Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Benefits & Data Analytics Henry Davidson with three of the Athletic Department's data science interns: Ahmad Firas, Ira Snahoshchenko and Yashwardhan Ghadge.
Toledo Athletics Data Internship Program Aids the Rockets, Spurs Student Careers
4/15/2026 9:14:00 AM | Athletics
Students in first-year program have worked on projects that have benefited the Rockets and their own career aspirations
TOLEDO, Ohio – When the University of Toledo Athletic Department announced the creation of a Data Science Internship Program a year ago, the goal was to offer UToledo students a hands-on experience in applying data science to athletics while supporting the department's goals of elevating performance, optimizing resources, and maximizing return on student-athlete benefit investments.
One year in, it has been mission accomplished. And it is just getting started.
Created in collaboration with UToledo's new School of Interdisciplinary Data Science, the program has collected and analyzed troves of useful data for Athletics administrators and coaches, while spurring the career prospects of the five interns who joined the program this past school year. The interns are Ahmad Firas Azfar Ahmad Fer Rouse, Yashwardhan Ghadge, Bryan Kwan, Purshottham Singh Thakur and Ira Snahoshchenko, who also served as UToledo Student Body President this past academic year.
"The program has been fantastic," said Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Benefits & Data Analytics Henry Davidson, who coordinates the program for the Athletic Department. "It's really helped me with my time management, to get projects done that I might not otherwise have had time for. Just as important, it's been great to help students build relationships within the athletic department, and also help them better understand how analytics can be used in sports."
Davidson said among the numerous projects from the past year were building an AI tool to help the men's basketball program evaluate the nearly 2,700 student-athletes in the transfer portal, developing dashboards for tracking development and fundraising data, as well as improving overall AI literacy and AI usage across the department.
Kwan, who is pursuing a Master of Applied Business Analytics in the John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation, was one of the students who worked on the project for the men's basketball program. He appreciated the opportunity to work on a project with practical benefits for the Rockets.
"The goal was to create something that the coaching staff could actually use for decision-making rather than just a theoretical model," said Kwan. "It gave me the opportunity to work across the full process, from data collection and modeling to building a functional and user-friendly interface."
Ghadge, a junior in the College of Natural Science and Mathematics, said his internship has been an invaluable part of his education. He has gone on to receive an internship with First Solar.
"This internship served as a launchpad for my career," said Ghadge, who learned about the internship through Dr. Bill Kalies, director of the School of Interdisciplinary Data Science. "It provided hands-on experience that was invaluable. I gained practical exposure to real-world problems and tools, which directly helped me secure my role at First Solar. During my interview process, much of the discussion revolved around my internship experience, and I was able to confidently answer technical questions because I had already worked on similar challenges."
Davidson said that while the primary goal of the program is to help advance the careers of UToledo students, he also sees tremendous growth potential that will benefit the Athletic Department.
"I want all my current interns to get full-time jobs somewhere and continue to do great things," said Davidson, a former track & field student-athlete at Franklin (Ind.) College who holds a Master of Science in Data Analytics from the University of Indianapolis. "I also want to grow the data analytics department, whether that means continuing the internship or bringing on people full-time, to continue to make an impact on the department. I hope we can remain involved with the data science program  and continue to provide an opportunity for students to get a meaningful real-world experience."
Paid internships are available for the 2026-27 school year for up to three student interns who can earn academic credit in Data Science. Interns need to be pursuing a degree in Data Science, Computer Science, or related field with experience in programming for data-driven tasks, data analysis, and data visualization.
Interested students can apply through Handshake:Â https://app.joinhandshake.com/jobs/10145788?searchId=
Â
About the UToledo Data Science Program
The University of Toledo School of Interdisciplinary Data Science was established in the spring of 2025 to foster excellence in data science education, research, and innovation. The school currently has a Bachelor of Science in Data Science program and an undergraduate Minor in Data Science. A Master of Science in Data Science degree is also in development. Internships are extremely valuable for data science students to get exposure to real-world problems, apply their skills in a practical setting, and for career development.
