Analyzing Nashville’s Growth Through Traffic Patterns | Graduate Spotlight

Before enrolling in Nashville Software School’s Full-time Data Analytics program, Suzanne Saggio was working for a local healthcare company where she had transitioned from project management to a new team heavily involved in development work. “The team I was working with used SQL, Tableau, and Power BI and was developing a financial application. I was able to dip my toe in and instantly knew I found a field of study that I was excited about again,” she shares. “This led me to make the jump and pursue a career in data analytics.” 

Why did you choose to attend NSS?

“I have always been interested in data and wanted a formal education and the ability to get some hands-on training within a short period of time. I reached out to peers, personal contacts and in doing some research, I learned about Nashville Software School, which had nothing but raving reviews. NSS was a great decision.” 

What was the topic of your capstone and how did you choose it?

“I have been fascinated with the growth and evolution of Nashville, specifically regarding the real estate market, the rise in cost of living, new construction, and population growth since I re-located here in 2013. I decided for my capstone project to research a challenge or subject that impacts everyone on some level and one of the first things that came to mind was TRAFFIC. I figured what better way to take a closer look behind the scenes, review the data and see what kind of story it tells for incidents in Tennessee along with the trends and relationship found. 

“I ended up reaching out to the Tennessee Department of Transportation aka TDOT, to request a current real-world dataset from the past year. I ended up working with multiple departments in, and I used Python to merge weather data, GPS coordinates, and research from the Federal Highway Administration Office. After collaborating with TDOT to better acquaint myself with the data, they expressed interest in being part of the process and had a list of requests and questions that they wanted to see. I ended up using Tableau and creating an interactive dashboard to showcase the findings. The biggest takeaway, without question, was how complex data can be and how important it is to capture accurate findings and recognize the outliers when presented. Data is useless if you can’t create a useful outcome or convey to the audience presentable findings.” 

​​What advice would you give to current or incoming NSS Data students? 

“You get what you put into this class and I suggest giving your absolute best.” 

HIRED

After Suzanne graduated from Full-time Data Analytics Cohort 5, she worked as Teaching Assistant at NSS before accepting her first role as a data analyst! Congrats, Suzanne! We are excited to see where your new career path takes you! 

Connect with Suzanne on her LinkedIn profile and get to know more about her capstone project and NSS experience when you listen to her podcast below: 

Meet more of the graduates from Full-time Data Analytics Cohort 5 by visiting their class website!