When it came time to choose a nonprofit partner for the final project of her applied economics program, Sarah Gremonprez contacted her local Habitat for Humanity chapter. They had the perfect problem for her to solve: they had built 65 homes over the past three years and wanted to build 40 homes each year for the next five. How could they attract enough volunteers to donate their time to the task?
“I looked at a lot of data to find out why people volunteer multiple times and what motivates them to increase their volunteering hours,” said Gremonplez, a graduate of the applied economics master's program. “I hope that information will help volunteers develop a plan to get closer to their goals.”
Gremonprez's work with Habitat for Humanity is a great example of business analytics using data to solve problems, and Marquette Business is further incorporating analytics-driven problem-solving across its college curriculum, from teaching students basic coding to using artificial intelligence.
Dr. Mark Barratt, Dean and Associate Professor of Business, believes that working with data is not just the job of computer scientists: Business students don't design the algorithms that collect data, but they interpret it and derive actionable insights.
“Students will be able to use the vast amount of data we have today to help organizations make better decisions, such as better utilization of resources or choosing different parts of the market to target,” Barratt says.
Partnership with Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute enables Marquette businesses to build out analytics services. NMDSI is a collaboration between Marquette, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Milwaukee-based financial services provider Northwestern Mutual to foster an analytics research, talent and technology ecosystem.
Scott Rex, co-director of NMDSI and instructor of marketing practice, envisions the lab as an umbrella for data analytics activities across campus. He knows firsthand how many high-paying jobs require data skills and how few candidates are available for those positions.
“A big challenge for all of us is finding the right people in a field where knowledge is highly specialized,” says Rex. “For some jobs, you might need someone who is well versed in Python programming for business applications, who can ask smart questions and interpret data to answer those questions. Those people don't come around very often.”
Students like Gremonprez in the MSAE program hope to become the kind of professionals Rex envisions. Alvaro Clara, who graduated with an MSAE degree this spring along with Gremonprez, also used business analytics during his internship with the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis.
“I had no interest in learning programming languages before I enrolled in the degree program, but I ended up learning a lot of cool skills that would have been useful to me in my previous career.”
Sarah Gremonplez, Master of Applied Economics, Class of 2024
“One of the big projects I worked on there was around academic intervention,” Clara explains. “My boss and I were interested in how policy changes at Marquette University would translate to educational outcomes. We needed to balance the possibility that students who were below the GPA threshold for continued admission might improve with targeted intervention and a second chance, versus the possibility that they wouldn't improve and would simply end up with more debt.”
“This was a great opportunity to use data to make better, more informed decisions rather than just blindly choosing a path.”
Some business students shy away from analytics classes because they find learning to code intimidating. Gremonprez didn't find it intimidating, saying a basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel is great preparation for learning the language of coding.
“I had no interest in learning programming languages before I enrolled in the degree program, but I ended up learning a lot of great skills that would have been useful to me in my previous career, helping me allocate and optimize resources,” Gremonprez says.
Marquette Business has many ambitious plans for data analytics: For example, Rex has developed a marketing analytics course to help undergraduates stand out in the workplace.
With the expansion of analytics courses in mind, Barratt said the university's focus has expanded to AI, and the university is seeking “AI-skilled people across all disciplines.” Huge amounts of data go into developing large-scale language models like ChatGPT, AI predictive applications, and other tools that help businesses run smarter. Graduates with analytical skills will understand how to interpret these models and leverage them in ways that add value.
There’s one thing Barratt and Rex see as a top priority for the future of data analytics at the Marquette College of Business: increasing faculty expertise in the field.
“We've started to use some of the NMDSI funding to attract people with the right skills, not just analytical skills but incorporating artificial intelligence experience,” Barratt says.
“Faculty recruitment is important to us, but it's equally important to support our existing faculty's research and ensure they are using cutting-edge tools,” Rex said. “Ultimately, it's about ensuring that everyone — faculty, students, and industry partners — has access to the resources they need to successfully apply data science principles.”
