A partnership between New College’s Data Science program and LexisNexis Risk Solutions has been honored with the State University System Business Champion award. Ned Lautenbach, who chairs the Florida Board of Governors, presented the award during the September board meeting to LexisNexis Vice President of Technology Flavio Villanustre.
Villanustre was joined at the presentation by professor Pat McDonald, director of New College’s Data Science program, and alumna Nicole Navarro ’18, who graduated from the Data Science program and now works as a software engineer at LexisNexis.
Navarro spoke to the governors about her practicum experience last spring with LexisNexis, after the company sent two senior data scientists to campus for a week in January to train graduate students in the use of LexisNexis’ High-Performance Computing Cluster. For her project, she overlaid social network data with geographic and health care data to determine the best sites for drug interventions.
The award recognizes businesses that have outstanding partnerships with schools in the Florida State University System. In an editorial published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Lautenbach lauded the partnership between New College and LexisNexis: “This is an excellent example of how companies can tap into the unique resources at our universities to solve real-world problems — resulting in a win for everyone involved.”