University hires three to support DSBA initiative

UNC Charlotte recently hired three individuals to support the Data Science and Business Analytics initiative, which is an industry-University-state partnership led by the College of Computing and Informatics and the Belk College of Business with strategic input from the College of Health and Human Services and other academic units.

Mark Armstrong, Rick Hudson and Shannon Schlueter are the industry/University program coordinator, senior project manager and data scientist, respectively, for the DSBA initiative.

Armstrong is the founder and CEO of IntePoint, a software development and services company that specializes in analytics and business intelligence. During an 11-year partnership with the College of Computing and Informatics, he helped expand the college’s Department of Defense research capacities, and his experience spans education, government, financial and manufacturing sectors.

Most recently a program manager for the Central Intelligence Agency, Hudson was responsible for information systems operating in the ontological realm, denoted under the term “Big Data.” He holds three degrees from UNC Charlotte – a Bachelor of Science in Political Science, a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a Master of Science in Engineering Management. He also participated in an executive program in science, technology and innovation policy through Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Schlueter, who completed a doctorate in bioinformatics and computational biology from Iowa State University, has been an assistant professor in CCI’s Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics since 2009.

UNC Charlotte is strategically positioned to launch its DSBA initiative due to the concentration of large data-intensive industries in the greater Charlotte region, including financial services, retail sales and distribution, health care, energy and advanced manufacturing. The education and training programs will be among the earliest and largest initiatives in the nation to integrate data science and analytics with business processes and decision making.