Past Projects

Colgate: Quality

To uphold consumer trust and enhance the quality management experience, Colgate will be transitioning to a new quality management system (QMS). The Colgate Quality externship group will be supporting Phase I of the Implementation Step via a Communication Campaign in the form of three short informational Powtoon videos as well as a newsletter to bring awareness to the ~50 worldwide Colgate-Palmolive sites of this upcoming change. The process will involve learning about the current and new QMS system and the different target audiences to effectively communicate the change in QMS to ensure business continuity and to bolster Colgate’s commitment to quality.

• Student Externs: Monica Choi (Team Lead), Jessenia Bello, Aisha Tariq, Bratati Patra, Maeva Banag, Padma Wagle, Monica Choi
• Mentor: Elsa Y. Tsuji & Teresa Leija

Collaborative Solutions – Rail & Cyber Threats

This project identifies and grades threats, vulnerabilities, consequences, and spatial factors involved in a cyber threat (or attack) scenario on shortline railroads. Focusing on refined categories of threats and vulnerabilities, the project uses the “Threat, Vulnerability, and Consequence (TVC)” methodology put forth by the Department of Homeland Security to estimate the risk involved in various theoretical cyber threat (or attack) scenarios. In the process, the project defines each score value to grade the threat, vulnerability, and consequence factors. Several spatial risk factors that might aggravate a cyber threat (or attack) scenario are identified and graded using consequence scoring. With a primary focus on assessing the associated spatial risk in the cyber threat (or attack) scenarios, the project also highlights the business impact of such scenarios on a shortline railroad.

• Student Externs: Shrey Patel (Team Lead), Stefano Gangemi, Vineal Sunkara ,Mulugeta Akalu
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak, Michael White

Collaborative Solutions – Visual Distractions

This project seeks to improve safety at highway rail grade crossings by developing a method to quantify the visual distractions which a driver might encounter at a crossing. Leveraging the research done by past teams, as well as our own current research, helps us determine what factors influence safety at grade crossings, and we have used all the collected evidence to develop a scoresheet system. In this system, each factor is weighted with its estimated visual distraction/safety impact – positive or negative. The total score is then calculated, and such scores can be used to determine the relative safety of crossings with site-specific information. We continue to refine this system by testing it against real-world accident data so that it can eventually be used in concert with other tools like the FRA. Web-Based Accident Prediction Service to aid officials in deciding where to allocate funds for safety improvements.

• Student Externs: Robert Delghiaccio, William Lu, Brannon Lam (Team Lead), Druhin Patel, Hana Malabag, Joe Yang
• Mentors: Dr. John Betak, Michael White

Data Storytelling

Our project aims to help non-profit organizations with app development. We are developing a quiz grounded in user research, design principles, and sound coding logic that will recommend users app development platforms tailored to their preferences and technical proficiency. This project blends research, creativity, and technology. The quiz will serve as a valuable asset available on Data Storytelling’s website.

• Student Externs: Uthara Das, Aidan Andrucyk (Co-Lead), Ge Gao, Elo Hernandez (Co-Lead), Tonai Crockett, Ji Wu
• Mentors: Devon McGuinness

DIMACS

Current classical machine learning methods for decision trees produce single suboptimal models that lack interpretability and explainability. The goal of this project is to evaluate and test novel python based machine learning algorithm TreeFarms and visualization tool TimberTrek in their unique ability to provide a set of optimized, similarly accurate, sparse decision tree models and an interactive UI for customized visualization. This set of models, called the Rashomon set, can be utilized by domain users in various industries to assist in high stake decisions. The main goal for the externs will be to develop metrics for replicating how domain experts could potentially choose trees out of this set to use and evaluate the models output by the algorithm for practicality. Externs will also analyze algorithm performance through metrics, such as runtime and accuracy. These algorithms will be tested using publicly available datasets which reflect their potential applications.

• Student Externs: Kayvus Trajano, Steven Wang (Team Lead), Dara-Mfon Akpan, Anjali Viswanathan, Anirudh Pappu
• Mentors: Ryan, Bianna

ECPAT – Alexandria

The ECPAT Alexandria team is gathering data regarding crime, events, and locations near the Alexandria, Virginia, region to identify potential geographical hotspots for human trafficking, particularly on public transit routes. The team will also attempt to scrape data from social media using Python to find relevant hashtags regarding the events and locations identified. The goal of this project is to find trends, patterns, and insights regarding hotspot trends using data visualization tools which will be used to help the Non-Profit organization ECPAT in developing human trafficking prevention strategies.

• Student Externs: Ananya Rayapuraju (Team Lead), Rene Rivadeneira, Andy Pham, Sriram Banda, Gracie Ahrens
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

ECPAT – Chicago

The project explores the pattern of human trafficking crimes to find correlations between human trafficking locations and social media hashtags. By analyzing publicly available data and social media data identify hotspots for human trafficking in the greater Chicago area. Through scraping social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram and examining crime datasets, the team explores patterns between keywords/hashtags and human trafficking/related crimes. The team visualizes the data to gain insight and mark trends, taking particular note of overlap with public transit or certain businesses. The ultimate goal is to find when and where human trafficking occurs and subsequently combat these crimes.

• Student Externs: Eesha Shrivastava (Team Lead), Kohei Imai, Jose Quito, Nicholas Yim, Shreya Pandey
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak

ECPAT – Website

The Routes to End Child Trafficking Collaborative made up of ECPAT-USA subject matter experts, transit experts, data scientists and Rutgers Externship Exchange Extern students, aims to establish a centralized information hub for public transportation leaders, operators and riders to raise awareness and training on how to recognize human trafficking of minors and properly report it. As part of the Collaborative, our team worked on adding human trafficking data collected for Albany, NY and Albuquerque, NM, along with human trafficking indicators and learning resources to the research sharing website being built in WordPress. Additionally, our team will finish adding features to the website such as “Find Your City” allowing users to retrieve data based on a provided zip code, and a partner log-in enabling individuals interested in joining the cause to register through a submission form. An accessibility test will be run against the finished website to ensure the design is accessible to a diverse audience and promotes inclusivity. Lastly, our team will perform a usability evaluation through Optimal Workshop to gather user feedback and recommendations to reiterate the design before launching the website to the public.

• Student Externs: Facundo Saiegh (Team Lead), Jessica Romero, Francis De Leon, Morgan Niedzielski, Silvia Vanderhoof, Olivia Yuhas
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

ECPAT & RSG

Description: This research project focuses on analyzing human trafficking trends across multiple modes of public transportation in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Rio Metro) and Albany, New York (CDTA). Specifically, this project utilizes RSG survey data gathered from respondents across these regions, which include questions regarding respondents’ demographics, travel information, media consumption, community challenges awareness, and human trafficking statements. Our goal is to identify potential correlations that may exist between the different variables, which would enable ECPAT-USA to take a more proactive approach to raising awareness for human trafficking across the nation.

• Student Externs: Emily Wong (Team Lead), Tiffany Xu, Wonsuk Kim, Kevin Arruda, Joshua Kaus
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak

Green Bank Observatory

Our project focuses on new client recruitment and existing user engagement for the Green Bank Observatory and has two main components. The first is data analytics, where we use SQL and Excel to visualize and examine different contact information to narrow down our target audience. The second is establishing a primary social media platform to promote the organization with content ideas. We changed our initial plans by shifting our efforts to formulating a substantial contact list with ways to expand the market demographic instead of working on website design, cell usage limitations, and in-person events. In addition to our recent analysis that highlighted university involvement and interactions, we intend to collect more data that will allow us to create a visual representation of current trends and potential avenues for outreach.

• Student Externs: Shamaila Sarwar (Team Lead), Pilar Rojas, Henna Kim, William De Iasi, Alyssa Talbott, Rachael Ngai
• Mentor: Jill Malusky

Kraus Farm

Kraus Farms is a small Farm in New Jersey that has been looking to expand their business. We have been working with them on updating their website, helping build their sustainability metric and looking at adding services that the farm can provide for the community. For example, community events, educating schools and participating in farmers markets. We have also provided them options to help increase their honey volume to meet demand and popular flavor varieties to expand their presence in the market. To help build their brand recognition, they have shown interest in a hand lotion recipe and cost options for their consumers so Kraus Farms is in everybody’s pocket.

• Student Externs: Estella Gomes (Team Lead), Heeru Murjani, Dennis Wang, Beata Modzelewski, Amanda Beaner, Khalil Dowdy
• Mentors: Kathy and Joel Kraus

Maritime Risk Bootcamp

Our project examines the Maritime Industries’ offshore energy infrastructure and how it leads to cybersecurity vulnerabilities. By assessing the environmental and technological risks of the offshore energy port infrastructure, the Maritime Risk Bootcamp will assess, evaluate, and provide recommendations for cyber threats that have a high likelihood of severely impacting the Maritime Industries’ operations. The project will also discuss the consequences of the company itself if the above concerns are not addressed in a systematic manner.

• Student Externs: Shivam Patel, Andrew Fernandez, Sean Connolly (Team Lead), Tom Simon, Dylan Farrell, Liam Fox
• Mentors: Dr. Karen Bemis

PeopleJoy

The PeopleJoy Data Analysis project aims to help PeopleJoy in the analysis of company data regarding user response rates and feedback to various outreach methods. Our primary goal is to detect any significant company trends, patterns in the data, and apparent problems that may be negatively affecting engagement rate, and report these metrics and analytics to PeopleJoy. The data has been provided through CSV files, which were distributed among smaller sub-teams for thorough analysis and development of clear visualizations of the data. These sub-teams consist of members in charge of the beginning levels of analysis, understanding of the data and providing notes and suggestions for the other sub team members, the programmers, who are utilizing the Python and Pandas in order to perform more in depth organization and analysis as well as develop graphs and visuals of the data. Through the results of our data analysis, we can then present suggestions for potential solutions to remedy any of the customer outreach and engagement issues, as well as methods for further increasing rates.

• Student Externs: Hadeel Baker (Team Lead), Sofia Gomez Dopazo, Karthik Gangireddy, Nishchay Vaid, Samman Pandey, Chizoba Mbonu, Kevin Lam
• Mentors: Mystic Fourness

Public Health Bootcamp

Childhood obesity is a critical public health issue that has been identified as a major problem in the United States. The main objectives of the Public Health Bootcamp are to comprehend how childhood habits can impact the occurrence of childhood obesity, highlight the consequences of approved medications for treating childhood obesity, and explore strategies to support children who are at risk of becoming obese. By examining the long-term effects of childhood habits and behaviors, we can identify patterns and trends that contribute to obesity and implement interventions that promote healthier lifestyles from an early age. In summary, the Public Health Bootcamp recognizes childhood obesity as a pressing public health issue. Through extensive research of three specific topics (Family & Lifestyle, Medication, Sedentary Habits), analysis, and a comprehensive understanding of the causes and consequences, the program aims to develop strategies and interventions that can effectively combat childhood obesity and promote healthier lives for children.

• Student Externs: Sumer Chaudhry, Iris Brody, Eric Cho, Priscilla Lynn Barrera Costa, Ayushi Patel, Joyce Chauca (Team Lead)
• Mentor: Dr. Karen Bemis

Robert Wood Johnson

Our project focuses on early visualization of a pediatrics dataset, aiming to gain insights into traumatic injury and complications in children. We will analyze a comprehensive trauma dataset comprising various aspects of pediatric patients’ medical records, including demographics, medical history, diagnoses, treatments, and outcomes. By visualizing this data, we aim to identify patterns, trends, and potential areas for improvement in pediatric healthcare delivery. This project will contribute to informed decision-making, enhanced patient care, and ultimately better health outcomes for children who have sustained traumatic injuries.

• Student Externs: Jagruti Harish Saudagar (Team Lead), Rishabh Patel, Jonathan Kofman, ChengYuan Chuang, Nevy Patel
• Mentor: Dr. Manette Ness-Cochinwala

Union County, KY

The Union County Externship project focuses on providing learning and personal care resources to K-12 students of different schools within Union County, KY. Our goal for this project is to find grants, personal care items, general teaching supplies, and STEM learning resources to improve the learning experience of Union County students. We aim to deliver more financial assistance from state or federal grant funding, increase self-confidence and mental health through personal care items, create a more equitable learning environment with more access to teaching supplies, and boost STEM literacy through education enrichment opportunities.

• Student Externs: Sandra Li, Tiara Paul (Team Lead), Shirley Banh, Jerry Miraval, Erica Thapa, Kapya Kollin, Agnes Brewah, Paris Napue
• Mentor: Abby Wheaton

Wall Street Bootcamp

The Wall Street Bootcamp project analyzes the company Netflix from five perspectives: strategy, investment, sustainability, data, and cybersecurity. The analysis understands the company’s business model and assesses the company’s strategy, including key metrics such as net subscriber trends, revenue growth, and profitability, as the management pursues a strategic shift. The main policies in question are the company’s decision to limit password-sharing and introduce a streaming plan with advertisements. Through this project, the effects of these changes are investigated in terms of company growth and management strategy, stock performance, environmental and social consequences, data collection practices, and cyber risks.

• Student Externs: Ruchita Mhaskar (Team Lead), Surya Gopinath, Jenna Thomas, Rakhi Shah, Padmavidhya Ellappan, Christopher Di Paolo, Afshan Riaz, David Kelly, Ryan (Joseph) Armstrong, Aditya Modi, Aathith Chandrasekaran
• Mentors: Ben Nelson

Bentley Labs

• Student Externs: Cynthia Santos, Nour Kinj, Shraddha Patel, Priyanshi Suvasia, Krishna Priya Rao Vennamaneni, Anjalika Bandaru, Helly Shah
• Mentor: Matthew Brennan

Colgate: Flavors and Fragrances

The project aims to create and promote dental products that encourage good dental habits among Generation Alpha, which is estimated to be the largest generation in history. The team analyzed trends for younger and older age groups within Generation Alpha, examined existing dental habits and behaviors, and looked into the competitive market for existing products to create a final toothpaste product that caters to the unique needs and preferences of this generation. The project not only focused on product formulation, but also on creating a comprehensive campaign that encompassed packaging design, product promotion, and designing habit trackers to encourage good dental habits among Generation Alpha. By making teeth brushing a more enjoyable experience, the team hopes to promote the habit of brushing twice a day among this demographic.

• Student Externs: Maria Jolina Lou Flores, Pushpadantgiri Goswami- LEAD, Suruchi Kallakunta, Sofia Gomez Dopazo, Courtney Wong
• Mentor: Veronica Pizzini Semeghini, Jason Darling

Colgate: R&D

We are working alongside Softsoap to help them enter into a new masstige market with a new innovative and sustainable liquid hand soap product. Our team investigated and analyzed current trends and consumer preferences as well as providing the company with our personal feedback. Our investigation consists of market research, packaging development, and unique formulation claims that would help elevate the brand recognition further.

• Student Externs: Sofya Ahmad, Maeva Banag, Mackenzie Perpetua, Bratati Patra, Maeva Banag, Bratati Patra, Muriel Valencia
• Mentor: Abbe Rosenthal

Colgate: Regulatory

Our project seeks to develop learning tools using PowToons, aimed at educating relevant stakeholders at Colgate, including the R&D, Marketing, and Legal departments, on various aspects of the US Regulatory Framework for drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, and home care products. Specifically, the project will focus on US FDA regulations for medical devices and OTC drug monographs, Environmental Protection Agency policies, and Canadian chemical management. The learning tools will simplify the technical and complex regulatory information into an accessible and understandable format for Colgate’s non-regulatory teams. By providing a concise version of the regulatory information via engaging videos using PowToon cloud-based animation software, the project aims to improve stakeholders’ understanding of the complex regulatory environment.

• Student Externs: Monica Choi (Team Lead), Jessenia Bello, Aisha Tariq, Bratati Patra, Maeva Banag, Padma Wagle, Monica Choi
• Mentor: Abbe Rosenthal, Lori Dars

Colgate: Sustainability

The Hill’s pet nutrition department is seeking an incentive program that encourages users to drop-off pet food bags for recycling. A method to promote recycling is by developing an app. This app has a variety of features, such as: educating people on why they should recycle, locating the nearest drop-off locations to recycle their dog food bags, and keeping track of their recycling habits. In addition, Hill’s pet nutrition can partner with other companies, such as: PetSmart and Petco. By recycling their dog food bags, they can gain points and receive rewards in return. Creating a reward system to encourage consumer recycling of plastic dog food bags. The Starbucks-like loyalty reward system will allow consumers to earn rewards through returning bags in an effort to reduce unnecessary waste production.

• Student Externs: Emily Li, Manushi Shah, Nhuy Tran, Altin Alajbegu
• Mentor: Abbe Rosenthal

Collaborative Solutions: Practicum Analysis

The team’s goal is to use machine learning techniques to rank the most important factors that cause accidents at rail grade crossings, where a road intersects with a railroad. The team will also use their models to predict the level of risk of the accident as defined by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Illinois, having one of the densest rail hubs in the United States, will be the area of focus. The models will include both data from the FRA and data outside of the organization to be evaluated against one another and the FRA’s 2007 model. The results will help inform the FRA as to the best machine learning model to be used, provide insight into non-traditional data collected, and create an understanding of what increases risk in a rail grade crossing accident.

• Student Externs: Komal Bhosale, Nidhi Thomas
• Mentor: Brian, Christie Nelson

Collaborative Solutions – Rail & Cyber Threats

The railroad industry’s information systems, such as railway management and signaling systems, are subject to possible weaknesses and threats, which are identified during the cyber risk assessment process. This evaluation looks at the sector’s present cybersecurity stance, policies, and practices as well as possible risks from outside threats like hackers and thieves. Insights into the industry’s degree of cyber risk will be provided by the assessment’s results, along with suggestions for risk-reduction strategies.

• Student Externs: Marvin Kimwon, Adnan Bashir, Kshitij Bhausaheb Pawar – LEAD
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak, Michael White

Collaborative Solutions – Visual Distractions

This project explores how to create and develop metrics for visual distractions at railroad-grade crossings. We explore different types of visual distractions and categorize them to understand better the effects on driver behavior and the increased risk of accidents. Our efforts seek to improve grade crossing safety overall and reduce the number of accidents caused by visual distractions.

• Student Externs: Preet Patel, Shaira Chaudhuri, Nicole Ewing
• Mentors: Dr. John Betak, Michael White

DIMACS: Team 1

The goal of this project is to use Tree Farms and Timber trek to create a set of interpretable almost equally accurate binary decision tree models for two applications: predicting stroke and predicting whether a person will have an income greater or less than $50,000. The algorithm along with the visualization tool will produce a set of sparse binary decision trees. Once these models are created, the goal is to exploit domain expertise to interpret them and select the ones that are justifiable based off this expertise.

• Student Externs: Mohammad Alqudah, Utkarsh Patel
• Mentors: Ryan, Supreet

DIMACS: Team 2

The goal of our project is to compare a baseline Decision Tree Classifier in sklearn to several optimized, sparse, and binary Decision Trees generated using the TreeFarms algorithm and visualized using Timber Trek. We will be using the RIC metric of Runtime, Interpretability and Complexity to choose the several most suitable Decision Trees from the model generated using TreeFarms, and compare those chosen trees to the baseline Decision Tree Classifier. We will be working with two datasets to see which Decision Tree model yields the “best” trees. The Sparse Binary Decision Tree models for the first data set will predict whether a credit card user has paid their balance off in full for the previous month, and the Sparse Binary Decision Tree models for the second data set will predict whether a person’s credit card balance is a high or low amount.

• Student Externs: Jessica Birk, Kalada (Belema) Nemieboka
• Mentors: Brian, Christie

ECPAT – Geographic Modeling

The goal of this project is to collect public bus transit data and attempt to correlate it with specific data patterns regarding retail store, hotel, and motel locations in Albuquerque, New Mexico. What makes public bus transit data highly valuable is the fact that it encompasses a significant portion of the Albuquerque territory and is one of only three possible forms of transit with others being the train line and automobiles. In this process, the team will mainly use FME alongside Python to make public bus transit and location data useful for analysis. With the use of FME and Python we then hope to create a graph showing the transit routes alongside dots symbolizing the locations of the businesses with circles covering the areas that could be hotspots for human trafficking.

• Student Externs: Nihal Dolunay, Michael Bazarsky, Jonathan Kofman
• Mentor: Christie, Alexis

ECPAT: Social Media- Austin TX

The project aims to collect and analyze social media data related to human trafficking in the greater Austin, Texas area. The goal is to understand how traffickers are using these platforms and to identify potential indicators of human trafficking. Specifically, the project will focus on scraping hashtags and tweets related to human trafficking to identify patterns and themes in the data such as common recruitment techniques, the type of language/keywords used, or common geographic locations. Furthermore, the data will be analyzed to identify trends over time in the hopes that new keywords can be predicted and identified before they become obsolete to those who use them. The ultimate goal is to use these findings to better develop strategies to identify and combat human trafficking and exploitation.

• Student Externs: Ian Fonseca, Nataly Osma – LEAD, Carolyn Nguyen
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

ECPAT: Website

The ECPAT-USA Website project is intended to help public transit operators and others find information and resources related to human trafficking. With an existing draft of the website, the project will make refinements related to text content, images, and digital accessibility to prepare the site for launch. If time and resources permit, the team will connect the back-end location-based data to the website and conduct user experience testing to ensure the site is easy to navigate, understand, and use.

• Student Externs: Desiree White, Sumi Shin, Phalyn Peel, Michelle Mo – LEAD
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak

EHI Cleantech Ventures

At EHI Cleantech, we invest in early-stage technology companies that are tackling the clean energy transition by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving renewable energy efficiency. The project is aimed to enhance the due diligence and risk assessment processes for investing in cleantech ventures by automating key aspects of the process. The team is required to develop a financial model that analyzes vast amounts of quantitative and qualitative data to identify potential risks and opportunities associated with each investment opportunity. By automating these processes, EHI Cleantech Ventures will be able to streamline their investment process, reduce the risk of human error, and make more informed investment decisions.

• Student Externs: Wei-wei Tseng, Chirag Anil, Gracie Ahrens, Ramya Ramabhadran, Alexis Hernandez, Nishchay Vaid
• Mentor: Kijana Mack, Michael Purnell

Epidemiology Bootcamp

This research project will focus on analyzing the impact of spring break travel locations on COVID-19 variant spikes. Specifically, we aim to identify the possible methods of super spreader COVID-19 variant prevalence by collecting and analyzing data on transportation, demographics, symptoms, geography, and healthcare in the areas where students traveled for spring break. We will focus our data collection on state and county-level information and use it to compare and visualize potential COVID-19 predictions. Our analysis will enable us to pinpoint the variables that are causing the spikes in COVID-19 cases in these areas.

• Student Externs: Krishna Desai, Tiffany Xu, Dwij Nitin Tyagi, Alakh Chauhan
• Mentor: Cameron Feathers

Green Bank Observatory

The Green Bank team’s project aims to gather information about the techniques scientists use worldwide to mitigate radio frequency interference (RFI) on electronic systems, specifically the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). The students will conduct research using literature reviews/online papers, and collect data from GBT users, and compile the information into a centralized database to standardize RFI mitigation software for the GBT. The results will be documented in a Google Sheets spreadsheet, consisting primarily of a list of RFI mitigation software and their properties. Further research will be conducted on the identified techniques. The data will be organized into a final database spreadsheet and provided to the Green Bank team to assist their users in finding information on RFI mitigation techniques.

• Student Externs: Pavanganesh Kolisetty, Devin Patel, Ketan Honrao – LEAD
• Mentor: Karen O’Neil

Griffiss Institute

The Griffiss Institute is a non-profit organization in the state of New York that conducts US Air Force associated summer internships for technical subject learning and career development.  Griffiss Institute management staff have about ten years of data on applicants and participants for those internship programs and asked our externship team to develop data analyses and to perhaps make suggestions about improving their internship data processing.  After establishing project appropriate data handling policies along with data import and quality guidelines our externship team used Tableau, the data analysis and graph visualization software, to work with the internship data on creating easily interpretable data visualizations.

• Student Externs: Eva Thai, Richard Whiffen, Reema Dave, Anjali Shah, Danish Qadri
• Mentor: Wendy Carpenter, Todd Humiston

Ingredion: Animal Testing

Ingredion has an animal testing and welfare policy that states that it is “committed to the prohibition of funding, conducting, and commissioning of all animal testing unless it is explicitly required by law or regulation applicable to our business”. This policy highlights Ingredion’s approach to minimize animal testing when appropriate. We will be investigating the current policy and comparing animal testing in the cosmetics and the food industries. We also researched consumer attitudes towards claim and safety testing in food vs cosmetics. We explored public policies from other companies in order to decide that the current Ingredion policy covers the best practices in the industry and that no further refinement is needed.

• Student Externs: Jagruti Harish, Nusaybah Ali, Vamsi Ayyala, Vy Nguyen, Alia5
• Mentors: Padhma Ranganathan, PhD

Ingredion: Zero Waste

The Ingredion Journey to Zero Waste project focused on helping Ingredion accomplish their goal of achieving zero waste to landfills by the year 2030. The team created an Employee Waste Sustainability Learning Guide that will be used by Ingredion to educate their employees about waste and components of the waste pyramid including energy recovery, recycling, reusing products, and preventing waste. The team also looked into new sustainable solutions for Ingredion including reuse or recycling options for the company’s ion exchange resins and bulk bags in order to prevent them from ending up in landfills.

• Student Externs: Jessica Van Wie, Steven Kaplan, Safiyyah Mosaad, Carol Kam, Ozlem Akdogan
• Mentors: Catherine Zimmerman, David Brau

Iron Skillet

The objective of this project is to develop a cost-effective, automated flat bed cast iron roaster that is suitable for small businesses and can help them go through the roasting process more efficiently while also improving the product quality. To achieve this, the iron skillet team evaluated the cost of building the roaster, identified potential suppliers of materials and parts, and determined the total cost of ownership. The optimized roaster design entails incorporated digital technologies to ensure seamless functionality of the roaster through two interfaces, one connected to the roaster, and another, a supporting mobile app. The design prioritizes user-friendliness and intuitiveness to enable operators to use the machine with ease and without requiring technical expertise.

• Student Externs: Sakshi Malaviya, Walter Wu, Ishan Bhavsar, Shreya Sinha Ray
• Mentors: Lori Dars, Dr. Karen Bemis

Medford Lakes Wastewater

The Medford Lakes Wastewater Treatment project is an externship that was assigned to assess the overall effectiveness of a lining placed in their sanitary sewer collection system in 2021. With this in mind we started our research in observing multiple factors such as water flow, hourly wages, energy cost, operational frequency, plant capacity and utilization from both after and prior to its installation. With some of the data we have acquired it allowed us to draw some conclusions. Specifically, factors that we thought would show a major correlation, such as overtime cost and hourly wages, were deemed unrelated and showed no major stimulation in either before or after the construction. This then required us to redirect our hypothesis and focus on other factors like energy cost to possibly show evidence of whether the renovations were a worthwhile investment. As a team, we are still in the process of acquiring data but overall it shows promise.

