Having graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and Informatics from SC&I in 2023, Anish Gupta decided to pursue a Master’s in Public Informatics at the Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy to gain the skills he needed to develop his confidence before he began to pursue a career in data analysis and cybersecurity, and critical intelligence and data science, subjects that fascinated him as an ITI major.

As an undergrad, Gupta took a Critical Intelligence studies course and learned about the different intelligence agencies and how they function within the Intelligence community. “This led me to minor in the subject, and then I took classes in Statistics that were interesting, which led me to minor in Data Science, which gave me a solid foundation in R programming. I was able to apply what I learned in my ITI, Critical Intelligence Studies, and Data Science classes such as programming, data visualization, writing intelligence memoranda, intelligence briefings, and making presentations in my internships,” Gupta said.

Gupta noted that the ITI major at Rutgers is a great choice for any student who wants to work on hands-on projects. He also said the workload in the major allows students to consider a double major or multiple minors.

In our Q&A with Gupta, he discusses how the ITI major, MPI, and his job experiences are enabling him to broaden his skillset for the workplace.

How did the SC&I ITI major help you achieve your goals?
AG: Rutgers and the ITI major have helped me achieve my career aspirations in a major way. My goal is to work for the federal government in Intelligence Analytics - in the field of intelligence with a strong focus on data analysis. Our nation faces cybersecurity risks every day. I find the work to identify and mitigate these risks extremely interesting and fascinating. More importantly, working in this field would enable me to serve my country and help keep our citizens safe. I am passionate about working with data analytics and I have a deep interest in working with data of varied sizes and types. I want to solve real-world problems with data in the Intelligence Community. In my ITI class projects at Rutgers, I have solved complex problems with data, provided predictive analytics solutions, and generated user-friendly visualizations.

Did a specific SC&I professor give you good advice while you were taking one of their courses? 
AG: Object Oriented Programming – Instructor: Mark Segal. In this class, I learned about programming in Python. Professor Segal presented Python programming in an easy-to-understand way. Python programming is widely used in the field that I am pursuing, so this was a valuable experience. We worked on two major projects for the midterm and the final, giving me the confidence and skills to pursue internship opportunities. In addition, Professor Segal provided constructive feedback on assignments and encouraged and helped students improve their coding skills.

What ITI course at Rutgers was your favorite & why? 
AG: Capstone in ITI – Instructor: Mike Doyle and Hajar Shirley. In this class, we worked on a real-life project just like we would work on in an organization. This real-world experience under the leadership of Professors Doyle and Shirley was invaluable. I got the opportunity to lead a team, which was the data team. I led the team to develop a dashboard on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. This dashboard uses interactive visualizations to help healthcare providers educate the vaccine-hesitant patient by pointing out that death rates are highest among non-vaccinated older patients. Every week we would have meetings where we would give updates and troubleshoot any issues we were stuck on. Working on this capstone project allowed me to sharpen my technical, communication, leadership, and presentation skills. Professor Doyle also critiqued our resumes and offered to help with resume reviews and future job searches.

How has your past internship experience with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and experience in research shaped your professional career? 
AG: I interned with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as a Data Analyst and Survey Design intern during the 2022 - 2023 academic year. It was a wonderful learning experience working with the ODNI. I performed qualitative and quantitative data analysis. I also generated insightful charts, graphs, and infographics for the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence Program (IC CAE). I wrote memoranda that answered questions regarding the IC CAE program’s effectiveness and suggested improvements to the data collection for the IC CAE program.

Learn more about the Information Technology and Informatics major at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information on the website.