Spears School business analytics students reap success at 2017 SAS Global Forum

Monday, April 17, 2017

Oklahoma State University Spears School of Business master’s in business analytics students and faculty took home several awards earlier this month while attending the annual SAS Global Forum in Orlando, Florida.

Business analytic graduate students Anirban Chakraborty and Indra Kiran Chowdavarapu received the SAS Student Ambassador award, which included an all-expense paid trip to the conference to attend and present their papers. Only 15 awards are given each year to students worldwide, and this is the seventh year in a row that an OSU student has received the award.

Business analytic graduate students Indra Kiran Chowdavarapu (left) and Anirban Chakraborty (right) received the SAS Student Ambassador award.

An OSU team of students competed in the SAS Student Symposium and was named a Top 8 Finalist, which awarded the entire team an all-expense paid trip to attend the conference and present their research symposium ideas. The team consisted of master’s in business analytics full-time students Jayant Sharma and Sid Grover, who was also awarded the SAS Student Scholarship award, and online learning students John Eacott and Par Aravazhi. This is the second year in a row that an OSU team has competed and finished in the Top 8 and the eighth year in a row that an OSU student was awarded the SAS Student Scholarship.

Three students, eight student pairs and one faculty member represented OSU by presenting papers and posters at the conference:

Faculty Presentation

Clinical assistant professor of marketing Miriam McGaugh: 21st Century Epidemiology: Analyzing Health Disparities with SAS Enterprise Miner and ESRI ArcGIS

Student Papers

Anirban Chakraborty, Surya Bhaskar Ayyalasomayajula: What Members Really Feel About Your Credit Card?
Indra Kiran Chowdavarapu: Analyzing the Effectiveness of COPD Drugs through Statistical Tests and Sentiment Analysis
Praneeth Guggilla, Snigdha Gutha: Price Recommendation Engine for Airbnb
Snigdha Gutha, Anusha Mamillapalli: Analyzing the effect of Weather on Uber Ridership
Mohit Singhi, Sangar Rane: The Orange Lifestyle
Praveen Kotekal: Visualizing Market Structure Using Brand Sentiments

Student Posters

Nachiket Kawitkar, Swapneel Deshpande: Sentiment Analysis of Opinions about Self Driving Cars
Gaurang Margaj, Tejaswi Jha: Analysis of the disparity of the “Haves” and “Have-Nots” in United States of America
Anusha Mamillapalli, Snigdha Gutha: Effect of Weather on Uber Ridership
Jayant Sharma: Change in Themes of Billboard Top 100 Songs
Vishwanath Kolar Bhaskara, Bhuvaneswari Yallabandi: Analyzing the predictive power of political and social factors in determining country risk

Spears School marketing professor Goutam Chakraborty was introduced as the incoming chair for the 2018 SAS Global Forum Conference.

In addition to the many awards and presentations, Spears School marketing professor Goutam Chakraborty was introduced as the incoming chair for the 2018 SAS Global Forum Conference.

“I am delighted with the performance of OSU’s master’s in business analytics students that culminated in the winning so many awards and accolades for our program,” said Chakraborty, director of the master’s in business analytics program for the Spears School. “The sustained exemplary performance over at the national level over the years is a testament to the quality and the hard-work of our students and faculty.”

For more information about the master’s in business analytics program at OSU, visit https://analytics.okstate.edu/msba/.

For more information about the SAS Global Forum, visit https://www.sas.com/en_us/events/sas-global-forum/sas-global-forum-2017.html.