• Student Externs: Atharva Pandhare – LEAD, Timothy Price, Alayna Mistry, Matthew Robayo, Joseph Palethu, Kalah Isaac, Sameed Hussain
• Mentors:  Brian Grant

MetroAnalytics

Highway Performance Measures is an extension of already implemented visualizations by the previous Rutgers team. Highlights of the project include a one stop Tableau dashboard to compare Highway Performance Measures reported by 44 states and analysis of common factors affecting their performances. Base data is prepared using Pytesseract library to perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to read 250+ images. Further data analysis was performed using process_shape() and process_slides() libraries and functions. Final data preparation includes the NLP and pandas framework. Data cleanup process involves python libraries such as Pandas, Numpy. Final dashboards will be created in Tableau by importing the spreadsheets extracted out of the cleaned data. This tableau dashboard will be useful for departments of transportation to identify visualization techniques that communicate highway performance measures.

• Student Externs: Anum Zafar, Fanjia Zeng – LEAD, Sonal Bansal
• Mentors: Frank Broen

New Jersey Future

The goal of the project is to expand New Jersey Future’s reach in aiding towns to be more successful in their community-based initiatives that advance smart growth goals. Students will become familiar with the type of work and local clients New Jersey Future is seeking to serve. They will conduct market analysis to obtain information on other companies that can be potential models, partners, and competition. Afterwards, students will apply what they learned to contact municipalities and conduct surveys designed to better understand the municipality’s needs and capacity to advance this work with the help of an organization like New Jersey Future. As part of this work, outreach, internal capacity structuring, marketing and branding approaches will be explored that will increase the likelihood of municipalities seeking and obtaining support from New Jersey Future.

• Student Externs: Esther Martinez, Farah Lubaba Rouf, Czarina Rebadavia, Poorvaja Raghunathan- LEAD, Arvin Manivannan
• Mentor: Peter Kasabach, Ron Dukes, Lee Clark

Ocean Athletics, Inc.

Athletes Ocean is a unique eLearning provider and social media platform that allows martial arts instructors to share and monetize their content, create subscription groups, and directly engage with members and other instructors. Our externship project focused on improving the user experience for Athletes Ocean’s power users: the instructors. Using our data-informed insights and key findings, we recommended UX design improvements to the landing page and instructor dashboard. We then produced wireframes that incorporated these recommendations, providing a clear direction for further development. Through our work, we helped Athletes Ocean to deliver a more engaging and effective platform for martial arts instructors and influencers, ultimately enabling them to better monetize their content and connect with their learners and fans in meaningful ways. 

• Student Externs: Alisa Munoz- LEAD, Jessica Romero, Aysenur Kochan, Vanna Mendoza, Georgia Rosenthal, Janica Dino
• Mentor: Geno Morelli, Eric Lundgren

Philadelphia Phillies 

The objective of this project is to improve the retail performance of the Philadelphia Phillies by analyzing game-day retail data for seven in-store locations spanning over three years. Using Python, the team conducted a comprehensive analysis of the data with each member assigned to a specific area of focus. The resulting insights have been presented visually to enable the development of strategic recommendations.

• Student Externs: Zoya Pandher, Heriberto (Eddie) Corniel, Brendan Vas, Faheem Kamaludeen Mohideen, Dillirajan Sankar
• Mentor: Blake Summerfield, Josh Barbieri, Angela Ditri, Joe Dementri, Rory Kelleher

PSEG

The Energy Consumption Calculator utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to simulate humans’ learning and enhance decision-making Capabilities. For this project is that mMany individuals and organizations lack the necessary tools and knowledge to accurately estimate their energy usage and identify opportunities to reduce their consumption. This project We also want to provide accurate load estimates, personalized recommendations, data analyses, and education on energy efficiency recommendations. The aim of this project is to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of existing load calculators.

• Student Externs: Akshita Revulagadda, Afreen Fatima, Runal Baldota
• Mentors: Dr. Ahmed Mousa

PSEG

The Energy Consumption Calculator utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to simulate humans’ learning and enhance decision-making Capabilities. For this project is that mMany individuals and organizations lack the necessary tools and knowledge to accurately estimate their energy usage and identify opportunities to reduce their consumption. This project We also want to provide accurate load estimates, personalized recommendations, data analyses, and education on energy efficiency recommendations. The aim of this project is to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of existing load calculators.

• Student Externs: Akshita Revulagadda, Afreen Fatima, Runal Baldota
• Mentors: Dr. Ahmed Mousa

SOSV/HAX, NJBDA

The team is collaborating with venture firms SOSV and HAX to analyze public data sets in the fields of climate, industrial and healthcare. Team will be identifying and merging relevant data, quantifying qualitative information, and creating metrics to rank and source emerging researchers and lab talent. Team will also use heat maps for visualizing geographical data. The aim is to assist SOSV/HAX in sourcing promising technologies and entrepreneurs.

• Student Externs: Ankit Sharma- LEAD, Christian Barrientos, Rebecca Goldberg, Annie Liang, Nathanael Vachon
• Mentors: Andy Gollach, Ara Varma, Susan Schofer

Transpires

The Transpires team will evaluate pedestrian and cyclist safety in New Brunswick and Atlantic City. These analyses reflect the availability and transparency of data and are designed to improve the Department of Transportation’s utilization of bicycle and pedestrian data. To achieve this objective, the team will utilize various information sources, including land use, household income, crash data, and funding allocations, to understand public safety needs. These data are obtained from different sources such as the Department of Transportation, Police reports, and project charters. The team will collect, interpret, and analyze the data to assess (1) where bicycle and pedestrian crashes are occurring, (2) where modern safety measures have been installed, and (3) the effectiveness of those safety measures in reducing pedestrian injuries and accidents. To the extent this project is successful, it will inform design solutions that could prevent future crashes. Interactive maps will be utilized to visualize the data and identify areas that require improvement, including the current safety measures and their impacts on pedestrian safety, to enhance the infrastructure for pedestrians and bicyclists.

• Student Externs: Aditya Palekar, Mykola Kunderevych, Haya Ahmer, Hadi Rana – LEAD
• Mentors: Dr. John Betak, Glenn Gadbois

Union County, KY

The Union County School District Externship project aims to assess the needs of the Union County school district, identify areas where improvement is needed, and provide recommendations for addressing these needs. The project will offer recommendations to district leadership with detailed literature reviews, timelines, and budgets to help assist educators with their areas of need including, but not limited to, improved access to financial resources and evidence-based curriculum improvements. To summarize, this externship project will aim to improve academic outcomes and well-being of students and address the needs of the school district, educators, and school social workers.

• Student Externs: Sohil Patankar, Ambika Yavatkar, Madhav Ramesh, Cheng Yuan (Thomas), Resham Shah
• Mentors: Abigail Wheaton

Universal Beauty Products, Inc.

Our project features a competitive analysis of Universal Beauty’s hair products, and how they compete with other brands in the market, with a special focus on Jamaican Mango & Lime, their top-selling line. We also researched and compared preservative systems, emulsifiers, hair dyes, and how natural products differ from naturally derived ingredients. We explored how hair personalization can differentiate a brand from their competitors. Lastly we looked at how their competitors’ claims are supported by their formulation and how Universal Beauty can better compete.

• Student Externs: Nanapokuaah Kumah- LEAD, Fatima Akhtar, Akhil Hashem, Oluwaseytian Owoeye, Lisa Grayson
• Mentors: Brent Caldwell, Michael Konieczny 

Wall Street Bootcamp

The WSBC team conducted an in-depth analysis of the coffee industry and focused on researching the financial and sustainability reports of the top 5 coffee companies in the U.S. As the investment sub-team, we explored current and past trends in the coffee industry, the impacts of supply chain issues, and how this impacted the company’s market share. As the sustainability sub-team, we focused on examining the environment, social, and corporate governance framework to assess the coffee industry’s performance on various sustainability and ethical issues. Interconnecting both teams’ research, we aim to provide recommendations that evaluate credit ratings, ESG ratings, and impacts for the top 5 US coffee companies.

• Student Externs: Sandeep Patwalia, Yesmina Hammouda, Thalia Lantin, Robert J Hill, Nadezhda Karkelanova, Conway Zhou, Snehal Ajakkala, Erick Lopez Llanos, Jeff Crispo, Muhammad Awan, Riya Abraham, Tianyi Zhang, Winnie Zhu
• Mentors: Ben Nelson

White Marble Consulting

Our project aims to optimize investment management firms’ social media usage for maximum ROI, while minimizing potential risks. We will explore effective tools and strategies, assess the impact of social media on website engagement, and address potential challenges like compliance and reputation risks. Through a comprehensive literature review and data analysis from firms, we will identify optimal platforms and success-tracking metrics. We will be presenting all our research findings in a report and presentation.

• Student Externs: Tanvi Dinesh, Mansi Masrani, Jonathon Bernstein- LEAD, Halid Atilmis, John Crespo
• Mentors: Kennedy Lynn, Jennifer Dars, & Georgia Humbert

3D Array – Tidal and Non-Periodic Temperature Variance in a Volcanic Caldera

The dataset is based on temperature variance, extracted by a 3D Array of 24 thermistors. Using Python and Machine Learning methodologies, a simple binary mixing model is constructed as a primary step. The ambient temperature is set to a constant and combined with the temperature derived from the dataset to determine the relative dispersion of hydrothermal fluids across the field. The correlation between hydrothermal discharge and distance is further used to model the relative influence of local venting against distal venting, while particularly pointing to vents that create temperature variance. The project is then concluded by analyzing the temperature trend that connects to volcanic activity by applying visualization features offered by Tableau.

• Student Externs: Sharnitha Karthikeyan, Sonal Choudhary, Anubhav Darisi
• Mentor: Dr. Karen Bemis

Affinity – Finance: Analyzing and Optimizing Better Investment Opportunities in Biotech Industry – Equity or Debt?

Our externship project is focused on analyzing and optimizing better investment opportunities in the Biotech industry. We studied the difference between debt vs. equity investment within the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industry. We have collected industry data on their debt and equity financing, company stock history, current company outcome, their convertible bond status, overall equity, and debt return. That data will be used to formulate a hypothesis about when it is best to invest in debt vs. equity given basic market conditions and also to decipher the effect of different factors on the Biotech industry growth and revenue.

• Student Externs: Bratati Patra – LEAD, Aditya Palekar
• Mentor: Bill Koski

Affinity – Life Sciences – Affinity Potential Investments : Aesthetic Device Sector

Affinity Asset Advisors is seeking investment opportunities in the aesthetics device sector. To support this effort, the Affinity – Life Science team conducted scientific and market research of two competing skin health devices: Cutera’s Aviclear device and Beauty Health Co.’s Hydrafacial. To evaluate these products, we rated each product on a scale of 1-5 to analyze attributes ranging from product attractiveness to sales and marketing strategies. At the conclusion of this project, we will present Affinity with our recommendation for the product that represents the best investment option as well as a rubric that details how scores for each category were determined.

• Student Externs: May Theng Ting-LEAD, Nikolas Pavincic, Aidan Andrucyk, Felipe Valencia, Pratiksha Shah, Kaelyn Chang
• Mentors: Jenna Molesko

Always Love Yourself: Black Consumer Personal Care Brand Research: Creation of a Basic Framework for a Personal Care Startup

Always Love Your Self is an emerging brand established with the goal of providing equity in the beauty industry. The brand hopes to achieve this by providing better and effective options to black and brown consumers, with a focus on helping them make informed decisions about the safety of the products they use. This externship project was focused on helping the brand Always Love Your Self (ALYS) design a framework to help consumers gain a deeper understanding of the brands and products that target this consumer base. The project researched various brands that were created for the black and brown consumer in an effort to measure the marketplace.  The result was the development of a management and retail interface that combined all the research and analysis and delivered it in a crisp, intuitive consumer-facing tool.

• Student Externs: Pushpadantgiri Goswami-LEAD, Mingyi Chen, Imran Attarwala, Karen Montecinos
• Mentors: Cenita Williamson

BASF Bioactive Technical Analysis: Personal Care Bioactive and Biopolymer Assessment

BASF Personal Care team is looking to conduct a Bioactives/Biotech Assessment and Biopolymer Technical Assessment to provide cost effective, competitive, sustainable, and efficacious products to their customer demographic by expanding market share and conducting research into new materials and partnerships with other firms. BASF Personal Care team is looking to develop a market share analysis and expand upon the image of personal care products to their customer demographic by investigating novel technologies and bioactives unexplored by competitor companies. Within the products targeting an improved skin hydration and moisturization, BASF aims to identify bioactives leveraging fermentation practices for a healthy skin microbiome. BASF hopes to conduct a concise and informative technical and commercial market analysis for innovative biopolymers in the North American market to transform the current BASF pipeline of products creating targeted technologies able to compete and collaborate with outside sectors for functional duality. Two or three innovative biopolymers will be proposed to include in upcoming relevant BASF formulations appealing to sustainability and customer need goals.

• Student Externs: Ishan Bhavsar – LEAD, Bryan Balarezo, Katrina J Tun, Uday Patel, Priyanshi Suvasia, Prashant Suvasia
• Mentors: Nicole Paraszczuk, Allison Garlet, Chris Sutton

Bentley Labs: Products & Trends Alignment Analysis

Externs analyzed market trends to help Bentley Labs align its portfolio with potential markets. Students learned about the research and development process from conception all the way to commercialization in the personal care industry. Using data visualization tools such as DOMO BI, externs presented their findings and provided recommendations.

• Student Externs: Aisha Raza, Krishna Shah, Sughosha Rao, Farah Lubaba Rouf, Stefan Mirfakhrai, Mayeesha Maliha, Michael Stanaway Ahsanuddin, Amol Shirodkar
• Mentor: Matt Brennan

CGI-NJBDA: New Jersey Flood Prediction and Mitigation

Our Project mainly focuses on providing a strategy to predict and mitigate flood effects in vulnerable NJ areas. We built time series models to predict location-specific flood events, mapped flood susceptibility to identify vulnerable areas, quantified insurance liability caused by flooding, and recommended a strategy based on all of the above analyses to mitigate property damage from flooding.

• Student Externs: Jinglin Zhao (Team Lead), Shifra Isaacs, Priscilla Ramos, Alvin Radoncic, Topu Saha
• Mentor: Douglas Vargo

Colgate- Flavors & Favors: Colgate-Palmolive: Gen-Z Takeover

The purpose of this externship is to help Colgate become a core value brand for Gen-Z consumers in the personal care space. This was accomplished through research on consumer trends, competitor analysis, and product preferences. We utilized this knowledge to create two new products for existing Colgate-Palmolive brands from concept to market, which included mock-up designs, fragrances, and marketing campaigns.

• Student Externs: Danielle Lev, Julianna Czop, Mary Atokwu-Isama
• Mentor: Catalina Monroy

Colgate-Quality: MRA Training Guide

The goal of this project is to update and enhance the AODocs MRA training guide for Colgate employees. The MRA (Mock Recovery Training) exercise is a mock procedure carried out in the company to test the ability to determine the location and quantity of product within Colgate’s control. The new MRA training guide includes both slides and video tutorials to assist the employee to document the MRA Exercise in the AODocs digital library. The guide provides a stepwise procedure to navigate through the AODocs MRA exercise.

• Student Externs: Benjamin Cimiluca, Helly Shah, Kishankumar Patel, Yihuang Li, Nihal Dolunay
• Mentor: Elsa Tsuji, Muhammad Qureshi

Colgate R&D: Rising Benefits in Skin-Cleansing Products

In light of the pandemic, skin cleansing products have been at the forefront of consumers’ minds. A study done in 2020 found that 58% of adults surveyed in 118 countries washed their hands five or more times per day. These cleansing products are used daily by consumers, so we hope to find aspects of them that can provide the best and most desired consumer experience. In our project, we explore additional benefits and claims for these liquid cleansing products that are beyond the scope of traditional skin enhancement properties. We also created concept ideas that hope to capture robust market and patent trend analyses on the latest ingredients and technologies utilized in hand/body care cleansing formulas. With skin cleansing products being a new hot topic of conversation, it’s important that we research the benefits that are on the rise or uncharted in the personal care market space and patent landscape throughout our project.

• Student Externs: MIlena Kleyman – LEAD, Gavin McDonnell, Sonya Gande
• Mentor: Courtney Harris, Rahul Patel

Collaborite Solutions- Extern: Quantifying Visual Distractions – Railroad Grade Crossing

Our group has been working on metricizing and classifying visual distractions that can increase the likelihood of an accident at a railroad grade crossing. Railroad grade crossing distractions can lead to devastating accidents and these visual distractions have increased over the years through commercialization and infrastructure. Our mentors have provided industry expertise in our classification of distractions and how they may vary from region to region. Our group will aim to build a model that we can test against past records to measure the impact of existing distractions. It will also serve as a predictor for if a railroad grade crossing is “safe” or not.

• Student Externs: Jose Quito, Jia Chen, Muhammad Aqib Ali
• Mentors: John Betak, Mike White

Collaborative Solutions- Practicum:

Grade Crossing Risk Prediction Using Machine Learning – Texas

California Railroad Grade Crossing Accident Probability Model

Texas: Casualties and fatalities are back on the rise due to train-automobile collisions at railroad grade crossings, with Texas having a high number of incidents. These incidents result in traumatic impacts. This project aims to predict high-risk railroad grade crossings to minimize casualties and fatalities. With the ability to predict high-risk crossings, the project aims to further improve the metrics and models used in the industry to predict risk which will focus limited financial resources on the locations where the greatest reduction in collisions may be realized.

California: The analytics practicum project was done in partnership with Collaborative Solutions and focused on railroad-highway grade crossing accidents. A grade crossing is the point where a railroad intersects with a road and accidents resulting from train-automotive vehicles crashes are often fatal. The goal of this project is to develop a machine learning model that will outperform current models used in the industry in predicting grade crossing accidents. An additional goal is to propose improvements over the existing models, the data collection processes around grade crossings, and warning devices.

• Student Externs: Nadezhda Karkelanova – CA (LEAD), Hardik Darji – TX (LEAD), Het Bhagat – TX, Seyvona Forrester -TX, Harry Deodharry – CA, Eric Martz – CA
• Mentors: John Betak, Mike White

COVID Bootcamp: Making COVID-19 Information More Accessible

Previously, the Covid-19 Exploration Team has focused on developing the Wix website. This semester, the team decided to focus on updating the website with current Covid-19 data and protocols. The team has created hi-fidelity wireframes to synthesize the information on the Wix website resulting in a mobile application. The team’s intent for creating the mobile application is to reach out to a larger audience by enabling the Covid-19 data accessibility to the Rutgers community.

• Student Externs: Anannya Bhagwat (Team Lead), Sarah Shiner, Anoushka Siddhada, Sohil Patankar, Michelle Mo, Hoang Phan, Avni Patel, Srinidhi Paruchuri, Yewon Yang, Shivani Patel
• Mentors: Fred Roberts

DIMACS Team 1 – Explainable Algorithms

The goal was to explore the application of an explainable/interpretable machine learning model; specifically, the General Optimal Sparse Decision Tree (GOSDT). A comparative analysis study of the GOSDT algorithm was done against two proven black box algorithms, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine (SVM). This analysis included performance metrics (accuracy, recall, run time, etc.) as well as our methodology of explainability and interpretability. The team applied the use of GOSDT, Random Forest, and SVM in the application of Financial and Insurance Fraud detection

• Student Externs: Robert Roman, Navya Yarramaneni
• Mentor: Linda Ness

DIMACS Team 2: Eddicient, Non-Greedy Decision Tree Optimization

Being able to detect activities harmful to a financial institution, such as fraud and loans that will default, is very critical to the success of banks. However, gone are the days when an analyst could easily explain fraud or default risk; rather, complex, non-interpretable, black-box models make these decisions behind the scenes. These models will flag which transactions are fraudulent (or which loans will default) based on dozens or hundreds of features, if not more, and complex operations. Can a performant real-world model be built efficiently through an optimized, interpretable, and simple decision tree? Is there a conflict between model interpretability and accuracy? These are the main questions we set to answer. Our project will specifically study the Generalized and Scalable Optimal Sparse Decision Trees (GOSDT) algorithm.

• Student Externs: Nirva Patel, Quraiz Najmi, Andrew Lopanik
• Mentor: Linda Ness

ECPAT Practicum Team 1: ECPAT Risk Modeling for ABQ, NM

The all-embracing goal of our project is to accurately predict where human trafficking is most likely to occur throughout the state of New Mexico, primarily focusing on the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, by developing a predictive model. We hope this research will aid ECPAT in its pursuit of preventing human trafficking crimes from occurring. To do this, our group has carried out extensive literature, company, and human trafficking crime research, which was followed by the collection, cleaning, and blending of various datasets involving demographic, crime, and geographic location data. We then conducted an exploratory data analysis, developed our model’s target variable, which is the count of trafficking crimes in each New Mexico census tract, and carried out various feature selection processes to maximize our prospective model’s accuracy metric, R-squared. Once the optimal features have been selected by maximizing R-squared, we plan to use a random forest regression model to predict the likelihood of where human trafficking crimes will occur.

• Student Externs: Gabriel Castellanos – LEAD, Lucas Milbank, Colton Schoch
• Mentor: John Betak

ECPAT Practicum Team 2: ECPAT Location Analytics

Perform network analysis to identify locational ties between the area code locations (source) from phone numbers and location hashtags (targets) that appear in the same tweet. Create visualizations to help ECPAT understand the specific locations where trafficking movements occur in the northeast tri-state area and connections to other notable locations around the country. Additionally, predict the time between the movements of perpetrators by scraping Twitter data based on phone numbers. Create a model that can predict when perpetrators will be moving from location to location based on the time between tweets and locations mentioned.

• Student Externs: Rahul Kumania – LEAD, Devanshi Jackson
• Mentors: John Betak

ECPAT Public Health: Combating Human Trafficking in Albuquerque and Albany

The aim of the project is to discover possible factors related to human trafficking of minors for sex in both Albany, NY, and Albuquerque, NM.  In Albany, we find data about income inequality, violent crime, mentally stressed populations, and children welfare from US Census Bureau and City-Health Dashboard; plus, street view to identify areas along specific bus routes where there are minorities and disadvantaged communities, as well as commercial activities that are commonly associated with human trafficking in both Albany and Schenectady. In Albuquerque, we researched different transit locations with dashboards that locate areas that include trafficking, various statistics for STD results and other diseases, and teen births along with data from the census. We also looked at higher proportions of homelessness, unstable living conditions, abuse cases, juvenile justice, as well as the child welfare program, and poverty. Overall, the data we collected will be analyzed and visualized within Google MyMap to see how those factors correlated with each other, illustrating the potential explanations for human trafficking within these areas.

• Student Externs: CHENG YUAN CHUANG (Thomas) LEAD, Marvin Kimwon – LEAD, Hemang Rana, Amrin Ashraf, Chloe Sequeira
• Mentor: John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

ECPAT – Social Media: Toledo Human Trafficking Social Media Analysis

This project is performed in conjunction with ECPAT-USA to scrape Twitter for posts that advertise (implicitly or explicitly) human trafficking or child exploitation in Toledo, Ohio metropolitan area. We will use these data to gain insights on trafficking operations such as the meeting locations and how traffickers and victims utilize transportation, including public transit, to engage in exploitive activities. We will monitor these social media sites for suspicious content relating to human trafficking and flag them for further analysis. Because trafficking often occurs in plain sight, we want this research to help increase awareness of human trafficking on transit systems for operators, passengers, and the Toledo community and ultimately reduce this crime in the Toledo metropolitan area.

• Student Externs: John Leng (Capstone) (Team Lead), Daniel Gameiro, Vanna Mendoza, Dominick Santorelli
• Mentors: John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

ECPAT- Website: Anti-Trafficking Campaign Website Launch

During the Fall 2022 semester, the Rutgers MBS UXD team worked with ECPAT-USA to further the design and development of its website user interface to maximize clarity and ease of use for different user populations seeking information regarding human trafficking. The overall goal of ECPAT-USA is to increase awareness of human trafficking on public transit systems. To achieve its design and development goals, the team used WordPress website builder to bring together designs from prototyping to the development stage. Data and research from prior teams were utilized to fully enhance the website. The team used Figma files developed in prior research as guidance. The new website will be tested for user experience by students who have worked with ECPAT in previous semesters. It is expected there will be room for improvement in the newly developed website design as future teams can work on search engine optimization and further usability testing.

• Student Externs: Barbara Hejzyk – LEAD, Thalia Lantin, Eesha Gongula
• Mentors: John Betak, Yvonne Chen

Epidemiology Modeling Bootcamp- Team 1: Prediction COVID-19 Sub Variant Spikes

The goal of the project is to analyze spike of each subvariant based on 10 different region of US with the used of cluster and decision tree to identify how many day it will take a variant to spike in a specific region,then test it with different variants and finalize the model of descriptive analysis for the COVID variant spike. The project includes data curation and data analysis by applying tools such as Python sklearn, matplotlib, ML Algorithm and Tableau. The data is collected from CDC, Census Bureau and John Hopkins Open data.

• Students Externs: Rachel Azarian, Nghi Van Pan, Neha Ravi
• Mentors: Cameron Feather

Epidemiology Modeling Bootcamp- Team 2: COVID-19 Outbreak Prediction

We will predict the appearance of new COVID variants by State, using nextstrain.org new variant data, CDC’s COVID cases and deaths, and National Wastewater Surveillance Service’s COVID particles in wastewater. We will predict the appearance of new COVID variants using 3 modes, and then we will choose the best model. The three models we will use are Logistic Regression, Neural Network Binary Classification, and Survival Analysis.

• Student Externs: Thallys Goncalves (Team Lead), Hernan Chacon, Sreya Vadapalli
• Mentors: Cameron Feathers

Ingredion: Ingredion Biodiversity Project

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effects of Ingredion’s corn and tapioca suppliers on biodiversity and to help Ingredion meet milestones in its AllLife Sustainability plan such as having a net positive impact on affected endangered species by 2025. We researched the effects of corn suppliers on endangered species in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Hungary, Mexico, Pakistan, and the U.S.. We researched the effects of tapioca suppliers on endangered species in Colombia and Thailand. In order to minimize Ingredion’s supply chain’s impacts on biodiversity, we identified potential NGO and local partners with which Ingredion could collaborate. Through our research and data analysis, we created a ranking of the countries of greatest potential risk that Ingredion should prioritize.

