In Ramnath Chellappa’s three decades in the business analytics industry, he has never seen technology grow and change like it has in the last three years.
Where once artificial intelligence (AI) was automating processes and assisting with decision making by discovering patterns in data, now the world has generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and agentic AI—technology that is creating new content versus analyzing what already exists.
“Fundamentally, AI is now creating content—that is a significant change in the technology trajectory,” which Chellappa described as a previously linear growth. “This is a kind of change I have never seen before.”
Our goal is not to teach tools that may be invoked today, but rather teach the fundamentals that form the basis for all of these technologies. No matter how things change, the foundation is laid strong for the students.
Ramnath Chellappa, Academic Director, MS in Business Analytics
If it’s new to Chellappa, professor of Information Systems & Operations Management and academic director of Goizueta’s MS in Business Analytics program, then it’s new to companies and the students who will soon be employed by them.
The responsibility of preparing students in the MS in Business Analytics program for their future careers falls on Chellappa and his faculty—and it’s a responsibility that isn’t taken lightly.
This year marks the program’s 10th anniversary, and as such, the entire program is getting reviewed from the curriculum down the to the application process.
“The MS in Business Analytics is a professional, graduate degree program rather than a vocational school, so our goal is not to teach tools that may be invoked today, but rather teach the fundamentals that form the basis for all of these technologies,” explains Chellappa. “No matter how things change, the foundation is laid strong for the students.”
Staying Relevant and Focusing on Business
Each year, Chellappa and his faculty met to discuss small “tweaks” or incremental changes that faculty want and need to make to their courses.
“The goal of the program is to be ready for the workplace from day one, and that implies that we need to be up and ready with how things are changing in the workplace,” says Chellappa.
Faculty like Emma Zhang, Goizueta Term Chair Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management, rely on her research to keep her course up-to-date.
“Naturally, from the academic component of my career, I have a lot of exposure to what is happening in the AI space, what people are doing on a technical level, and what new models are being used,” says Zhang.
While the foundation of her course remains the same—teaching students the foundation behind models, as many use the same base—the tools she implements in the classroom reflect the changing landscape to ensure students are prepared after they graduate from the 10-month graduate program.
“I purposefully structure the course so that we are not focusing so much on the technical content, but more on what the model does, what it is, and how to implement it,” explains Zhang.
She says her course teaches students three critical skills: technical competence, analytical thinking, and AI literacy and communication.
Zhang echoes Chellappa when she says that the program is training students to take their technical knowledge and apply it to the business world. Students are taught how to pick an appropriate tool for the business situation at hand, how the model works, and, perhaps most importantly, how to translate and communicate their findings into language that’s easy for a non-expert, such as a future employers, to understand.
“We are a business program not only about data and technology, but also about how that data and technology are relevant to solving a business problem,” says Chellappa. “No matter how technical we are, we never forget—first and foremost—this is a business school, and our goal is to solve a business problem.”
Business First
That focus on business first is what alumnus Yonah Byarugaba 24MSBA found most valuable during his time in the program. Byarugaba came to Goizueta with a technical background, seeking the business acumen needed to complement his technical skills.
“The program emphasized solving problems from a business point of view first, and then using technology and analytics as tools to solve those problems. That approach was extremely valuable to me,” says Byarugaba, a machine learning engineer at Oversight Systems.
We are a business program not only about data and technology, but also about how that data and technology are relevant to solving a business problem. No matter how technical we are, we never forget—first and foremost—this is a business school, and our goal is to solve a business problem.
Ramnath Chellappa
Byarugaba says storytelling and business-minded problem solving were the most valuable skills he learned in the program—and they’re skills he applies daily in his job, solving business problems in the financial industry. Byarugaba also enjoyed the fast-paced nature of the program, saying it “simulated real-world work environments.”
A Leader in Education
In addition to the classroom, students in the MS in Business Analytics program participate in a semester-long practicum, which Chellappa refers to as the “crown jewel” of the program. He thinks of the practicum as facilitating a consulting company experience, where Chellappa and the program’s managing director act as owners of a consulting company, and the students are consultants. Rather than have the whole class work on a single company’s one problem, the students are divided into teams that each tackle different problems.
“The ability to provide exposure to students across multiple functional domains and as well as verticals is very unique,” says Chellappa. “The analytics practicum ought not to be seen as simply an academic exercise…it’s almost an internship on steroids. It’s as real as it gets.”
Students may be working with a client in healthcare or finance, or they may be finding solutions for human resources, marketing, or supply chains and operations.
The goal of the program is to be ready for the workplace from day one, and that implies that we need to be up and ready with how things are changing in the workplace
Ramnath Chellappa
In Chellappa’s opinion, the three things that make Goizueta’s program stand out are this practicum experience, the specialized research areas of their faculty and visiting industry experts, and the fact the curriculum is—and always has been—cloud computing-driven. The latter fact means that students are fully prepared to tackle any company’s data, whether they operate on Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and so on.
“Our program was one of the first to be cloud-based,” says Chellappa. “The program was designed to be responsive to industry needs.”
Goizueta’s MS in Business Analytics program has been a leader and trend-setter in this space, preparing the next generation of the business analytics workforce.
“Regardless of your level or role, you’re often asked about foundational concepts,” says Byarugaba. “Those basics are critical.”
