Babson College, a small college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, was founded in 1919. It has nearly 3,500 undergraduate and graduate students with a curriculum that incorporates a cross-disciplinary integration of learning experiences in management and the liberal arts.
For 2002, U.S. News & World Report recognized Babson as the number one college for entrepreneurship for the eighth consecutive year and placed it among the top 30 best undergraduate business programs nationwide.
The Princeton Review has consistently lauded Babson's faculty — they were ranked fifth in the nation in 2001 and first in 2000.
Babson College is committed to providing innovative curriculum stressing the importance of practice-based learning. The college's overriding theme is to cultivate innovation and to develop creative problem-solving abilities.
Babson recognized that the prevalence of data in today's business world meant students needed to think about large datasets in a new way. Babson's use of analytical techniques to develop marketing solutions was a natural extension to its existing decision analysis classes. As a result, the college searched for a flexible, user-friendly data mining tool that could manage multiple data formats.
By integrating SPSS Inc.’s PASW Modeler into the curriculum, Babson has provided its business students and future entrepreneurs with valuable skills that will give them a competitive advantage when they enter the business world. In some cases, graduate students have leveraged their data mining knowledge in interviews to secure employment.
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As a leading school for preparing students for the business world, Babson College is determined that each student will have the skills and experience needed to begin a business career. Each student receives a mixture of business and liberal arts instruction throughout their education. In fact, all first year students team up to create, run and liquidate a business — with a $3,000 start up loan from Babson.
Data mining allows students to extract information sets from large databases and to identify trends and relationships among the data in order to solve marketing problems. These characteristics integrate well with Babson's mission of teaching students to recognize opportunity, cultivate innovation and develop creative problem-solving abilities.
"We use PASW Modeler as one application along with PASW Statistics Base statistical analysis software in the advanced applied statistics course for undergrads, and it is part of the core curriculum for the MBA students," said Dr. Elaine Allen, associate professor for Babson College.
Dr. Allen selected PASW Modeler because her students are business-focused individuals who often go on to become financial analysts and marketing executives.
"I was a dedicated SAS user, but we found the ‘look and feel' of PASW Modeler was extremely easy for the students to learn," said Dr. Allen. "We didn't want to spend a lot of time teaching how to use the software. We prefer to talk about the software's nuances and let them learn by doing."
"For some students, data mining can be very intimidating," according to Dr. Allen. "PASW Modeler's functionality is so easy that we found students don't get scared when errors occur."
By applying their data mining skills to existing company data, Babson students benefit from their ability to understand and synthesize data, which is an extremely valuable skill to possess in the job market. This provides a competitive advantage because students can demonstrate critical thinking and problem solving capabilities by making recommendations founded on actual research.
Dr. Elaine Allen
Associate Professor of Statistics and Entrepreneurship
Babson College
As students reach the graduate level, data mining and data analysis are virtually routine to them. Students typically work at a company with a large database that is ideal for a data mining project. In cases where students have their own ideas for projects, Babson encourages these entrepreneurs to start their own companies, which are often Web-based. Finally, they may serve as consultants for on- or off-campus projects in which Dr. Allen is involved.
"With our students working for various companies, each with their own data formats, PASW Modeler's ability to handle multiple data formats is another critical factor behind our decision to implement it," said Dr. Allen.
"By applying their data mining skills to existing company data, Babson students benefit from their ability to understand and synthesize data, which is an extremely valuable skill to possess in the job market," added Dr. Allen. "This provides a competitive advantage because they can demonstrate critical thinking and problem solving capabilities by making recommendations founded on actual research."
Babson's investment in PASW Modeler will continue to deliver dividends. Dr. Allen expects the solution will be integrated across the statistical curriculum at Babson. She is also aware of PASW Modeler's institutional research capabilities: "Internally, analysis of the alumni database may help us understand how the college can better serve alumni so their link to Babson remains an active one."
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