How can business students help bolster national security?

Applying Business Curricula to National Security

This project has concluded.

So what?

Now more than ever, business students are positioned to address today’s most pressing issues. The skills taught in business school – strategic thinking, data analysis, decision-making, and more – are vital to any field, but they can provide a public service when applied to the safety of the nation.

Summary

In this project, researchers leverage UNO’s business school curriculum to develop student-centered projects that address real-time, real-world challenges for the Department of Homeland Security. Researchers are partnering with DHS practitioners in project-based courses in the MBA and Data Analytics programs. Additionally, the research team has developed a homeland security-focused Business Analytics Graduate Certificate to work on DHS end-user challenges as part of the course curriculum.

Purpose/Objectives

The project’s primary objective is to expose business students to the homeland security enterprise through DHS projects offered in MBA and Data Analytics courses. This includes increasing student exposure to the homeland security enterprise and workforce development, giving students the opportunity to apply their learning to real-world, real-time DHS projects.

Method

The project is structured in two components:

• End-User Client Projects in the MBA Capstone Class where business students are paired with DHS clients to deliver a business-focused solution to a homeland security challenge.
• Data Analytics Courses where students study analytic methodologies relevant to solving homeland security problems and work directly with the DHS workforce.

Students will present their findings to DHS and complete surveys assessing their knowledge of DHS at the end of the semester.

Outputs and Impact

Homeland security practitioners who participate in this project will receive completed materials (typically including a final report and briefing) that they can keep and use however they see fit. This initiative will bolster recruitment efforts across DHS by developing a pipeline of talent from UNO, while also providing the national security workforce with tangible outcomes addressing their current needs.

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Research Team

Erin Bass, Ph.D.

• University of Nebraska at Omaha
• Associate Professor
• Management, College of Business Administration
• Expertise: Executive education, strategic management, business ethics

Erin Pleggenkuhle-Miles, Ph.D.

• University of Nebraska at Omaha
• Associate Professor
• Management, College of Business Administration
• Expertise: Entrepreneurship, innovation, global strategy

Ben Smith, Ph.D.

• University of Nebraska at Omaha
• Associate Professor
• Economics, College of Business Administration
• Expertise: SQL, databases, data cleaning for data scientists, economic education, industrial organization

Dustin White, Ph.D.

• University of Nebraska at Omaha
• Associate Professor
• Economics, College of Business Administration
• Expertise: Strategic choices in competition, game theoretic modeling of great power conflicts, big data

Jessica Perrigan, M.A.

• University of Nebraska at Omaha
• Faculty
• Economics, College of Business Administration
• Expertise: Business analytics