Principal aims to help individuals by providing income protection through disability income insurance so that when the unexpected happens, people are better able to continue living the lifestyle they’veworked for. Students on this team will work to design and prototype a working digital process flow that allows the key stakeholders in the disability insurance market to collaborate digitally and makes the experience parallel to – or better than – consumer digital expectations.
Abstract:
Principal is well known in the financial services industry for serving small to mid-size employers. One of the services they provide is disability income insurance, which helps people when the unexpected happens and they become too sick or hurt to work. There is a team of people involved in providing this coverage – sales people, underwriters, insurance companies, and others. This process is often manual, not tracked, and may not feel like other experiences customers have. Students on this teamwill work to design and prototype a working digital process flow that allows the key stakeholders to collaborate digitally and makes the experience parallel to – or better than – consumer digital expectations.
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: Experience 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 Mentor
Tony Tavegia, Director of IT Architecture
In his 25 years of Principal, Tony has delivered and led in technology, information security, and technical strategist roles. Currently, Tony works in our insurance innovation group, mentoring novel and startup-related ideas and helping them find their opportunity in real implementations. His outside interests include photography and 3D printing.
Faculty Mentor
Michael Hess
Michael Hess, adjunct lecturer, Solution Architect Lead at the University of Michigan and lead of the Drupal Security Team. Drupal is an open source content management framework that underlies at least 2% of the world’s websites, including whitehouse.gov and data.gov.uk. Hess works with the School of Information and the U-M Medical Center, teaching 3 courses on content management platform and overseeing the functionality of several campus websites. He also serves in a consulting and development role for many other University departments. Hess is a graduate of UMSI, with a Master’s Degree in Information.
Course Substitutions: Honors, ChE Elective, CS MDE/Capstone, CE MDE, EE MDE, IOE Senior Design
Internship/Summer Opportunity: Students will be guaranteed an interview for summer 2021 internships. The interviews will take place in January/February 2021.
Citizenship Requirements: This project is open to all students.
IP/NDA: Students will sign IP/NDA document(s) that are unique to Principal.