News Archive

Hundreds of High School Seniors Attend Big Data Day

By Keith Morelli

TAMPA (November 3, 2017) -- High school students, hundreds of them, all considered the best and brightest in their computer science and tech courses, spent Friday learning about the University of South Florida and the Muma College of Business and how enrolling here can lead to lucrative careers in business analytics and information systems.

In all, nearly 500 students – 128 of them destined for USF's Engineering Day and the rest, 369, bound for Muma College of Business Big Data Day – stepped out of 10 school buses early Friday morning. The teens represented 10 high schools: Sickles, Robinson, Freedom, Middleton, Jefferson, Bloomingdale, Alonso, Leto, King and Spoto.

The event this year is sponsored by Kforce, one of the world's leading staffing companies, and is intended to introduce the business-minded high-school seniors to college offerings in the Business Analytics and information Systems department, which is hosting nearly 120 more students than it did during last year's inaugural Big Data Days.

Students arrived early at the Sun Dome, the first stop in a day touring the campus and participating in tech exercises, listening to presentations and lectures and talking about job opportunities for computer-savvy types.

Students attending mostly were enrolled in high school courses such as AP computer science, technology support, web development and information technology. They met with doctoral students and were introduced to Muma College of Business Information Systems and Decision Sciences department faculty and staff.