ANALYTICS AND DECISION SCIENCES (ADS): MINOR TO MAJOR?

By Rijul Jain and Chen (Marlee) Zheng

Dr. Joseph Turnbull is the Associate Director, Mathematics, Analytics & Decision Sciences, and an Associate Professor in the School of Management, Economics, and Mathematics (MEM); Dr. Felipe Rodrigues is an Assistant Professor, and the Canadian Operational Research Society (CORS) diploma coordinator at Western University.

What were the main reasons to introduce Analytics and Decisions Sciences (ADS) as a minor at King’s? What motivated you to do so?

Dr. Joseph Turnbull: The idea for introducing ADS was to add a quantitative curriculum for management students in Economics and Finance. And we wanted to do that in an accessible way that didn’t require students to take calculus for the sciences, linear algebra or computer science. So we thought about different ways to do that. We took the management science approach for integrating more quantitative content. How do you teach optimization? How do you teach linear programming, those types of concepts, those types of ideas, with a first-year foundation and calculus, a first-year matrix algebra, and a first- and second-year foundation in statistics – basically, a standard foundation that almost every management and business program around the world expects students to have anyways. We built it with that in mind.

We had the absolute best team and the structure to think about, so why not create a dream program that we'll be focusing on in the future?

Dr. Felipe Rodrigues: A little bit of how it came to be: When I first started at King's, we just had an AI talk about how we saw what the market is, the university, and what the future was going to hold. And it was interesting to realize that King's was positioned in a way that is very privileged with respect to our abilities, our skills, and how we structured ourselves, perhaps unintentionally, with the School of Management, Economics and Mathematics. We're together in the same space, and that created the opportunity for us to say, “hey, with the marketing and business, and economics and statistics, and math, all these can be combined into analytics. We had the absolute best team and the structure to think about, so why not create a dream program that we'll be focusing on in the future?” And the rest is history!

How is the response from students so far?

Turnbull: Well, I can talk about this with respect to the growth of our intro course ADS 2298 [Introduction to Analytics and Decision Science]. This was first offered in 2021, and 13 students completed it. We have 26 students enrolled in this course this year, so that's a doubling in one year. I believe the first group of students were the pioneers, the ones who were willing to take big risks on something new. And they came out a success.

Rodrigues: Joseph and I are taking every opportunity we can to promote the program. But I guess more importantly, the top students see the value of these things, and then when we match that with the resources, great things happen. And that's what we're hoping! I'm always dreaming about how big it could be or how great it could be – there’s 26 [students] now and then next year, we're going to have 40 or 50. And then, the following year there might be more!

Would ADS be converted into a major at King’s in upcoming years? What are the future plans?

Turnbull: It's in the works. So the students who are getting the minor for fall 2023 will have an opportunity to switch into the major the following year. Our hope is to have a major ready to go in fall 2024. The first and second year of that is going to mirror exactly the first and second year of the minor and most of the third year as well. The biggest difference between the major and the minor will be the number of required courses. The minor has 1.0 credits from this big list, and the major would pick more than 1.0, so students who are already fulfilling components of the minor will easily be able to switch into the major. And part of the reason why that's the case is that, unlike most minors under the Western umbrella, the ADS minor is more specialized: you have to take Analytics and Decision Sciences 2298 –Introduction to Analytics and Decision Sciences, ADS 2288 – Introduction to Programming and Basic Data Analysis, which includes programming in Python and R, and ADS 3864 – Data Visualization and Statistical Analysis. So there's this kind of quantitative core to ADS as a minor that resembles a major, it is just fewer courses. Again, it's hoped that everyone who's in the minor, and said, “I wish there was a major,” will be able to switch to the major. And hopefully do a double major.

Rodrigues: The key point is that we are at a moment where you cannot do marketing without analytics or human resources without analytics. You can't do finance or accounting; 20% of the CPAs require analytical skills. Even nursing requires some analytical skills.

The way we envision this is the double major path. So students will be in Finance and Analytics, Human Resources and Analytics or Econ and Analytics, because you can't detach those two things from each other anymore. The double major is where we see the most value. And by far, the best employability and the best way into grad school or into the market directly is through ADS.

How would adding an ADS minor to the degree help students in their career? How will this minor add value?

Turnbull: When we were planning this minor, we looked at what employers were expecting from our recent graduates. How do we fulfill this expectation? And more important than that is figuring out how we can fix a problem that will be there five years from now. We had to anticipate for students entering first year, what are their needs going to be? Not today, not yesterday, but four years from now, when they graduate, what is the market going to want?

It's not looking into a crystal ball and knowing exactly what the future will hold, adapting as technology matures. And as analytics techniques become embedded in different companies and different processes, I think the shift is pretty clear. And we have moved in that direction. So this minor was designed to fulfill the market's expectations from the recent graduates; therefore, students with ADS as a minor or major to their degree will enjoy a competitive edge and preference over their peers.

Rodrigues: Also, if you check the requirements for the most important master's programs in Canada, for example, analytics, you’ll see that our course matches them as well. Joseph and I are making sure that our students will be qualified to apply to any master's program in Canada and be competitive candidates in those programs. We looked at this strategically: what our competitive advantages are, and what the market is demanding. And we were very careful to make sure that those things are aligned in a proper way.

What kind of jobs can students land after doing this minor?

Rodrigues: Students will be looking for jobs that are less routine based and more analytical in any fields. Looking back 30 years, demand forecast, operation management – they used to be very limited. Now, analytical skills are required for various types of jobs. For example, CFA Level 1 [Chartered Financial Analyst] is more about the concepts, but CFA Level 2 involves data analytics. The same position from a few years ago would not require the coding and programming languages as now. We would like our students to be able to compete for these high-level jobs at the beginning of their careers, rather than filling in the gap with hands-on experience. So hopefully our students will land jobs that offer 15K or 20K more than other positions.

Turnbull: Our students will be qualified for jobs in different areas. For example, students who graduate with an ADS minor will be more competitive in the job interviews than business students, because the ADS minor provides students with more of the analytical skills that most employers are looking for nowadays.

Students who graduate with an ADS minor will be more competitive in the job interviews than business students, because the ADS minor provides students with more of the analytical skills that most employers are looking for nowadays.

What is CORS? How would this add value to a student's career path?

Rodrigues: Canadian Operational Research Society (CORS) is the main body for academic researchers and practitioners to talk about topics such as optimization, simulation, machine learning, and other quantitative methods in general. Each university has a CORS representative, and I am the representative for King’s University College and Western University.

CORS offers a diploma to university students who finish the list of courses. We did a comprehensive mapping for the ADS courses with respect to the required courses for the CORS diploma. If you fulfill the minor with core courses that meet the criteria, then you will be eligible to receive the diploma when you graduate with the ADS minor. Becoming a member of CORS will benefit you because you will connect with members who also have passion in operation management and other analyticsrelated roles. The CORS designation looks great on both CVs and resumes, as well as allows you to build connections with professionals in academia or industry.

Any advice for students in ADS?

Rodrigues: Take advantage of what King’s offers, which is easier access to professors, office hours, and students from upper years. Make sure you ask the questions, understand what’s happening in the business world, and know what types of skills you would like to obtain, and apply the passion of analytics to both short-term and long-term goals. Also, have an early understanding of what analytics is about and its implications in the job market in order to position yourself.

Turnbull: Network. What you learn from the class is part of the education, and the other part is interacting with your classmates and profs, and engaging in the career and networking events. Network with people who work in the industry you are interested in, and get industry insight from them.