• Student Externs: Zoya Pandher (Capstone) – LEAD, Giriraj Patil, Bomin Kim, Ashley Yap, Monit Patel
• Mentor: Andrew Utterback, Brian Nash

Iron Skillet Coffee: Coffee Roasting System Development

The team worked with Jeff Smith from the Iron Skillet Coffee to develop a Coffee Roasting system that includes a roaster, ventilation, cooling component, and chaff collection. The goal is to create a computational model by the end of the semester so that a future working group can continue the design process.

• Student Externs: Pavithra Navamani Selvam (LEAD), Ryan Layden, Manushi Shah, Tyler Lachawiec, Qiyue He, Bradley Ferrara
• Mentor: Jeff Smith

La Casita Hot Sauce: Social Media Growth and Market Tapping

Our team is working with Veronica, owner of La Casita Hot Sauce, a local hot sauce company from San Benito, Texas. The problem we were presented with was that there has not been enough growth in engagement on social media accounts like on Instagram and Facebook resulting in low new customer awareness and engagement. We have been researching competitor data and analyzing marketing data to propose a social media marketing plan for La Casita Hot Sauce to increase their followers and overall audience engagement. Aside from proposing several marketing plans for the existing social platforms she is on, we have also proposed to her to enter the TikTok platform, an untapped market with much potential.

• Student Externs: Jack Bostjancic – LEAD, Ambika Yavatkar, Daniel Petto, Anmol Patel, Kritika Agarwal, Caleigh Masterman
• Mentor:  Veronica Westlake

Laural Oak Farm: Development of Market Expansion Strategies

The Laurel Oak Farm project aims to develop marketing strategies for the existing farm business and create models for new revenue streams on the farm. The team was tasked with developing a website and increasing their web presence through social media. Market research and cost analyses were performed to create business plans for growing ultra-niche high-value crops, which would help plan out the growth of the business to improve the success rate and increase farm revenue.

• Student Externs: Prathyusha Soundararajan (Team Lead), Avery Ebert, Tiffany Zhou, Judy Pavel, John M Truong
• Mentors: Lee Scott, Shauna Scott

Lucky Lou’s: Shelf Life Improvement and Brochure Creation

Lucky Lou’s Gourmet Rice Pudding company makes delicious rice puddings with simple natural ingredients. Lucky Lou’s manufactures[LL1]  rice puddings in vanilla and chocolate flavors in different varieties like no added sugar, protein, and vegan. The products currently have a shelf life of approximately 3 weeks, through this project the main goal is to increase the shelf life of rice puddings to at least 6 weeks because that’s the requirement of most distributors. This will help the company to ship products to distant markets other than Long Island. Along with this a new and updated marketing brochure will also be made to showcase LLRP’s products, ingredients properties, and current sales prices.

• Student Externs: Facundo Saiegh-LEAD, Riya Abraham, Phyllip Augustin
• Mentors: Maria Camassa

Metro Analytics: Visualization of US State Highway Performance Measures and ProcessesL NCHRP Synthesis 584 Externship Project

The team collaborated with the transportation/economic research company, Metro Analytics, to visualize the data retrieved from the results of the NCHRP Synthesis 584 Report – Visualization of Highway Performance Measures. Forty four states in the United States completed the survey and the text data was exported to an Excel spreadsheet. The goal was to transform this text data into an interactive and accessible dashboard using the data visualization tool Tableau. The data was cleaned and the goal was to create an interactive dashboard for the general public and key decision-makers that is easy to use. The tool that the team created will use the visualization techniques described in the report to quickly communicate the similarities and differences between states in how they capture, interpret, and communicate highway performance measures.

• Student Externs: Adam Moskowitz (LEAD), Rashi Sawant, Snehal Ajakkala, Jiayi Yu, Jayadityan Sethuraman (Jay)
• Mentor: Frank Broen, Barry Mason, Mary-Katherine Duncan

NJCCIC: Open Source Intelligence & Attack Surface Automation

This open source intelligence and attack surface automation project employs a number of open source intelligence and attack surface management technologies. The goal of this project is to automate several OSINT, passive and active threat measuring scans. The findings of these scans will be utilized to automatically correlate data for a variety of applications. This project’s applications include, but are not limited to, the discovery of previously undiscovered assets, the identification of high-risk assets and their corresponding vulnerabilities, the identification of exposed data, and the identification of misconfigured cloud services. This project will be undertaken to improve the efficiency and precision of operations.

• Student Externs: Kshitij Bhausaheb Pawar, Andres Guerrero, Michael Estevez, Pranav Nair, Kishan Sojan, Runal Baldota, Shivansh Amin, Manuel Pierre
• Mentor: Marisa Bruder, Rob Bruder, Mike Geraghty

New Castle PA Public Library: New Castle PA Public Library Community Outreach Plan

Since the New Castle, PA Public Library has struggled to interact with the Latinx and Old Order Amish members of the county, the team researched and implemented programs to foster more engagement from these populations. The goal was to address community needs by creating new programs, generating marketing strategies, and developing ways on how to modernize the library’s space. Through community outreach, the library is hoping to foster better engagement from local communities, promote and expand cultural literacy, and grow user demographics.

• Student Externs: Katherine Porr (LEAD), Tonai Crockett, Taylor Clarida, Katherine Porr (LEAD), Brianna Wilkinson
• Mentor: Andrew Henley

Organon- Marketing Operations: Process Mapping the Review of Commercial Content

Students worked on improving the user experience for Veeva Vault PromoMats, Organon’s current medical legal regulatory (MLR) review platform for promotional materials, in order to make it more adaptable for users. This was done by creating high-level Test Scripts and PromoMat workflows and roles for 12 different market sectors.The process maps created will be used by Organon for onboarding new users, change requests, and release management purposes. Working individually on each market workflow as well as together to perform quality checks on each other’s work, students learned how workflow requirements vary across regional markets and the importance of a simple and straightforward user interface in facilitating efficient end-user experience.

• Student Externs: ANora Elansary, Wei-wei Tseng (Vivian), Safiyyah Mosaad
• Mentor: David Lee, Jonathan Chan, Michelle Radu

Princeton Health Department- Idea to Impact: Comminity Health in Princeton

Students explored health outcomes in the municipality of Princeton, NJ, utilizing the City Health Dashboard, to assess disparities between state and national health measures. There was a strong focus on community health initiatives in the areas of lead exposure, mental health, and maternal health. Data was leveraged from various sources to drive prevention strategies. All findings were integrated into a community health assessment and improvement plan that the Princeton Health Department will employ to guide health promotion and improvement.

• Student Externs: Ramyashree Nuchin Veerappa, Kunj Sandeep Oza, Tajrian Amad, Jordan Clarida
• Mentors: Jeff Grosser

PSEG: PSEF FERC 2222 Implementation Recommendation

As members of the PSEG Externship team, we have been tasked with researching the newly issued FERC Order 2222 that allows smaller-scale distributed energy resources (DERs) access to several energy markets. Throughout the project, we have examined many different aspects of the energy industry including energy markets, renewable power generation, electric vehicles & vehicles 2 grid, and energy efficiency with the goal of understanding how FERC Order 2222 will impact the grid and the utility business. At the end of the externship, we will provide recommendations for how utilities and residential customers can best utilize FERC Order 2222 to maximize the potential economic benefit gained by incorporating DERs and energy efficiency tools into the power grid.

• Student Externs: Matthew Robayo (Team Lead), Cole Jenkins, Matthew Chen, Nicholas Percarpio, Vishwaram Suntharesan
• Mentor: Ahmed Mousa

Rutgers IP&O: Electrification of the Rutgers University Fleet

Rutgers Institutional Planning and Operations (Rutgers IP&O) has over 600 vehicles currently operating on campus and is considering replacing them with electric vehicles (EVs) to align with the presidential initiative of a zero carbon footprint by 2040. During the Fall 2022 semester, the first electric vehicle was deployed and the externship team was tasked to analyze real-time utilization data and provide recommendations to Rutgers IP&O based on operational performance. The team’s primary focus was to determine the requirements needed to maintain a 100% electric fleet and how the data supports replacement of the current gas-powered vehicles at this time. To accomplish this, the team analyzed the cost and efficiency of the deployed EV cargo van and compared it to gas-powered vehicles performing roughly the same daily tasks. In addition, the team provided recommendations on new charging stations across campus since the increase of electric vehicles will require additional infrastructure to support the charging of the fleet. Taking into account current charging locations, EV stoppage data, and user feedback from the test driver of the EV, data-driven locations were determined to support the fleet as well as provide access to the overall Rutgers community.

• Student Externs: Sahana Ranganathan, Charles Cutignola, Tejas Sinha, Lam Tran, Romany Ebrhem, Alyssa Nayar
• Mentor: Bill O’Brien

Rutgers Rail & Transit: Railway Trespassing on Grade Crossings and Right-of-Ways

Our team analyzed the selected database using python and MATLAB. We did a literature review as well in order to learn about the prospect of trespassing on grade crossings and researching possible solutions that have been used abroad and domestically to mitigate trespassing violations. We developed strategies to improve safety and reduce accidents at the selected locations. We did a cost benefit analysis of each strategy to maximize safety benefit return on investment. By the end of the project, we presented an academic paper regarding our work and research on this topic.

• Student Externs: Ankit Sharma LEAD, Isaac Lora-Fonville, Gracie Ahrens, Aasher Hussain, Harsh Patel, Ruben Alias
• Mentors: Asim Zaman, Dr. Xiang Liu

SixThirty Ventures: A Venture into the Investment World

As part of the Rutgers MBS Externship Exchange, through our work with SixThirty Ventures, our team hopes to learn the foundational concepts behind making sound investment decisions and the investment management process. We aim to contribute to the firm research, due diligence and analysis process. This will be done through competitive & financial analysis, market sizing, market analysis of future trends, and technology review.

• Student Externs: Anjalika Bandaru – LEAD, Michael Bazarsky, Roy Ghivoni (Capstone), Gunjan Adya
• Mentor: Andrew Wegrzyn

The Avery Group: Aerospace Industry Strategy Development

We were tasked with creating a strategic plan for The Avery Group to present them with potential opportunities to join the aerospace industry. Our presentation will include; potential partners, a SWOT analysis of their potential role within the industry, and determining subsectors of the industry in which they can leverage their capabilities. These were determined through research into the aerospace industry, The Avery Group, and their competitors.

• Student Externs: Hadassah Freedman (Team Lead), Kirkzebedee Olandres, Rabiah Mian
• Mentor: A. O. Shodi

Transpires Extern- Zero Vision: Understanding Jersey City Pedestrian Safety

The objective of Transpires team is to assess aspects of pedestrian safety in Jersey City and improve the Department of Transportation’s understanding and use of bicycle and pedestrian data. This investigation requires information such as population density, household income, pedestrian accidents, and allocation of funds toward public safety that come from sources including the Department of Transportation, the United State Census, and Jersey City charters. Interpreting and analyzing this data is necessary to evaluate modern safety measures’ impact on minimizing pedestrian injuries and accidents. Visualizing this data using heat maps will help assess locations of improvement, such as the safety measures currently in place and their impacts on pedestrian safety, to enhance infrastructure surrounding pedestrians and bicyclists. 

• Student Externs: Pranav Angiya Janarthanan – Team Lead, Poorvaja Raghunathan, Christopher Quesada, Jacob Joe
• Mentors: John Betak, Glenn Gadbois

Transpires Practicum Team 1: Analysis of Bicycle Fatalities

Federal and State Governments can only make data-informed safety-related decisions when they have time and reliable data, for Bicycle Incidents. They are not best equipped with the resources. Transpire’s goal is to improve pedestrians and bicyclists safety by making data-driven decisions. The investigation currently in hand is to answer the following problem statement: Does lifestyle or transportation changes to bicycle transportation improve bike safety?

• Student Externs: Danish Qadri
• Mentor: John Betak, Glenn Gadbois

Transpires Practicum Team 2: Pedestrian/Bicyclists Incidents Analysis

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effects of Ingredion’s corn and tapioca suppliers on biodiversity and to help Ingredion meet milestones in its AllLife Sustainability plan such as having a net positive impact on affected endangered species by 2025. We researched the effects of corn suppliers on endangered species in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Hungary, Mexico, Pakistan, and the U.S.. We researched the effects of tapioca suppliers on endangered species in Colombia and Thailand. In order to minimize Ingredion’s supply chain’s impacts on biodiversity, we identified potential NGO and local partners with which Ingredion could collaborate. Through our research and data analysis, we created a ranking of the countries of greatest potential risk that Ingredion should prioritize.

• Student Externs: Ramyashree Veerappa
• Mentors  John Betak, Glenn Gadbois

Transpires Practicum Team 3: Bicycle/Pedestrian Incidents Analysis

Our project aims to build a better understanding of bicycle and pedestrian accidents within New Jersey. Using crash records, weather, and census data, our team seeks to identify contributing factors to the severity and number of pedestrian and bicycle accidents in the following NJ cities: Edison, New Brunswick, and Piscataway. Our approach uses machine learning algorithms such as decision tree classifiers, support vector machines, and K-nearest neighbors for classification and regression modeling. We hope our project can provide crucial analysis for Vision Zero, a strategy to reduce traffic fatalities and collisions while increasing safety and equitable mobility, and contribute to this field’s growing body of work.

• Student Externs: Sara Clasp, Karthik Kuchimanchi, Jessica Soriano
• Mentor: John Betak, Glenn Gadbois

TVD: Creating a Customer Engagement Score

TVD Associates (TVDA) manages the day to day activity for several nonprofit organizations. The primary objective of our project with the firm is to create a system that determines the engagement level within each of the nonprofit communities that they manage. The most important metric that will enable us to resolve this potential is the interactions from the customers’ end with each organization. The data for this project contains information in each organization’s database, such as their last logged-in date, projects with the company, activity status, etc. Our team will analyze the data and look at some fields associated with the customer-company interaction and then use these fields to create a scoring system that will rank the customers based on their engagement.

• Student Externs: Aman Saxena, Nathan Chon, Urvi Vinod, Ifeoluwani Jacob
• Mentor: Todd Von Deak

Union County School District: A Public School District Budget Analysis

School supplies are a crucial part of the educational experience, which is why the team worked with Union County Kentucky School District to expand their low school supply budget.Through extensive research, the team learned to really understand the demographic and culture of Kentucky, as well as the financial and industrial factors that play a role in the decisions made by the district’s board of education. The goal was to help the Union County school board, and their students, to promote the success of their futures by expanding their budget. In order to do this, they investigated the possibilities of community fundraisers, federal and state grants, and participation in programs such as Donorschoose. To make all of this come to fruition, conversations with the Board of Education need to be had, to present ideas and strategize the best possible options to help the children.

• Student Externs: Yaneli Rios-LEAD, Winnie Zhu, Esther Martinez (Capstone), Sanjiv Prasad, Gabrielle Atchison
• Mentors: Abby Wheaton

Wall St Bootcamp: Coffee Industry Analysis

Coffee is a globally-traded commodity with a complex supply chain. Charged with analyzing the global coffee industry through a variety of business and financial analyses, the Wall Street Bootcamp (WSBC) team will explore the countries and companies involved in the production and import/export processes, the different types of beans, and necessary growing conditions, and the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors associated with a company’s sustainability initiatives and claims. Our project goal is to perform a detailed ESG industry analysis through the investigation of several well-known coffee companies.

• Student Externs: Rick Patel (LEAD), Ian Fonseca, Sabarinath Ramachandran, Pranav Tripathi, Parshva Mehta
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

Colgate –  Flavors & Fragrances

A concept development project where students researched new flavor concepts for Colgate comparable to what companies such as Pepsi and Coke are doing with their flavors. This includes recommendations on packaging design and changes to languaging, marketing, and communication in order to attract GenZ’ers.

• Student Externs: Susan Kim (Lead), ChengYuan Chuang (Thomas), Michael Degady, Navanita Saha
• Mentor: Catalina Monroy Colgate Quality

Colgate –  Quality

Students built migration files for Contract Manufacturers QTA’s by manipulating data in databases and algorithms.

• Student Externs: Yihuang Li ( Lead), Matthew Kwok, Piolo Calusin, Rusheel Meka
• Mentor: Elsa Yuriko Tsuji, Muhammad Qureshi

Colgate – Sustainability

Flexible Plastic Bags: Labeling, Communication, and Scaling Collection: Flexible plastic bags, such as those used by Colgate particularly for Hill’s pet food, is a recycling challenge. Not accepted in most curbside systems, they are desired in the “Store Drop-off” stream which consists primarily of grocery and other retailers including Walmart and Target. Efforts to communicate on-pack as well as expansion of drop-off locations are needed, and students addressed 1) completing the survey previously designed by students, 2) exploring how to better communicate the store drop-off need, and 3) evaluating/designing great opportunities for plastic bag collection.

• Student Externs: Zaina Merchant (Lead), Clarize P Virtusio, Joyce Wu
• Mentor: Daniel Block; Anne Bedarf

Covid-19 Public Health Bootcamp – Survey/Website & Treatment

Our project, “The Psychosocial Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals Post-Quarantine,” aims to assess and understand the psychosocial impact of the pandemic on high schoolers. This project was done in association with CCICADA, which is a US Department of Homeland Security Center partnered with Rutgers and multiple other institutions. Our project goals were achieved by analyzing data from the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES) collected by the CDC. The information gathered from our data analysis can be utilized by Rutgers and other similar institutions to better assist their incoming students with their mental and social needs. We hope to provide viable and helpful suggestions to improve everyday student life post-pandemic.

• Student Externs: Rushali Shah (Lead), Amita Reka, Emma Leary
• Mentor: Dr. Fred Roberts, CCICADA Center

Data Storytelling

To Code or No Code: Students developed a SWOT analysis for no-code platforms considering the concepts of privacy, ownership, lock-in, cost, and customization. This allowed for a development of recommendations, key findings, and items for future study or investigation.

• Student Externs: Diego Carrion Castro (Lead), Griffin Dabritz, Humza Syed
• Mentor: Devon McGuinness

ECPAT – Practicum

The team worked with ECPAT-USA to increase awareness of human trafficking in the Albany, NY area. The objective was to assist in combating child sex trafficking through using social media analysis in the Albany, NY area. The team developed and optimized a data pipeline that scrapes Twitter posts and flags potentially suspicious tweets with machine learning.

• Student Externs: Julianne Lin (Lead), Ian McSpiritt, Jeremy Randolph
• Mentor: John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

ECPAT – Website

Students created a mock-up website design related to prior research performed by past teams in the anti-trafficking space to increase awareness about human trafficking on public transit, and is primarily targeted to transit leaders. The team worked to deploy a mocked up design from the spring team onto a live website and to continue building out the mockup.

• Student Externs: Naisargi Patel (Naisu) (Lead), Belle Zhang, Fiona Wang
• Mentor: John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

ECPAT – FME Team

Data gathering, analysis, and mapping of publicly available data were done for the purpose of understanding risks of human trafficking on public transit. The team gathered data on land use, police/crime, events, open source data, local data, open data for state or city, government data, public health, foster care, homelessness, etc. for Albuquerque, NM & Albany NY. The team also looked to gather prior and new data sources and create an FME database linking data sources, along with a handoff process for continuity.

• Student Externs: Jonathan Van(Lead), Jason Nguyen, Ankit Sharma, Danial Fahim, Amol Shirodkar
• Mentor: John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

ECPAT – GIS & Analytics Team

Data gathering, analysis, and mapping of publicly available data were done for the purpose of understanding risks of human trafficking on public transit. The team gathered data on land use, police/crime, event, open source data, local data, open data for state or city, government data, public health, foster care, homelessness, etc. for Albuquerque, NM & Albany NY. The team also looked into mapping and modeling tools.

• Student Externs: Izabell Wilk (Co-Lead), Jinglin Zhao (Co-Lead), Fabio Gunderson, Nikhil Chandra
• Mentor: John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

Edgewell

Data analytics tools were developed to model current plastic utilization and to predict future plastic reduction based on sustainable product changes. Sustainable products such as the introduction of a device, “Playtex™ Clean Comfort”, that resulted in a tampon with 40% reduced plastic compared to the previous model, “Playtex™Sport”. The goal was to predict plastic reduction based on material changes to non-plastic alternatives, utilizing current estimated volumes.

• Student Externs: Siddharth Singh (Lead), Medha Sala, Patricia Zhuo, Utkarsh Patel
• Mentor: Michael Burt, Craig Harvey

Epidemiology: Human Trafficking & Public Health Modeling Bootcamp

Insights and ties were explored between viral modeling and the COVID-19 pandemic and links to reported or suspected human trafficking cases. This was accomplished by visualizing public health and trafficking data, and looking for exploratory data analysis and correlations within a specific state in the US.

• Student Externs: Muhammad Nadeem (Humza) (Lead), Ataulhaq Akbar, Sahil Patel, Harrison Blum
• Mentor: Cameron Feathers

Laural Oak Farm

Carbon credits for farms and farmland were researched to understand how livestock farms can calculate carbon offsets. This included looking at agriculture and farming carbon credits, ways of sale, and calculations of carbon offsets. It also included looking into carbon calculations for livestock related farming, how to calculate carbon offset, and coming up with a methodology through research of how to calculate carbon offset for grassland and livestock farming.

• Student Externs: Amisha Mukhopadhyay (Lead), Matthew Degady, Sanjiv Prasad, Anamika Desai
• Mentors: Lee Scott

Maritime Risk Bootcamp

This bootcamp focused on maritime risk where students looked into areas of interest around the maritime industry and potential areas of risk to supply chains. The team presented a poster at the Fall 2022 Maritime Risk Symposium.

• Student Externs: Tawhid Ahmad (Lead), Amritpal Singh, Farid Mamoor, Hasan Bhuiyan
• Mentor: Dr. Fred Roberts, CCICADA Center

MCAT

An Investigation of the Imminent Cybersecurity Threats to the Marine Transport System as a Result of the Russia-Ukraine War:  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 signified the exacerbation of an already tumultuous global political climate in addition to increased risks and impacts not just to the country of Ukraine but potentially to nations globally. A main avenue of potential attack from Russia is in the cybersecurity space against nations’ Critical Infrastructure. The project focused on investigating the most anticipated potential imminent cybersecurity threats from Russia against the United States MTS as a result of the war. Research exploring the most prominent recent cyber risks globally, the greatest trending cyber threats to the MTS, and previous cyberattacks from Russia was used to correlate the top four most probable threats the U.S. MTS is facing from Russia because of the War, including Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Manipulating Malware Attack, Terminal Operating Systems (OS) Malware Attack, Malicious Code or “Worm” Attack, and Information Technology (IT) and Operating Technology (OT) Shipping Attack.

• Student Externs: Erin Ender
• Mentors:

Metro Analytics – Pedestrian/Bicycle Incident Geographic Analysis

The team concentrated on the compromised public safety due to frequently occurring pedestrian and bicycle related incidents in the United States. In an attempt to mitigate this problem, an analysis was done of existing publicly available data around pedestrian and bicycle related vehicle incident data at specific locations within the US (New York City, Georgia, New Jersey) and came up with insights and trends.

• Student Externs: Dillirajan Sankar (Rajan) (Lead), Antonio Scanziani, Li Sen, Sai Sanketh Srikanth Malatkar
• Mentors: Dr. John Betak; Glenn Gadbois

Metro Analytics – US Pedestrian & Bicycle Incident Database Creation

Collect and evaluate publicly available data around pedestrian, bicycle, and related vehicle incident data for all of the US. Create a table of states, data available including features (date range, quantity per source, fields available, quality of the data, etc) relating to pedestrian and bicycle safety. Recommend states which have better data, areas which have better/worse sources, gaps in what is available, and recommendations.

• Students Externs: Martino Volcy(Lead), Aryan Karakoti, Changhao Liu (Justin)
• Mentors: Dr. John Betak; Glenn Gadbois

Organon – Marketing Operations

Marketing Operations: Process mapping the review of commercial content.  The project goal was to develop and verify high-level process maps for specific countries and their PromoMats workflow. The process maps can then be used for on-boarding new users, training, change request and release management purposes.

• Student Externs: Magnus Yen (Lead), Barbara Kossmann, Dejour Waite, William Yen
• Mentors: David Lee

Organon – Supplier Relationship Management & Governance

This project focused on insight on what good supplier relationship management and governance programs look like for indirect procurement. Questions that were focused on included: Do they vary by size/importance/current state of supplier? Size of company? What levels of management to engage (on both sides) and when? What do ongoing reviews look like? Sample agendas/decks? Cadence of communication?

• Student Externs: Nikash Rajeshbabu (Lead), Gabrielle Scaler, Harsimran Singh, Neera Shah
• Mentor: Michelle Larkin

Paragon Pure

Students researched who suppliers are, pricing, finished food products, and labeling claims for saturated fat alternatives, sprouted grain seed alternatives, and maltodextrin. Students performed research through Google, outreach to suppliers, search LinkedIn, outreach to food incubators, and Mintel database.

• Student Externs: Alex Zylka (Lead), Ledys Castaneda, Santhoshi Lokesh, Samiyah Siddiqui
• Mentor: Erhan Yildiz

Collaborative Solutions Railroad – 1 – Probability Modeling

The project focused on looking at numerous formulas, metrics, and analyzed published papers to understand impact on the collision likelihood at railroad grade crossings. Once finding out which equation worked best, the team was able to determine which metrics played a bigger role in railroad collisions.

• Student Externs: Nishitha Chidipothu (Lead), Anthony D’Agostino, Sichao Wang, Kyle Egan
• Mentor: Mike White, John Betak

Rutgers IP&O

The team analyzed third-party data from the company Avidxchange and created visuals and graphs that can be used for financial analysis for Rutgers Institutional Planning & Operations. Data was analyzed, processed, and categorized in Python. Tableau was also used to create the visualizations. Suggestions were made to be able to use machine learning to help predict future prices.

• Student Externs: Sadhan Nagireddi (Lead), Krisha Shah, Sulphia Iqbal, Viraj Patel, Zeel Shah
• Mentors: Erin Cuomo

Scull House Sweets

This project focused on helping business owner and entrepreneur, Ryn Scull, on expanding her bakery business, Scull House Sweets, from Austin, Texas, to Eugene, Oregon. The team focused on improving the business’ social media engagement and presence, adding healthier options to the menu, and helping with the process of getting a food truck.

• Student Externs: Caleigh Masterman(Lead), Ashiraf Lubega, Nicole Ewing, Khushmeet Batth
• Mentors: Ryn Scull

Secure Families Initiative (Federal Military Family Workforce Network)

Absentee Military Voter Registration Form: Students created a “white label” voter registration form that is embedded on the nonprofit’s website. This form will allow military personnel, and their families, who live away from their home voting districts to submit the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) directly from our website.

• Student Externs: Barbara Hejzyk (Lead), Elo Hernandez, Izadora Marinelli, Khadijah Razi, Marlon Almazan
• Mentor: Sarah Streyder

SkinSAFE

Students worked alongside disruptive leaders on an opportunity to create and launch a new product for those with sensitive skin. Students worked with both consumer, prescription, and over the counter products and formulations to design new integrations, analyze trends, and establish a launch-ready campaign for 2022.

