BIG projects span the globe

This fall, students in the Business Intelligence Group (BIG), the student consultancy group associated with Associate Professor Yoo-Seong Song's Applied Business Research class (IS 514), worked on projects related to supply chain management, digital health, biotechnology, and higher education for companies located at the University of Illinois Research Park and overseas in East Asia and Africa. 

"As an experiential learning platform, BIG seeks to provide students with opportunities to work with partners both locally and internationally," said Song. "We're especially excited to work on a project dealing with healthcare issues for a partner in Africa; we are envisioning additional opportunities in several countries in Africa going forward."

BIG_Fall 2023
Business Intelligence Group (BIG) student consultants with Associate Professor Yoo-Seong Song


For one of the projects, student consultants worked with a distributor of industrial and electrical products to determine whether the company should launch a B2B rewards program, and if so, how it should be designed and implemented as well as its desired impact. Over the course of 15 weeks, the students provided bi-weekly progress reports to the client, concluding with a final presentation of their research and recommendations.

"At BIG, I've learned to solve difficult problems, lead a team, and produce actionable recommendations, which will help a Fortune 500 company take real steps toward a new initiative," said MSIM student Eóin Fahey, who served as project manager on the B2B rewards program project. "This is more than I ever thought I would achieve as a student, and I'm extremely grateful to have had this opportunity to grow professionally."

"During their project engagements, the students in BIG build skills that today's employers are looking for: teamwork, problem-solving, analytical thinking, and effective communication. Creating actionable insights is always challenging, but our students are successfully delivering results that consistently exceed our clients' expectations," said Song.

In the spring of 2024, BIG will continue to work with local and international clients, especially in the field of digital health. The student teams will help the clients with product management and innovation strategy consulting.

Updated on
Backto the news archive

Related News

Das receives student membership award from ASIS&T

PhD student Puranjani Das has been selected as a recipient of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) SIG CMR Student Membership Award for the 2024-2025 academic year. She will receive a complimentary one-year membership in both ASIS&T and SIG CMR, a special interest group focused on classification and metadata research.

Puranjani Das

Kim defends dissertation

Doctoral candidate Jenna Kim successfully defended her dissertation, "Evaluating Pre-Trained Language Modeling Approaches for Author Name Disambiguation," on June 11, 2024.

Jenna Kim headshot

Desai defends dissertation

Doctoral candidate Smit Desai successfully defended his dissertation, "Designing Metaphor-fluid Voice User Interfaces," on June 10.

Smit Desai

Student says ‘thank you’ with a helicopter ride

Last month, Michael Ferrer showed appreciation for one of his MSIM instructors in a unique way—by inviting him for an insider’s look at his work as a reservist in the Illinois Army National Guard. For the ILARNG BOSS Lift, which took place on June 18 at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, Ferrer selected Michael Wonderlich, iSchool adjunct lecturer and senior associate director of business intelligence and enterprise architecture for Administrative Information Technology Services (AITS) at the University of Illinois.

Michael Wonderlich and Michael Ferrer hold a U of I flag in front of a military helicopter

Shang defends dissertation

Doctoral candidate Lanyu Shang successfully defended her dissertation, "A Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence Approach Towards Equality, Well-Being, and Responsibility in Sustainable Communities," on June 19.

Lanyu Shang