{"id":343082,"date":"2018-10-19T15:17:06","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T19:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=343082"},"modified":"2018-12-20T14:26:23","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T19:26:23","slug":"data-science-consortium-343082","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/data-science-consortium-343082\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Science Consortium gives member companies a data edge"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_344852\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-344852\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-344852 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/John-and-Mike_CESM.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Sutton and John Loury focusing on data science\" width=\"500\" height=\"355\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-344852\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Sutton (left) and John Loury of Cause + Effect Strategy and Marketing (CESM) (photo provided by CESM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>John Loury and Michael Sutton want to provide their business clients with data science driven marketing strategies at a level of sophistication competitors can\u2019t match.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why Henrietta-based Cause + Effect Strategy and Marketing (CESM) is among a growing number of companies that have joined the Rochester Data Science Consortium founded by the University of Rochester.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re really big on transparency and follow-through,\u201d says Loury, CESM\u2019s president. \u201cWe say we can deliver high-end, predictable, prescriptive analytics to our customers, and our partnership with the consortium helps us to deliver on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Walt Johnson, the consortium\u2019s director, couldn\u2019t be happier.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, the consortium was given $7.5 million in New York State funding to demonstrate it can help create \u201chigh-value, knowledge-based\u201d jobs in Rochester and further the region\u2019s development as a high-tech hub. Consortium staff do this primarily by working hand in hand with companies to address their data science challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Already, Johnson says, he is beginning to accrue non-state revenue from corporate partners and projects to sustain the consortium and its staff after the state funding expires.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is what I\u2019m most pleased about,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cThis shows that the state\u2019s investment is going to live on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Expanding partnerships<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_344932\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-344932\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-344932 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-10-9_RDSC_342.jpg\" alt=\"photo of Walt Johnson, director of data science consortium\" width=\"400\" height=\"500\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-344932\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Walt Johnson, executive director of the Rochester Data Science Consortium and the GIDS Center of Excellence for Data Science (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When he started as director in August 2017 Johnson was the consortium\u2019s sole employee with two founding partners on board: Harris Corp. and the University itself.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, the consortium has:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hired 6 scientists and a solutions architect with expertise in such areas as data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Three more job openings have been posted, with two more on the way. The consortium has also been asked to hire and manage technical staff by some of its member companies.<\/li>\n<li>Increased the number of member companies with the addition of Wegmans, Cause + Effect Strategy &amp; Marketing, VisualDx, Excell Partners, New Era Orthopaedics, Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE), EmployeeChannel, Inc. and Clerio Vision. More are in the process of signing on.<\/li>\n<li>Occupied a suite at <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcorps.org\">NextCorps<\/a> (formerly High Tech Rochester) in the Sibley Building in downtown Rochester. NextCorps provides an additional location for meeting, recruiting, and working alongside new corporate partners.<\/li>\n<li>Created a pool of skilled data science undergraduate and master\u2019s students who can step in at short notice to assist a company or a University faculty member or office. This not only helps the clients, Johnson says; it also opens up career opportunities and real-world work experiences for the students.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, priorities are now shifting for Johnson. He wants to build connections with more University faculty who might be able to lend their expertise in data science\u2014and perhaps benefit from corporate-sponsored research.<\/p>\n<p>And instead of worrying about attracting partners, he can now focus on managing a robust pipeline of projects.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Digging deeper into data science<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>CESM is a good example of how a company and the consortium work hand in hand. The marketing intelligence company uses data analytics to develop marketing strategies for more than 30 clients, including Xerox, Briggs and Stratton, and PGA of America.<\/p>\n<p>The company, which has 10 employees, began working with the consortium on a project-by-project basis four months ago for two reasons, Loury says.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bench strength. \u201cWe\u2019re in the process of bringing on several new clients at one time, and it would be difficult to hire enough qualified applicants to meet those needs,\u201d says Loury. \u201cThe consortium allows us to expand our bench strength beyond our core team, at a moment\u2019s notice.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Access to data science experts and super-computing and cloud capabilities that even many large companies can\u2019t afford on their own. \u201cThis give us an ability to do work of an even higher complexity than we normally would,\u201d Loury says.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For example, one of its clients wants to expand sales of its product nationwide. CESM collected and prepared large, detailed data sets showing how various competitors\u2019 sales had changed in areas where the client had already successfully introduced its product. They gathered similar data on sales trends from other areas around the nation.<\/p>\n<p>The consortium\u2019s scientists then developed algorithms to identify in which of those other areas the combinations of competitors and sales trends, among other variables, were most similar to those that existed in the areas where the client has already been successful. This helped CESM predict areas where expansion might be most likely to succeed.<\/p>\n<p>Sutton, the company\u2019s vice president for client service, says CESM looks forward to working with the consortium on more projects. For example, they would like to develop an algorithm that more accurately attributes which parts of a company\u2019s marketing effort \u2013 social media, radio, television, or print &#8212; are having the largest impact on sales.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom a leadership perspective, Walt (Johnson) and Karla (George, director of operations) have been fantastic,\u201d Loury says. \u201cThey\u2019ve been very interested in helping us, and in checking to make sure things are delivered as promised.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The consortium\u2019s scientists, Sutton says, \u201chave always been excited to dig deeper. I never got the feeling that there was frustration when the data wasn\u2019t supporting something we were hoping to accomplish. Instead, we were constantly pivoting to new questions we could ask.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thanks in large part to its partnership with the consortium, CESM is hiring two new data-science employees this fall, and will likely add a third next year, Loury says.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s what makes Johnson happiest of all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe point of the consortium isn\u2019t to hire a bunch of scientists at the University of Rochester,\u201d he says, \u201cbut to attract more people to the region for high tech jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since its inception in 2017, the consortium has expanded the number of member companies and created a pool of skilled data science students to assist companies on short notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":344922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[11716,10716,25592],"class_list":["post-343082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech","tag-data-science","tag-economic-development","tag-goergen-institute-for-data-science-and-artificial-intelligence"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Data Science Consortium gives member companies a data edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The consortium has expanded the number of member companies and created a pool of skilled data science students to assist members on short notice.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/data-science-consortium-343082\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Data Science Consortium gives member companies a data edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The consortium has expanded the number of member companies and created a pool of skilled data science students to assist members on short notice.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/data-science-consortium-343082\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-19T19:17:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-20T19:26:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-10-9_RDSC_420.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bob Marcotte\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bob Marcotte\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/data-science-consortium-343082\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/data-science-consortium-343082\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bob Marcotte\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e0d8d271cd290d592461fa9cefca013b\"},\"headline\":\"Data Science Consortium gives member companies a data edge\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-19T19:17:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-20T19:26:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/data-science-consortium-343082\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":995,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/data-science-consortium-343082\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/10\\\/2018-10-9_RDSC_420.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"data science\",\"economic development\",\"Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science &amp; 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