Mini-Projects

Would you pick $5,000 now or 

series of $100 monthly payments for 5 years?

In this project, you will understand the basic concepts of cash flow in the finance industry. You will learn what a present value of a future payment is, or how to realize the future value of money. 

We will go over intrinsic properties of a typical loan or mortgage to understand terms like deposit, interest, yield, floater/fixed, and will be able to compare the present value of loans with different terms. 

Finally, you will build you own mortgage payment calculator app using all you have learned in the mini-courses in a real life project.

Mentor: Dr. Ashkan Balouchi

Create your own Netflix!

In this project, you will learn how the TV industry uses analytics to make decisions. You will be given sanitized datasets that capture the popularity of TV shows. Building on basic concepts of statistics you learn in the mini-courses, you will be guided to use those concepts to make optimal decisions. As a hands-on exercise, you will then team up to create your own video-on-demand platform. Teams will compete to create the best offering to attract the most subscribers under a fantasy league environment. A simulation of your decisions will determine the winning team but all offerings will be evaluated to draw lessons for all to learn.

Mentor: Mr. Alejandro Rojas

AskSophie - Precision Pregnancy Companion

In this project, you will learn how to develop a business case deck for a virtual assistant such as Alexa or Google that can become a person’s health and wellness companion. Throughout the process you will leverage your problem solving and information research skills developed in the mini-courses, learn how to analyze survey data for market research, and use productivity and project management tools.

Mentor: Dr. Ali Mostashari

How long customers stay at a company?

In this project, you will work on a business problem related to customer retention. The project is centered on learning statistical techniques to predict how long customers will stay at a company, as well as what drives their decision to leave. Another aspect of the project is to learn to calculate business costs of the customer churn, but also any other possible costs due to the model recommendations. In the final week of the project, you will develop a predictive model that will be used to make a business recommendation on how to increase the customer retention rate. 

Mentor: Dr. Gordana Tešić