• Student Externs: Pancrazio Papapietro(Lead), Aisha Raza, Courtney Moloney, Matthew Cipriaso
• Mentor: Aki Hashmi, David A. Mays

Smart SM3

The Smart MS3 project focused on developing a landing page website for mothers in the postpartum period that aimed to inform mothers about maternal health and exercises to build their core strength back, as well as showcase the effectiveness of the Smart MS3 device. The team used Wix.com to develop a website with unique features that help develop consumer interest in the product and inform them of medical assistance that is available.

• Student Externs: Yash Mathur (Lead), Abraham Weitzman (Abe), Yash Kolhatkar
• Mentor: Dr. Manpreet Randhawa

Star Kids Consulting & The Gum Dr

Students researched alternative compounds with health benefits that are used with less than 100mg doses by searching for manufacturers of these compounds and exploring how they are marketed and promoted.

• Student Externs: Keyshawn Frizzelle-Williams (Lead), Allison Li, MIlena Kleyman, Sai Kruthi Putluru
• Mentor: Erhan Yildiz

Symrise

This project included an assessment of five identified startups and researched three new interesting startups in the fragrance/chemicals space.

• Student Externs: Sena Muledhu (Lead), Amrin Ashraf, Aminah Haque
• Mentors: Usha Vijay

That Beetch – Website

Students worked with a startup skincare company to design a website using UX best practices to meet the needs and expectations of the company’s targeted customers. This was accomplished through the Design Thinking method and includes activities such as creating personas, customer journey mapping, and user research.

• Student Externs: Sahaj Singh (Lead), Jihao Yang, Shubin Xie, Linda Hoang
• Mentor: Erika Nomeland Dominique Bession

U-Haul

Using data from years 2017 to 2021, models were built that could predict the demand of equipment for U-Haul. The two models that were built during the duration of this project were XGBoost and Neural Network – LSTM models. Error metrics for the model were also calculated to determine how the models performed.

• Student Externs: Faheem Kamaludeen Mohideen (Lead), Brandon Salter, Nirva Patel, Rachel Azarian, Sreya Vadapalli
• Mentor: Tingting Wang

Wall Street Bootcamp

A multi-university (RU and Westminster College, PA), cross-disciplinary, team-based analysis of the Energy Sector. Sub-teams included: Renewable Energy & ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance); Financial Analysis & Modeling; Transportation & Engineering; Business Strategy & More. Students worked with a finance / bond rating expert from Wall St, who is an SVP & Global Group Credit Officer for ESG. He has led global corporate training of new analysts, and is an expert in ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance). This was a case study, where students interviewed and talked to experts in a variety of sectors including public policy, energy experts, corporate chief legal officer for a fortune 500 company, financial sector SMEs, and more

• Student Externs: Bootcamp 1: Ishani Dave (Lead), Anshul Arvind, Akash Gadicherla, Ryan Armstrong, Daniel Torres, Kent Dunn, Sameed Shahid, Hana Patel, Lucas Lander, Ashlyn Lang, Prayag Patel, Stefan Mirfakhrai, Matthew Loya
• Student Externs: Bootcamp 2: Stephanie Cimini, Andrew Clark, Ryan Felter, Krysta Germanoski, Cherise Schultz, Michael Phillips, Corbin Liang
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

Wandrer.Earth

The team performed data analysis with the large collection of geospatial data that Wandrer has accumulated. The focus was around quality and improvement of map matching, exploratory data analysis looking for trends, and more.

• Student Externs: Kalp Sheth (Lead), Aarushi Vashistha, Andrew Chacko, Nabil Lekmine
• Mentor: Craig Durkin, Pearl Durkin

Bentley Labs

The project will focus on inventory classifications; How to classify, cycle-counting, most profitable, and data analysis around distribution. The project focused on assessing data with the use of business intelligence software DOMO to analyze marketing claims and trends to improve client engagement.

• Student Externs: Brenda Acuña (Team Lead), Srotriyo Sengupta, Mansi Pandya, Tanay Mehta 
• Mentor: Matthew Brennan

Brown-Webster (CampGrnds)

Students conducted research on NFTs and blockchains, crafting surveys to create personas, and using the design thinking process to create a marketplace prototype with the use of Figma.

• Student Externs: Nanditha Pradeep (Team Lead), Sumana Sangisetty, Ahreum Ko
• Mentor: Brandon Webster

Church & Dwight – Practicum 

An interactive dashboard highlighting insights was created to aid Church & Dwight in growing and defending their share in the North American condom market. The team focused on literature review, data cleaning, machine learning, and survey analysis.

• Student Externs: Daniel Pacheco (Team Lead), Edward Zanone, John Gorgy
• Mentor: Alex Cunningham

CINA – Cyber/Pharma

The project’s aim was to simulate scenarios of attacks in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Industry in order to identify attacks before they occur and mitigate their effects.

• Student Externs: Aryan Doshi (Team Lead), Maanvita Doddapaneni, Teerth Patel, Waner Zheng, Zainab Abbas
• Mentor: Dr. Fred Roberts, Dr. Benjamin Melamed, Dr. Alok Baveja, Dr. Weiwei Chen, Dr. Vladimir Menkov, Dr. Dennis Egan, Viswanath Narayan, Aman Goswami

Colgate- Regulatory

The project is to explore how to capture and define the complex applicable regulatory considerations that are required to market these products in an organized through resources.

• Student Externs: Jenna DeSimone (Team Lead), Rishi Pothakamuri, Claudia Ramos, Kathleen Freeman, Milly Olympio Jessica Cruz
• Mentor: Kristen Buono, Ludjane Carvalho

Colgate- Sustainability

Students examined an inventory of sustainability and recycling labels on the market. They proposed solutions for clear communication to the public about product recyclability.

• Student Externs: Tithi Thakkar (Team Lead), Julianna Czop, Helly Rajivbhai Shah
• Mentor: Anne T. Bedarf, Daniel Block

Collaborative Solutions- Texas

Students explored prior work done around the prevention of trespassing on railroad tracks/property in NJ and Detroit. Build off of that work using additional datasets, looking at Texas.

• Student Externs: Het Bhagat (Team Lead), Aakash Sukhadia, Alexandra C Peltyszyn, Chloe Lee, Ifeoluwani Jacob
• Mentor: Mike White, Dr. John Betak

Collaborative Solutions Team 2 – CA 

California – Explore prior work done around the prevention of trespassing on railroad tracks/property in NJ and Detroit. Build off of that work using additional datasets, looking at California.

• Student Externs: Andy Lau(Team Lead), Gagan Kattula, Matthew Dembeck, Priyanka Choudhury
• Mentor: Mike White,Dr. John Betak

COVID-19 Exploration

Public health, non-profit – This project will continue COVID response/impact survey and website updates for COVID information for Rutgers community.

• Student Externs: Esther Martinez (Team Lead), Harry Thomas, Keny Exantus,Tajrian Amad, Aisha Ghauri, Ivanna Starozytnyk, Jaime Plumaker
• Mentor: Dr. Fred Roberts

Decomil

Business Development/Strategic Plan for possible expansion of the Decomil brand.

• Student Externs: Cynthia Santos (Team Lead), Priten Patel, Anna Kareeva, Coleman Weatherstone, Janee Powers
• Mentor: Kenan Bindal

ECPAT USA – 1 – Practicum Team 1 – Albuquerque

The project is focused on to analyze national data from a variety of sources to understand trends and areas of heightened risk for reported human trafficking cases.

• Student Externs: Evan Mangone (Sub Lead), Romika Lunkar, Youssef Asaad
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

ECPAT USA – 2 – Practicum Team 2 – Albany

Practicum team 1- Scrape human trafficking related data around Albany, NY location from Twitter and Instagram Practicum.

Practicum team 2- Scrape human trafficking related data, and data about their current anti trafficking campaign around Albuquerque, NM location from Twitter and Instagram.

• Student Externs: Nivashini Muthevel, Sara S. Osowki
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak

ECPAT USA – 3 – UXD Extern

Website Mock-up: create a mock-up website design about prior research done by past teams in the anti-trafficking space

• Student Externs: Ryan Layden (Team Lead), Caitlin Zimicki-Bowditch, Camilla (Camille) Cigaral, Kritika Agarwal 
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

ECPAT USA – 4 – Data Science Extern

The project is to identify and visualize how child traffickers use specific keywords and trends on social media.

• Student Externs: Rachel Kays(Sub Lead), Kush Chheda, Nishitha Chidipothu
• Mentor: Dr. John Betak, Yvonne Chen, Katisha Andrew

Fidelis – NIH Grant Research

The project aims to utilize the NIH database to locate and identify potential projects and customers for the product.

• Student Externs: Lorena Cobos (Team Lead), Katherine Moreira, Yewon Yang, Suhruth Nelapatla, Andrew Yuen, Padma Samhita Vadapalli (Samhita)
• Mentor: Cynthia Davis, Michele Robinson, Hallie Nicholas 

Fidelis – Survey

The project is to develop a platform to introduce Fidelis’ long lasting technology to veterinarians through a survey.

• Student Externs: Dimitrios Kastanos (Team Lead), Alexander (Sander) Mark, KJ Wang
• Mentor: Cynthia Davis, Hallie Nicholas, Michele Robinson

Ingredion – 1 – Sustainability

The project is to explore how companies are adjusting their customer experiences in light of the recent supply chain crisis.

• Student Externs: Rohit Ghatadahalli Rajeev (Team Lead),Rui Li, [ Name is not mentioned in presentation – Ashley Mehta ]
• Mentor: Michael Nanthavongsa, Jonathan Gara (Former Mentor)

Ingredion – 2 – Transportation Emissions

The project is focused on creating a training guide to Global Logistics professionals introducing concepts on how our organization may reduce transportation emissions today or with third party partnerships and answer the question of how companies are adjusting their customer experiences in light of the recent supply chain crisis.

• Student Externs: Sabika Mustafa(Team Lead), Philip Picone, Rushali Shah
• Mentor: Catherine Zimmerman, Rodrigo Palma, Brian Nash

La Casita Hot Sauce

Financial analysis to understand and calculate the rising costs that include raw goods, production, freight, labels, and if the suggested MSRP is sustainable and analyze how/where to make improvements.

• Student Externs: Tianqi Ying (Team Lead), Jianing Tang, Rohan Gorajia, Ethan Nguyen, Roy Ghivoni, Yihuang Li, ChengYuan Chuang
• Mentor: Veronica Westlake

Lerbach Wellness

The Project’s main objective is to increase social media user engagement by analyzing existing data & marketing strategies.

• Student Externs: Husein W Abualhuda (Team Lead), Claire Donahue, Steven Jeanty, Katherin Rivera, Magnus Yen
• Mentor: Jana Lerbach

MissionCleanWater

The project researched various companies in Newark and find out potential companies that MissionCleanWater can partner with in order to help vulnerable communities to clean water.

• Student Externs: Sanjiv Prasad(Team Lead), Shaina Wahab, Atharva Lohit, Katherine Yoon
• Mentor: James Leitner

Nested Knowledge

Identify pressing topics in public medical discourse (such as efficacy of COVID-19 therapeutics or behavioral interventions for opioid dependence), design a systematic review, then execute and write a report on findings.

• Student Externs: Reena Sikand (Team Lead), Shrishti Pal, Alexis Hernandez, Besmira Hasalla, Dividutta Das, Milena Kleyman, Sindy Simoes
• Mentor: Kevin Kallmes, Nicole Hardy

New Wilmington, PA

Utilize & build on web design previously developed by Extern team to launch website & train town on how to keep it up.

• Student Externs: Kamal Paspuleti, Joshua Forges, Brandon Rogers
• Mentor: Ben Nelson & New Wilmington Town Council

NJBDA

The project is to create a dashboard that shows the state of the alternative protein space and how it ties into a state’s demographics and economy.

• Student Externs: Jonathan Shmulvoich (Team Lead), Isabella Marshall, Michael Galanaugh, Nicole Veraja, Arielle Cohen
• Mentor: Yazmin Moreno, Christy DiLeonardo, Kim Ayres

NJCCIC

A student based project to build a CTI Repository in MISP, ensuring the correct configuration are enabled, to allow the NJCCIC to collect, analyze, and better triage cyber incidents.

• Student Externs: Erin Ender (Team Lead), Belle Zhang, Chase Voldase, Manuel Pierre, Padmavidhya Ellappan, Zehra Zaidi
• Mentor: Rob Bruder, Mike Geraghty

PSEG – Offshore Wind

The research project is working towards requirements of net zero emission, research on supply chain, use of rare-earth material,and impact of President Biden’s offshore plans.

• Student Externs: Naisargi Patel (Team Lead), Elise Curren, Fabio Gunderson, Johnathan Perino, Tara Saadati, Thalia Lantin 
• Mentor: Dr. Ahmed Mousa

PSEG – Vehicle to grid

The project focused on developing a vehicle to grid program for increasing renewable energy use to tackle the large energy consumption in NJ to reduce emissions due to transportation.

• Student Externs: Dhruv Patel (Team Lead), Shraya Chintalapudi, Anne Christine Domercant, Izabela Bigos 
• Mentor: Dr. Ahmed Mousa

Rutgers Recreation

The project is to examine the academic and demographic profile student workers at Rutgers Recreation has changed from before pandemic time.

• Student Externs: Prianka Kunadia, Fanjia Chloe Zeng, Rosy Munjal
• Mentor: Samantha Coren Plum, Ryan Maiorano

SixThirty Ventures

Under the guidance of the investing team, construct an investment packet with analysis, visuals, and explanation (like a research report) to evaluate firms for appropriate investment fit across SixThirty’s industry verticals.

• Student Externs: Andrew Joseph (AJ) Rudolph (Team Lead), Matthew Knappenberger, Gauri Kshirsagar, ZiQiang (Kevin) Zhou, Mayank Saboo
• Mentor: Andrew Wegrzyn

Smart MS3

The project is to determine the applicability of Smart Ms3’s technology for women in the postpartum period and what problems they face and how they are managing them.

• Student Externs: Sreya Vadapalli (Team Lead), Vishika Patel, Georgiy Aleksanyan, Sydney Jenkins 
• Mentor: Manpreet Randhawa

Sytheon

The project is to define the problems associated during and after the hair dying process and determine the solutions to address problems.

• Student Externs: Yiwei Shao (Team Lead), Jacqueline Tran, Preet Patel, Kaitlin Vaughn
• Mentor: Manpreet Randhawa

UHaul

The project will help to forecast equipment demand utilizing tabular models and time series clustering.

• Student Externs: Sahreen Kaur, Brandon Salter, Sichao Wang
• Mentor: Dr.Tingting Wang

Wall St. Bootcamp

The project is to investigate and analyze the parameters of the supply chain disruption and how companies have altered operating procedures in response with the recent Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine crisis.

• Student Externs: Facunda Saiegh (Team Lead), Mihir Parikh, Vrajkumar (Vraj) Patel, Sophie Vu, Sean Carew, Amulya Nagella, Rene Rivadeneira, Zihan Liu, Aarthi Gajendran, Dipti Kapil Wannere, Rahul Kumania, Shiv Patel
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

Wandrer.Earth

The project is about exploring different ways to increase user engagement and improve user experience through data analysis & user testing.

• Student Externs: Luca Ondris (Team Lead), Heecheol Jung, Nicole Whalley, Pedro J Panana, Simon Grishin
• Mentor: Craig Durkin

Accrisoft Corporation: Camp Registration

Accrisoft is a software company with a goal to help communities and recreation centers vitalize their summer camp registration process. The team designed an online registration process for summer camps by researching and analyzing competitors’ products to create a prototype suitable for use and development. Students used Figma to design components of the prototype.

• Students: Chinmoyi Bhushan, Terry Chen
• Mentor: Jeff Kline, Joe Hager

Affinity Asset Advisors: Scientific Research

Affinity Asset Advisors is a biotechnology and healthcare focused hedge fund for the public and private investment allocations sector. The project focused on developing a competitive landscape for CD40 mediating therapies and proposing solutions for investment in preclinical/clinical trials. Research was conducted on all preclinical and clinical trials related to CD40 conducted by different companies and labs.

• Students: Srishti Pai (Team Lead), Ma Ysabelle Ibarrola, Mira Yin
• Mentor: Jenna Molesko, Bill Koski, Patrick Nosker

Bayer: Sustainable Packaging

Currently, the packaging and practices used for Bayer’s Pharmaceutical Division do not align with the company’s sustainability goals. Several alternative sustainable packaging options for Bayer’s domestic shipping supply chain was researched to understand alternative packaging options. Recommendations were made based on environmental impact, cost, and availability of the sustainable packaging material, which would align with the sustainability goals of Bayer.

• Students: Mathias Miller (Team Lead),  Lauren Kessler, Mahfuz-ul Hasan
• Mentors: Remon Zakhary, Michele Allegretta

Broadcast Music Inc.(BMI): Likelihood Prediction and Analysis Practicum

The project focused on predicting the likelihood of music licensing for restaurants and bars based on their zip code. Students conducted analysis on the data obtained from BMI and used Python and NLP hybrid classification models to create the object-oriented program, and Tableau for visual analysis.

• Students: Trevor Carr (Team Lead), Cassie Miao, Xiang Li
• Mentors: Sebastian Pittman, Jim Chapman

CCICADA Covid 19 Exploration

The team focused on collecting data related to COVID-19 among students and faculty, to aid in the reopening of Rutgers. Surveys were conducted and created using Qualtrics, and the data was analyzed to create a public dashboard using Canva, Tableau, and Wix.

• Students: Nora Asker (Team Lead), Bharath Selvaraj, Damon Persaud, Jeremy Kim, Quraiz Najmi, Sreya Vadapalli
• Mentors: Dr. Fred Roberts

CINA

The goal was to model and highlight vulnerabilities associated with the pharmaceutical supply chain to visualize and simulate attacks and their impacts on the supply chain. The team interviewed industry experts to identify vulnerabilities, detection, and mitigation strategies. Students came up with common attack methods impacting the pharmaceutical supply chain, and also the most vulnerable targets in the chain.

• Students: Taia Rossi (Team Lead), David Joseph, Minh Le, Pauleene Jordan 
• Mentors: Dr. Fred Roberts, Dr. Benjamin Melmed, Dr. Alok Baveja, Dr. Weiwei Chen, Dr. Viswanath Narayan, Dr. Vladimir Menkov, Mr. Aman Goswami

Colgate Quality: Change Control Benchmarking

Colgate’s Global Technology Centers sought to revise their Management of Change Control Procedures to increase compliance towards applicable regulations/ standards, improve employee safety and increase customer satisfaction. The team designed and conducted a survey to perform a comprehensive benchmarking process with peer companies to generate data on MOCs system. Additionally, the team created a new draft SOP on MOC.

• Students: Pallavi Sharma (Team Lead), Cathelina Eliacin, Mary Atokwu-Isama, Nabiha Yousuf
• Mentors: Elsa Tsuji

Colgate Regulatory

Students created training videos on various regulatory processes using PowToon for both regulatory and non-regulatory employees at Colgate.

• Students: Duc Minh Nhien Nguyen (Team Lead), Linda Fersi, Prianka Kunadia, Rebecca Nemeh 
• Mentors: Kristen Buono, Jennifer Martin

Data Storytelling: Data Minimalism

The objective was to identify methods to protect data privacy and reduce the environmental impact of current big data practices by developing processes to minimize the impacts of data breaches and demonstrate the value of data. Research was conducted and a flow chart was generated to create a blueprint for practicing data minimalism.

• Students: Akanksha Arun, Yihuang Li, Xinyuan Shao, Jonathan Ranitsyn
• Mentors: Devon McGuinness

ECPAT-USA – Externship

Social Media: The ECPAT Social Media team focused on identifying human trafficking related information on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. The team used data mining and data utilization softwares to analyze the data they collected from Twitter.

• Students: Neha Ravi (Team Lead), Nirav Patel, Jonathan Shmulovich, Alakh Chauhan
• Mentors: John Betak

ECPAT Public Health

The ECPAT Public Health team focused on spheres of public health correlated to human trafficking. The team researched migration data and STI, and used Tableau for data visualization.

• Students: Matthew Rothman, Jinglin Zhao
• Mentors: John Betak

ECPAT Government Data

The ECPAT Government Data team focused on recruitment tactics towards human trafficking and its victims. The students used Polaris for data collection, Python for Data Mining, Logistic Regression for machine learning, UNODC for web scraping, and Tableau for data visualization.

• Students: Nghi Van (Tyler) Pan, Rahul Kumania, Rahul Kumania, Zehra Zaidi
• Mentors: John Betak

ECPAT-USA: Human Trafficking & Mass Gatherings Practicum

The team focused on the link between human trafficking and commercial sex ads during sporting events, and identifying sexual ads on Twitter. Research on suspicious tweets and ads, during the week of major sporting events was conducted.

• Students: Mass Gatherings: Jeremy Deane(Lead), Ankita Gupta, Zeel Shah, Bret Francis, David King
• Mentors: John Betak, Yvonne Cohen, Katisha Andrew

Edgewell Externship

Students designed a decision tree using Python libraries such as Pandas, Numpy, and Scikit Learn. Using the Python Seaborn library, students generated bar plots and radar plots that showcased results generated by the decision tree highlighting individual ratings for target international markets based on the relative difficulty of product registration for Edgewell medical devices.

• Students: Rohit Gupta (Team Lead), Andy Yang, Alan Chacko
• Mentors: Craig Harvey

Edgewell Personal Care Practicum

The goal was to identify important features of feminine care products. The team designed a decision tree using Python libraries such as Pandas, Numpy, and Scikit Learn. Using the Python Seaborn library, bar plots and radar plots that showcased results were generated by the decision tree highlighting individual ratings for target international markets based on the relative difficulty of product registration for Edgewell medical devices.

• Students: Hanxiao Zhu, Zhejing “Shaw” Wang
• Mentors: Dr. Craig Harvey

Farkouh, Furman, & Faccio Accounting: FF&F Market Research

FF&F is an accounting firm with a goal of analyzing ways to compete with larger firms. The goal was to analyze marketing strategies and resource utilization, determine strengths and weaknesses, and to identify best practices in the hiring process for the accounting industry, including tactics, tools, and techniques.

• Students: Dev Patel, Thomas Frank
• Mentors: Margret Beditz

Fidelis: CRM Evaluation & Recommendations

In order to help future business expansion, students analyzed Fidelis’ current CRM (Customer Relationship/Resource Management) platform and compared it to various alternate CRM platforms to determine the most appropriate one. The team conducted SME interviews, demos, and comprehensive comparative analysis to make recommendations on platform selection.

• Students: Anusri Arora (Team Lead), Riya Nigam, Sophie Vu
• Mentors: Cynthia Davis, Hallie Nicholas

Gladwyne HSA:  GEHSA Website Redesign

The team focused on redesigning the GEHSA website to make it more user friendly and coherent. Students conducted user testing and first click testing on the website and applied heuristic evaluation principles. Color theory and simplistic design were established as the core design principles for implementation.

• Students: Eesha Gongula (Team Lead), Xiaotian Zhou
• Mentors: Nicole Hadfield, Michele Vessal, Kristy Auckett-Stowe, Monique Vigilance

Global Information Systems – Externship

Students worked with GIS industry experts to assess factors impacting the risk of incidents at grade crossings for U.S. rail. Three core factors were investigated including COVID-19, extreme weather, and demographics utilizing Python and Jupyter notebook and collaborated via Github.

• Students: Raveena Gupta (Team Lead), Edgar Fernandez, Roy Monge Hidalgo, Bruce Geiger
• Mentors: John Betak, Mike White

Global Information Systems – Practicum

Global Informations Systems – Practicum: Impacts of COVID-19 on Railroad & Pedestrian Safety : The project focused on the different variables contributing to rail crossing accidents both pre and post COVID-19. The students created pre and post COVID-19 timeframes to create different models for the variables.

• Students: Duygu (Ecem) Kucuk, Seyma Kirca, Stefan Mirfakhrai
• Mentors: John Betak, Mike White

Global Information Systems – Practicum: Weather

Understanding the Influence of Extreme Weather on Railway Incidents: This project focused on developing a model to assess the risk level of grade crossings and how extreme weather impacts the risk of incidents. The team used Python and AdaBoost algorithms to analyze the data.

• Students: Thomas Fiorelli (Team Lead), Benjamin Mardin
• Mentors: John Betak, Mike White

Global Information Systems – Practicum: Prediction of Vehicle Accidents at Railroad Grade Crossings in New Jersey

This project focused on predicting the probability of the occurrence of vehicle accidents at a railroad crossing in New Jersey. The team used a Logistic Regression model to predict binary risk, and Tree-based algorithms to obtain predictive value and recall scores.

• Students: Mert Altungun, Siddharth Musale
• Mentors: John Betak, Mike White

Huma – Competitive Intelligence

Students conducted primary market research to analyze the competitive digital health landscape. Students targeted primary, secondary, and tertiary competitors, along with potential partnerships and applied data mining/sorting and technical market research/consulting skills.

• Students: Shrey Joshi (Team Lead), Ana Vega Perez, Khushi Kadakia
• Mentors: Puri Pandya

Infragistics Practicum

There is a constant need for enhancing the user experience in the Slingshot chat platform. The Automated Response team focused on data collection and data cleaning and analysis using Sent2Vec technique, intent detection, and LSTM model. The Smart Reminders team used NLP toolkits in Python for building models to implement a Smart Reminder feature on the chat messaging platform.

• Students: Automated Response Team: Ashish Podduturi, Ushasee Das.
• Mentors: Tobias Komischke, Vaibhav Malik, George Tachev
• Smart Reminders Team:  Devanshi Jackson, Sharon Gu

IntelligenceIngredion: R&D Digital Innovation

Ingredion is a leading global ingredient company with a goal of creating a high-fidelity platform for R&D personnel to streamline innovation projects. The team conducted competitive, industry, and customer analysis to develop a clickable high-fidelity prototype. The final deliverable included key features that facilitated navigation, customer-expert collaboration, comparative analysis for ingredients, and a project center to communicate with team members.

• Students: Naisargi Patel (Team Lead), Chelsea Saada, Nitya Sathish, Priten Patel
• Mentors: Jon Gara, Daniel Sasu

Ingredion Sustainability – Carbon Sequestering Project

Students conducted research on carbon capture and storage technology to provide ideas to reduce the company’s carbon emissions. The team also investigated alternative technology solutions and projects competitors have conducted.

