Students Put Analytics to Work at Business Analytics Summit
By Diane Swenson, staff
November 2, 2026
Students shared their research and discussed their findings during the Business Analytics Summit poster session.
Students put their analytics skills to the test and heard from industry professionals about using AI responsibly at the Business Analytics Summit.
The Event
The Martha and Spencer Love School of Business hosted the Business Analytics Summit on October 29 in LaRose Digital Theatre in the Koury Business Center. This year’s theme was “Future of Analytics: Driving Career Success Through Responsible AI and Analytics.”
The summit brought together students, faculty, and industry professionals for student sessions, a data challenge, poster presentations, and an industry panel.
Student Sessions
During a student session on responsible AI, Elon alumnus Peyton Pesavento ’23, an enterprise AI strategy consultant at Accenture, urged students to understand a problem before asking AI to help solve it.
“Frame the real problem,” Pesavento said. “Don’t just tell the AI, ‘Hey, I’m trying to do this. Help me figure it out.’”
Pesavento presented with Accenture colleague Jared Skinner, a tech strategy senior manager. The speakers encouraged students to verify the information they give AI, question its responses, and bring examples of their work to job interviews.
In a second student session, Beca Mayr, vice president of talent acquisition at Sedgwick, shared how she combines her human resources experience with technical skills to build AI agents that support recruiting.
Poster Session and Data Challenge
Students shared their own work during a networking lunch and poster session judged by members of the Center for Applied Analytics and AI Advisory Board. Takoda Moore ’27 and Sebastian Zucker-Malone ’27 earned first place for their market basket analysis project. Samantha Owens ’28 received second place for a project examining AI in hospitals.
For the Data Challenge, student teams used public data about housing and development in Alamance County. Four finalists presented findings drawn from building permits, tax parcels, municipal boundaries, and other sources.
Moore, a financial technology major, and Zucker-Malone, a computer science major, joined Shayne Goldstein ’28, a computer science major, to win first place.
Carmine Familletti ’27, a finance major, and Carter May ’28, a finance and entrepreneurship and innovation major, placed second.
Third place went to Zach Conklin ’28, a finance and entrepreneurship and innovation major; Hodge Burkhardt ’27, a business analytics major; and Christopher Guider ’29, a business analytics and economics major.
Industry Panel
The afternoon industry panel featured Elin Walton, vice president of marketing at Franzy; April Fr (the rest of this speaker's name is not provided in the text).