HUNTSVILLE — Students at two Huntsville HBCUs will take part in a program to solve real world problems using data and AI.

FICO is expanding its Educational Analytics Challenge for the first time at J.F. Drake State Community & Technical College.

The global analytic software company is continuing its two-year partnership with Alabama A&M University.

In its second year, the semester-long program also serves to inspire the next generation of data scientists. FICO’s Chief Analytics Officer Dr. Scott Zoldi and his team of world-class data scientists will provide weekly lectures and mentor the students. Zoldi will also give in-person lectures at the schools.

The spring ‘25 challenge will focus on teaching students how to fight against payment transaction fraud.

Criminals often commit financial fraud by mimicking legitimate banking behavior to secure billions in customer funds, and banks need to leverage transactional analytics to identify and prevent fraud. The students will have the opportunity to build their own real-time fraud detection model based on transactional behavioral analytics to identify fraud.

“It’s very rewarding that schools are embracing the Analytics Challenge; the partnership with the faculty and student participants has helped grow the program tremendously since its launch,” said Zoldi. “To continue FICO’s goal of educating and empowering the next generation of data scientists, we are also giving the Analytics Challenge participants the opportunity to participate in summer internships in my organization.

“We look forward to continuing our work to diversify and expand the industry with the best and brightest.”

The challenge also provides financial support to enhance analytics study for each participating HBCU and offers resources to learn more about internship opportunities for student participants.