HPNRI helps train the next generation of data scientists

Thursday, January 22, 2026

Media Contact: Sydney Trainor | OSU Brand Management | 405-744-9782 | sydney.trainor@okstate.edu

OSU Data Wranglers gain hands-on experience in health care analytics 

For a fly fisherman who's honed their craft, the process of catching trout starts long before they don waders and step into the river.  

Before casting, careful analysis of recent weather patterns, water temperature, current flows, moon phases and seasonal hatches, ensures when the right fly is presented at the right moment, the probability of success is higher. 

That same deliberate, data driven approach is what Dr. Matthew Bird, performance science coordinator at Oklahoma State University's Human Performance and Nutrition Research Institute, brings to his work with students analyzing real world health data. 

Just as analyzing a myriad of factors reveals where trout will be, Bird teaches students which types of health data to examine, which analytical tools to use, and how to tailor the analysis into actionable decisions for the populations who need them most.  

Spears School of Business students known as Data Wranglers work with Bird tackling large-scale, real-world health information collected from clinical and industry partners.  

“Part of my role is to create opportunities for our students to gain real-world experience,” said Kim Strom, assistant professor of management science and information systems. “When special project opportunities like HPNRI come along, we structure them so students can be hands-on, apply what they’re learning, and still produce meaningful work that advances the goals of our partners.”  

It’s common for businesses in human performance and health care to collect data but lack the time to translate it to action. They can identify trends via dashboards but typically understaffed to determine new insights.  

As a research entity, HPNRI partners with these for-profit industries, practitioners and clinicians and utilize their data sets to provide better care and triaging and better efficiencies.  

Bird’s students acquire their real-world data to analyze and provide novel insights and findings to benefit Oklahomans and the broader United States in health care. 

“What we can do is provide greater granularity and higher fidelity to the data,” Bird said. “How that helps them is that they can then turn around that data and then help direct decisions and policy.” 

Kyler Baldwin, a management information systems student graduate student in the 4+1 program, started as a Data Wrangler two years ago. This hands-on experience has reshaped how he understands both data and impact.  

In one partnership with Front Line Mobile Health — a public safety health and wellness business — the Data Wranglers and Bird are using collected datasets to evaluate the effectiveness of mandatory health screenings in fire departments.  

Health data frequently arrives from multiple sources, collected to support operational decisions, research and policy. In this project, Baldwin organizes data across five domains and more than 30,000 individual records, requiring careful aggregation and validation before any analysis can begin. 

As a business student, data analysis isn’t a novel idea. But a business student who gains experience while learning the context of health care specific data has an edge on the competition when they enter the workforce.  

While Baldwin’s excited for the future, this experience is providing him, it also has a deeper personal connection.  

“My father passed away in 2021 at the age of 58, so health care has become a very big piece of my life,” he said. “Playing even a small role in HPNRI’s mission of improving health outcomes in Oklahoma is something that’s really important to me.” 

Another student contributing to the Data Wranglers program is Femi Abioye, a student in the 4+1 program. Like Baldwin, Abioye is gaining exposure to health data that extends far beyond business use cases, offering a new perspective on how analytics can impact communities. 

“I really value helping others through this research,” Abioye said. “Working on projects that improve health outcomes for many different populations is such a rewarding feeling. I’m privileged to know our work contributes to a healthier, and more informed world.”  

Both Abioye and Baldwin are adding to their resume as data wranglers by presenting their research at the American College of Sports Medicine conference — an opportunity unique for business students. 

“The same data science approaches in business are going to be very comparable to health care,” Bird said. “But the problem is, if you get in a health care setting and you don't know what hemoglobin A1c is, or you don't know what the VO2 max test is, how do you know what to analyze? You need some type of general understanding of the context of the data.” 

As the intersection of health care and data science continues to grow, professionals like Bird and the Data Wranglers are becoming more important than ever. 

“This is an ongoing partnership that will span multiple semesters and support real research, and that allows students to truly wear different hats, grow their skills, and see how their work contributes to improving the health of Oklahomans,” Strom said.  

Bird is drawn to data science for the challenge of answering difficult questions.  

“I want to create better efficiencies,” Bird said. “Data science tools have given me the ability to build risk assessment models that provide clinicians with evidence-based triage support for improved patient outcomes.” 

And while doing all that, he’s also training the next generation of scientists to develop skills with machine learning and techniques that make them valuable data analysts.  

Many graduates will know how to code, which is valuable, but AI can do it faster and often better. What they need is the ability to frame and answer scientific questions. That skill isn’t just for researchers — everyone should know how to systematically evaluate whether a process improvement worked or whether one approach was better than another.  

“I am encouraging them to use AI to help generate data-wrangling code, but whenever they give me something — like a script — I’ll quiz them and ask, ‘What did you actually do?’” Bird said. “Sometimes I hear, ‘I don’t know.’ That’s when you’re relying on the tool too much and not understanding what’s happening underneath. I’m teaching them to go back and understand what they’re doing.” 

In a world where money can buy high-speed machine learning models and automated solutions, technology alone often falls short when users lack a fundamental understanding of how those tools work. Bird is intentional about ensuring students learn how to deploy advanced technologies and how to think critically about the questions they’re asking. 

The approach mirrors Bird’s fly-fishing philosophy. Anyone can spend $2,000 on the newest fly rod, but without understanding water conditions, timing and the goal at hand, even the most expensive equipment won’t guarantee success.  

But a skilled fisherman who knows how to read the river can often catch the same fish — or better — with a hand-me-down rod.