• Students: Julie Fakeh (Team Lead), Kashaf Minhas, Ryan Cheung
• Mentors: Brian Nash, Catherine Zimmerman, Nils Kilgast

Jarchem Innovative Ingredients: Prospect Analysis

Jarchem Innovative Ingredients is a business to business chemical manufacturing company with a goal of organizing 10,000 prospects in their database. The team performed both data entry and research on prospective companies and categories and used Excel and Tableau to draw insight from the data, visualize it, and make recommendations

• Students: Jessica Birk (Team Lead), Gopi Kachhia, Vanessa Jagrup
• Mentors: Stephen Carter, Marinda Lynne Gruszecki

Jefferson: Spinal Image Quantification

Currently, doctors do not have an automated way to retrieve measurements from spinal scans. The team utilized MATLAB and the Image Processing Toolbox to segment the spine and extract and quantify key features using MRI/CT scans. Students validated and evaluated the written code using ITK-SNAP to determine the accuracy of the genetic code.

• Students: Nemieboka Belema (Team Lead), Ariana Belton, Naditha Pradeep, Naomy Arias, Youssef Ebid
• Mentors: Glenn Gonzalez, Ashwini Shara, Mashaal Syed

New Age Drinks: Sales & Strategy Planning Initiative

BrainPOP is a healthy nootropic soda looking to create a unique brand positioning and marking plan to engage consumers. The goal was to focus on developing a new label design and generating ideas for Instagram posts that are engaging and influential. The team conducted a competitor analysis to come up with new design considerations and creating a social media presence for the products.

• Students: Alexander Swiderski (Team Lead), Ashley Yau, Claire Donahue
• Mentors: Sierra Hooshiari

New Wilmington Revamped

New Wilmington is a town in Pennsylvania and needed a new website tailored to their residents, business owners, and tourists. Students implemented a finalized town website created using WordPress, added new pages for promoting town businesses, updated all information and images to reflect the most recent town statistics, and finalized components for the Events Calendar, Town Council Contact Form, Search Tools, and Security Plugins to add more features.

• Students: Tahmeed Chowdhury (Team Lead), Mike Pierre, Shane Hoffman, Joseph Owadee
• Mentors: Benjamin Nelson

NJBDA – French Street Corridor Survey

The project focused on economic data of the businesses along the French Street Corridor. The team created a survey using Qualtrics and performed data visualization and analysis using Tableau.

• Students: Shreya Gurjar (Team Lead), Alisa Patel, Fiona Shafer, Matteo Rodriguez, Trang Nguyen
• Mentors: Jovanny Belisario, Kelly Watts

NJCCIC: Cybersecurity Honeypots

The team created a Cybersecurity Honeypot infrastructure using an AWS infrastructure, and used OpenCanary and Honeypot to help make New Jersey more resilient to cyberattacks. ELK Stack was used for data analysis, reporting, and producing intelligence while Linux was used to gain access to servers.

• Students: Suraj Verma (Team Lead), Abraham David Minkowitz, Anthony Jarvis, Christopher Calabrese, Coleton DiMezza, Mawutor Tay, Padmavidhya Ellapan, Papuna Beglarishvili
• Mentors: Michael Geraghy, Rob Bruder

Pharm Allies – Market Research Project

Students conducted a competitive study, through SWOT analysis, on the websites of PharmAllies and its competitors. The team identified strengths, weaknesses, and made recommendations on improvements. They also crafted new and creative sales pitches.

• Students: Prem Patel (Team Lead), Anita Zhang, Perisha Azhir, Sonali Amin
• Mentors: Peniel Ortega

PSEG: Transactive Energy

The Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) is a diversified energy company. Research on transactive energy, and related subjects such as microgrids, blockchain, and energy management system vendors, was conducted to understand the technical mechanisms and how it is currently being implemented.

• Students: Saathvika Kaushik (Team Lead), Justin Aguado, Paula Santana, Thomas Peterman
• Mentors: Jerry Casarella, Ahmed Mousa

PSEG: Sustainability

The Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) is a diversified energy company. Market research was conducted to investigate carbon offsetting initiatives to align with PSEG’s goals to have net zero carbon emissions by 2030. This project focused on researching local carbon offsets in the Northeast American energy sector and generated and recommended potential future strategies. The goal was to identify challenges, research opportunities, and recommend strategies for PSEG to reduce its carbon emissions.

• Students: Jacqueline A Cavaliere (Team Lead), Claire Hsu, Aneesh Acharya
• Mentors: Angela Ortiz, Hector Ferrer, Andrew Arnold

Robert Wood Johnson – Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis

This project incorporated factors important to patients with JIA (Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis) and investigations of inactive JIA into clinical decision making. Students conducted a survey and created decision trees for data analysis.

• Students: Eric Martz (Team Lead), Brian He, KJ Wang, Stone Laraway
• Mentors: Daniel Horton, MD, MSCE

RU Facilities: Rutgers Recreation

Prior to the pandemic, Rutgers Recreation employed more than 600 student employees each semester. The team focused on analyzing Rutgers student employment from the past four years and compared that data with the overall Rutgers population.

• Students: Arnav Bhavsar, Jack Zaccaro
• Mentors: Samantha Plum

RU Innovation Ventures: Data Cleaning

In collaboration with Rutgers Innovation Ventures, an assessment was done to understand data records and provide solutions to improve data integrity. Past data was assessed to identify problem areas and make solutions to improve data integrity on individual contacts and company contact’s databases using Alteryx, an analytic software.

• Students: Sydney Jenkins (Team Lead), Aarthi Gajendran, Carolyn Hornak, Jingyi Wang
• Mentors: Andrea Dick, Jennifer Ramsarran, Wenjuan Zhu

Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences: Information Architecture

This project focused on redesigning the website of Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences Department of Geography, to make it easy-to-navigate for students, faculty, and parents. A competitive analysis was conducted to obtain data for website redesign and to understand what changes needed to be made. Usability of the redesigned website was evaluated by conducting and testing card sorting and questionnaires.

• Students: Nimra Fatima, Bonnie Kennedy
• Mentors: Laura Gordon, Dr. Kara Donaldson

SixThirty Company: Venture Capital Diligence & Strategy Research

SixThirty is a venture fund focused on Series A and Speed Funding, and is looking for ways to understand the markets and industries that they invest in. Market research and data analysis was conducted to understand potential investments, and was prepared in due-diligence reports so that they can be used for analyzing potential investments.

• Students: Karthik Kuchimanchi, Chloe Lee, Matthew Knappenberger
• Mentors: Andrew Wegrzyn

Skindie

Students worked to increase brand awareness of Skindie, a science-based beauty newsletter. Students researched media content, video-editing platforms, and effective marketing techniques and created an engaging video, using Promo, to attract new subscribers and increase brand awareness.

• Students: Julia Parzecki (Team Lead), Ethan Liou, Jennifer D. Nunez
• Mentors: Maya Sarin, Suman Saran, Wini Wasalwar, Nina Lyow, Akshay Talati

Swirly Curly Hair: Swirly Curly Influencer Marketing

SwirlyCurly is the number one premium hair accessory brand for naturally curly hair, with a goal to create a scalable and sustainable influencer marketing strategy. The team researched social media marketing strategies to design a standard operating procedure intended to develop a scalable influencer marketing program. Best practices were also developed to document how to grow a customer base through diversifying avatars and potential pricing changes to increase sales.

• Students: Sena Muledhu (Team Lead), Brianna Variot, Heba Abdelaal
• Mentors: Mark Dhamma

Taste of Truffles

Taste of Truffles sells fresh truffles, infused oils, vinegars, and salts, and wants to increase their social media presence to increase brand awareness, drive consumer engagement, convert leads to sales, and provide an enhanced customer experience. Students conducted comprehensive research and analysis to identify creative ways to increase the company’s social media presence. Instagram posts and captions were created and posted by companies to analyze, discuss, and document results for future strategies.

• Students: Calvin Cho (Team Lead),  Navanita Saha, Bachman Sarkodie, Sameeha Meher, Thomas Zamorski
• Mentors: Adrian Ignat

U-Haul – Practicum

The project focused on developing demand forecasting models to predict the demand of equipment across U-Haul locations. The team used baseline models, ensemble models, and ARIMA/SARIMA models to build and compare multiple demand forecasting models.

• Students: Zachary Sisco (Lead), Clarence Li, Holly Sickler, Hedy Makris, Loveleen Saran, Shreya Gurjar
• Mentors: Dr. Tingting Wang

Wall Street Boot Camp

Key market indicators were reviewed and financial statements were researched to evaluate Axalta’s market performance in order to develop a forecast model and overall credit rating. In-depth qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted to understand the effects of COVID-19 on the company performance as it relates to developing the forecast and credit rating.

• Students: Nikhilesh Madduri (Team Lead), Aminah Haque, Bhumika Gandhi, Dollar Shah, Jack Fioretti, Rishita Rahman, Srotriyo Sengupta, Sumana Sangisetty
• Mentors: Ben Nelson

Williamson Personal Care

Williamson Personal Care is a startup company creating personal care products for men. The goal was to create a business plan for a new men’s skincare line because of the lack of representation for men of color in the industry. The team determined the product development process from early research and development through commercialization, researched both private and white label manufacturers, and created a marketing plan for the brand. Results included developed product briefs and technical expertise on product formulations, claims, and regulations.

• Students: Lanesa Mahon (Team Lead), Alicia Blake, Lorena Cobos
• Mentors: Cenita Williamson

World IA Day’s Website Redesign: A User Centered Approach

World AI provides content and resources for learning and professional development. Our goal was to redesign the World AI website by conducting user based research. This was accomplished by generating a user centered analysis from the results of conducted interviews. Miro Board was used to create empathy maps and user journey, with the goal to complete the user centered analysis. Figma was also used to redesign the website wireframe.

• Students: Lucas Niegos Cordova III (Team Lead),  Lisifei Yao, Yixuan Deng, Jackie Riley (Volunteer)
• Mentors: Grace Lau, Ghada Kandil

FARKOUH FURMAN & FACCIO (FF&F)

Students worked with this small accounting firm in NYC to build their customer and employee base. Students conducted competitor research analyzing six other NYC accounting firms using 21 criteria to examine websites, social media, career pages, and other essential web information. Developed recommendations to the leadership team to improve talent and client acquisition.

• Student Externs: Ishan Bhavsar (Lead), Nikhilesh Madduri, Sadhan Nagireddi
• Mentor: Margret Beditz

BAYER

Students investigated sustainable packaging solutions for Bayer’s domestic shipping supply chain. The team researched various industries and companies from Amazon to other pharmaceutical companies to find innovative packaging designs which Bayer could incorporate to reduce their carbon footprint, resulting in the identification of multiple feasible products that Bayer could use, ranging from new packaging accessories to entirely new packages working towards a carbon neutral footprint.

• Student Externs: Andrew Costa (Lead), Andrew Layton, Anita Zhang, Besmira Hasalla, Hana Patel, Nabiha Yousuf, Pallavi Sharma, Rebecca Nemeh, Rudra Patel, Samuel G. Shrem
• Mentor: Donnie Weissberg

CCICADA: COVID-19 EXPLORATION

Students focused on developing a platform for users to learn about the pandemic through the means of survey data, interviews with professionals, summarizing news, and social media data analysis. These externs acquired CITI certification to construct a survey on Qualtrics and worked with the IRB to obtain survey approval. They integrated data visualizations from Tableau and ARCGIS maps along with an in-depth look at the sentiment on COVID-19

• Student Externs: Shrey Joshi (Lead), Janki Patel, Jermaine Griffith, Nora Asker, Wahhaj Khokhar
• Mentors: Dennis Egan and Fred Roberts

CENTER FOR ACCELERATING OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

Students developed a risk mitigation plan to combat supply chain disruptions within the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry. While conducting interviews with government employees and corporate professionals, the team established appropriate countermeasures to assist with vendor onboarding issues, counterfeit goods, and natural disasters.

• Student Externs: Allison Scarinci (Lead), David Tran, Sarah Mah, Stuti Patel
• Mentors: Paul Kantor and Fred Roberts

COLLABORATIVE SOLUTIONS – DATA ANALYSIS

Students analyzed highway grade crossing incident datasets using Python and R to identify trends and patterns of grade crossing incidents to provide insights and recommendations on grade crossing safety. Students created a concept map and visualized trends in Tableau on the number of incidents at grade crossings.

• Student Externs: Ramyashree Nuchin (Lead), Tehniyat Farooq, Jasdeep Sidhu
• Mentors: Dr. John Betak and Michael White

CONRAIL

Students conducted research into railroad grade crossing safety solutions, aggregated detection and protection ideas from Europe, Asia, Australia, and the US. Identified most cost-effective and practical solutions, crafted a final report and presented the results to mentors and colleagues.

• Student Externs: Joseph Erreich (Lead), Shana Erblich (Co-Lead), Nettie Gaeta, Rosabel Hsu, Vaani Menon, Aakhib Ahsanuddin, Amol Shirodkar
• Mentor: Mike White

DECOMIL

Students analyzed sales, analyzed competitors’ websites, and created and implemented new attributions resulting in increased sales throughout the e-commerce platform, improved marketability to prospective customers, and drove more traffic to the website.

• Student Externs: Jessica Cifelli (Lead), Ian Smith
• Mentor: Kenan Bindal

DIMACS COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses across the nation and the world, data suggests the virus disproportionately impacts marginalized communities, specifically, disparities in infection rates and disease outcomes by race and ethnicity in the US. However, it is unknown to what degree these differences have impacted specific communities across the country. Students researched various avenues related to COVID-19, including, but not limited, to long term care facilities and education systems, and utilized R and Tableau to complete various analyses, such as correlation matrices to draw conclusions on health disparities and COVID.

• Student Externs: Fiona Shafer (Lead), Daniel George (Co-Lead)
• Mentor: Christie Nelson

ECPAT – USA

End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT) main goal is to identify, educate and protect children. Team 1 consisted of two sub-groups. Each group examined national datasets, surveys, NIBRS and Polaris that target populations in youth.

• Mentor: Dr. John Betak

Team 1: At Risk Youth students investigated youths trafficked in the LGBTQ+ community and foster care. The team researched contributing factors leading to youths being vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse. Data visualization by Qlik identified states with the highest incident rate in human trafficking among youths.

• Student Externs: Nadine Johnson (Lead), Hedy Markis, Zachary Sisco

Team 2: Government Data students examined data sources of human trafficking cases. Datasets utilized Tableau to measure and identify the occurrences of human trafficking in different states and unauthorized immigrants within the different states.

• Student Externs: Danish Qadri, Zhejing Wang, John Vergara, Neha Ravi

Team 3: The FME sub-team properly organized and integrated human trafficking data with the use of SAFE’s FME tool for data analysis that came in varying formats. The team combined the data meaningfully to extract insights.

• Student Externs: Trevor Carr, Andy Guerrero, Latha Vijayagopal

Team 4: By using data analytics from social media platforms, the Social Media extern team successfully addressed human trafficking of minors and worked towards its prevention on national public transit.

• Student Externs: Angela Annecchino, Ashish Podduturi, Ushasee Das

Team 5: The Website sub-team developed a sitemap to propose an effective website structure and conducted a tree test to evaluate hierarchical category structures for the site. The team then applied the final structure on website layouts using WordPress.

• Student Externs: Pooja Kansagra, Marvin Kimwon, Steven French

GLADWYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Students conducted competitor analysis and user personas to understand the best possible approach to design/redesign of their website, and then created website templates and the implementation process.

• Student Externs: Gabriella K Zatko (Lead), Shraddha Patel
• Mentor: Nicole Hadfield

INGREDION: DIGITAL INNOVATION

Students performed full cycle of UX practices to design a digital experience for Ingredion to better collaborate with their customers on R&D projects. Students conducted a competitive analysis, user interviews, card sorting, and usability testing. Delivered a medium-fidelity Balsamiq prototype for an integrated customer portal.

• Student Externs: Yatong Wang (Lead), Aidan Zhoo, Jennifer Ceterko, Tanvi Dinesh
• Mentors: Daniel Sasu and Jon Gara

INGREDION: FOOD SERVICE

Students conducted comprehensive research into plant-based meats and dairy manufacturers in the United States, and upcoming plant-based trends and emerging companies. Students presented their findings and recommendations to Ingredion leaders across departments.

• Student Externs: Amanda Singh (Lead), Bright Nwanze, Tithi Thakkar
• Mentors: Daniel Sasu and Bart Elling

JEFFERSON HOSPITAL

Students created a comprehensive, spine-centered database using the software tool ITK-SNAP. The team learned the basics of ITK-SNAP and used it to take specific measurements of spinal MRIs and created a comprehensive guide on how to navigate ITK snap and load files into the platform.

• Student Externs: Jennifer Gerald (Lead), Danny Pierrot, Emily Liu, Kareena Patangya, Meg Achyutananda, Rama Wagh, Swarnima Roychowdhury
• Mentors: Ashwini Sharan and Dr. Glenn Gozalez

JOYA

Students analyzed the social media platforms of Joya’s top 5 competitors, developed a comprehensive data collection template, determined the competitor’s respective social media strategies, and created an in-depth comparative report with recommendations to Joya’s founder.

• Student Externs: Tiffany Zhou (Lead), Benazeer Choudhury, Jiahong Sun, Milly Olympio, Navanita Saha
• Mentor: Ruth Elnekave

NEW AGE DRINKS

The students designed an entire social media marketing and distribution plan; researched platform demographics to identify the most appropriate distributors and create templates, posting schedules per platform, sales distribution plans, and an analytics plan.

• Student Externs: Jaidaa Aly (Lead), Gina Nguyen, Harsimran Singh
• Mentor: Sierra Hooshiari

NEW WILMINGTON

Students finalized the prototype of New Wilmington’s official town website on WordPress by initiating content analysis, conducting usability studies and checking web path links. They deployed the website to the township’s server making it a functional product usable by the town with enhancements to the website such as a homepage redesign, event calendar features and detailed statistics of the township.

• Student Externs: Diana Fu (Lead), Andrew King, Naisargi Patel, Harika Kasireddy
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

PERK & CURL

Students identified various social media and traditional platforms to market the products that were going to be launched by Perk & Curl. They created a marketing plan for 3 months on social media for the company which included content ideas, posting schedules and suggestions on social media management tools. Students even shortlisted a list of influencers on various social media platforms which matched the target personas of the products.

• Student Externs: Anirudh Desai (Lead), Chanel Person, Huiyi Zhou, Utkarsh Mashal, Vanessa Oliveira, Zinan An
• Mentors: Tanya Perkins and Dr. Paul Takhistov

PSEG: CYBERSECURITY

Students conducted a risk assessment for PSEG’s smart grids by exploring and defining cyber-resilience in electric grids as well as cyber risks the company faces. Risk levels were identified and assessed based on probability of occurrences and the gravity of the impact. NERC Security Standard and NIST Framework were used as guidelines. Research of prior events contributed to the generation of security control suggestions. Final report was presented to senior leaders.

• Student Externs: Rosy Munjal (Lead), Taylor Dupree, Niharika Kompella
• Mentor: Ahmed Mousa

PSEG: ENERGY MARKET CHANGES

Students are issued all New York’s  Distributed System Implementation Plans (DSIPs) that are specifically aimed at finding a way for Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) to participate in the energy market, i.e. finding a way for solar energy to bid against nuclear power plants. Students evaluated the feasibility of the main aspects of the plans to identify the ideal program for each aspect, major obstacles for implementation, and the reliability of the proposed systems. By taking different aspects of each plan, students are tasked with figuring out how such systems can be applied to New Jersey.

• Student Externs: Justin Li (Lead), Aadya V. Gadkari, Anusri Arora, Matthew Dembeck
• Mentors: Ahmed Mousa and Angela Ortiz

PSEG: RENEWABLES

Students conducted a literature review to investigate how a combination of electrification and decarbonization can be used to achieve NJ’s 100% clean energy by 2050 goal, as set by the 2019 New Jersey Energy Master Plan. They specifically focused on finding potential solutions to major challenges involved with the electrification of the transportation/building sectors and decarbonization of the electric grid in NJ by researching clean energy programs being run in other states and countries, and summarized their findings in a final report.

• Student Externs: Nishreen Bikanerwala (Lead), Joshua Egbeobawaye, Jacqueline Nguyen, Rofiat Raheem
• Mentors: Ahmed Mousa and Angela Ortiz

PSEG: WIRES AND PIPES

Students researched the viability of non-wire alternatives (NWAs) in the US electric grid, conducted analysis of consumer and prosumers perspectives about NWAs via a survey, conducted an in-depth analysis and created visualizations using Python. Additionally researched various case studies to analyze engineers perspective of the implementation of NWAs, compiled the findings and analysis in a report and presented proposed solutions for successful implementation of NWAs to company leaders.

• Students Externs: Quraiz Najmi (Lead), Ryan Meegan, Manav Vaghasiya
• Mentors: Ahmed Mousa and Angela Ortiz

RU SCHOOL OF ARTS & SCIENCES

Students reviewed and evaluated the current SAS website focused on the user experience to formulate redesign strategies. Identified “user-friendliness” of the current website, conducted extensive user research/tests, best practices in web design in higher education, and developed a redesign proposal, and presented a viable solution for an effective information architecture structure for a new website.

• Student Externs: Kimberly Berry (Lead), Elo Hernandez, Janee Powers
• Mentors: Dr. Kara Donaldson and Laura Gordon

RUTGERS RECREATION: EMPLOYMENT

Students viewed employment data for Rutgers Recreation facilities for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters. Students consolidated files, analyzed the data, and created visualizations to compare the 2020-2021 employment to pre-pandemic employment trends. Using the analysis and visualizations, students provided Rutgers Recreation with information to create new and extensive plans to approach student employment for upcoming years.

• Student Externs: Matthew Knappenberg (Lead), Atharva Belsare, Delia Green, Jinglin Zhao, Namrata Jain
• Mentor: Samantha Plum

RUTGERS RECREATION: WERBLIN

Students investigated underlying recreation facility usage trends for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters during the onset of COVID-19 with data analytics tools such as Excel and Python for cleaning, and Tableau for visualizations. Insights included discovering popular program activities, popular facility hours, and top user affiliations. Further analyses included distribution of facility use, weekday trends, and program arrival patterns.

• Student Externs: Clarence Li (Lead), Ankita Gupta
• Mentor: Ganesh Waran

TVD ASSOCIATES

Students conducted a survey to determine factors that create a great internship experience for interns at TVD Associates. Based on survey data analysis and results, learning objectives were created for an internship course targeted towards managers.

• Student Externs: Vaibhavi Patel (Lead), Charmi Patel, Louis Li
• Mentor: Todd VonDeak

UHAUL

Students collaborated with U-Haul Data Scientists to unlock the capability for U-haul to dynamically forecast future needs and workloads. Students developed a demand forecasting model that used over 64 million records across 5 years of historical data. Team was able to achieve a closer percentage error to actual figures than baseline metrics and presented the findings to the greater U-Haul Analytics team.

• Student Externs: Ian McSpiritt (Lead), Eric Martz, Isaac Lora-Fonville, Jinglin Zhao
• Mentors: Nicholas DiRienzo and Navid Moghaaddam

UNITED STATES COAST GUARD

The Maritime Cyber Risk project looked into cyber issues faced by companies in the maritime industry, and what recommendations the US Coast Guard should enforce the other companies to follow to improve their systems and have less issues with cyber attacks. Our final solutions had a variety of recommendations, such as increasing situational awareness, developing cyber security teams, and updating outdated technology.

• Student Externs: Aditya Kesari (Lead), Joseph Maimone, Vivek Rajan, Srotriyo Sengupta
• Mentors: Dr. Fred Roberts

WALL STREET BOOTCAMP

Finance: Students reviewed filings, analyzed financial statements, and calculated financial ratios to conduct a competitive analysis and provide recommendations based on forecasted financials.

• Student Externs: Andrew Oren (Co-Lead), Xiang Li (Co-Lead), Rishi Pothakamuri, Veeraj Arora, Rachel Azarian, Varun Alur
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

Food Science: Students determined ESG scores of the indoor farming industry, with focus on a specific company, analyzed production and business strategies, and strategic constraints. Team developed ESG scores and recommended investment in the company.

• Student Extern: Santhoshi Lokesh (Lead)
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

WILLIAMSON’S INVESTMENT – SOCIAL MEDIA

Contributed advising services to personal care-focused investment firm on the development of their business/social media strategy. Researched successful brands and analyzed current social media trends to provide recommendations on areas of potential growth. Developed a cumulative review of prospective advertising partnerships, an analysis of competitors, and a comprehensive strategic recommendation.

• Student Externs: Odhran King (Lead), Julianne Lin, Aishwarya Jadhav
• Mentor: Cenita Williamson

WILLIAMSON’S INVESTMENT – PERSONAL CARE SCIENCE

Students conducted extensive research into the product development market to seek suitable white label manufacturers for a new men’s skincare line. Identified consumer trends, gaps in the market, key ingredients, and formulation attributes. The team developed a full timeline and budget outlining the estimated cost for an end-to-end product development process.

• Student Externs: Dejour Waite (Lead), Chardae Bowe, Cynthia Santos, Oluwaseyitan Owoeye, Regina Klimchuk, Suruchi Kallakunta
• Mentor: Cenita Williamson

WORLD IA DAY – BUSINESS

By gathering data through multiple online portals, organizing the Thesaurus Management information in WIAD PoolParty, and determining taxonomy filters from the collected data, externs were able to develop an easier navigation for WIAD PoolParty users.

• Student Externs: Aniket Ashesh (Lead), Diana Evgrafova, Ezra Potter
• Mentor: Andrea Rosenbusch

WORLD IA DAT – UXD

Using information architecture, externs updated, removed and analyzed website data which resulted in delivering a sitemap mockup for company representatives.

• Student Externs: Parvaneh Roozbahani (Lead), Eliette Janeteas, Julia Ortiz, Reena Lohano
• Mentors: Ghada Kandil and Grace Lau

AFFINITY ASSET ADVISORS: GENETICS PROJECT

Students issued a cumulative recommendation regarding the application of Silagene’s U1 Adaptor technology to therapeutic targets. Students evaluated the technical feasibility of gene targets based on gain-of-function evidence and associated disease epidemiology. Students constructed financial models highlighting the commercial opportunity of various disease indications.

• Student Externs: Odhran King (Lead), Rajan Verma, Olivia Paulin
• Mentors: Patrick Nosker, PhD and Bill Koski

AFFINITY ASSET ADVISORS: NOVEL LEUKEMIA PROJECT

Students performed equity research for Novel Leukemia Therapies; reviewed literature for existing and developing treatments for AML/MDS, conducted competitive analysis in excel to compare the novel development candidates to each other and the gold standard. Created a concept map of the current treatment landscape and pipeline figures for the novel drug molecules to build an investment framework of biotech companies developing treatment for AML/MDS.

