About LEAP

Professional Development

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the employment of computer and information research scientists, including data analysts, is projected to grow 11 percent from 2014 to 2024, faster than the average for all occupations. While we are a business organization and such roles might be unlikely for our members to pursue in a business context, data analytics is used in daily operations for any business. We utilize the Speaker Series as well as alumni and e-board networking opportunities to better prepare our members for business roles that will soon become analytically involved. Additionally, we list internship opportunities sponsored by our aforementioned corporate partners that actively recruit from LEAP given the analytical maturity displayed by our members.

Awareness

According to Forbes, the demand for workforce in data analytics is projected to grow by 28% in 2025. Despite the large demand available for data analytic professionals, there is often a lack of qualified data analysts to fill those positions. Throughout the University of Pittsburgh College of Business Administration, data analytics has been an area that the school is focusing on through adding additional classes and certificates to help students prepare to work in those careers. Many today have still never heard of data analytics, despite businesses differentiating and competing on their analytic capabilities. We seek to both explore and define those opportunities for our members. LEAP looks to spread awareness by bringing speakers from industry and academia to speak about how they are applying analytics in their business and furthering analytics in their research. We also give awareness to analytics opportunities such as case competitions, corporate workshops, and programming certifications.

Education and Application

Over the past few years at LEAP, we have realized the impact that we could have in helping students be prepared for a career in data analytics by changing the way we conduct our organization. We have placed a greater emphasis on education through interactive lectures, activities, and projects to help students gain a better sense of what it is like to work in data analytics. LEAP has been actively seeking to partner with companies to work on projects with those companies that focus on utilizing data analytics. We believe that these experiences will give students an opportunity to experience what it’s like working in data analytics during their time as an undergraduate student while also help provide some value to a client. This education process takes place during our Donuts and Data sessions, which are interactive lectures that we host multiple times throughout the semester. These meetings seek to not only educate members about the various analytical tools available but also their applications in a variety of industries.

While members have the opportunity to practice their skills during our Donuts and Data sessions, we've also implemented another way our members can test their skills. Now we have competitions about twice a semester to help members gain experience by completing projects from start to finish. This includes finding a dataset, conducting an analysis, and presenting why this particular analysis is relevant or helps answer business questions. These soft skills are important to develop because just learning how to do data analytics isn’t enough. In career settings today, the ability to answer “why” and “how” questions using data analytics tools is priceless.

  In a competition, we have members either pair up in groups or work as individuals and use the analytical tool that we taught them the previous week to present their own unique findings and results from a data set of their choice. The executive board then chooses a winner based on criteria such as data used, analysis utilized, as well as how they explained their results. A key component of data analytics is to be able to explain it to someone who may not have any idea about the dataset or analytical tool used so being able to effectively present the analysis is something that we look for as well. To incentivize members, the winner will typically receive a gift card to a store of their choice. We encourage interested members to reach out to our knowledgeable executive board if they are interested in learning more about a specific analytical tool. Through this, the executive board can help guide the individual to find the right resources to further help their understanding and knowledge of the analytical tool.