The University of Toledo's Data Science Program prepares students to solve complex problems using data-driven approaches across a wide range of industries. With a curriculum that blends computer science, statistics, and domain-specific knowledge, the program emphasizes experiential learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and ethical data practices. Through partnerships like the one with Toledo Athletics, students gain real-world experience applying data science to areas such as sports performance, business operations, and fan engagement.
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What students are saying about the Data Science Internship Program
"This internship has definitely increased my interest in data manipulation and database management. I learn new things about data science every day, which I know will help me greatly as an aspiring software engineer. The data skills I learn here perfectly complement the coding work I do for my fellowship and my class projects. It is also very rewarding to serve the university in another capacity, alongside my other roles on campus. More importantly, this role has helped me realize how a positive work environment and supportive coworkers can greatly increase your productivity."
Purshottam Singh
Junior, Computer Science
Â
"One of the most interesting projects I worked on was creating a Power BI dashboard for the marketing team to analyze current performance metrics. I also developed a scholarship dashboard in Domo that tracked scholarship budgets across different sports and monitored how they were distributed among student-athletes. Since this system was part of a relatively new partnership for athletics, it was exciting to explore and implement something new while also helping the team better understand and utilize the data."
Yashwardhan Ghadge
Senior, College of Natural Science and Mathematics
Â
"My long-term goal is to work as an AI Engineer, building end-to-end data systems that drive real decisions at scale. This internship has been a meaningful step toward that. Working directly with senior Athletics leadership on live data problems has strengthened my analytics and data engineering fundamentals in ways that classroom work alone cannot replicate. The team here brings complementary expertise, and learning alongside them has sharpened both my technical skills and my ability to communicate insights to non-technical stakeholders which is something every good AI engineer needs."
Ahmad Firas Azfar Ahmad Fer Rouse
Senior, Computer Science and Engineering
Â
"One thing that really surprised me about the internship was how much I ended up learning beyond what I expected going in. Coming from a business analytics background, I initially thought my work would stay more within tools like Excel or visualization platforms. Instead, I was exposed to technologies like VS Code, GitHub, and tools like Claude, which pushed me into more technical areas. Over time, I started building not just the analytical side, but also parts of the frontend and backend of projects. That experience really expanded my skill set and gave me a much stronger technical foundation than I anticipated."
Bryan H. Kwan
Master of Applied Business Analytics
John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation
Â
One year in, it has been mission accomplished. And it is just getting started.
Created in collaboration with UToledo's new School of Interdisciplinary Data Science, the program has collected and analyzed troves of useful data for Athletics administrators and coaches, while spurring the career prospects of the five interns who joined the program this past school year. The interns are Ahmad Firas Azfar Ahmad Fer Rouse, Yashwardhan Ghadge, Bryan Kwan, Purshottham Singh Thakur and Ira Snahoshchenko, who also served as UToledo Student Body President this past academic year.
"The program has been fantastic," said Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Benefits & Data Analytics Henry Davidson, who coordinates the program for the Athletic Department. "It's really helped me with my time management, to get projects done that I might not otherwise have had time for. Just as important, it's been great to help students build relationships within the athletic department, and also help them better understand how analytics can be used in sports."
Davidson said among the numerous projects from the past year were building an AI tool to help the men's basketball program evaluate the nearly 2,700 student-athletes in the transfer portal, developing dashboards for tracking development and fundraising data, as well as improving overall AI literacy and AI usage across the department.
Kwan, who is pursuing a Master of Applied Business Analytics in the John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation, was one of the students who worked on the project for the men's basketball program. He appreciated the opportunity to work on a project with practical benefits for the Rockets.
"The goal was to create something that the coaching staff could actually use for decision-making rather than just a theoretical model," said Kwan. "It gave me the opportunity to work across the full process, from data collection and modeling to building a functional and user-friendly interface."
Ghadge, a junior in the College of Natural Science and Mathematics, said his internship has been an invaluable part of his education. He has gone on to receive an internship with First Solar.
