MIT Analytics Capstone

Key Project Components & Tips

• Prescriptive or Predictive: Our students need opportunities to apply their skills beyond descriptive analytics. They are ready to build your machine learning model or complete an optimization project for you.
• Prioritize Problem-Solving: Projects should be driven by a compelling problem statement for students to tackle. Avoid just asking students to apply a method to your business—let them solve the problem.
• Consider the Themes: Take a look at the themes from previous years to get ideas.
• Must Haves vs. Nice to Haves: Think about how to challenge students with your must haves while also considering how they might move beyond the basics. 

Now that you’ve got a great project idea, it’s time to translate it into a written proposal to submit for review. There are a few important things we need to know about your project and also some guidelines you will need to follow.

Committing to Funding

In order to keep the capstone process smooth and efficient for both companies, students, and ourselves, we ask the companies to commit to the process fully.  We view the submission of the proposal as the commitment point.

Project Cost

The current cost per project is $65,000—this fee covers tuition for a team of two students, the support of a faculty mentor, and a summer stipend for each student. We ask that you confirm that you have approval for this fee at the time of submission.

Invoices

Invoices are typically sent to host organizations in early spring after the matches have been announced. There is no fee for submitting a capstone proposal and pitching a project.

A Successful Data Science Project

Looking to write a proposal that gets our attention? The most important factors are your data and your business problem. To evaluate your proposal, we use guidelines from an article by Rama Ramakrishnan, Professor of Practice in Data Science and Machine Learning.

View the rubric for project proposals

Download the NDA

So you’ve submitted a proposal and you’ve been invited to pitch to our students. What exactly does that mean? Your pitch is your introduction to your potential student partners. It should highlight who you are as an organization and entice students to want to be matched with you. But don’t worry—we’ve got some tips for delivering a great pitch.

• Location: Be very clear on where students will be working the summer (remote, hybrid, city/country). Include some exciting things about the area!
• The Team: Share who students will be working with, especially if they are a part of the senior leadership team of your organization.
• Key Questions: How will your project impact your business? Will it be directly implemented? What is the most exciting and what do you love most about the project idea?
• Opportunity: If you are interested in recruiting and hiring for full-time roles after the capstone concludes, add that in your pitch.
• Energy: Energy and enthusiasm are contagious! What excited you most about working on this project and with these students?
• Technology: Share the technology you use and expect students to also use. If you're open to letting students provide creative solutions, tell them. 

Pitching In Person vs. Virtually

Pitching in person and attending the networking event afterwards is highly recommended. Virtual pitching and networking opportunities are also available, but these options could result in a suboptimal match.

Use this checklist to self-asses your pitch

Matching is a dynamic process that uses many different data points to ensure students and organizations are set up for success. It’s important to know how matching works before it starts so you know what to expect during the process.

The Matching Process

• Pitch and Network: Matching begins after you have delivered your pitch and networked with the students.
• Provide Input: We ask for input from both the organizations and the student teams after networking.
• Interviews: You will conduct 8-12 interviews with prospective students.
• Rank Choices: Both organizations and students are asked to rank their choices.
• Optimization: We apply an optimization technique to produce an algorithmically-driven match.
• Match: Matches are announced and the work begins. 

Matching Tips and Tricks

• Meet and Greet: Try to meet every team during networking. Students may feel out of their comfort zone. Engage them by making eye contact and being the first to say hello.
• Who to Bring: If possible, bring both executive sponsors and working team members. Students want to work with senior leaders but may feel more comfortable with junior levels early on.
• MIT Alumni: If you have an MIT MBAn alumni on your team, bring them to our events to advocate for your project (even if they are not going to work on the project). Students will trust them and they will be one of your best resources.
• Interview Panel: When you interview students, create a single interview panel that you use with all your students to ensure your perspective is consistent.
• Student Videos: Videos are a great way to get to know our students! Be sure to ask students about their video when you meet them.
• A-Lab Projects: The students' Analytics Lab (A-Lab) project is very similar to the capstone experience. Ask students what they learned and what they'd do differently.

There are some important steps we have to follow when we place a student team with your organization. To avoid an overall project delay, we want to make sure you are prepared from day one. Here is an overview of what to expect.

Matching Announcement

The MIT MBAn team will announce the match between the host company, student teams, and faculty advisor in early February. You will receive an email with information about your match. Once the match is made, company sponsors are positioned as executive leaders on the project and students are responsible for driving the process.

The Role of the Advisor

The faculty advisor is expected to advise the students on technical approaches and suggest appropriate research and resources for the students in order to maximize progress on the capstone project. From time to time, the faculty advisor may attend meetings with the host company. Faculty advisors are expected to dedicate 30 minutes every two weeks to advising.

International Students

International students need a Curricular Practical Training (CPT) Letter to begin working. The CPT letter is highly administrative in nature and requires our close attention. As such, students will be provided with clear guidance from David Elwell, the Associate Dean and Director of the MIT International Students Office, who will provide a template and timelines for students to follow.

Milestones

The MIT MBAn faculty team provides structure to the program by establishing five milestones, summarized below. Students are coached and mentored by faculty on how to prepare and deliver these milestones (establishing a meeting cadence, setting meeting agendas, providing deliverables in a timely manner, etc.)

Work Expectations

During the spring semester, each student is expected to dedicate 10–12 hours per week to their work while also taking 2–4 additional electives. During midterms, finals, and MIT’s Spring Break week, students may be less available.  Company hosts and the students will formally agree to the work schedule and establish expectations in the Milestone 1 Project Charter.  The Project Charter is an informal agreement and is always considered a working document.

Spring Milestones

1. Project Charter: Students must obtain sign-off from their company sponsor on their project charter, which will serve as a working agreement between the student team and the company for the entire project.
2. Initial Findings and Exploratory Data Analysis: Students must also obtain sign-off on their initial findings and exploratory data analysis, which is data-focused and demonstrates students' understanding of the operating business.
3. Project Charter Confirmation: The project charter confirmation is a finalized project charter that ensures the students are ready to shift gears to a 40-hour work week during the summer.

The Summer is when the magic happens.  The students are dedicated to their host company on a full-time with clear focus on their problem statement and Capstone Showcase deliverables.

Work Expectations

During the summer period, each student is expected to work a minimum of 10 weeks at 40 hours per week. The exact dates of this 10-week window are agreed upon ahead of time during the Project Charter process. Between the end of the spring semester and the beginning of the summer semester, students may opt to take a short break in order to make any necessary travel arrangements and prepare for the full-time summer experience.

Student deliverables include a report, a presentation, a video, and a poster.

Final Project Report:

• Describes the problem that was solved and the goals the student team aimed to achieve and explains why the problem is important, including the business impact for the host company.
• Describes the data used and the insights provided by the exploratory data analysis .
• Describes any hurdles encountered and steps taken to overcome or mitigate them.
• Describes the analytical methods used to solve the problem and the results obtained.
• Describes the deliverables the student team will hand over to the company and the transition plan put in place to ensure a smooth transition to the host company.

Please note: because the final project report contains private, confidential data, it will not be released publicly

Final Presentation:

• An 8—10-minute presentation by the student team
• Covers similar topics as the report but focuses on the business impact of the project, avoiding technical details as it is aimed for a business audience
• Presented during the live capstone showcase
• Contains only public data that is reviewed by the host company

Project Video

• 1—2-minute video summary of the project compiled by the student team
• Brief overview of the goal of the project, how the problem was tackled, and key results achieved
• Contains only public data that is reviewed by the host company

Project Poster

• Covers similar topics as the presentation
• 24x36-inch vertical PDF file
• Contains only public data that is reviewed by the host company