The Engineering Analytics program is open to majors across campus. Photo by Angela Foster.
Students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga can now pursue data analytics through a newly introduced program designed to broaden access to the field.
Dr. Serkan Varol, an assistant professor of engineering management in UTC’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, is leading the new Engineering Analytics program within the Master of Science in Engineering Management program.
The focus, he said, is on helping students work with data right away instead of getting stuck in theory.
“We learn by doing it,” Varol said. “How do we do that? That’s the question that we’re trying to answer.”
The program was added in fall 2025 and classes are open to students across disciplines. Varol said it’s designed for students who want experience with data but may not be interested in program-heavy work.
“You don’t have to code,” Varol emphasized, “and you don’t have to have any coding knowledge.”
Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu, department head of engineering, said the rapid advancement of AI has expanded capabilities beyond coding.
“The industry is increasingly seeking professionals who can translate data into actionable decisions,” Kaplanoglu said. “The contribution of our new program to meeting this demand is evident, as it equips students with practical, hands-on analytics skills from day one.”
The new program includes three courses: an introduction to data analytics, a course focused on analytics for engineering majors, and a class on data visualization and storytelling.
The courses will teach students how to work with data from start to finish—cleaning it, organizing it, building models and explaining what it shows.
“We’re more hands-on than learning about the background math or statistics,” Varol said. “Our priority is the application.”
Varol and his students are already working on research that follows these principles.
In a new study, he and his students are researching how people respond to different pricing strategies when shopping online. If you’ve ever rushed to buy something because it said “only two left,” you’ve felt the kind of decision-making that they are working to understand.
Participants are shown nearly identical, non-branded tablets that vary only in how they are presented—through discounts, urgency messaging or limited availability.
“The reason that we did not use branded products,” Varol explained, “is because some people are biased toward certain products like Apple or Samsung. We wanted to eliminate that bias.”
The differences in the products come from how they are framed.
“For urgency pricing, sometimes we say there are only two tablets left,” he said. “It gives you that feeling of, ‘Oh, I need to purchase this device right now.’”
As participants look at each purchasing option, Varol and his students track where they look through eye-tracking technology and measure changes in brain activity through EEG data. The team has collected more than 30 samples and is now analyzing those patterns to better understand how attention, emotion and behavior interact during decision-making.
The work brings together multiple areas of study, which is what Varol said makes the program so accessible.
“We combine psychology, engineering, data and business altogether under the same roof,” he said.
Because the program doesn’t require coding, Varol said it attracts students who might otherwise avoid data analytics.
“We’re all about finding the result as quickly and efficiently as possible. That’s our No. 1 priority,” he said. “That’s why we’re not teaching coding platforms. That is not our job; that’s up to computer science.
“So, we eliminated that coding fear.”
The courses will provide students with a comprehensive guide, from data collection to analysis.
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