"This internship served as a launchpad for my career," said Ghadge, who learned about the internship through Dr. Bill Kalies, director of the School of Interdisciplinary Data Science. "It provided hands-on experience that was invaluable. I gained practical exposure to real-world problems and tools, which directly helped me secure my role at First Solar. During my interview process, much of the discussion revolved around my internship experience, and I was able to confidently answer technical questions because I had already worked on similar challenges."
Davidson said that while the primary goal of the program is to help advance the careers of UToledo students, he also sees tremendous growth potential that will benefit the Athletic Department.
"I want all my current interns to get full-time jobs somewhere and continue to do great things," said Davidson, a former track & field student-athlete at Franklin (Ind.) College who holds a Master of Science in Data Analytics from the University of Indianapolis. "I also want to grow the data analytics department, whether that means continuing the internship or bringing on people full-time, to continue to make an impact on the department. I hope we can remain involved with the data science program  and continue to provide an opportunity for students to get a meaningful real-world experience."
Paid internships are available for the 2026-27 school year for up to three student interns who can earn academic credit in Data Science. Interns need to be pursuing a degree in Data Science, Computer Science, or related field with experience in programming for data-driven tasks, data analysis, and data visualization.
Interested students can apply through Handshake:Â https://app.joinhandshake.com/jobs/10145788?searchId=
Â
About the UToledo Data Science Program
The University of Toledo School of Interdisciplinary Data Science was established in the spring of 2025 to foster excellence in data science education, research, and innovation. The school currently has a Bachelor of Science in Data Science program and an undergraduate Minor in Data Science. A Master of Science in Data Science degree is also in development. Internships are extremely valuable for data science students to get exposure to real-world problems, apply their skills in a practical setting, and for career development.
The University of Toledo's Data Science Program prepares students to solve complex problems using data-driven approaches across a wide range of industries. With a curriculum that blends computer science, statistics, and domain-specific knowledge, the program emphasizes experiential learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and ethical data practices. Through partnerships like the one with Toledo Athletics, students gain real-world experience applying data science to areas such as sports performance, business operations, and fan engagement.
Â
What students are saying about the Data Science Internship Program
"This internship has definitely increased my interest in data manipulation and database management. I learn new things about data science every day, which I know will help me greatly as an aspiring software engineer. The data skills I learn here perfectly complement the coding work I do for my fellowship and my class projects. It is also very rewarding to serve the university in another capacity, alongside my other roles on campus. More importantly, this role has helped me realize how a positive work environment and supportive coworkers can greatly increase your productivity."
Purshottam Singh
Junior, Computer Science
Â
"One of the most interesting projects I worked on was creating a Power BI dashboard for the marketing team to analyze current performance metrics. I also developed a scholarship dashboard in Domo that tracked scholarship budgets across different sports and monitored how they were distributed among student-athletes. Since this system was part of a relatively new partnership for athletics, it was exciting to explore and implement something new while also helping the team better understand and utilize the data."
Yashwardhan Ghadge
Senior, College of Natural Science and Mathematics
Â
"My long-term goal is to work as an AI Engineer, building end-to-end data systems that drive real decisions at scale. This internship has been a meaningful step toward that. Working directly with senior Athletics leadership on live data problems has strengthened my analytics and data engineering fundamentals in ways that classroom work alone cannot replicate. The team here brings complementary expertise, and learning alongside them has sharpened both my technical skills and my ability to communicate insights to non-technical stakeholders which is something every good AI engineer needs."
Ahmad Firas Azfar Ahmad Fer Rouse
Senior, Computer Science and Engineering
Â
"One thing that really surprised me about the internship was how much I ended up learning beyond what I expected going in. Coming from a business analytics background, I initially thought my work would stay more within tools like Excel or visualization platforms. Instead, I was exposed to technologies like VS Code, GitHub, and tools like Claude, which pushed me into more technical areas. Over time, I started building not just the analytical side, but also parts of the frontend and backend of projects. That experience really expanded my skill set and gave me a much stronger technical foundation than I anticipated."
Bryan H. Kwan
Master of Applied Business Analytics
John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation
Â
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