Nunn School and School of Public Policy Host First Big Data Career Event

Posted October 31, 2018

On October 25, the Sam Nunn School and School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech hosted a joint panel discussion on Big Data. “What’s the Big Deal?” invited practitioners, faculty, alumni, and students from the Master’s of Analytics at Georgia Tech program to speak about analytics for liberal arts majors in the Ivan Allen College.

The evening began with a panel discussion answering questions submitted by students. Jeffrey Borowitz, a lecturer in the Nunn School, answered a question related to programming skill levels on students’ resumes. In his response, Borowitz stressed the importance of having R and Python, as well having tools to show how to think about problems and data.

Shannon Kehoe, a Nunn School alumna and current student in the Master’s of Analytics Program at Georgia Tech, said that her Georgia Tech degree taught her “how to take tech lingo and communicate value behind a product or model...that is what the liberal arts background brings to data analytics.”

Following the panel discussion, the floor opened up for additional questions. A School of Public Policy master’s student asked how she could become more competitive during job interviews. Alan Marco, an associate professor in the School of Public Policy, responded that students need to be able to show experience with a research project and research method with data..

Before concluding the event, there was time allocated for networking and mentoring opportunities.

The purpose of the event was to expose students to the field of analytics. Students learned about common misconceptions people have about careers in analytics, the most important social science programming languages, marketing oneself, and job opportunities in policy based data science. There were many important lessons but one key takeaway is that Ivan Allen College students are needed in the field of analytics for both their hard and soft skills.

A special thanks to Camila Apablaza, a Ph.D. student in the School of Public Policy, for paneling the discussion and to our panelists: 

• Omar Asensio, assistant professor in the School of Public Policy,
• Jeff Borowitz, lecturer in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs
• Scott Ganz, asssistant professor in the School of Public Policy
• Shannon Kehoe, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs alumna and MS Analytics student
• Alan Marco, associate professor in the School of Public Policy
• David Muchlinski, assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs
• Emily Parriott, MS Analytics alumna
• Sherezad Rehmann, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs alumnus