T he war in Ukraine makes headlines daily as new updates of civilian casualties, Russian advances across the country and sanctions put in place become available in real-time.

At this point, it’s hard to fully understand the impact the war is having in Eastern Europe and internationally. Two Georgia College graduate students in the Master of Management Information Systems (MMIS) program are looking at empirical data to try to quantify at least a small portion of that impact. 

“The data sets that we've managed to pull, which are pretty wild and, interestingly enough, are being updated almost every day. It’s things like civilian casualties, the number of refugees and officially how much war materiel in Russia has been seized by Ukraine,” said Richard Catlin, Ph.D., MMIS student.

 Catlin and his partner for the project Gary McKenzie are examining the cost of war from a human perspective and what an asymmetric war—"where the two powers are not ostensibly equal in their war capabilities”—looks like in the 21^st century.

The project is for Dr. Joy Godin’s graduate research project in business analytics course. They are tasked with researching a country and identifying the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that are currently impacting their chosen country.

The students learned how to use the SAP Analytic Cloud system to develop visualizations and dashboards. They collect data from public data sets about the countries they researched and develop visualizations that will help them provide insights into the sustainability issues impacting the country.

“The goal of the research project is to help students learn how to use data to develop visualizations, dashboards and insights to help inform real-world issues,’ said Godin. “Students also become aware of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and how data can be used to impact the world in which they live. They learn how to conduct a research project by writing a research paper and delivering a presentation about their research.”

Catlin chose Ukraine based on the history of conflict with Russia and his background in intelligence for the U.S. Navy. Students were assigned the project at the start of the spring 2022 semester when Ukraine was being threatened, but the hands-on conflict hadn’t begun.

“Initially, I was interested in Ukraine, and I wanted to look at the push and pull that was going on with Putin and see how that affected Ukraine’s own internal development,” Catlin said.

“I kind of duped my partner for the project, Gary, into a war zone,” he laughed. “Since we chose it, we’ve seen an increase of variability for what we were thinking about looking at, which would have probably been a lot more economic in nature.” 

Russia invaded Ukraine Feb. 24, 2022. The ever-changing situation on the ground in Ukraine turned their original project upside down. They found it hard to collect data once the war began.

Catlin and McKenzie, vice president of claims for GEICO Insurance in Washington DC, mentioned in class some of the struggles they were having, and a classmate jumped in.  

“They said they were having problems getting some data now that the war had started,” said Jonathan Akers, U.S. Army logistics officer and MMIS student. “I said, ‘Hey, I'm really good friends with a guy that's the aide to the Deputy Commanding General in EUCOM, which is second in command of forces in the European region.’”

Akers reached out to his friend to see if Gen. Joe Jarrard would be willing to give an on-the-ground perspective to his classmates as they worked through their project. He knew the general was meeting with these military leaders in Europe and looking at what's going on in Ukraine from an intelligence perspective.

A native of Georgia, Jarrad happily took time to answer questions about his experience since the war began in the virtual session. He helped Mackenzie and Catlin hone in data they could look at for their project.

“In the interview with the general, I was approaching it with questions related to the UN sustainable goals, but I had to kind of pivot,” said Mackenzie. “The general illuminated the damage being done and that people are leaving the country, so they’re having to pick up the pieces. That’s going to make things even harder. He helped us see so many angles of the study that we wouldn't have previously.”

They called it “fascinating” that somebody of Jarrard’s stature would share their insights with them for the project. And the collaboration from a colleague who used his connection to help with another group's project shows the personal nature of the Georgia College MMIS program.

“For a two-star general to set aside time to talk to some grad students was amazing,” said Akers. “But it was really Richard and Gary having a project on Ukraine, and then me just happening to hear that. Then being friends with the guy that works closely with the second in command of Europe. I don't really know how lucky you can get on that end.” 

With years of military experience, a Ph.D. and multiple master’s degrees, these three students highlight the benefits of the MMIS program at Georgia College. 

“What's interesting is in all my classes there's a diverse group of students,” said McKenzie. “I mean diverse in many ways, including an experience with technology, backgrounds, types of jobs people want to go into. For somebody with a non-MMIS background, you've got people who you can learn from their experiences, which is what Georgia College has done in this program.”

While they learn from each other, they also credit outstanding faculty for their engagement and guidance in each course.

“I didn't expect the instructor to class size ratio to be what it is,” Akers said. “And then the availability of the instructors. Typically, in a master's program, the professors are juggling a lot, but I can't tell you one instance where I've emailed an instructor, and they haven't gotten back to me within 24 hours. I really appreciate that kind of personalized attention.” 

The MMIS program is completely online, but as students can attest, it still provides valuable personalized connections with faculty and other students.  

More information on the MMIS program is available here.