• Student Externs: Shivangi Singh (Lead), Xiang Li, Jenna Molesko
• Mentors: Patrick Nosker, PhD and Bill Koski

BAYER PHARMACEUTICALS: SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY

Students researched sustainability measures to improve the pharmaceutical supply chain management process, including sustainability in warehouse inventory maintenance, packaging and local distribution of pharmaceutical products. Examined innovative technologies that could be integrated into pharmaceutical supply chain management to reduce carbon emission during local distribution, reduce warehouse waste, inventory shrinkage and sustainable packaging materials. Research findings were based on  literature reviews on emerging and current sustainable technologies used in supply chain management. Proposed options to the leadership included integration of AI and Radio Frequency Identification in pharmaceutical supply chain.

• Student Externs: Ishmaelina Borde-Koufie (Lead), Cassie Miao, Gabriel Castellanos, Srivardhan Mahadas, Aishwarya Jadhav
• Mentors: Donnie Weissberg, Remon Zakhary, Paulette Guzman

BROADCAST MUSIC INC. (BMI): RESTAURANT LICENSE ANALYSIS

Students conducted research focused on locations in which BMI has the most licensing contracts starting with NYC Area, including a comparative analysis to identify key attributes of a licensable restaurant. Cleaned and prepared data using Python and ran logistic regression model in order to produce a numerical result. Presented data identifying low and high attributes of pro-license and low-license restaurant targets.

• Student Externs: Boyan Qin (Lead) and Joseph Mogaver
• Mentors: Sebastian Pittman and Jim Chapman

BROADCAST MUSIC INC.: GENRE ANALYSIS

Students performed data analysis using Tableau and Python on a dataset with 6.8 million sound recordings focused on genre and subgenre classifications of the songs. Created decision trees to form a genre classification system for use in the future.

• Student Externs: Shweta Mohanty (Lead), Sharon Gu, Anum Zafer
• Mentors: Tracie Verlinde, Randy McMillan, Megan McNary

CCICADA

Students worked to complete an IRB modification for an approved online survey, which was live for 3 weeks and yielded 200+ responses from healthcare professionals, the general public, and Rutgers students. Created an ArcGIS interactive map of NJ highlighting COVID cases and testing, Twitter analysis word clouds, and Reddit post analysis, and compiled all data into a dashboard format which can be found online at https://covid19rutgersmbs.wixsite.com/results. 

• Student Externs: Fiona Shafer (Lead), Adarsh Patra, Tyler Lee, Wahhaj Khokhar, Abdul Ahmed, Jason Lee, Shrey Joshi, Faizah Rahim
• Mentors: Dr. Dennis Egan and Dr. Fred Roberts

COLGATE PALMOLIVE: QUALITY SYSTEMS

The eTech Transfer System details the product development process from early research to commercialization and relays critical information about a product to ensure the proper steps and documentation are completed to deliver a quality product.  The team created insightful visual analytics using Tableau from the 2015-2020 eTech Transfer database in order to deduce trends that help optimize the product development process.

• Student Externs: Lanesa Mahon (Lead), Shaily Parmar, Shivangi Manivannan, Xylia Ajose, Kahkashan Kashif
• Mentors: Elsa Yuriko-Tsuji and Skinder Atwal

COLGATE PALMOLIVE: REGULATORY AFFAIRS

The students created the next iteration of a previous prototype designed to aid non-regulatory personnel in obtaining and understanding FDA regulations regarding personal care products. This semester’s team focused on integrating oral care products and anti-cavity regulations into the prototype’s framework. Students conducted research, utilized the design platform InVision Studio, and performed live demonstrations to CP employees to gain feedback.

• Student Externs: Cameron Powell (Lead) and Loveleen Saran
• Mentors: Jennifer Martin and Kristen Buono

CONRAIL: RISK MANAGEMENT

Students conducted visual research on three high-risk grade crossings in Southern New Jersey. After identifying potential problems and researching new smart technology, the team proposed several technologies to help mitigate future risk.

• Student Externs: Hanks Flanagan (Lead), Madeleine Ferguson, Andy Yang, Lucas Hall
• Mentors: Dr. John Betak and R. Michael White

CREWASIS

Students conducted a competitive analysis on data science consulting companies in a variety of markets by researching competitors, creating various SWOT analyses, and forming a Porter’s 5 Forces analysis to provide insight to Crewasis on how to further improve their company.

• Student Externs: Madelyn Jacob (Lead), Muhammad Adil, Martina M Meawad
• Mentor: Sharon Joseph

DECOMIL

Students developed a high level overview of the company from key performance indicators in sales, marketing, social media, and customer persona mapping. Data was collected, cleaned, and analyzed using Python and Excel. Key findings were presented using Tableau and recommendations were generated to increase brand performance, improve brand identity and identify areas for future extern work.

• Student Externs: Jennifer Simon (Lead), Jinglin Zhao, Trevor Carr
• Mentor: Kenan Bindal

F&S PRODUCE: DATA ANALYSIS

Students created an efficient and user-friendly Python data retrieval tool to retrieve pricing and movement volume data on an on-demand basis to improve the efficiency of fresh produce/commodity data collection from the USDA website, and created a dashboard for actual data trend visualization using Tableau Desktop.

• Student Externs: Hrishit Josh (Lead), Carrie Luan, Ushasee Das
• Mentor: Michael Schwager

F&S: LINKEDIN MARKETING

Developed a 30-Day LinkedIn marketing strategy for the company; developed marketing content such as posts, promotional materials and advertisements, tracked social media engagement to identify high-performing ideas for the plan; increased followers by 15%, and increased page engagement and visitors.

• Student Externs: Anirudh Desai (Lead), Caroline Chan, Kassia Antin
• Mentor: Melissa Mackay

FLEXPRO

Students conducted market research into leading pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, analyzed their profile, history, relevant alliances, potential job opportunities, and performed a LinkedIn analysis. Additionally, researched BARDA Contracts that could bring opportunities to FlexPro.

• Student Externs: Hinal Shah (Lead), Michael Cantatore, George Exarchakis, Maitri Kapadia
• Mentors: Kate Pestrichelli and Mark Horn

FTA & ECPAT

Students delivered a systematic process to predict human trafficking through the analysis of socioeconomic data and twitter hashtags. Using logistic regression, students obtained a probability for HT presence and absence.

• Student Externs: Tyler Hayek, Hernan Chacon, Myra Shama, Francisco Almachi-Vera, Albert Joseph, Willio Jeanvilma
• Mentor: John Betak

GLOBAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

In the US, a train collides with a vehicle/person once every 115 minutes. The team provided risk assessment and identified potential mitigation strategies to reduce grade crossing and trespassing incidents for high-risk grade crossings in Detroit, Michigan. Students analyzed various databases on railway incident risk factors, created data visualizations through Excel, and compiled a final proposal to suggest possible solutions.

• Student Externs: Jeremy Ubina (Lead), Manasi Gidh, Sahreen Kaur, Syed Ahmed
• Mentors: John Betak, Ph.D. and Michael White

IMAGINE

Students conducted market research for opportunities in providing grief support through colleges/universities and implemented contextual interviews among faculty members from several Rutgers departments to gain insight on current student resources. Developed a pitch deck for Imagine to use when presenting their offerings to other colleges/universities.

• Student Externs: Diana Fu (Lead), Julianne Lin, Leah Ellis, Candice Whitney
• Mentor: Rich Szeto

INFRAGISTICS

Students created a project management tool to be more data-driven, intuitive and user-friendly for seamless collaboration. Students suggested utilizing sentiment analysis to provide near real-time feedback to team leaders within the platform to be more cognizant of the team’s emotional state. Using PostgreSQL, Python and Google Collab, students provided sentiment analysis, feedback to enhance the notification system, the addition of descriptive labels in different areas of the platform to ease the navigation process, and organize the platform hierarchy to centralize the interface thereby avoiding redundancies for better user experience.

• Student Externs: John Gorgy (Lead), Jenny Chen, Kruttika Raman, Siddhant Saurav Swain
• Mentors: Tobias Komischke, Berch Gularte, George Tachev, and Vaibhav Malik

INGREDION: SUSTAINABILITY PROJECT

The team conducted research and interviewed industry experts to identify the standards of the food and beverage industry in order to help Ingredion become a more sustainable company. Using excel to create visual depictions, students recommended steps to reduce their plastic waste and also to become a B corporation.

• Student Externs: Brianna Variot (Lead), Serena Gil, Gretchen Mueller
• Mentor: Brian Nash

INNOVATIVE BIOTECHNOLOGY DELIVERY

Students conducted database research on the production of meat alternatives in the US using plant-protein imitation and biotechnology methods to identify areas for growth within the field. The final report highlighted difficulty in the formation of proteins that resemble the flavor and texture of animal meat via extrusion methods and in obtaining a high throughput of proteins, large enough for industrial use, using biotechnology. The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station can utilize these analyses to optimize meat alternative production by working towards addressing these limitations directly or by using both imitation and biotechnology methods synergistically.

• Student Externs: Hamail Iqbal (Lead), Kevin Underwood
• Mentors: Dr. Paul Takhistov and Dr. Paul Meers

JOURNAL OF INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

Students identified key areas of improvement for the Journal’s new website. The team restructured the information architecture of the website while maintaining the brand’s identity and authenticity, utilized tools in Canva and Figma to create logo designs and low-fidelity wireframes, and conducted a competitive analysis to better understand which features are most useful to implement and improve the site’s usability. The new wireframe allowed users to better differentiate between articles as well as provide an option to download and share articles.

• Student Externs: Krystal Lau (Lead), Adeola Kukoyi, Bradley Ferrara, Rebecca Lee
• Mentor: Andreas Resmini

NEW AGE DRINKS

Students defined the marketing plan needed to launch BrainPOP, a new smart drink soda, through media channels and promotional events. This was achieved through researching the beverage and consumer packaged goods industry, improving marketing on social and physical media channels particularly with Tik Tok and Instagram, and organizing grants and incubators to raise capital.

• Student Externs: Justin Lee (Lead), Sara Osowski, Lucciana Heredia
• Mentor: Sierra Hooshiari

NEW WILMINGTON

Students found new focal points for the township’s official website and created an easy-to-navigate information architecture hierarchy.

• Student Externs: Avery Cocozziello, Devon Monaghan, Parva Roozbahani, Stephanie Corona, Taylor Dupree, Nicole Flores
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

NJ CYBERSECURITY & COMMUNICATION INTEGRATION CELL

Using platforms such as Chronicle, BigQuery, and Looker, the student team created dashboards to display information on cyber threats for the state of NJ. These dashboards provide information such as heat maps of inbound and outbound threats, dashboards for different types of attacks, and Word Clouds of top type of threats. By presenting a story, NJCCIC will be able to give detailed analysis to guests who require it.

• Student Externs: Vivek Rajan (Lead), Abraham Minkowitz, Angela Annecchino, Aniket Ashesh, Brian Girgis, Kunj Patel, Maher Arora (Gurmaher)
• Mentor: Michael Geraghty

PSEG: SUSTAINABILITY PROJECT

Students conducted a SWOT analysis covering ESG, cost, technological availability, gas quality specification, customer appetite, regional concerns, and equity of RNG. They researched financial models of RNG in other states in order to determine the incentives needed to drive market demand in NJ, and completed a high-level national and detailed regional benchmark of RNG and analyzed feasibility for PSEG.

• Student Externs: Taylor Good (Lead), Cathelina Eliacin, Aayushi Kasera
• Mentors: Angela Ortiz and Ahmed Mousa

RM TRACKING

Students conducted market research in lot and inventory management to validate market approaches and provide recommendations. Students conducted interviews to better understand market and user needs and designed UI wireframes through Figma for potential features.

• Student Externs: Aliceana Lin (Lead), Christian Butts, Himabindhu Chilukuri
• Mentors: Fassil Abede and Rich Szeto

RU RECREATION

Students used SQL to merge recreational facility usage data with university data to analyze and visualize usage patterns for the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters. Analyses included investigating characteristics of student users based on housing, GPA, demographics, and class level. Visualizations were created in Tableau and condensed into multiple dashboards to provide better insight into facility operations.

• Student Externs: Omisha Jyothi (Lead), Danial Nazemi, Santiago Gutierrez Najar
• Mentor: Samantha Plum

SILAGENE

Students investigated possible applications for Silagene’s novel gene silencing technology, which utilizes U1 Adaptors. Team researched potential cancer-causing gene called myc (otherwise known as c-myc) and the diseases which resulted from a mutation in this gene. Using databases such as NCBI and PubMed, along with Clinical Trial data retrieved from ClinicalTrials.gov the team was able to determine the competitive landscape for these diseases by researching the disease incidence, severity, and availability/efficacy of other treatment methods. The team presented a comprehensive view of using their technology to target and silence the myc gene to treat these diseases.

• Student Externs: Aslan Pugh (Lead), Andrew Costa, Jannatul Alam
• Mentors: Cynthia Davis and Marilena Perrone

TASTE OF TRUFFLES

Students created reusable social media templates, completed an in-depth data analysis of their Facebook and Instagram accounts, and created a 6-month Social Media posting plan, along with market research of similar truffle companies and other food company product designs. The team provided a detailed list of retail applications, and consolidated and summarized results into an 11-page reference document.

• Student Externs: Arun Singh, Qinnan Li, Runjie Liu
• Mentor: Adrian Ignat

TVD ASSOCIATES

Students conducted research on digital marketing and established a creative brief, and then developed and published a Facebook ad to increase listeners and likes for the Aphasia Access Conversations podcast.

• Student Externs: Brittany Caldwell (Lead), Claire Hsu, Ishan Bhavsar
• Mentor: Todd VonDeak

USDA: LEAFY GREENS

Students conducted a feasibility study to track the growth and development of leafy green plants to determine the optimal harvest time of these leafy green. They examined time factors including color, taste, and size. Images provided spanned over 9 days and were taken in 2019. Analysis was done using ImageJ and Google Sheets. The project resulted in a paper that included the methodology and recommendations for future work on the project.

• Student Externs: Nimit Doshi (Lead), Akino Tomizawa, Mohammad Rashid
• Mentor: Dr. Paul Takhistov

USDA: SUSTAINABILITY/FOOD WASTE

The team conducted research on food upcycling to create Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer models which outline the specialized steps necessary to ensure the economic success of food upcycling companies.

• Student Externs: Erica Montes Alarcon (Lead), Sabrina Gil, Anusha Gunti
• Mentor: Dr. Paul Takhistov

WALL STREET BOOTCAMP: ESG ANALYSIS

Team researched and analyzed a petrochemical company’s environmental, social, and governance practices. Using Vigeo Eiris’s ESG scoring methodology, students compared similar companies’ scores, and assigned the company with an accurate ESG score. Finally, the team proposed potential solutions for the company to improve their ESG practices.

• Student Externs: Julia Burns (Lead), Bora Kim, Keneshia Kerr, Lisa Grayson, Thallys Goncalves
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

WALL STREET BOOTCAMP: FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

Team conducted research on the current financial status and strategies of Westlake Chemical and utilized Moody’s credit rating methodology to determine a credit rating for the company. Team researched the outlook of the chemical market as a whole and the short-term effects of COVID-19 in order to gain a better understanding of the company’s future. The team determined whether or not the long-term outlook of Westlake Chemical was positive and analyzed their potential for growth both financially and environmentally.

• Student Externs: Connor Genitempo (Lead), Andrew Li, Anne Andre, Pranay Doshi
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

WALL STREET BOOTCAMP: SWOT ANALYSIS

Performed an extensive business assessment on Westlake Chemical Corporation to evaluate the company’s standing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Conducted research in collaboration with ESG team and financial team. Created a business overview, SWOT analysis, and macro outlook on the petrochemical industry to get a more concrete understanding of the management, organization, strategies, and creditworthiness.

• Student Externs: Tyler Alvarez (Lead), Kevin Tamayo, Nidhi Salian, Dhruv Patel
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

WORLD IA DAY

Students worked on information architecture and video content collection by organizing data from the World IA Day website into Google Spreadsheets. The data will be used to redesign the World IA Day website so users can more efficiently navigate the website to locate past talks and presentations.

• Student Externs: Selena Zheng (Lead), Yatong Wang, Hasim Khawaja
• Mentors: Grace Lau and Andrea Rosenbus

BAYER

Improving the sustainability of Bayer’s Pharmaceutical supply chain by optimizing the shippers and packaging of U.S. distribution. Using Excel, Python, JMP, and Tableau to analyze the data, the team identified opportunities to reduce costs, CO2 emissions, and waste. Presented recommendations to senior leadership for prospective improvements impacting cost and environmental metrics.

• Student Externs: Richard Smith (Lead), Sungil Yoon, Harini Senthilkumar, Evan Mangone, and Omisha Jyothi
• Mentors: Donnie Weissberg, Remon Zakhary, Paulette Guzman

BMI

Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) is the largest music Performing Rights Organization (PRO) globally. To give BMI a competitive advantage, students extracted and presented useful information from large databases with data on the music industry. Students used SQL queries, Python libraries, and Microsoft PowerBI to identify trends and indicators to ultimately increase BMI’s market share and bolster their success as a PRO.

• Student Externs: Wara Laura (Lead), Hanxiao Zhu, Edler Olanday, Seyma Guleryuz
• Practicum Students: Drashti Patel, Kahini Amin, Radhika Patel
• Mentors: David Levin, Tracie Verlinde, Randy McMillan

CITI VENTURES

Students worked to develop an idea for a website/mobile app. Students interviewed internal SMEs to elicit requirements, collaborated in Miro for brainstorming and sitemapping, designed static wireframes and developed an interactive app prototype using Figma. Additionally, students conducted User Experience Research in Optimal Workshop throughout the design process, and provided recommendations for next steps.

• Student Externs: Sarah Stapleton (Lead), David Pellitta, Isaac Schiftic, Malak Akinlabi, Rebecca Lee
• Mentor: Shira Stember

COLGATE PALMOLIVE – QUALITY

Students conducted insightful analytics and identified key trends to assist in determining an efficient project timeline, allowing for CP tech transfer leaders to identify incomplete tasks and recognize the carry-over gaps from one phase to the next.

• Student Externs: Kavita Shanbhag (Lead), John Gorgy, Suraj Verma, Jianqi (Roger) Lin, Shivangi Singh, Veronica Farag
• Mentors: Elsa Yuriko Tsuji and Skinder Atwal

COLGATE PALMOLIVE – REGULATORY

Leveraging the work from the prior externship team, fall extern students created prototypes of online resources through InVision software, and conducted internal interviews with SMEs to determine current roadblocks in obtaining regulatory information. Made recommendations and improvement to the process with the AI tool.

• Student Externs: Madeleine Ferguson, Brianna Variot, Andrew Hsieh, Shivangi Manivannan, Melanie Alpert
• Mentors: Jennifer Martin, Rena Bartel

COVID/CDC

Goal to gain public opinion from both the general public and health care providers on the topic of COVID-19 vaccine development via surveys. Students assessed data using various social variables through statistical analysis and plotting in Excel in relation to COVID-19 cases and deaths.

• Student Externs: Therese Azevedo (Lead), Michael Cantatore, Joseph Farag, Fiona Shafer, Chimaraije (CJ) Amu-Nnadi

F&S PRODUCE

Students created brand awareness through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram for Sam’s Fresh Salsa, one of the flagship products. Students developed different strategies for prospective implementation on social media platforms and created content for Facebook Ads.

• Student Externs: Revathi Nair (Lead), Yashi Chu, Sherry Lam, Kevin Zhang, Jenett Cheng, Arun Singh
• Mentors: Jill Mazer and Michael Schwager

FRA & GISLLC

The FRA has seen an increase in railway incidents involving trespassing pedestrians. Students used ArcGIS to build a data model that can analyze incident patterns and report risks for future incidents based on current information. The ultimate goal would be to create a tool for railroad workers to use to determine where the high-risk areas are and what they can do to dissuade or reduce trespassing in those locations.

• Student Externs: William Rice, Robert Roman
• Mentor: John Betak and Michael White

IMAGINE

Imagine is a non-profit organization supporting families coping with grief and loss. Students conducted market research to gain insight into the benefits of gamification and learn how to control a minecraft server in order for Imagine to create an online educational tool providing children support through remote gamification techniques.

• Student Externs: Niharika Kasimahanthi (Lead), Abraham David Minkowitz, Zerui Li
• Mentor: Rich Szeto

INFRAGISTICS

Marketing team developed a unique go to market strategy that targets software developers to join a new platform tool and found various methods to improve user engagement within multiple Infragistic tools.  Students analyzed the customer funnel, important SEO Keywords, backlinks, Influencers, User Groups, Metric Movement, and Customer Journeys by using tools such as: a Infragistics Team Productivity Tool, Ignite UI, Google Analytics, Keyword Planners and Hootsuite.

• Student Externs: Riya Patel (Lead), Sandra Jaramillo, Shenin Siddiqui, Sahitya Gande
• Mentor: Casey McGuigan

L’OREAL

There is a growing trend for personalized beauty. Students performed a market and competitor analysis to identify opportunities for a unique beautytech product with future growth. Research included intellectual property, regulations, and costs to validate the beautytech device proposal, and created a business plan proposal for the VP.

• Student Externs: Kelsey Gwynne (Lead), Jordan Berry, Misha Mehta, Rajan Verma, Samantha Siu, Simiao Zhang, Zeal Dholakia
• Mentor: Angelike Galde

NEW AGE DRINKS

Startup nootropic, brain-focused sparkling beverage-line called BrainPOP. Students evaluated the competitor social media landscape to craft ideas for the BrainPop brand website and social media page. We developed a brand persona and target consumer, and we worked on several aspects of brand identity and strategy like a positioning statement, vision, and brand design and logos. We used resources like Mintel, Excel, MicKinsey models, Nielsen, and Coursera.

• Student Externs: Julia DeSpirito (Lead), Gabriel Castellanos, Ngoc Angie Giang, Rajvi Shah
• Mentor: Sierra Hooshiari

NEW WILMINGTON

Students created a website for the borough featuring information required by residents, tourists, and new residents to help the town with economic development and community engagement.

Students analyzed town requirements by meeting the Mayor and community members. Using WordPress and Hestia, created a website that featured local businesses, documents, and all other resources that the community might need in the future.

• Student Externs: Namrata Singh (Lead), Avadh Soni, Yatong Wang, Nisarg Patel
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

NJ TRANSIT

Students examined innovative solutions to help NJT effectively transition post-pandemic. Students analyzed different vendors and selected top choices and recommendations on how these vendors could be successfully incorporated.

• Student Externs: Vivek Rajan, Karsten Johnson
• Mentors: Lookman Fazal, Sreedhar Tulluri, Bill Van Winkle

ORION

Orion is a global business and tech services firm. Students evaluated the ReALM Application by first identifying the key pain points of actual and potential users, followed by the conduction of usability tests (Tree testing and Card sorting).  In addition, students evaluated the App applying the 10 Usability Heuristic for User Interface Design created by Jacob Nielson. Students provided recommendations presented through interactive prototypes.

• Student Externs: Ingrid Garcia (Lead), Jennifer Nicole Cano, Jingyuan Guo, Kimberly Berry, Shweta Mohanty
• Mentor: Dr. V. “Bala” Balasubramanian

PHARMALLIES

A regulatory compliance consulting firm specializing in Project Management, Operational Excellence, and Quality Compliance. Students tested the usability of the current website, conducted research including creation of a persona of the client, identified and analyzed the customer journey by conducting user interviews, and utilized Optimal Workshop to conduct remote card sorting, tree testing and first click testing with recommendations for website improvement.

• Student Externs: Ahreum Ko (Lead), Chelsea Saada, Graciela Jamieson, You-Rhee (Christina) Choi
• Mentors: Justin Bechtel, Peniel Ortega

RU RECREATION

Students leveraged data in available reports from the Rutgers Recreation hourly payroll system to examine student employment variables and trends such as employee retention and gap semesters. Used Tableau and Excel to perform analyses and create data visualizations.

• Student Externs: Arielle Cohen (Lead), Sharon Gu, Abdor Rahman Ahmed
• Mentor: Samantha Plum

TASTE OF TRUFFLES

Students supported the founder by conducting competitive analysis and designed 3-month social media campaigns on several platforms to build brand awareness and expand reach to prospective customers in certain demographics. Students also supported fundraising efforts between the company and local charities and restaurants to both promote the truffle brand and increase donations for COVID relief.

• Student Externs: Grace Lee (Lead), Taylor Good, Gabrielle Pinto, Catherine Peebles, Brian Villa-Lafontaine
• Mentor: Adrian Ignat

TVD

Students conducted a literature review analyzing past trends in sponsorships for nonprofit membership organizations and how these organizations have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Students interviewed key industry professionals to gain more insight into the issues they are facing due to the pandemic and what they have done to address any problems they have encountered. Students synthesized the information from both existing literature and their interviews, determined similarities and differences, and created a list of possible future trends in this industry post-COVID-19 to drive decision making.

• Student Externs: Lily Lumkong, Nivashini Muthuvel, Aliyah Khatri
• Mentor: Todd Von Deak

WALL STREET BOOTCAMP

Team 1:

Students focused on the financial and environmental analysis of PPG Paint Company. Students studied the roles of PPG in automotive industry, life sciences applications within the architectural coatings industry, and rated PPG as a company using Moody’s chemical methodology and the Vigeo Eiris (VE) system.

• Student Externs: Aditi Balasubramanian (Lead), Ishmaelina Borde-Koufie, Nupur Kadam, Thomas DeMarco, Audriti Mazumder
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

Team 2:

Students evaluated AkzoNobel’s creditworthiness post divestiture and evaluated the impact of the pandemic on their end markets. Students analyzed financial statements and used Moody’s ratings methodology to calculate a credit rating.

• Student Externs: Varun Alur (Lead), Aditya Palekar, Jenna Douglass, Justin Lee, Odhran King
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

Team 3:

To gauge the potential of the Business of Axalta Coatings Systems (Formerly known as DuPont Coatings), students explored different areas such as autonomous driving, safety fuel efficiency, and sustainability. Used Moody’s credit rating methodology (scorecard tool) to assign a risk rating to the company that would help investors make more informed decisions. The ESG Assessment methodology was also used to monitor the company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance factors that determine their relationship with stakeholders.

• Student Externs: Dhaara Popat (Lead), Joshua Atienza
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

BAYER

Bayer committed to be carbon neutral by 2030. Supply chain management sustainability efforts are ramping up in 2020.  Students performed research-driven sustainability initiatives and used tools and developed 44 potential sustainability initiatives. Analyzed s6 competitors’ sustainability reports, conducted a comprehensive academic literature review, and Voice of Customer analysis with internal SMEs. Bayer mentors selected 3 student ideas for further development.

