Three Spears School students receive national scholarships

STILLWATER, Okla. - Three Spears School of Business students received national scholarships at the recent SAS Global Forum. More than 3,000 professionals attended the conference, which took place March 21-24 in Washington, D.C. Sohail Mohammed, Spruthi Parupalli and Umme Haani each received an expense-paid trip to the forum through the scholarship. All three are students in the OSU graduate certificate in business data mining program and are pursuing master’s degrees in management information systems. “I am very proud of these students,” said Goutam Chakraborty, OSU professor of marketing and founder of the OSU graduate certificate in business data mining program. “Only 20 such scholarships are awarded nationally each year by SAS. Thus, winning three of these scholarships is a clear indication of the strength and quality of our program, as well as our students.” The OSU graduate certificate in business data mining program is housed in the Spears School of Business and is the largest data mining program in the United States. Data mining is the exploration and analysis of large quantities of data in order to discover meaningful patterns and rules. The OSU data mining program began in 2004 when the university partnered with SAS. Students in the program receive a broad-based exposure not just to data analysis, but also to data extraction and data management issues. The unique scope of the program at OSU made Mohammed, Parupalli and Haani ideal candidates for the award. “I was happy to get selected for the SAS Global Forum scholarship and even more happy to have 'experienced the experience',” Parupalli said. “The conference was truly inspirational and got us thinking, ‘What is our identity in the world of SAS? How far have we come?’ and ‘How can we make a contribution’?” While at the forum in Washington, D.C., the students were able to network with hundreds of professionals in data mining, including the authors of their SAS textbooks. “Networking with attendees, especially students, clarified the question of how to and where to start if you want to make a mark in this arena,” Parupalli said. “We had many company professionals using SAS at the conference who spoke to us about the kind of requirements employers are looking for at the present time.” All three students said they are very grateful for their SAS education and the program at OSU, and feel it has been a worthwhile experience for them. “Dr. Chakraborty has prepared us to be technically and professionally on par with the updated SAS work out there,” Parupalli said. “He has rightly equipped us with the SAS skills to put us forward in this competitive job arena. I am very lucky to have attended OSU and been a part of Dr. C's perfectly packaged program.” For more information about the SAS/OSU data mining certification program, call 405-744-7644 or visit http://spears.okstate.edu/future/graduate/degrees/certificate/datamining. Oklahoma State University is a modern land-grant system that cuts across disciplines to better prepare students for a new world.  Oklahoma’s only university with a statewide presence, OSU improves the lives of people in Oklahoma, the nation, and the world. The Spears School of Business is dedicated to the original land-grant vision of integrated, high-quality teaching, research and outreach. For more information, call 405-744-5064 or visit spears.okstate.edu.