marketable with data analytics skills because there’s a lot of data analytics jobs out there,” Wu said. “I feel like [employers] are looking for specific things that we can teach the club.”
Benjamin Lesser, a Questrom junior and the club’s treasurer, said one of the primary focuses of the club will be to put students in a position to succeed in the workforce after college. The goal is to acquaint interested members with analytics’ growing significance in the business world.
“There is a big need for analytics in general, especially in the employment world right now,” Lesser said. “We’re trying to fulfill that need and get as many qualified people ready for the workforce as possible.”
Another source of motivation for founding the club is the lack of analytics classes offered by Questrom. After Questrom students complete the core curriculum their junior year, Murray said, analytics-based classes, like quantitative modeling, are no longer available to them.
“In [the core curriculum], you take QM 323, you take two QM [analytics] classes before core and after that, there’s no analytics-based classes left in Questrom,” Murray said, “so we feel like if you have an interest in it, there’s no way to fulfill that without a club.”
The group recently gained approval from assistant dean of students and director of student activities John Battaglino to become an officially-recognized student organization and has chosen Kenneth Parker, a professor of operations and technology management, as its faculty advisor, according to Lesser.
The club will not only aim to benefit Questrom students, Lesser said, but also other students with a strong interest in subjects like statistics and mathematics.
“[The club] is for everyone — it’s not Questrom specifically,” Lesser said. “We assume Questrom students will be the ones most interested. Of course, computer science, statistics … even mathematics [students] would be interested.”
Several students who plan to attend the first meeting said that they were excited to join the club, as it can help them learn a skill set that could help them advance in their educational and professional careers.
Antonio Moral, a sophomore in Questrom, said he thinks the club could offer business students like himself the opportunity to acquire useful industry skills.
“It’s always nice to see there’s new opportunities to learn, especially in Questrom,” Moral said. “There’s not many classes that focus on … data analytics and it’s something that the market’s going toward, so it would be nice to know more about it.”
Similarly, CAS junior Justin Shapiro said he thinks the club will be a viable way for him to develop skills in analytics.
“I don’t know much about analytics, so it’s just a cool way to start learning without having to signup and enroll in a class that’s not going to help toward my major,” said Shapiro, a history major.
Randy Richardson, a Questrom junior, said he is eager to gain knowledge on the topic of analytics to help him determine his Questrom concentration.
“I’m pretty undecided on my concentration in Questrom,” Richardson said. “I just don’t know enough about analytics, and I think [the club] is going to be a great way to learn more about the subject.”
