Business Trends BUSINESS SCHOOLS


Barbara Hoopes, a Virginia Tech associate professor, says the goal of teaching with machine-learning or business-


intelligence tools in the executive MBA program is to turn the students into “savvy


consumers of data science.”


Tech for b-schools O


A.I. becomes part of colleges’ business curriculum by Richard Foster


n a weekend in late October, a group of 12 Virginia Tech executive


MBA graduate students in Falls Church were tasked with solving the nation’s infrastructure ills using artificial intelligence tools. With the help of representa-


tives from companies such as Microsoft, Qlik and Tableau Soft- ware, the students used machine learning software to analyze data and make recommendations on how to fix the aging infrastructure. One student group, for


example, analyzed dam hazard classifications based on a real-life database of dams in Vermont. Inspecting dams requires a lot of manpower and can be cost- prohibitive, says Barbara Hoopes,


58 | JANUARY 2019


an associate professor of business information technology at Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia Center. The students’ analysis produced a system to prioritize potential hazards first. At Virginia Tech’s weekend


executive MBA program, the goal of teaching with machine-learning or business-intelligence tools is “not necessarily to turn the students into … data scientists but into what you might call savvy consumers of data science,” says Hoopes. “If these MBA-level students are going to be out there as managers … we want them to know the power associated with machine learning and artificial intelligence and how they could use that most effectively within their organizations.”


As artificial-intelligence and


machine-learning algorithms become more prevalent, these high- tech tools — once the domain of engineering and information tech- nology students — increasingly are becoming part of the curriculum at Virginia’s business schools. That trend takes the form of


undergraduate degrees in business analytics and MBA programs that teach the concepts behind business applications for A.I. and advanced technologies such as neural nets and deep learning — advanced computing systems, loosely based on the human brain, that learn by example to complete complicated tasks and solve problems. The College of William & Mary offers an undergraduate


Photo by Stephen Gosling


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