Professor Girish Punj with the assistance of Brian Brady, director of the UConn Stamford Learning Accelerator, offered an MBA level experiential learning course at the UConn Stamford Learning Accelerator in collaboration with the IBM Center for Innovation in Visual Analytics. Students interacted with IBM researchers and executives while working on various semester-length projects where they learned and experienced the latest generation of data visualization methodologies. They gained exposure to the rapidly evolving field of visual analytics and learned how to solve business problems using information visualization tools under the guidance of IBM data visualization experts located at various IBM facilities around the world.

“Visual Analytics provided unparalleled access to researchers at IBM who are developing the latest visualization technologies. The course exposed me to ways of representing large and complex data using interactive visualizations making it possible to gain insights and facilitate decision making. Aside from the knowledge gained in the course, the sense of team accomplishment and the accolades received from IBM made it an invaluable addition to my academics,” said Taylor Witt ’05, vice president, digital applications at IBM and a UConn MBA candidate.

“It was a great learning experience to discuss the latest visualization techniques and state-of-the-art visualization tools with IBM researchers around the world through virtual talks,” said Tugba Onder ’14 MBA.

“This was a very hands-on class that focused on visualizing and analyzing big data—which is everywhere, no matter what industry you’re in. You’ll learn a lot in this class from the experts at IBM and from your classmates. The semester will pass by quickly and you won’t believe how much you have accomplished,” said Jennifer Bui ’13 MBA, analyst, ALM People’s United Bank.