Trine students learn about Data Mine opportunities

Trine University students learned about opportunities available with the Purdue Data Mine during a special presentation on April 10 in the Mark and Sarah Music/Ruoff Mortgage Esports Arena.

Mark Ward, Ph.D., executive director of the Data Mine, and Pete Dragnev, corporate partners technical specialist, spoke with students along with Michael Smith, assistant professor of mathematics at Trine.

Smith organized the event with Jeremy Goossens, director of esports.

The Data Mine is an interdisciplinary living-learning community at Purdue University open to students from all majors who have an interest in taking a deep dive into data.

Trine students can take MA 111 R for Data Science, offered in partnership with Purdue, as a one-credit-hour class in the fall with no prior requirements or past technical experience.

Students in that class can sign up to take MA 283, the first of two semester-long classes that allow them to work as part of a team on a real-world, data-heavy project with a corporate mentor.

A group of Trine University actuarial science students previously worked in partnership with the Data Mine to analyze food need and census data to create map visualizations for Elkhart, Marshall and St. Joseph counties.

Other Trine students have continued that project, and others have worked on projects for Lincoln Financial, USDA Forest Service, Red Gold Inc, Riley Children's Foundation and FEENIX Group.

Students interested in participating in projects or companies interested in serving as corporate partners should contact Smith at smithm2@trine.edu for details.