Cat® Digital, at Caterpillar Inc., serves a diverse user base through an e-Commerce site with visitors including personal consumers, sole proprietors, and large organizations. Students on this team will analyze e-commerce site clickstream data, and develop algorithms to classify unique customer types, developing dynamic website content to best serve each persona.
Abstract:
eCommerce is an important part of Caterpillar’s business. Due to our global footprint and product line, our customers are diverse, ranging from personal consumers who own one backhoe to large organizations with fleets of heavy machinery. This creates a challenge to design an eCommerce site that positively impacts each user’s experience individually.
The student team will develop personas that will be dynamically identified based on clickstream analysis of our eCommerce site and user information from various Caterpillar internal sources. These personas will then be used to dynamically tailor web content to better suit a detected persona (including funnel stage) and improve site performance.
More Information
User Interface Design (1 student)
Specific Skills: UI/UX Design, usability studies, graphic design experience/interest desirable
Likely Majors: SI (MS), A&D, CS (All)
General Programming (3 – 4 students)
Specific Skills: General Programming skills, good software engineering practice and design
Likely Majors: CS (All)
Database / Backend Design (1 student)
Specific Skills: Experienced with database and backend design, ideally with advanced coursework.
Likely Majors: CS (All), DATA (All)
Business Development (1 – 2 students)
Specific Skills: Customer Needs analysis, branding and marketing, business metrics, focus group testing (These students must have basic coding skills)
Likely Majors: BBA with CS Minor, CS with BBA minor, IOE
Sponsor Mentors
Greg Gruber
Sponsor Mentor
Greg recently joined Caterpillar as the Principle Analytics Manager, Business & Operations Analytics for Cat Digital. He is currently responsible for advanced analytics supporting revenue growth and e-commerce. Greg has worked in Research & Development, Manufacturing, Product Development and Supply Chain, and has spent much of his career doing Business Analytics. He earned his BS in Industrial Engineering at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, and his MS in Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI.
Brad Rozboril
Sponsor Mentor
Brad is currently responsible for leading the eCommerce development teams that deliver new features and site improvements to support selling through the online channel for multiple lines of business including Aftermarket Parts Sales, Home & Outdoor Power, and Machines & Attachments. He started at Caterpillar in 1997 and has held Information Technology leadership roles responsible for the development and delivery of IT Solutions across various areas of the business including: Parts Distribution, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Procurement, and Dealer Systems. He recently led internal Digital Workplace technology transformations focused on improving Collaboration tools and PC and Desktop Engineering / Support.
Jeff Krupp
Executive Sponsor Mentor
Jeff Krupp joined Caterpillar in 2019 as the Director of Applications for Cat Digital. Within his role at Cat Digital, he works with his Digital peers and industry partners to execute Caterpillar’s cohesive digital strategy overseeing the development and user experience for Cat Digital’s broad portfolio of applications that support Caterpillar’s dealers and customers. Prior to Caterpillar, Jeff has served as the Chief Information Office of Agent & Broker Technology, SVP of Technology for OEM products and services at FordDirect and has a 10 year career with Ford Motor Company. Jeff holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Dan Reaume
Executive Sponsor Mentor
Dan Reaume is the Chief Analytics Director at Caterpillar. In this role, Dan leads a world-class organization of data scientists, mathematicians, developers, and statisticians designing and developing advanced predictive analytics and optimization algorithms to drive greater competitive advantage value for Caterpillar, its dealers, and its customers. Dan provides strategic and tactical leadership to set technical priorities, improve modeling practices, maximize value generation, and deepen expertise in key practice areas. Prior to joining Caterpillar, Dan led Revenue Analytics’ analytics organization as Vice-President of Operations Research; led pricing and customer experience analytics efforts for Dow Chemical; was the founding director of Advanced Analytics for Dow Corning; and served as technical fellow and leader of the Senior Leadership Technical Council for General Motors. Dan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Windsor, Master’s degree in Management of Technology from the University of Waterloo and a PHD/ MS from the University of Michigan in Industrial and Operations Engineering, Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Faculty Mentor
Gail Hohner
Director, Multidisciplinary Design Program
Gail Hohner has been director of the MDP for over ten years where she is responsible for overseeing the whole program and has previously been the faculty mentor for multiple sponsored teams. She brings 17 years of global industrial experience, including leading global research in game theory/combinatorial auction design, commodity forecasting, business analysis, consumer product development, and primary chocolate research. While in industry she created a number of University/Industry research partnerships. In addition, she was a founding member of a successful internet-based logistics website and maintains a small consulting practice in procurement auction design. Gail holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Master of Science in Food Science, both awarded by Cornell University.
Course Substitutions: Honors, ChE Elective, CS MDE/Capstone, CE MDE, Data Science Capstone, EE MDE, IOE Senior Design
Internship/Summer Opportunity: Students will be guaranteed an interview for a 2021 internship. The interviews will take place between January 15 and March 1, 2021. Students employed in a summer internship must be approved in the Caterpillar compliance screening process.
Citizenship Requirements: This project is open to all students.
IP/NDA: Students will sign standard University of Michigan IP/NDA documents.