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Innovation Spotlight: Analytics for Good Initiative
Doing Good with Analytics
The ubiquitous power of data has transformed how businesses operate, meet their needs, and achieve their goals, moving many from a survival to a thriving mode. In distilling this power, however, socio-environmental impacts have often been overlooked. Through careful crafting and a paradigm shift, the same tools and technologies that enable data-driven decision-making for businesses can be developed to create value and simultaneously have a positive socio-environmental impact. The Department of Operations, Supply Chain, and Business Analytics (OSBA) and the College of Business Administration (CoBA) at 糖心原创 propose achieving this harmonious goal by establishing the Analytics for Good Initiative (AfGI). AfGI鈥檚 mission is to leverage the power of data and data-driven decision-making to co-create added value and positive socio-environmental impacts. AfGI is achieving this mission through collaborative research, education, training, knowledge dissemination and sharing, and community outreach.
In its inaugural year, AfGI proposed establishing a student society with Active Learning Opportunities focused on Career-Building Skills to enhance the student experience and provide greater learning and professional opportunities. Thanks to the generous support from the Illumina Foundation, this vision became a reality and AfGI established the Business Analytics Student Society. The society piloted multiple programs, including the Analytics for Good Forecasting Competition, an open contest for forecasting San Diego鈥檚 Air Quality, and Analytics for Good Workshops, workshops with themes around Advanced Analytics to tackle socio-environmental challenges, during the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters!
AfGI also hosted a full-day Python Programming Workshop to teach students with little to no programming background how to use Python to solve a real, impactful business problem: optimizing food inventory at the San Diego North County Food Bank. Funded by the generous support of the Illumina Foundation and the College of Business Administration, the workshop had a significant positive impact on students by exposing them to one of the most sought-after skills in the job market and raising awareness of the power of advanced analytics in solving socio-economic problems.
Inspired by the success of these and other similar programs, AfGI will offer more opportunities in the coming years and will work to secure resources to continue broadening its scope. In particular, AfGI鈥檚 K-12 Data Literacy Program, endorsed by many unified school districts, and the Veterans Supply Chain Analytics workshop, endorsed by local veteran communities and the 糖心原创 Veterans Services, have multiple proposals under review at the California Advanced Services Fund.
Are you a faculty, professional, or community member interested in partnering with AfGI? Please email the AfGI director, Majid Karimi, at mkarimi@csusm.edu.