Data science and data visualization are starting to make an impact in academia, and the University of Virginia’s (UVA) Darden School of Business provides a worthy use case with its application of products from Tableau Software, Inc., putting them to work in multiple classes and projects. Former student and current LinkedIn Manager of Business Operations Analytics Andrew Kritzer was the one who piloted the use of Tableau at UVA. In an interview for theCUBE earlier this week at the annual Tableau Conference, he discussed how students can incorporate Tableau into their classrooms.

Kritzer rolled out three projects in bringing Tableau to UVA. In partnership with an MBA professor, he introduced Tableau to his classmates and coordinated a visualization challenge that offered an award to the team that told the best data-driven story using one dashboard. In the second year of his MBA program and as president of the Darden Technology Club, Kritzer worked with Tableau to hold workshops on best practices. He also conducted an independent study for the business analytics concentration, where he collaborated with San Fransico-based video advertising startup Vungle, who relies on Tableau to identify trends, monitor performance and present results.

For college students interested in incorporating Tableau into projects on business operations, Kritzer recommends going to a local business and asking for information regarding points of sale or periods of time. Also, let the business know that you won’t share any of its information without permission.

Regardless of the industry, gathering information on your own is a key skill that students need to learn for the future, and Tableau is a great tool to use in order to do that. “Get the information you need to make the decisions, and you’ll be the one making them eventually,” Kritzer advised.

Image via Tableau Software, Inc.