• Mentor: Julio Feliciano
• Students: Carol Kam (Lead Extern), Anushka Anil Chhabria, Kevin Blum, Kimberly Venesky, Kristina Hayda, Zeal Dholakai

BENTLEY

Market trends change quickly so it’s important to keep up with the current and emerging market trends. Projects that are not on trend can result in Bentley wasting its time and money on future product re-works. Students identified the top personal care market trends and compared them to Bentley’s product portfolio using the data analytics software, DOMO. This data was then used to determine where Bentley has opportunities to grow and to improve the product screening process to help Bentley take on new relevant, high-potential projects.

• Mentor: Matt Brennan
• Students: Kelsey Gwynne (Lead Extern), Areeba Sohail, Claire Freij, Julia DeSpirito, Mihir Mehta, Prachi Patel

CITI VENTURES

Students used scraping mechanisms to analyze data to identify the areas of study and majors of top talent at leading universities and at which industries and companies they are employed post-graduation. They also used the scraping methods to determine which skills the top university students possessed based on their LinkedIn profile, and how it related to their areas of study and positions. Students presented their findings that many top university students who were in a STEM major worked for companies in the professional, scientific, financial services and technology industries.

• Mentor: Peri Becker
• Students: Kruttika Raman (Lead Extern), Isha Vora, Jianqi Lin, Joshua Atienza, Krishna Rao, Stephen Mea

COLGATE PALMOLIVE

Validated a Decision Tree created in previous externship; required simplification, organization and prioritization in order for non-expert CP employees to utilize the tool. Students developed a prototype of a Regulatory AI tool to simplify the process of registering products in new countries; used Balsamiq Cloud to develop the new AI tool.

• Mentor: Jennifer Martin
• Students: Misha Mehta (Lead Extern), Revathi Nair, Sabrina Vizuete Valverde, Melissa Moreno, Shivangi Singh

DHS

• Mentor: Dr. Christie Nelson
• Students: Rachel Tovar, Ryan Aponte, Therese Azevedo

FEDERAL TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION (FTA)

FTA is conducting research on human trafficking trends across the nation.
Two Projects:

FTA Hotspot Analysis:
Built a model for hotspot analysis using the ArcGis visualization tool to understand human trafficking victim characteristics and trafficker MOs. Using hotspot analysis, allows for better identification and prediction of trafficker routes to help increase awareness and prevention strategies.

FTA Social Media Analysis
Identified patterns in the sex trafficking industry through social media activity, specifically looking at posts and hashtags on Twitter. Determined that major cities and popular travel locations have a larger volume of tweets referencing commercial sex acts and that the onset of COVID-19 had caused a short dip in tweets advertising illegal escort services.

• Mentor: Dr. John Betak
• Students: Shreya Gurjar (Lead Extern), Christopher (Michael) Guenot, Hedy Makris, Melissa Moreno, Ryan Maiorano

IMAGINE GAME

“The Imagine – Game project goal is to integrate gaming virtually into children’s support groups (ages 3-5, 6-9) as a means to express their grief. Using zoom the team piloted five games with Imagine’s facilitators and conducted a post-game survey to gather open-ended feedback”.

• Mentor: Rich Szeto
• Students: Nimish Mytle (Lead Extern), Janiya Peters, Nandani Patidar

IMAGINE PODCAST

Students developed a marketing plan for Imagine podcasts, defined the steps and business practices to develop professional podcasts from scratch, and created a specific podcast from a pre-recorded Zoom Webinar.

• Mentors: Rich Szeto and Jacelyn Matthews
• Students: Melissa Landy (Lead Extern), Siddhant Saurav Swain, Zeal Dholakai

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP

Devised a plan to fund an athletic field complex for Jefferson Township school district at zero cost to the town’s taxpayers while maintaining a strong revenue stream. Conducted market research and analyzed possible funding sources, including grants, for building the field while developing marketing strategies to build rapport within the community. Determined potential revenue streams and identified unique value propositions to differentiate from competitors. Presented findings to senior leaders.

• Mentor: William Koch
• Students: Jenett Cheng (Lead Extern), Betty Yuan, Neena Regalado

K-12 COVID-LAG PROJECT

Students performed a literature review on government COVID-19 regulations, education-related legislation, and hybrid-learning use cases and best practices.  They also interviewed key stakeholders to develop recommendations for school administrators and a survey to be provided to teachers.

• Mentor: Joseph Sheruda, Dr. Christie Nelson

NEW AGE DRINKS

To navigate New Age Drinks, a start-up functional beverage company, to a successful launch of BrainPOP during the current COVID-19 pandemic climate and beyond. Research methods used consisted of elements such as SWOT analysis, Market Analysis, and Risk Analysis. The outcome of all the research conducted resulted in a number of different deliverables such as updated versions of the logo design and branding, competitive analysis, marketing plan, quality control plan, distribution plan, as well as research on contract manufacturing and risk management.

• Mentor: Sierra Hooshiari
• Students: Jessenia B. Castro (Lead Extern), Andrea Ichite, Brianna Penders, Claire Hsu, Hemani Batra, Jin Park, VamsiKrishna Ayyala

NEW WILMINGTON

The New Wilmington, Pennsylvania website is far more than a home for information – it is an online presence that reflects the identity of the borough. The primary objective of the project was to redesign the current website to better engage its diverse community of residents, optimize its role as a key information hub, and increase community connections. Recommended additions and revisions were accompanied by a proposed layout with suggested connections for the borough to explore.

• Mentor: Benjamin Nelson
• Students: Angela Annecchino (Lead Extern), Ingrid Garcia, Jayalaxmi Arasalike, Leah Ellis, Preanka Pillai, Thomas Brynkiewicz

PHARMALLIES

Website redesign: the students used the research of the previous externship to develop a new WordPress website that improves users’ experience and search engine optimization.

• Mentors: Peniel Ortega and Justin Bechtel
• Students: Kim Brown (Lead Extern), Amarja Devraj Naik Nimbalkar, Annapoorani Muthuraman, Hannah Wetter, Olivia Paulin

RU RECREATION

The goal of this project is to leverage the data in available reports from the Rutgers Recreation hourly payroll system to examine student employment variables and trends. Extensive data cleaning was performed to improve data quality and ensure accurate analysis results. Students performed analyses to audit and discover trends focusing on different employment variables including employee demographics, job title, payment type, paid amount.

• Mentor: Samantha Plum
• Students: Sharon Gu (Lead Extern), Arielle Cohen, Ryan Maiorano

SESAME WORKSHOP

Students worked on various KPIs associated with Sesame Workshop’s Donor Journey as part of the Annual Giving Project. Students used Google Analytics and Tableau to convert the datasets and create Dashboards for Sesame team to use for strategic decision making.

• Mentors: Daryl Mintz, Diana Polvere, John Walgren, Shadrach Kisten
• Students: Sairaj Pai (Lead Extern), Aditi Kulkarni, Drashti Patel, Omisha Joythi, Sarah Stapleton, Sharon Gu, Xichan Wang

TVD ASSOCIATES

Students performed literature reviews and interviewed industry experts to explore event practices in the COVID-19 era. In addition to presenting key findings on how organizations are planning for safety and the tools they are using, the team researched and made recommendations on how to create engaging hybrid and virtual events.

• Mentor: Todd von Deak
• Students: Prixy Manocha (Lead Extern), Charis Shin, Vuong D Ngo, Yashi Chu

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (USDA)

Students conducted research to understand foodborne illnesses and provide insights to the public to help prevent food safety outbreaks. Students performed data analysis and data visualization on over 10,000+ data using Excel, Jupyter Notebook, and Tableau. The team discovered valuable information about foodborne illnesses in areas like sanitation services, seasonality, processing level of the food, and diet preference.

• Mentor: Dr. Paul Takhistov
• Students: Ziqiu (Sly) Zhong (Lead Extern), Anisha Chithapuram, Ashish Podduturi, Cyrus Yu, Qing Ouyang, Wenli Niu

USCG

Investigate aspects of maritime risk in preparation for a student poster presentation at the 11th Maritime Risk Symposium 2020, which is run by Homeland Security.  Students looked at (1) risks associated with oil spills including proximity to ports and weather impacts and (2) cyberinfrastructure related risks for ships trapped in ports.

• Students: Dhvani Udani, Gurmaher (Maher) Aroa, Kunal Patel, Niharika Kasimahanthi, Nikki Ford

WAKEFERN

Students researched and analyzed consumer cryptocurrency usage in order to predict the financial and brand viability of installing cryptocurrency ATMs in supermarkets. A major part of analysis included brainstorming on a strategy to identify optimal supermarkets to test cryptocurrency ATMs by visualizing the locations of bitcoin ATMs and Wakefern supermarkets in Tableau. Leveraging project research and analysis, students prepared a final slide deck which contained a cost benefit analysis of implementing cryptocurrency ATMs in supermarkets and recommendations for Wakefern’s future innovative efforts.

• Mentor: Courtney Fagan
• Students: Vaibhav Malik (Lead Extern), Brian Ducey, Siddhant Swain, Siddharth Musale, Ziva Rimmon

WALL STREET BOOTCAMP

Students performed extensive automotive industry and company level analysis to recommend a creditworthiness rating for Tesla, as a company. Research and analysis included financial forecasting based on historical data and application of the credit rating methodology, by using the scorecard method. Research, findings and recommendations were presented as part of the final presentation.

• Mentor: Ben Nelson
• Students: Kahini Amin (Lead Extern), Aishwarya Kanagala, Kelsey Gwynne, Nimit Doshi, Rahul Royal, Robert Roman, Vrathan Reddy, Zoya Pandher

BENTLEY LABS

The objective of our project is to study the personal care market trends and the products offered by Bentley. With the help of which we would be analyzing the gap between the market and Bentley’s product portfolio using a data visualization tool called DOMO. Recommending suitable product areas for the company to dive in would be our main deliverable.

• Student Externs: Brian Yi, Anusha Gunti, Revathi Nair (LEAD)

CITI VENTURES

Citi Ventures is seeking to reduce the number of people who are either unbanked (having no access to financial services) or underbanked (those who have limited access to financial services) in Southeast Asia through the launch of new digital banking products and services. Students conducted research to identify target countries and digital banking products for Citi to consider. Students recommended ideas for Citi to have a seamless way for consumers in Southeast Asia to use digital banking products while also generating revenue and brand recognition for Citi.

• Student Externs: Siddhant Saurav Swain, Allen Lu, Stephen Kenyon (LEAD), Boyan Qin, BC Han

COLGATE PALMOLIVE – QUALITY

Students measured the manufacturing and GTC facility’s performance in meeting global quality standards, meeting external requirements, and driving improvement. Students had to identify trends and keywords and assign sub-classifications. They assisted in the development of an analytical tool that will simplify further classification for gaps in documentation across different categories, regions and sites. Goal is to have the tool used in future audits.

• Student Externs: Tay Jones, Ashina Patla, Priya Patel(LEAD), Dhaara Popat, Sairohit Raghupathy

COLGATE PALMOLIVE – REGULATORY

Students analyzed Australian drug and cosmetic regulations to gather essential regulatory information to create a go-to-market playbook that outlines the steps to take to launch a product in Australia. Created a decision tree to outline the decision-making process, which then translated into a tool to aid in selecting an optimal regulatory pathway for products/business success. The unique attribute is that it’s designed for a marketing audience.

• Student Externs: Girish Harinanth (LEAD), Kelsey Gwynne, Daniel Hazel, Hinal Shah (LEAD)

IMAGINE

Imagine, a center for coping with grief and loss, seeks to create an engaging online offering to reach a wider group of individuals and families outside of New Jersey. The goal is to create a highly engaging and interactive online educational offering to pilot Summer or Fall 2020. Students conducted extensive research on various online learning tools, trends, and best practices.

• Student Externs: Rebecca Lee, Leah Ellis, Trevor Carter (LEAD), Ritwik Baksi

L’ORÉAL

Students supported the VP Global Technology/Innovation Center to determine gaps within the beauty market and find opportunities to deploy new products that focus on the synergy between beauty and technology. Conducted extensive research into consumer trends, gaps in the market, current beauty devices, key ingredients, and new technologies. Presented two beautytech proposals.

• Student Externs: Jiwon Song, Jack Fioretti (LEAD), Candida Alvarez, Kavita Shanbhag, Kimberly Venesky (LEAD), Mangesh Nandanwar, Mihir Mehta

NEW AGE DRINKS

Students supported founder of a startup nootropic healthy soda company in the process of launching their signature beverage, BrainPOP. Project was multi-faceted, including working on business plan, drafting a first formulation for the second product line, and establishing a process for forecasting.

• Student Externs: Pratik Patel, Gabrielle Pinto (LEAD), Xiaorong Wang, Vraj Patel

PHARMALLIES

Students conducted market research and evaluated 8-10 competitors within the Life Sciences consulting space. After compiling data, the students performed user experience design activities and methodologies evaluating the PharmAllies website, brand, messaging,  social media strategies, SEO, and marketing.

• Student Externs: Misha Mehta, Tameem Maqsudi, Snehal Butani (LEAD), Luis Pena

RUTGERS RECREATION

Students performed a yearly analysis of recreation access data for the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 semesters. Analyses ranged from demographic investigation to in-depth benchmarking. Students created a comprehensive guide to help expedite yearly analysis, and promote room for creative exploration.

SESAME WORKSHOP

Students worked collaboratively with Sesame executive mentors to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) and data points to assist with leveraging data in order to gain insights to strengthen donor engagement and drive fundraising efforts. In addition to creating a cloud infrastructure, powered by AWS, that establishes a Tableau server connected to a relational database service.

• Student Externs: Jinghui Gao, Sairaj Pai, Nitya Iyer, Tiffany Yuen, Ryan Maiorano (LEAD), Eleanna Makris, Shreya Gurjar

WALL STREET BOOTCAMP

Students focused on single-use plastics, through the lens of sustainability; examined industry, and explored different types of plastics, recycling rates in the US, and the US regulatory landscape. Narrowed down to one organization to assign a bond rating based on Moody’s methodology, and created an outlook for the selected organization in a world with and without COVID-19.

• Student Externs: Melissa Wolff, Michelle He, Chisom Asuzu, Haanee Rhemtulla, Ziqiu Zhong, Alec Ratyosyan (LEAD), Prixy Manocha

BIG BOX STORE/CCICADA

Mapping Project

CHURCH AND DWIGHT

Analytics Project

Student Externs: Ryan Maiorano (Lead), Audie Wang

CLIMATE CHANGE RISK ANALYSIS PROJECT

Climate Change Risk Analysis Project

• Student Externs: Vaibhav Malik (Lead), Danial Pierott, Michelle He, Aditi Das, Justin Lee

COLGATE

Global Quality Project

Inspection is used to improve personal care product appearance on retail shelves. The project’s goal was to work to define appropriate performance indicators to document quality: 1. Standardize values from two different quality control databases, 2. Define a format of organize quality image data defects. A visualization in Tableau was created to illustrate quality control measures in different categories.

• Student Externs: Courtney Harris (Lead), Aparna Narayanan, Aditi Kulkarni, Prajwal Chadega Krishnamurthy

FIC/MII

Project Mii

• Student Externs: Anil Tharan Joseph, Qing Ouyang

FLETC

Labor and Certification Data Analysis Project

• Student Externs: Teresa Ngo, Ashina Patla

FRA

• Student Extern: Alice Chiu

HYDROTECHNOLOGY CONSULTANTS, INC. (HCI)

Web Design and Utilization Project

HCI is seeking to leverage big data, data analytics and algorithmic decision making to facilitate the remediation of millions of contaminated sites across the globe. Advanced algorithm writing is a key component of our data-driven approach. Data streams from various sources, such as external data companies and HCI’s internal database, will be used to inform the algorithm.

• Student Externs: Kim Brown (Lead), Ritwik Baksi

IMAGINE

Consumer Engagement and Web Content Design Project

• Student Externs: Brooke Green (Lead), Cassie Miao, Jin Park

JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP

Business Strategy And Marketing Plan Project

Jefferson Twp Public School has aspirations to analyze profiles of potential strategic partners for long-term growth and partnership. The goal was to understand these strategic profiles in order to collaborate and partner with organizations to enhance specific areas of our campus, specifically upgrading grass fields to turf and creating a collegiate/professional level athletic complex. The project explored comprehensive knowledge of potential partner corporate missions and visions from a business perspective as well as from an educational, developmental and community aspect in order to design a roadmap that emphasizes parallel vision. Project goals were: Identify existing partnerships to fund/off-set project cost; Identify new opportunities to offset the cost of turf field projects and create a revenue stream; Explore corporate and public entity partnership structures; Explore grant and/or sponsorships to fund capital improvements; Identify improvement designs that follow state and national guidelines/law; Identify current business & educational partnerships; Recommend potential areas for future strategic partners to achieve future visions and also if potential partners enhance the educational vision beyond athletics; Explore how school improvements impact local housing markets.

• Student Externs: Justin Ramalho (Lead), Niharika Kasimahanathi, Alexandra Chuprakova

KELLER WILLIAMS

Autism App Development Project

• Student Externs: Chinazaekpere Chukwu (Lead), Nimish Mytle, Sneha Hansrajani, Trevor Carter

NEW AGE DRINKS

Market Research/Social Media

• Student Externs: Amarja Devraj Naik Nimbalkar (Lead), Shenin Siddiqui, Suzan Eriske

NJ FOOD PROCESSING

Business Intelligence and Supply Chain Project

• Student Externs: Li-Chien Tsai (Lead), Tanja Vijayanagar

RICOH

Strategic Partnership Project

The project analyzed potential partners for Ricoh, including the potential partner’s mission statement, financials, recent news events, products/services offered, GlassDoor employee reviews, and company history.

• Student Externs: Alice Chui (Lead), Hongying Wan, Simran Dhawan, Snehal Butani

RUTGERS RECREATION

Usage Analytics Project

• Student Externs: Ryan Maiorano (Lead), Zhuo Zhang

STRYKER

Stryker Data Analytics Project

The project will examine historical sales data from their data warehouse, scrape the data from their database, do data cleaning, then do rule based analysis at SKU level. The project will also involve interpretation of the analytics results and any mis-matches with current class values.

• Student Externs: Shivani Sethi (Lead), Drashti Patel, Alina Lou, Alllen Lu, Namrita Gupta

US COAST GUARD

Maritime Risk Competition

• Student Externs: Brandon Rogers, Zach Levine, Chison Asuzu

WALL STREET BOOTCAMP

Wall Street Boot Camp

• Student Externs: Devanshi Jackson (Lead), Shreya Gujar, Taylor Good, Xichan Wang, Jianqui Lin

DIGITAL FORENSICS PROJECT

• Students analyzed digital forensics training and certification requirements for the Department of Homeland Security investigative units, State and Local Law Enforcement, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). They identified opportunities and gaps, and recommend measures to standardize training and certification across all of Homeland Security. This project is a part of the funded Department of Homeland Security project, “Best Practices for Sharing Digital Evidence” and is through the Criminal Investigations Network Analysis (CINA) Center of Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University.
• Mentors: Dr. Christie Nelson
• Students: Drashti Patel; Hannah Fell; Yetunde Oloko

CHURCH & DWIGHT

• Students analyzed a supply chain business case, proposed insights and recommendations for delayed shipping/sales using data science and analytics.
• Mentors: Alex Cunningham, Lori Dars
• Students: Shreya Bagchi, Rachel Magley; Courtney Harris; Nnadilim Okafor; Romika Lunkar

ANALYTICS PRACTICUM

• Students identified trends to help impact the railroad industry and created a project proposal using advanced analytical skills and tools.
• Mentors: Dr. John Betak, Dr. Trefor Williams, Dr. Christie Nelson
• Students: Jhanani Ramesh (Lead); Ridhi Tatineni; Honghua Tao

COOL KIND KIDS

Business Strategy

• Students conducted research and provided social media support for the non-profit in its anti-bullying efforts
• Mentors: Barbara Gilour, Kathleen Cashman, Lori Dars
• Students: Angela Maeng (Lead); Foram Vaidya

KELLER WILLIAMS

An Autism Directory/UX Design Project

• Students improved a new, mobile autism resources web app to make it easier for parents to find services they need. It’s a mobile website that shows you where things are based on a map.  Just use 2 fingers to move the map locations to anywhere in the US. You could find schools, grants, scholarships, therapy, entertainment, learning, art, music, doctors, sports, camps. The resources can be located anywhere in the US and you can see on the map where some have already entered map points with information around Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Boston, Philly, and 20 other regions so far.
• Mentors: Jonathan Asbell, Dr. Rupa Misra
• Students: Chinazaekpere Chukwu (Lead); Arwa El-Hawwat; Marina Ferreira; Joshua Atienza

NEW AGE DRINKS

Market Research / Packaging Research & Game Design: Healthy Beverage Start-Up

• Students conducted SWOT analysis, created a business plan, analyzed costs for R&D and production, and performed market research. 
• Students brainstormed on a new board game and innovative product/company partnerships.
• Mentor: Sierra Hooshiari, Abbe Rosenthal
• Students: Catherine Estelle Nkoutche Matsingang (Lead extern/MBS), WenLi Niu (MBS) Julia Buttgereit (Honor College) 

Social Media Marketing & Analytics Project

• Students enhanced social media presence and implemented marketing strategy that aligned with the business goals through content creation, improved UXD, SEO, web analytics, and market research.
• Mentor: Sierra Hooshiari, Abbe Rosenthal
• Students: Hedy Makris (Lead Extern/ MBS), Cassie Miao (MBS) and Lily Zhang

NY SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS (NYSCC)

Social Media Support

• The NYSCC required help building and executing a social media strategy. Rutgers students attended and documented NYSCC events and meetings. They then created content that encouraged member interaction and fostered meaningful connections. This process included competitive research, platform determination, benchmarking, social media messaging, consumer insight analysis, audience identification, and data analytics.
• Mentor: Andrea Gafford
• Students: Maria Sousa; Hyun Chung (Jackie) Cho

RUTGERS RECREATION

Rutgers Recreation Data Analysis

• Student analyzed Rutgers Student Affairs, Rutgers Facilities, and Rutgers Recreation data and identified trends and correlations, including frequency of use, user demographics, academic year, GPA, schools, among others.
• Mentors: Samantha Plum, Dr. Karen Bemis, Abbe Rosenthal
• Student: Ryan Maiorano

PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS & DATA VISUALIZATION

Predictive Analytics & Data Visualization

• Students conducted data extraction, manipulation and visualization of the company’s global sales and product performance data and created a dashboard using Power BI for use across Stryker business units.
• Mentors: Alex Linke, Max Thomas, Wittenberg, Emily Baculik, Brian Richardi, Abbe Rosenthal (MBS)
• Students: Namrita Gupta (Lead); Akanksha Sharma; Aparna Narayanan; Suraj Nagaraja

WALL STREET BOOT CAMP

Wall Street Boot Camp/Industry Analysis

• Students examined the transition of the coal industry to other sources of energy such as natural gas, nuclear, solar, due to its secular decline in domestic demand and increasingly reliant on exports to Asia.
• Mentors: Ben Nelson, Dr. Rupananda Misra
• Students: Patrick Gayle (Lead); Nick Palmiero; Devansh Meht;  Amarja Devraj Naik; Peiwen Hu; Allen Lu; Harrison Zhang

CITI VENTURES

Cities for Citi: Design Thinking/User Experience Design

• Citi Ventures and UXD students built a platform in which different cities are able to communicate the best things about their city. Students built a prototype platform and developed use cases for individual cities. This information is helpful to companies looking for a new location in which to set up a new office or headquarters, investors, people who are job hunting, and community members.
• Mentors: Andrew Wegrzyn
• Students: Bianna Cruz, Cally Simmons-Edler, Damini Bhatt (LEAD), Fiona Lee, Sneha Madhwani, Matt Tomasello, Juliet Ye, Nnadilim Okafor

CONRAIL

News Media Mining and Transportation Incidents

• During the Analytics Practicum, MBS students were responsible for mining FRA data to gain additional insights about rail transportation incidents including location, timing, seasonality, type of vehicle, pedestrian accidents, and more.
• Mentors: Trefor Williams, John Betak
• Students: Atul Patel, Sakina Presswala

DARPA/DEPT. OF DEFENSE

Cyber Vulnerability Exploitation

• Building simulators to simulate scenarios specified by DARPA, for which training data is supplied. Involves simulating information flow among four social networks of specific cyber security information from vulnerabilities to exploits to attacks.
• Mentors: Linda Ness, PhD, Carlos Muniz, PhD
• Students: Tyler Kim (Lead), Zach Levine (Lead), Devanshi Jackson, Jhanani Ramesh

FOOD INNOVATION CENTER

Food Accelerator Research Project

Marketing Website Research Project

Partnership/Sponsorship Research Project

1. Students worked on a project to review existing programs within the FIC for best practice and to help determine how to structure their new initiative, the Food Business Accelerator program. Students conducted research, analyzed data, presented reported results, and more.
2. Students reviewed other food incubator/accelerator websites for best practice to help determine how to structure and design specific elements for the FIC new website. Students conducted research, performed website and content design, reported and presented data, made design recommendations, and more.
3. The partnership/sponsorship research project aimed to review existing programs for best practice to determine how to structure their initiative. In this project, students researched similar programs, analyzed these programs and data, presented findings, and provided recommendations and marketing material to promote and move the initiative forward.

