MIDPOINTS
Data Analysis Last May, MTSU announced the creation of the Data Science Institute, led by Professor Charlie Apigian, to promote funded interdisciplinary research and develop public and private collaborations around the emerging field of “big data.” Apigian is former department chair of the newly renamed Information Systems and Analytics in MTSU’s Jones College of Business. In one of its first projects, the Data Science Institute is digging deep into data provided by mid-state social impact technology company Hytch to see how users of its app-based rewards program are affecting traffic throughout the region. Hytch’s service seeks to reduce traffic congestion and pollution through ride-sharing, carpooling, or use of public transit. The objective is to learn where the company might focus greater incentives and give cash rewards to people who share their rides. If Hytch takes 1,200 cars off the road through ride-sharing, it trims an average mid-state commute by 15 minutes. And, according to the analysis by the student-led team at MTSU, at least one car is taken off the road for every car ride that is shared. “When a company wants to know what its data is telling them, an academic environment is the perfect place to turn,” Apigian said, because companies are “always trying to solve a problem today, and they don’t have the time or resources to look retroactively. . . . It’s a lot of data exploration that we’re doing for them.” MTSU recently notified the Tennessee Higher Education Commission of plans to develop a bachelor’s degree in Data Science to build upon many of the attributes of the new institute.
A team of MTSU students and mentors is involved in a “big data” consulting project between the MTSU Data Science Institute and Nashville-based Hytch LLC, the social impact technology company. (l–r) Brandon Boshers, mentor Rob Harrigan, Nick Matala, and Kiran Donthula.
A Film Achievement A new documentary created by Academy Award-nominated MTSU Media Arts film professor Tom Neff, along with students and faculty from across the College of Media and Entertainment, celebrates the 40 gifted women of the Olympic-winning Tennessee State University Tigerbelles and their coach, the beloved Ed Temple. Mr. Temple and the Tigerbelles, on the International Documentary Association’s short list of film shorts nominated for the 2018 IDA Documentary Awards, boasts a roster of informative interviewees and rare footage of the color-barrier-busting athletes who brought home 23 medals from the 1960 Olympics in Rome, including 16 golds. The most famous Tigerbelle was Clarksville native Wilma Rudolph, who became the first American to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games. The women continued their college education, all earning their bachelor’s degrees and several going on to master’s and doctorates. Mr. Temple and the Tigerbelles was nearly three years in the making, airing last spring on the CBS Sports Network. The filmmakers plan to enter it in festivals, and the documentary was already named an official selection of the 2018 HollyShorts Film Festival in August. The film places the successes of the Tigerbelles firmly in the perspective of the civil rights era. The gifted young women of TSU struggled to practice with no financial aid and no support during the time of Jim Crow discrimination. MTSU
Top: Members of the Tigerbelles, former and current, gather on the steps of TSU’s Kean Hall after the September 2016 memorial service for their beloved coach, Ed Temple. Bottom: Members of the 1959–60 Tigerbelles join Temple in looking over the 50-plus trophies they had won.
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