Guidelines for Analytics Capstone Project

Analytics Capstone Project

Guidelines for completing your capstone project.

1. Identify a question of interest: Choose something that interests you from industry, government, or academia. This should be a real-world problem that you will address in a comprehensive study.

2. Design your study: Review existing research, figure out what data you need and how you will get it.

3. Data collection: You may use published data, or you may collect the data yourself.

4. Data analysis: Perform the necessary analysis to address your question of interest. Include data descriptions and exploratory data analysis, the methods you used and the findings. You are expected to analyze data. A descriptive summary is not sufficient.

5. Report: Write a clear paper with your findings. Follow the general format of an academic research paper.

6. Final submission: Submit your final paper on Nov 18. A well-conceived study with an appropriate analysis and a clearly written report will be more favorably graded than a poor scientific effort with a fancy analysis.

7. Final Presentation: Each student will present her or his findings in a brief presentation on the last day of classes (Dec 2). Make sure you follow the guidelines in the syllabus for making a clear organized presentation.

Timeline:

· Aug 26 – Submit a proposal with a project plan. The proposal typically addresses the issue, problem or question being investigated (what is the problem, why is it important, what is the gap in existing literature); provides a description of the research methodology (what are you going to do and how); how will you measure success; and what possible obstacles you may encounter.

· Sep 30 – Submission 1 – Literature Review and Methodology sections.

· Oct 7 – Brief presentation on progress. Include what you have done to-date, issues you have encountered, and any changes you have or will have to make. Via Zoom

· Nov 4 – Submission 2 – First full draft: Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Analysis and Results, Conclusion and Discussion. Must be in APA format as discussed in class.

· Nov 18 – Submission 3 – Final paper

· Dec 2 – In-class Presentations. Via Zoom