This fall, Gabrielly Ruthes Bonafini G’25 and Henrik Winkelmann G’25 completed the MSBA’s inaugural capstone course.
The School of Business launched the MSBA program in 2023 to address the growing demand for high-skill career opportunities in business data analytics and related fields across diverse industries. In their final semester, MSBA students participate in a capstone project, offering them a comprehensive and hands-on learning experience. These projects challenge students to address complex, real-world problems by integrating both technical expertise and non-technical business acumen developed throughout the curriculum. Ideally, their findings will be of service to their community partner. In this inaugural case, the Siena College Research Institute is grateful.
SCRI communicates its survey results through press releases, but unintentional bias can creep into any author’s report despite efforts to prevent it. Ruthes Bonafini and Winkelmann, under the mentorship of Necip Doganaksoy, Ph.D., professor and director of the MSBA program, created potential AI-driven processes that could ensure press releases are neutral and true to the survey data. They produced three potential solutions and created two demos.
“SCRI has a long history of working with students through our telephone interviewer position and our internship program,” said Travis Brodbeck ’17, G’18, associate director of data management. “Last year, Dr. Doganaksoy and I explored this idea of trying to assess sentiment of press releases and compare them to actual data. The product developed by these talented students provides a multi-faceted collection of indicators to aid in writing and editing press releases. We strive to represent our data to be as close to the numbers as possible and we are excited about having a tool to help us address potential bias in our communication of complex results to the public.”
Before the capstone, the students sharpen their skills on textbook cases with predefined solutions, but this project offers real-world challenges with yet-to-be-discovered solutions.
“We had the opportunity to explore and develop basic demos for our solutions and understand how the tool would work in real life,” said Ruthes Bonafini. “This hands-on approach allowed us to have a different experience when evaluating the pros and cons of the tool, assessing its feasibility for implementation, estimating costs, and determining how user-friendly and manageable it would be for the client to maintain. Overall, it was a rewarding project that taught us the importance of curiosity, exploration, and applying technology to solve business challenges effectively.”
Those are the instincts, layered on top of the skills acquired in the MSBA, that will ultimately prepare the students to excel at the start of their careers.
“It forces you to put yourself in a situation where it can be very challenging if not properly prepared since your audience is often more experienced than your normal college presentation audience,” said Winkelmann. “These real-world struggles in the capstone project and the SCRI work environment make me feel comfortable to start working in the actual business world.”
That’s the advantage of the Siena MSBA.
“The program is designed to provide students with a robust foundation in modern data analytics methods, tools, and software while cultivating essential business, communication, teamwork, project management, and organizational skills necessary for real-world applications,” said Doganaksoy.