Welcome, Kellogg Students, to the info page for Analytical Consulting Lab (MECN615), taught by me, Prof. Joel Shapiro.

Spring 2025 application is linked here.

Deadline: To be considered for Spring Quarter 2025, all team members (if you are applying as a team) must complete the application by Monday, February 10 at 8 pm central, with decisions rendered prior to the start of FT bidding later that week.

There are 2 sections of ACL in spring 2025 - one for FULL-TIME students and one for EW students.

For the FULL-TIME program, students will have the option to work on:

  • A very cool sports prediction project with an AI start-up, Probility AI, founded by Kellogg alumni, that is building interesting new products in the sports AI space. Students will engage in predictive data work around team success in the National Hockey League (NHL), building models and products that help NHL general managers, team owners, and other stakeholders. This project will support multiple groups, and I anticipate us having a lot of fun, and even some light-hearted and fun competition around predictive accuracy. Deep knowledge of hockey is not required (we will help orient you, plus, hockey is basically soccer on ice).

  • Groups that do NOT want to work on this project will work on one of the projects listed below in the EW section:

For the EVENING-WEEKEND students and FT students who do not want to work on the above, they will have the option to work with one of the following clients:

  • Chicago Bulls: Chicago’s NBA team, looking to better understand how to price concerts and other United Center events that are not professional basketball and hockey. This project will consist part of primary purchasing data analysis, with a healthy dose of helping the Bulls identify commercially available metrics that can help them assess ticket demand and thus, appropriate pricing.

  • Rank and Rally (Chief Commercial Officer of R&R’s parent is a Kellogg alum) is a retail subsidiary that runs all retail operations in myriad professional sports stadiums. They are asking Kellogg students to help them identify purchasing trends, with a goal of incentivizing and rewarding retail outlet performance.

  • FIFA World Cup 2026 (Head of Analytics is a Kellogg alum): examining prior World Cup food and beverage sales to inform strategies for World Cup 2026

  • Serve You Rx: a pharmacy benefit manager (CEO is Kellogg alum) looking for empirical analysis that can help them better understand how they can more effectively control drug costs.

  • Chicago Sky: Chicago’s WNBA team (CMO is a Kellogg alum), who is in possession of a modest amount of fan data, and would like help with both analyzing fan data and helping them a build a strategy for how to incorporate data and analytics into their marketing operations.

  • Other clients are likely, as well!

Email me here with questions - happy to help!

What is ACL?

ACL is a 10-week experiential course where you and your team work on a real project for a real company with real data. We have periodic meetings during the quarter. I also work with your team as needed / desired.

If you want to read about ACL a bit more, please check out my short blog posts at Inside Kellogg here.

How to enroll?

You must apply and be accepted to ACL.

I HIGHLY recommend that you enroll in ACL as part of a team of 4-5. Your chances of getting into the class are much improved if you apply as a team. Each team member must apply separately, are admitted separately, and all must meet the minimum qualifications.

FAQs

How often is ACL being offered this year? Currently, ACL is being offered every Fall, Winter, and Spring quarter.

What are the pre-reqs for ACL? You must have completed Business Analytics II or the equivalent. Greater analytics expertise is strongly preferred, but not required. The key to ACL success is that you can apply quant or computational methods to solve business problems.