For Cobi Illian, a deep dive into statistical analysis during his undergraduate coursework at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology was the catalyst for exploration that led to his future academic and career pursuits.
Illian, a math bachelor’s (2019) and engineering management master’s (2020) alumnus, was a third-year student when he expanded on the lessons of his statistics courses by examining the many ways to use data in real-world scenarios.
It was a pursuit driven by Illian’s fascination with the expertise and research that his statistics professors brought to class sessions—and by Rose-Hulman’s focus on challenging students to think about concepts in new ways.
“Oftentimes, I would think more deeply about what I was learning, instead of just taking in what they said,” Illian said of his classwork. “I could ask further questions about what else we can do with what we learned on this topic, how we can apply it to something else, or how it relates to other topics we’ve learned in other classes.”
Illian, encouraged by faculty to pursue his interest in practical applications for statistical data, explored the issue in his senior project coursework. As he built his knowledge and skills in what he calls “an undergraduate degree that’s about as technical as you can get,” he again followed his curiosity as he considered what was next.
He decided to add interpersonal skills through a management degree, in his case an engineering management master’s, from Rose-Hulman. Now he combines the technical expertise and curiosity sparked during his undergraduate work with the management skills of his graduate degree in his role as senior technical consultant for ServiceNow, an information technology service management software company.
Illian’s work calls for him to help customers uncover business workflow challenges, identify and implement solutions, and then—in a way that’s easy to understand—describe the tools and processes that can improve efficiency.
But Illian’s work also has called on him to develop new cybersecurity skills, and he knew that would be the case when he pursued that career path. Again, the discovery-focused education he received at Rose-Hulman, has paid off.
“I have the comfort and confidence to step into a new role,” Illian said. “I know I can figure things out. One of the biggest things I learned is how to learn on my own and how to learn new things.”