MSBA Students Support Local Farmers with Data Analytics

Carlson School students recently delved into data to help Minnesota’s largest nonprofit food hub develop plans for a new warehouse that will serve local farmers.

The project, managed by the Carlson Analytics Lab for the Business Analytics in R course, partnered Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) students with The Good Acre, a nonprofit food hub that unlocks economic opportunities for farmers by providing market access and supporting sustainable food systems.

The students investigated five potential locations for a new warehouse. Their work involved analyzing data related to nearby farms, potential consumers, transportation costs, and more.

“The client was open to different ways of interpreting their data and coming up with a solution,” says Faithan To, an MSBA student who worked on the project. “That open-endedness encouraged creative problem-solving, which was really fun.”

At the end of the semester, the students delivered recommendations to The Good Acre. The nonprofit’s leaders are enthusiastic about using the students’ work to help decide their new facility’s location.

“There are real actionable outcomes from the data that was presented by these students,” says Nikki Warner, director of communications and government affairs at The Good Acre. “It is going to change the way we think about expansion in the future.”

This project was several students’ first real-world data analysis. Business Analytics in R is the first of the MSBA curriculum’s experiential learning course sequence, which connects students with real clients every semester.

“In order to better prepare them for the actual work that they’re going to do after graduation, it’s important for us to bring in realistic examples for them to practice with,” says Professor Mochen Yang, who teaches the course.

For Pin-Shiuan Liang, another MSBA student who worked on the project, one of the most interesting parts was learning to streamline large amounts of data into what a client actually needs.

“Through this project, I feel more connected to the real problems that a business might face, from the data analysis perspective,” she says. “The problem they wanted us to solve was very general. Our professor told us this is common because in a real-world environment, the business question is not always as specific as what would appear on a test or in homework. So, besides simply understanding how to do the data analysis, it is equally important to break down problems and only utilize the data that is necessary.”

Professor Yang adds that The Good Acre project, in particular, held business lessons beyond analytics.

“We get all kinds of different clients, and I think clients like The Good Acre, a nonprofit, have an extra layer of importance as a case study for the students because what they do actually has a very large social impact,” he says. “Working on these types of problems really gives students not just an opportunity to practice, but also a sense of purpose.”