By Kitty Kay Chan, Ph.D., Professor of Practice, Program Director, M.S. in Applied Analytics Program, Columbia University School of Professional Studies
What happens when an alumnus, an incoming student, and a professor from Columbia University’s M.S. in Applied Analytics program come together in Las Vegas?
The three of us met at Ai4, one of North America’s largest artificial intelligence conferences, which brings together over 10,000 attendees — including business leaders, data scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs — to explore the practical applications and evolving impact of AI across industries. At a Columbia University gathering hosted by Associate Dean of Alumni Relations Sonal Pande, I connected with two members of our Applied Analytics community: Tim Deng, a 2022 graduate, and David Zachry, who will begin the program this fall.
We came to Ai4 at different points in our Applied Analytics journeys, but with a shared ambition to do more than keep pace with AI, to also help shape what comes next.
I presented “Tomorrow’s Cyber Risks Today” at the start of the Applied AI Research Conference, the academic applied research track of Ai4, which uses a double-blind peer-review process. The research examines how organizations can anticipate, defend, and recover from known, emerging, and unknown cyber threats powered by AI, agentic systems, quantum computing, and other emerging technologies. The work reflects a question that runs through much of my experience across academia, government, and industry: How do we evaluate, implement, and govern AI and other emerging technologies as their capabilities rapidly evolve and challenge traditional oversight approaches?
Deng, an alumnus, represents another stage of the Applied Analytics journey. Since graduating from Columbia in 2022, he has built a career in data science and is now a data scientist at biBerk Business Insurance, a Berkshire Hathaway company. His experience illustrates how analytical foundations continue to develop through professional practice and reminds us that behind advances in AI are data, analytical thinking, and the ability to translate these into real-world decisions.
Zachry, an incoming student, will join the Applied Analytics program this fall, bringing professional experience in AI and financial portfolio management. As an assistant vice president working across AI, analytics, and data products at Oaktree Capital Management, he participated at Ai4 in two curated, invitation-only roundtables focused on AI-enabled software delivery and the deployment of AI agents in regulated industries. He will bring that experience into the classroom while further deepening his technical and management skills in addressing AI and business challenges.
Meeting Deng and Zachry at Ai4 in a large hall, alive with the latest in emerging technologies and robotics, brought together three snapshots of the Applied Analytics journey and captured something important about our program. Our conversation covered how each of us is currently working with businesses to operationalize AI. The deployment of AI demands analytical rigor and domain expertise alongside management, communications, and leadership. It requires the ability to ask not only: Can we build it? But also: Does it work? How do we know? Where does it create value? What are the risks? And how should it be governed?
The integration of skills to answer these questions is central to the Applied Analytics program at Columbia. Students build analytical foundations while learning to translate data and technology into decisions and action. These are not questions or capabilities reserved for the future. Our faculty, students, and alumni are engaging with them today in research, in the classroom, and through professional practice across industries.
At Ai4 in Las Vegas, we represented three dimensions of the Columbia Applied Analytics community and one common ambition which we are collectively putting into action: going beyond keeping up with the latest in AI developments and helping to shape what comes next.
About the Program
Columbia University’s Master of Science in Applied Analytics prepares students with the practical data and leadership skills to succeed. The program combines in-depth knowledge of data analytics with the leadership, management, and communication principles and tactics necessary to impact decision-making across industries and organizational functions.
Learn more about the program here. The program is available full-time and part-time, online and on-campus.
