College of Charleston and BoomTown are working to help match people with their dream homes.
BoomTown, a web-based software company specializing in real estate marketing, sought assistance from the Data Science Research Lab in the College’s Computer Science Department for help with advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Under the direction of professor Paul Anderson, director of the data science degree program, several data science students have been working in collaboration with BoomTown to research and develop novel deep learning algorithms that will help drive new products and services offered by BoomTown.
Anderson says the partnership benefits both the College and Boomtown by combining the strong research capabilities and talent at the College of Charleston with an industry-leading, Charleston-based software company. “We are the research team that investigates an interesting cutting edge problem, and they are the business side of the venture,” he says. “It works out pretty well.”
Paul Anderson on campus.
BoomTown CEO Grier Allen agrees. “Working with the College of Charleston Data Science Research Lab has truly been a win-win for BoomTown and the College,” says Allen. “At BoomTown we strive to make the home buying and selling experience better for consumers and professionals. There are many opportunities to advance our field with emerging technology like machine learning and artificial intelligence. The College has great faculty and talented students that can help us research these possibilities, and it also provides the students with invaluable real world experience in their chosen field of study. We look forward to continuing to expand our relationship with the College of Charleston in the future.”
Anderson says the project will provide valuable experience to students since they will apply data analytics they’ve learned in the classroom to authentic industry research projects. And he hopes to continue collaborating with Boomtown on future projects.
“In addition to real estate, our data science students can conduct research projects for the healthcare, financial, cyber security, and numerous other industry sectors.”
RELATED: Read how a CofC alum helped grow BoomTown into a digital marketing powerhouse.