• Students Project 1: Xiaofan Hu, Xiaomeng Ma, Wen-Li Niu
• Students Project 2: Fay Alwattari, Claire Freij, Prachi Pate
• Students Project 3: Virali Dhrangdhariya, Vaibhav Malik, Anthony Noto

NEW YORK SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS

Social Media Strategy

• The NYSCC required help building and executing a social media strategy. Rutgers students attended and documented NYSCC events and meetings. They then created content that encouraged member interaction and fostered meaningful connections. This process included competitive research, platform determination, benchmarking, social media messaging, consumer insight analysis, audience identification, and data analytics.
• Mentors: Andrea Gafford
• Students: Jackie Cho, Kayla Lash, Mangesh Nandanwar, Maria Sousa

NIELSEN

Supply Chain Sustainability Impact Analysis

• Using Nielsen historical data from 2016-2018, students produced an analysis of Nielsen’s supply chain sustainability performance over time. Students produced two deliverables, including a spreadsheet and a powerpoint deck with data presented for strategic decision-making.
• Mentors: Jocelyn Azada
• Students: Siddartha Pachhai, Devanshi Jackson

NJ STATE POLICE

Ballistics Criminal Network Data Analysis

• Students performed data analysis on New Jersey gun crime, with a focus on exploring the networks between and among high-risk individuals.
• Mentors: Lt. Joe Brennan, Christie Nelson
• Students: Devanshi Jackson, Erin Ender, Rudy Winkler, Hasan Hamriani

ORTHO CLINICAL DIAGNOSTICS

Mining Social Media and Web Data for Business Insights

• MBS Students helped Ortho Clinical Diagnostics in creating a simple dashboard to integrate multiple social media and product review data sources to gain a clearer picture of the landscape of engagement, both at Ortho and its competitors.
• Mentors: Hui Liu PHD-Senior Manager, process innovation, Feng Zeng, Analytics Engineer, process innovation
• Students: Aditi Kulkarni (Lead), Shreya Bagchi, Ranjeeta Bhattacharya,, Aparna Jadhav, Cristina Panetta, Ridhi Tatineni, Chenzhen (Lily) Zhang (Honors College Student), Omisha Jyothi (Honors College Student), Ben Brik (Honors College Student)

SIEMENS

Cybersecurity

• Students researched cyber physical threats in continuous process pharmaceutical manufacturing in coordination with Siemens and Rutgers ERC-CSOPS.  The pilot plant differs from traditional pharmaceutical manufacturing as it utilized the continuous process instead of batch processing. This means that the machinery is networked and controlled in real time based on sensing equipment dramatically increasing efficiency.
• Mentors: Ravendra Singh
• Students:Zach Levine (Lead), Lizi Xie

TSA & CCICADA

Data Mining & Analysis

• Mentors: Christie Nelson, Vladimir Menkov
• Students: Jenny Chen (Lead), Ivan Mera, Daniel Pattathil (Honors College Student), Jacqueline Sun (Honors College Student)

WALL STREET BOOT CAMP

Associate Analyst Function

• A financial analyst boot camp to mirror what an associate analyst working for a Wall Street financial institution would be trained on.
  • Educated students on investment banking, fixed income, credit, private equity, and bond rating.
  • Students conducted industry-level analysis and company-level analysis, focusing on the chemical industry, including financial forecasting and application of a credit rating methodology and scorecard. In conclusion, students gave a final presentation where they delivered their recommendations.
• Mentors: Ben Nelson, VP Senior Credit Officer
• Students: Alec Ratyosyan (Lead), Trevor Johnson, Devansh Mehta, Luis Pena, Behrad Saleh, Jonathan Zhu, Justin Lee (Honors College Student)

BECTON-DICKINSON

Voice of the Associate (VoA)

Students worked on text and data analysis through topic modeling with employee survey results using python for analysis and data visualization, based on country, region, functional area, the line of business, etc. Findings identified on which areas to focus or might need additional attention to help with risk prevention and mitigation.

• Mentor: Hemen Patel
• Students: Jenny Chen (LEAD), Rudy Winkler, Usama Saifi, Giang Le, Fiona Lee

Anomaly Detection

• Students supported the finance department focused on Travel and Expense (T&E). Objective was to predict any outliers of their offices’ expense reports (1.6 million records) and to data mine keywords that did not adhere to company policy.
• Students analyzed the significant deviations in the expenses (for ex. a meal for ~$4000, that hadn’t been accounted for) and also keywords within their parent expenses that did not fit with company policy.
• Students presented their findings which led BD to further explore ways to use sentiment analysis to predict any behavior that does not fit with their regulations and a dashboard to automate this.
• Mentor: Lilian Vinagre
• Students: Aditi Kulkarni and Wanfei Luo

CANCER GENETICS INC.

Tissues of Origin (TOO) Test Business Case/Analysis

• The goal of this project is to perform a market research analysis of the oncology diagnostics industry to identify the best commercialization path for CGI’s TOO test. Students were to provide a Business Case document that will include industry map, PEST, SWOT, Porter’s 5 Forces, Top Line 5 Year Financials, and a business model canvas among other relevant market research analysis tools.
• Mentors: Kishor Bhatia
• Students: Estelle Gu, Sebastian Pesantez, Alysse Vindeed (LEAD), Haewon Park

CITI VENTURES

Design Thinking

• Students from both the MBS and Honors College examined the FinTech industry, researching new technologies and concepts such as: blockchain, cryptocurrency, tokenization, corporate bonds, and other areas to brainstorm innovative ideas.
• Mentors: Leon Crutchley, Andrew Wegryzn
• Students: Supreet Kaur (Lead), Linh Tran, Namrata Sampat, Honors College Students: David Tian, Amy Bangad, Sapan Shah

CONRAIL

Data Visualization and Analysis

• Previously, Conrail completed a data cleaning and merging project, and now sought MBS students help to perform data visualization and analysis on that data.
• Mentors: Christie Nelson, Trefor Williams, John Betak
• Students: Alex Ngyuen, Zheng Cao, Ketan Walia, Ivan Mera

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS/MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES

Data Analysis and Visualization

• Students completed a preliminary statistical analysis of Field Human Resources data including visualizations and reports on data gaps and needs.
• Students: Siddhant Pachhai

FOOD INNOVATION CENTER

Food Accelerator Research Project

Marketing-Website Research Project

An Executive Summary Report of Food Industry in New Jersey

• Students conducted survey of existing US and global food business accelerator programs, determining program structures, successes, and best practices. Then, they created a summary description of what a food business accelerator is. Finally, they analyzed and presented results of survey, including a set of food accelerator models.
• Students reviewed other food incubator/accelerator websites to collect potentially effective attributes. Then, they recommended how to structure and design elements for a new Food Innovation Center website
• Students were to identify and survey existing US and global food business incubator, accelerator, partnership, and sponsorship programs to identify how successful programs are structured. Then, they analyzed data to establish program models leading to recommendations on how to structure a successful partnership or sponsorship program. Lastly, they prepared marketing materials to promote this program to potential partners.
• Mentor: Denise Bartone
• Students:
  • Chunye Wang
  • Alec Ratyosan, Junchuan Zhang
  • Anish Pandian

IMMUNOMEDICS

Project Management

Students learned how to conduct an end-to-end project. Project management included: agency analysis, team composition and resource analysis, best practices recommendations, business process and suggested optimization, E-PMO tools, change management, and more.

• Mentors: Sean Cuttler
• Students: Sakina Presswala, Vandit Narula

NEVER FEAR BEING DIFFERENT & VLOG U

Business Plan

Data Analysis & Business Strategy

• Students aided NFBD and VlogU with website and social media usability feedback, performed SWOT analysis, and fulfilled a business plan utilizing monetization pathways, volunteers, and foundations.
• Students analyzed NFBD social media account (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) data, gave business recommendations based on data, recommended pathways of monetization based on data and market research, and more.
• Mentors: Jordan Rooney
• Students: Jose Collantes, Nnadilim Okafor, Aabha Joshi, Shreya Verma

NJ STATE POLICE

Data Analysis

• Students were assigned a data analysis project to discover relationships between the state jurisdictions and applying it to participants in criminal shootings, revealing the networks between and among high risk individuals. The goal is to use this data to target participants in criminal shootings who have active warrants and pending charges.
• Mentors: Geoff Noble
• Students: Saifi Usama Nasi

NY SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS (NYSCC)

Social Media

• Supported the social media chair with various charters including social media postings, scientific reporting, blog writing, event planning, analytics, and other activities supporting the NYSCC’s membership and events.
• Mentor: Andrea Gafford, Webmaster & Social Media Chair
• Students: Estelle Gu, Deanna Smith, Charles Xu, Kelly Patraju, Manessa Lormejuste, Britney Yates, Jiayi Yuan, Clarisse Aoanon

RUTGERS FACILITIES

Examination of Collegiate Recreation Participation on Academic Success

• Students conducted Collegiate Recreation Participation examination to understand the student demographic characteristics of students who utilize the recreation facilities at Rutgers University – New Brunswick and whether there is a relationship with academic success.
• Mentors: Samantha Plum
• Students: Erin Ender, Nicole Litterio, Yuhan Hung, Qinyuan Shao

RUTGERS STUDENT AFFAIRS

Residence Hall Demographic Analysis

• Students conducted a longitudinal trends examination of student demographic characteristics in the residence halls at Rutgers University – New Brunswick and determined whether patterns of self-segregation exist and to what extent.
• Mentor: Dayna Weintraub
• Students: Ridhi Tatineni, Arya Mohandas

SEPSIS ALLIANCE

Corporate Outreach

• Students were to support the efforts of the Sepsis Alliance in prioritizing their corporate outreach by identifying relevant companies for possible funding and partnership. Students generated a database of all that might be in this space (companies sponsors, research, product development, etc). A secondary goal was to recommend database tools/applications/etc and then implement those methods.
• Mentors: Tom Heymann, Lisa Anderson
• Students: Eleanna Markis, Courtney Lee, Piyawadee Mahuttanaraks

VYDIA

Data Collection and Data Quality Engineering

Data Science

• Students set up an ETL pipeline from scratch using public API’s. Students used Python and leveraged Amazon Web Service EC2 & S3 to extract Twitter data around music artists, and later set up a pipeline to make this into a database of tweets and relevant attributes. Students leveraged Amazon Web Service EC2 and S3 again to create a secondary and different workflow to confirm its accuracy.
• Students analyzed Video Virality by exploring the creation of additional UGC videos (third-party generated content on YouTube’s network). Students leveraged Amazon Web Services EC2.
• Mentor: Rick Saporta
• Students: Zach Levine, Ziad Amir

WALL STREET BOOT CAMP

• Students conducted industry-level analysis and company-level analysis, focusing on the chemical industry, including financial forecasting and application of a credit rating methodology and scorecard. In conclusion, students gave a final presentation where they delivered their recommendations.
• Mentor: Ben Nelson
• Students: Jenny Chen, Lizi Xie, Yansi Wu

WUXI

Quality Control and Data Protection

• Students were instructed to create an automated quality control and data protection method to identify false positives and negatives in High Throughput Screening (HTS).
• Mentors:Christine Brideau
• Students: Anusha Sarma, Harshinder Kohli, Regina Ehlinger

CANCER GENETICS

Strategies to Monetize CGI’s TOO Test

• Students performed a market research analysis of the oncology diagnostics industry to identify the best commercialization path for CGI’s TOO Test. Students provided a Business Case document including an industry map, PEST, SWOT, Porter’s 5 forces, top line 5-year financials, and a Business Model canvas among other relevant market research analysis tools.
• Mentors: Kishor Bhatia
• Students: Haewon Park, Sebastian Pesantez, Alysse Vindeed, Estelle Ruolan Gu

CCICADA & RUPD

Stadium Research

• Students partnered with a Dept. of Homeland Security research group, Rutgers Police, and other major stadium venues to collect data on the performance of walk-through metal detectors used at stadium venues. The project involved: experimental design, hardware performance testing, data collection, data analysis, site visits, and more.
• Students: Ivan Mera and Aditya Mittal

CONRAIL

Data Cleaning & Merging

• Students performed data cleaning and merging of the following data: GIS data, maintenance description data, and operational numeric data.
• Mentors: Jacob Fenno
• Students: Prateek Jain, Kartheek Reddy, Jon McGuire

IMMUNOMEDICS

Project Management Initiative

• Students learned how to conduct an end-to-end project. Project management included: agency analysis, team composition and resource analysis, best practices recommendations, business process and suggested optimization, E-PMO tools, change management, and more. 
• Mentors: Sean Cuttler
• Students: Vandit Narula, Sakina Presswala

NEW YORK SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS

• Student volunteers helped the NYSCC to build and execute a social media strategy. They attended and reported on NYSCC events and scientific board meetings. They created content that increased member interaction and fostered meaningful connections. Their work included competitive research, platform determination, benchmarking, social media messaging, and audience engagement.
• Company Mentor: Andrea Gafford
• Students: Deanna Smith, Clarisse Aoanan, Estelle Gu, Kelly Patraju, Manessa Lormejuste, Brittany Yates, and Jiayi (Joy) Yuan

NFBD.ORG & VLOG UNIVERSITY

Brand Name Growth

• NFBD & VlogU sought MBS students for an interdisciplinary team including IT, social media, data analytics, and UXD. Students conducted social media analysis, usability feedback, creating a survey and apps, SWOT analysis, and more.
• Students: Manish Kakati, Jhanani Ramesh, Alice Chiu, Jose Collantes, Casey Huckel

ORTHO CLINICAL DIAGNOSTICS

Developing Self-Service Analytics for Recording and Trending of Biological Product Deviation Data

• Students built a database to integrate multiple data sources and a user interface for data entry using R Shiny app for analytics, and predictive models/text mining to better manage the BPD reporting process.
• Mentors: Hui Liu and Feng Zeng

RUTGERS STUDENT AFFAIRS

Residence Hall Demographic Analysis

• Students conducted a longitudinal trends examination of student demographic characteristics in the residence halls at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and determined whether there are patterns of self-segregation. Students used data analytics skills and tools to analyze a dataset that spanned 8 academic years with information regarding, campus, building, room number, gender, etc.

Collegiate Recreation Participation on Academic Success

• The goal of this project was to understand the student demographic characteristics of students who utilize the Recreation facilities at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and whether there is a relationship with academic success.  Students used data analytics and visualization to reach this goal.
• Mentors: Dr. Karen Bemis, Dr. Christie Nelson
• Students: Arya Mohandas, Ridhi Tatineni, Kartheek Reddy, Karthik Keertipati, Siddhartha Pachhai

SEPSIS ALLIANCE

Corporate Outreach (Funding and Partnerships)

• Students supported the efforts of the Sepsis Alliance in prioritizing their corporate outreach by identifying relevant companies for possible funding and partnerships. Students generated a database of all companies that might be in this space. Students also recommended database tools/apps/etc and implemented them.
• Mentors: Thomas Heymann, Lisa Anderson

VYDIA

Project 1

• Students set up an ETL pipeline from scratch using public APIs. Students extracted Twitter data around music artists, and set up a pipeline to make this into a database of tweets and relevant attributes. After an ETL pipeline has been setup, a secondary and different workflow was established to confirm its accuracy. This was done in Python, and used Amazon Web Service (AWS) EC2 & S3.

Project 2

• Analyze on Video Virality, exploring the creation of additional “UGC” videos (third-party generated content on YouTube’s network, using R and Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2.

WALL STREET FINANCIAL ANALYST BOOTCAMP

Associate Analyst Function

• As an associate analyst working for a financial institution, bootcamp educated students on investment banking, fixed income, credit, private equity, and bond rating. Students conducted industry-level analysis and company-level analysis focusing on the chemical industry, including financial forecasting and application of a credit rating methodology and scorecard.
• Mentor: Ben Nelson

WUXI

HTS Quality Control & Data Correction

• Using R, MBS students created an automatic quality control and data correction program to integrate into WuXi’s HTS analysis process.
• Mentor(s): Christine Brideau
• Students: Harshinder Kohli, Anusha Sarma, Regina Taurino

CCICADA, A DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY RESEARCH CENTER

Stadium Security Data Analysis

• Exploratory data analysis and visualization were performed on hardware testing of walk-through metal detectors which were used in stadium venues.
• Students: Aditya Gandhi, Ivan Mera

CONRAIL

Exploratory Data Analysis

• Students were given several railroad-related datasets including maintenance and operational data. Text mining was done on datasets, exploratory data analysis was performed, text data was scraped and cleaned and datasets were merged.
• Mentors: Dr. Trefor Williams, Dr. John Betak
• Students: Prateek Jain, Jonathan McGuire, Kartheek Reddy Mondeddu, Glenn Lautenbach

NEW YORK SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS

Mergers & Acquisition Financial Case Study

• Build and execute social media strategy through competitive research, platform determination, benchmarking, messaging and audience identification. Set up and optimize company pages within each platform to increase the visibility of company’s social content. Create relevant scientific content for our technical audiences and engage with our membership on an educational level to further the advancement of cosmetic science.
• Mentor: Andrea Gafford
• Students: Kelly Patraju, Estelle Gu, Clarisse Aoanon, Charles Xu, Britney Yates, Deanna Smith, Jiayi (Joy) Yuan

NJ STATE POLICE

Ballistics Data Analysis (Continued)

• Finalized data visualizations and presented results.
• Hosted by the NJ Ballistics Community of Interest Group who meet quarterly to discuss firearms evidence and processes to present their findings in May 2018
• Presented results in February 2018 to over 50 law enforcement professionals representing multiple agencies including the Bureau of ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) from New Jersey and Washington DC, a NJ Prosecutor’s Office, several NJ State Police offices, ballistics experts, Rutgers Centers on Policing, CCICADA and the Police Foundation from Washington DC, and others gathered to hear the results of an analysis of New Jersey ballistics data at Rutgers University.
• Mentors: Major Geoffrey Noble, Robyn Johnston, Dr. Christie Nelson
• Students: Aishwarya Gunde, Ingrid Wijaya, U. Saifi

VILLAGEMED

• VillageMED is a nonprofit organization which provides healthcare services to children in Haiti. VillageMED has been providing mobile clinics in Haiti, and recorded patient information through paper files. We are working to develop a mobile friendly web app to store patient details electronically. The first phase of the project involved data collection, research, and interviews.
• Mentor: Dr. Sunyoung Kim
• Student: Damini Bhatt

WOMEN IN DATA SCIENCE (WIDS)

WiDS Datathon

• Dr. Christie Nelson was an official WiDS Ambassador, and Dr. Nelson along with the MBS department hosted a livestream of the WiDS conference as well.
• From their website: The inaugural WiDS Datathon was a joint effort between the Institute for Computational & Mathematical Engineering (ICME) at Stanford, Kaggle, Intuit, West Big Data Innovation Hub, and InterMedia, a grant recipient of the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, in their Financial Services for the Poor program. The data was collected by InterMedia to alleviate global poverty by learning how to help the world’s poorest people take advantage of widely available mobile phones and other digital technology to access financial tools and participate more fully in their local economies.
• To find out more about the competition, go to www.widsconference.org/datathon.html
• Mentor: Dr. Christie Nelson
• Students: Regina Taurino, Gilat Mandelbaum, Sakina Presswala, Jeffrey Cooperhouse, Bao Chen, Jhanani Ramesh, Chunyu Huang

CCICADA, A DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

Drone Detection Experiments at a Large Stadium Venue

• Created and implemented an experimental design to understand drone detection software, and then analyzed performance.
• Mentor: Dr. Christie Nelson, Assistant Research Professor
• Students: Yue Liu and Ivan Mera

Social science project involving reviewing literature on the behaviors of violent extremists and then creating recommendations for a government hotline

• Social science project which involved a literature review into behaviors of violent extremists and then creating recommendations for a government hotline number.
• Mentor: Dr. Christie Nelson, Assistant Research Professor
• Student: Ivan Mera

Analysis of a Large Sports Team’s Social Media

• Performed statistical analysis and machine learning modeling on Twitter and Instagram social media data of a major sports team to understand implications for stadium security.
• Mentor: Christie Nelson, Assistant Research Professor
• Students: Ketan Walia and Ivan Mera

CENTER FOR DISCRETE MATHEMATICS AND THEORETICAL COMPUTER SCIENCE (DIMACS)

High Dimensional Data Project

• Developed a code and computed the intrinsic dimension of various real datasets (LIDAR data, simulated random data, etc.), comparing different algorithms. Research leveraged work from “Heuristic Framework for Multi-Scale Testing of the Multi-Manifold Hypothesis” by F. Patricia Medina, Linda Ness, Melanie Weber, and Karamatou Yacoubou Djima.
• Mentor: Dr. Linda Ness, Research Scientist
• Students: Michael Albuquerque, Kafung Mok, Ranvir Singh, and Narendran Sundara Mahalingam

NIELSEN

Human Rights and The Supply Chain

• 7 in 10 corporate procurement professionals believe forced labor may be in their supply chains. The UK Modern Slavery Act and the Dodd Frank Conflict Minerals disclosure have been regulatory responses to this problem. Students examined this topic, and focused on corporate disclosures on forced labor and conflict minerals in the electronic industry as relating to human rights and the supply chain. A comparative analysis of public disclosures related to the UK Modern Slavery Act and public disclosures related to conflict materials was performed.
• Mentor: Jocelyn Azada
• Student: Jay Patel

Impact Sourcing

• Impact sourcing is an innovative sourcing practice with a mission to eradicate poverty through procurement. This research provided support in the development of resources that would be useful to Nielsen as well as other large companies who are implementing impact sourcing as part of the Global Impact Sourcing Coalition. An analysis of impact sourcing for large corporations was performed, emphasizing success case studies for impact sourcing. The student also created a directory of major impact sourcing companies.
• Mentor: Jocelyn Azada
• Student: Subhadra Akella

Social Label Consumer Data Point

• In recognition of the rise of conscious consumers in the U.S., the goal of this project for Nielsen was to evaluate current data points on forced labor and human trafficking in global supply chains and recommend a consumer-friendly easy-to-use “data point” that could quickly and meaningfully communicate to consumers what the risk of forced labor/human trafficking is for a particular consumer-packaged goods product.
• Mentor: Jocelyn Azada
• Student: Yue Liu

NJ STATE POLICE OFFICE OF FORENSIC SCIENCES

Ballistics Data Analysis

• Data science project exploring several ballistic forensic research questions, utilizing data from GUN-OPS and NIBIN.
• Students: Aishwarya Gunde, Usama N. Saifi, and Ingrid Wijaya

ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL

Analysis of MIMIC Medical ER Data

• Students first completed CITI training for handling sensitive data and then worked with a medical doctor to analyze hospital ERs and ICU department admissions. This was performed on data from the MIMIC medical database.
• Mentors: Dr. Saqib Baig, Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellow; Dr. Christie Nelson, Assistant Research Professor; and Dr. Karen Bemis, Research Associate
• Students: Siddhant Garg and Denis Ngyuen

WALL STREET BOOT CAMP

Mergers & Acquisition Financial Case Study

• Participated in a boot camp to understand how corporate credit rating works, focused specifically on mergers and acquisitions.
• Mentor: Ben Nelson, Vice President & Senior Credit Officer at Moody’s Investors Service
• Students: Subhadra Akella, Advait Deodikar, Mengxi Liu, Vincent Omolo and Kevin Rupert

CENTER FOR DISCRETE MATHEMATICS AND THEORETICAL COMPUTER SCIENCE (DIMACS)

Inferring Spatio-Temporal Distributional Summaries of Agent Data

• Examined the flow of agents through a large building with respect to spatio-temporal probability distributions. Analyzed entry/exit points for these agents. Determined spatio-temporal distribution of agents (using binary trees). Calculated average paths for agents using same building entry and exit combinations.
• Students: Usama N. Saifi, Ranvir Singh, Narendram Sundara Mahalingam

JOHNSON & JOHNSON

Packaging Project

• Participated in an MBS educational project sponsored by Johnson & Johnson to enhance the consumer experience of an OTC drug delivery system
  • Attended discussions with J&J R&D on the “insights generation to prototype development” process
  • Conducted consumer discussions to uncover insights to drive increased satisfaction with the product usage experience
  • Utilized online category landscape data and consumer insights to generate ideas to improve the primary packaging design
  • Presented lead package design sketches to J&J R&D team for consideration and further development
• Students: Subhadra Akella, Maria Calderon, Princia Contin, Ria Khetan, Isha Majmudar, Vaishnavi Nanjundaswamy, Sebastian Pesantez, and Constantine Siozopoulos

NJ OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND PREPAREDNESS / RUTGERS IC CAE

Certificate in Intelligence and National Security

• Learned the basics of intelligence analysis and national security and explored current topics in intelligence and national security. Participated in scenario-based simulation exercises with guidance from experienced facilitators from NJOHSP.
• Student: Ivan Mera

ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL

Data Visualization & Logistic Regression Modeling of MIMIC ER Data

• Students first completed CITI training for handling sensitive data, next performed a background literature review to learn about the topic of medical ICU waiting rooms, and finally worked with a medical doctor to come up with a project goal that may be useful to hospital ERs and ICU departments while utilizing data available in the MIMIC database. Students extracted patients’ medical ICU data from a large SQL database. Once the students had the data in a usable form (after extracting and cleaning the data), they performed exploratory data analysis on certain data fields of interest, and finally built a logistic regression model to predict if ICU patients were at risk for mortality.
• Mentors: Dr. Saqib Baig, Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellow; Dr. Christie Nelson, Assistant Research Professor; and Dr. Karen Bemis, Research Associate
• Students: Supreet Kaur, Sri Harsha Reddy Devireddy, Karthik Keertipati, Kartheek Reddy Mondeddu and Siddhant Garg

RUTGERS STUDENT AFFAIRS

Diverse Learning Survey Analysis

• Analyzed early results from the Diverse Learning Environments Survey to aid Rutgers to understand the campus climate. Preprocessed and analyzed survey data in R and SPSS to understand the question response rate, missing values, and responses. Clustering analysis was also performed.
• Students: Arshi Goyal, Aswani Katari, Shobha Thomas and Hangyu Zhu

SAS CERTIFICATION

Learn to Use SAS

• Some students were interested in learning SAS, so they came up with various topics to explore in order to prepare for a SAS Certification.
• Mentor: Dr. Karen Bemis, Research Associate
• Students: Hammad Khan and Sujith Thokala

WALL STREET BOOT CAMP

Paint & Coatings Financial Case Study

• Participated in a summer-long boot camp to understand how corporate credit rating worked and learned to model like a Wall Street analyst. Led by a Wall Street professional. Student groups modeled five of the major paint and coatings companies, identifying relevant financial indicators and key drivers of future financial performance. Students learned to break down global business models, forecast financial performance, identify and analyze key financial metrics, apply real-world analytical methodologies, and compare conclusions to market trading prices for stocks and bonds.
• Mentor: Ben Nelson, Vice President & Senior Credit Officer at Moody’s Investors Service
• Students: Advait Deodikar, Ankita Gupta, Isha Majmudar, Ivan Mera, Vincent Omolo, Daniel Pittaro, Stephen Taras and Jingwei Zhang

CCICADA, A DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

Professional Sports Team Data Analysis

• Analyzed a patron satisfaction survey with respect to stadium security, and compared with the team’s patron ticket scan data to discover insights when visualized. Scraped social media data relating to the team for one season.
• Students: Winston James, Hammad Khan, Aapta Paresh and Yue Liu

Rutgers Student Affairs

Rutgers Student Affairs

We will comprehensively address the following concepts, their rationale and preferable outcomes. 1. What are the ‘hot spots’ and ‘hot times’ of different types of Rutgers student conduct violations? Identifying which locations and timeframes are more prone to increased violations. This will help guide the Rutgers Office of Student Conduct on the appropriate policies or measures to enforce, centered around the vulnerable locations and times to increase student awareness. 2. Which Rutgers students are more likely to be repeat offenders? We hope to detect characteristics and trends that can better identify individuals/groups of possible repeat offenders.

Once these characteristics have been identified, we move from the descriptive study to a more predictive study and apply different supervised predictive models to identify students more likely to violate the code of conduct again. The purpose of such an exercise would help target educational campaigns to those more likely to conduct a second violation and appropriately assign sanctions and schedule follow ups. 3. How do events like Football Games affect violations? We analyze different events and how they influence the number of violations in a bid to identify significant events. This could help the Office of Student Conduct and other communities in focusing on events that have a history of increased/decreased violations and plan awareness activities around such events.