Data and Dialogue: Inside the First OMS Analytics Conference
The two-day event brought together students, alumni, faculty, and industry leaders to share knowledge and engage the Georgia Tech OMS and MS Analytics community.
This fall, 1,000 Online Master of Science (OMS) in Analytics and Master of Science (MS) in Analytics students and alumni virtually attended the inaugural OMS Analytics Conference, proving members of the community were chomping at the byte — so to speak — for this opportunity to connect and share knowledge.
Spanning two days, the event featured 30 sessions, 17 presentations, 38 panelists, multiple built-in opportunities for networking, and overall, 12 hours of data science and analytics knowledge sharing and engagement.
One networking opportunity — the “Looking Back, Looking Ahead: OMSA Feedback” roundtable — that ran concurrently with a trivia session and a designated break, garnered an audience of over 150 people.
Presenters included former and current students, OMS and MS Analytics faculty, Student Services’ staff, and experts in the data science/data analytics industry. Some featured speakers and moderators included OMS Analytics alumnus and Georgia Tech Industrial and Systems Engineering Advisory Board Member Joe Depa — who also serves as the EY Global chief innovation officer — OMS Analytics student and MPH Senior Epidemiologist for the New Jersey Department of Health Adam Howsare, and Senior Coordinator for Football Data and Analytics for the NFL Ally Blake.
On day one, sessions covered topics like the “no-regret skills” analytics students should cultivate before graduation, sports analytics, neurodiversity in data analytics, and more.
Privacy for Professionals Instructor and Scheller College of Business Professor DaBrae KennedyMayo moderated the “Privacy at the Crossroads: Data, AI, and What Comes Next” panel led by Instructional Associates Jake Gord and Hal Overman. The group discussed pitfalls in privacy planning by large language model (LLM) companies in addition to other privacy and AI topics.
Gord highlighted the possible legal ramifications for AI companies like ChatGPT if they fail to implement a privacy-by-design approach to their LLMs, saying, “One of the things I'm seeing is that nobody in the world, seemingly today, is compliant with data-subject request legislation and requirements due to the training of AI models. When we train a model on a data set — hundreds of thousands of records, millions of records, 18 records, it doesn't matter — the model is the data. To date, I have seen very few organizations take the AI piece of this seriously. What I mean by that is, to be truly compliant with that data-subject deletion request, we need to go to the training set — the data — delete the records affiliated with whoever made the request, and, to the letter of the law, retrain the entire model.”
Day two brought conversations on finance analytics in action, maximizing skills and salary, design of experiments (DOE) for better decision-making, and more.
Lead of Development for AI Solutions at Langbit, Yanni Jin, and two OMSA Analytics students — Michael Varda, an analytics lead at Capital One, and Joe Domaleski, the CEO and founder of Country Fried Creative — dove into natural language processing (NLP) tools for modern analysts. From social listening to marketing and medicine, the group discussed how they use NLP tools to collect, condense, and understand conversations online or in person for better decision-making.
Jin, a seasoned medical management professional in China, explained how NLP-enabled name badges are being used to record patient/practitioner conversations and analyze them for keywords, red flags, and changes in emotions that could impact provider decision-making and lead to better care.
Multiple built-in networking sessions were planned to facilitate community building between the online and in-person students and their alumni. One such session was the "Analytics After the Pivot Networking Breakout," where attendees could ask alumna Heather Arentson about her career and the industry, informed by her dramatic transition from professional dance to data analytics.
"The inaugural conference delivered,” shares attendee Samantha Northcutt. “I met incredible peers and learned from generous speakers. One idea I’m carrying forward is to be your own career advocate. Heather’s slide in her ‘Learning to Earning’ talk was the most impactful career share I’ve seen.”
The success of this inaugural event could be felt by all in attendance, even in the days following the event.
"From thought-provoking sessions to inspiring conversations, this event showcased the power of data and collaboration," says Jennifer Wooley, director of academic programs and student services. "It exceeded all expectations!"
Attendee Kristen Singh shared her thoughts on LinkedIn, saying, "What a great conference. I learned and gained so much that I look forward to carrying with me on my data analytics, data science, and governance career journey."
As the event came to a close and post-conference conversations continue, one thing is clear: the OMS and MS Analytics community is stronger, more connected, and more energized than ever. The inaugural OMS Analytics Conference not only spotlighted the breadth of expertise within the program but also demonstrated the collective momentum driving the future of data science. With plans already underway for next year, this first gathering marks the beginning of a tradition that will continue to unite, inspire, and advance analytics professionals across the globe.
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