Meet Altaf Merchant
March 11, 2021
Dean Altaf Merchant sees the Milgard School as a catalyst for entrepreneurship and social responsibility in the South Sound region.
Students-as-Adaptive Innovators
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Students-as-Analytical Thinkers & Adaptive Innovators = Work-based Learning
Look at our students' past work!
The Center for Business Analytics' mission statement states we are here, “to help individuals, businesses, and our community grow and succeed in our global digital economy.” Our two primary goals are to increase impact and awareness through research, education and service, and drive engagement at the intersection of business and academics.
Students have the unique ability to bring creativity, fresh insights, and apply innovative approaches towards achieving real business outcomes. Students-as-Adaptive Innovators was created to help organizations co-create opportunities to engage our students and researchers to work as consultants on existing business problems or cultivate new opportunities, and improve the processes and performance of organizations with data, analytics, design, and service thinking. These live consultative projects typically include data collection, analysis, demo, service/digital transformation plans and recommendations. Under the direction of Milgard faculty advisors, teams of three to six students, T-shaped analytical thinkers and adaptive innovators, use strategic thinking, operational excellence, complex problem solving, creativity, and teamwork skills to tackle an organization’s challenges and create value-added services.
How it works
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Companies |
Propose a project for review by The Center for Business Analytics @ Milgard School of Business |
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Industry sponsors |
Identify a focus for a project of major interest to you (problem or opportunity) Assign a key associate to act as project coordinator and be readily accessible to the students make sure students have access to the people and internal information they need to do the project Identify an executive sponsor for the project Reimburse the student teams for out-of-pocket expenses At the end of the project, students will be given an opportunity to give a final presentation to the senior management (sponsor/champion) of this project |
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Teams of 4 to 6 students |
Are matched to a project faculty mentor |
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Industry sponsors |
Provide a technical mentor to meet with the team weekly for the duration of the project |
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Student teams |
With the help of their technical and faculty mentors, have hands-on experience to demonstrate distinctive knowledge and skills to solve existing business problems or cultivate new opportunities, and improve the performance of organizations through live consultative projects that typically include data collection, analysis, prototype demo, digital transformation plan and recommendations |
Benefits to Companies
- Leverage fresh student insights and receive help applying new, innovative approaches
- Opportunity to gain a fresh approach to an industry problem
- Access non-exclusive commercial licenses to any IP developed by diverse student teams or UW employee through the project
- Have access to students and graduates who will have the most current knowledge and skills (e.g. business analytics, data science)
- Gain insight into student skills and knowledge for more efficient and effective recruitment
- Strengthen community ties to the Milgard School of Business and the University of Washington Tacoma
- Great opportunity for professional development in leadership and/or project management for industry mentors
- Provide Milgard Schools students valuable, career-relevant experiences in applying classroom skills to address real world problems
Non-disclosure and Confidentiality
- All project information will be kept confidential in-class environment unless permission for release is obtained from the Client.
- Some clients may request team members to sign Client’s non-disclosure agreement to ensure that commercially sensitive projects are treated with full confidentiality.
- Confidential Information includes all data, reports, records, trade secrets, verbal communications, and/or other materials obtained from the Client both prior to and subsequent to duration of this course.
- The Student Consultants, Faculty Advisors and Alliance Partners shall not use or exploit the confidential information for any purpose other than for education and completion of the Course.
- All information provided to the student team is held confidential, to be shared only within the classroom setting.
We are only considering select organizations for participation who agree to
- identify a focus for a project of major interest to you
- make sure students have access to the people and internal information they need to do the project
- identify an executive sponsor for the project
- assign a key associate to act as project coordinator and be readily accessible to the students
- reimburse the student teams for out-of-pocket expenses
You are invited to benefit from a team of advanced Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) or MBA students working on an important actionable project for your organization.
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Applied Project: Digital Transformation
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July - May |
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Proposal Due: June 8, 2020 |
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Your project will support students’ learning by giving them the opportunity to apply their studies and develop consulting skills as part of their professional development.
