Mandy Arola

Mandy has been following developers & tech companies at meetups since 2016. She is NSS’s chief content wrangler, a.k.a. marketing manager. When she’s not writing blogs, managing social media, pestering instructors & graduates for content, or attending meetups, you can find her traveling the world or at home with her beloved dog Lola.
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Recent Posts

What Makes A Song Popular? | Discovery Through Data
Apr 24, 2018
As a musician, Taylor Perkins knew his Data Science mid-course project had to involve music. Taylor wondered, “What makes a great song? What makes a popular song? Is there some secret formula that just draws in listeners?” He hypothesized that the energy and key of the song are important factors for a popular song and explored that in his project. Read More

Topics: Analytics + Data Science

Bring Your Skills With You | Graduate Spotlight
Apr 19, 2018
Are you in a career you love, but don’t see any growth opportunity? Becoming a software developer may allow you to pivot your career. Some of our graduates find jobs as junior software developers in the same industry or that utilize the skills they built before bootcamp. Jesse Page was able to pivot and still use her sound design skills. Read More

Topics: Student Stories

Does It Pass The Bechdel Test? | Discovery Through Data
Apr 18, 2018
Have you heard of the Bechdel Test? The test is a simple three point check that examines the gender imbalance in movies. Shruti Sharma decided to examine the Bechdel Test for her data science mid-course project. She explained, “I think it is an insightful way of looking at the issue of gender imbalance and how skewed its representation in pop culture is.” Read More

Topics: Analytics + Data Science

2018 Hack For The Community A Success
Apr 17, 2018
After 36 hours, there was still a lot of energy in the room as the 20 Hack For The Community teams shared what they built with their fellow developers, designers, and community members. Nearly 30 NSS students and alumni participated in the hackathon. I caught up with a few of them to talk about their experience. Read More

Topics: Alumni, Student Stories, Community

Software Developers Run on Coffee | Graduate Spotlight
Apr 11, 2018
Prior to NSS, Dre Randaci was the head of operations for an e-commerce startup selling imported Italian coffee equipment in the southeast. He traveled around the region consulting with clients who were opening cafes, designing their bar flow, determining equipment needs, and keeping things organized in the process. He enjoyed his job, but there wasn’t much room for growth. So he decided to explore software development. Read More
Are Vector-Borne Diseases Becoming More Prevalent? | Discovery Through Data
Apr 10, 2018
Have you thought about how changes in our climate might impact the spread of disease? With his background in biology and interest in global health and the climate, Sanjay Mishra wanted to know if the expanding geography of warmer seasons is allowing the vector population (mosquitoes, ticks, flies) to grow more rapidly, and thus increasing the rate of vector-borne diseases, such as West Nile Virus, Dengue, and Zika, or causing them to occur in new regions. Read More

Topics: Analytics + Data Science

The Desire to Help Others And Be Creative Lead To Software Development | Graduate Spotlight
Apr 5, 2018
Kristen Norris was working for a non-profit when she decided to make a career change. Software development felt like a great way to create things and continue to help others. Learn about Kristen's journey at NSS and the capstones she built. Read More

Topics: Student Stories

Is There An Achievement Gap Based on School Funding? | Discovery Through Data
Apr 3, 2018
Intrigued by Nashville’s significant economic growth in recent years and increased accessibility of data from the State of Tennessee, Paulo Martinez wanted to see if there was a correlation between the allocation of financial resources to school districts and educational outcomes, using ACT scores. Is the recent economic growth impacting the achievement gap in Tennessee? And is this increased revenue being distributed equally across school districts? Read More

Topics: Analytics + Data Science

When Was The Golden Age For Video Games? | Discovery Through Data
Mar 29, 2018
Justin Rothbart has fond memories of his excited anticipation as the release date for a new video game approached. Video games allow him to connect to his youth, with some of his favorite games and series originating in the late 90’s. For his mid-course project in our data science bootcamp, he wanted to see if his view of video games from the late 90’s being the best matched the views of other video game fans. Read More

Topics: Analytics + Data Science

Cohort 22 Wraps Up Six Months With A Busy Demo Day
Mar 27, 2018
On Friday, we graduated our latest class of full stack C#/.NET developers. With over 65 hiring managers, in-house recruiters, developers, and alumni stopping by, our graduates showcased their capstones for four hours non-stop. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?