Suhong Li, Ph.D., Professor and Department Chair of Information Systems and Analytics at Bryant University, recently presented Honors Thesis research conducted by recent  Data Science alumni Matt Toner ’22 and Weixiao (Emma) Sun ’22 at the prestigious International Association for Computer Information Systems (IACIS) conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Toner’s paper was awarded the Jay Liebowitz Outstanding Student Research Award, which recognizes the research’s contribution to the existing literature; research methodology, data collection, and analysis; lessons learned; and clarity of writing.

Elevating the Data Science program’s focus on real-world readiness, which combines programming, statistics, machine learning, big data management, and business domain knowledge, the Honors Thesis supports rigorous undergraduate research under the advisement of a member of Bryant’s expert faculty. 

In his project, Identifying Factors that Lead to Injuries in the NFL, Toner — now a consultant with Guidehouse, a leading global provider of consulting services to the public and commercial markets —collected data from the National Football League and created a supervised machine learning model to identify the driving forces that lead to specific player injuries.

Now a data engineer with Travelers, Sun’s Honors Thesis, Social Media Discussion on COVID-19 Impact on Mental Health, assessed Twitter data from March 2020 through October 2021 to analyze pandemic-related conversations across a range of companies on the platform. 

Professor Li, a renowned researcher and educator who was named the International Association for Computer Information Systems Educator of the Year in 2017, was the faculty advisor for both projects. Richard Glass, Ph.D., a professor of Information Systems and Analytics and co-founding director of the Advanced Applied Analytics Center, was their editorial reviewer.