Work Experience

Progressive Insurance Co., Sr Data Analyst

January 2024 - Present

I work with the Funnel Optimization unit within the Underwriting and Verification Team. I am currently the lead analyst on several projects related to the use of customer-submitted photos for verification and rate optimization on new and existing auto policies.

Landing, Sr Business Intelligence Analyst

October 2023 - November 2023

I worked briefly with Landing’s Field Operations team to better understand and quantify employee workload in the field. Unfortunately, I was laid off due to company-wide downsizing shortly after joining the company.

Strike, Data Analyst

April 2022 - June 2023

I worked across multiple teams, including Compliance, Fraud Ops, Trust & Safety, and Customer Service. I performed a variety of data-related tasks, including basic data exploration and reporting, data analysis, data visualization, and advanced data modeling. I worked particularly close with the Trust & Safety and Customer Service teams to drive in-app changes that reduced fraud without compromising user experience.

Notable achievement: I worked closely with the Trust & Safety team to implement data-driven features that reduced fraudulent transactions on the platform. Specifically, I helped guide the implementation of "smart" user limits (e.g., automatic adjustment of deposit limits based on user behavior data) and criteria for access to "instant credit" (i.e., immediate access to unsettled deposit funds).

City Enterprises, Director of Data Science

April 2021 - April 2022

Leveraging both internal and external data streams, I helped optimize car dealership inventory across multiple dealerships and created models to forecast sales performance of individual vehicles. I also helped develop, track, and forecast high-level KPIs related to auto sales.

Notable achievement: To guide vehicle purchases at auction, I built ML models to predict the sales performance (days on lot and profit) of individual vehicles with the ultimate goal of increasing inventory turnover and maximizing per-unit profits.

University of Alabama at Birmingham, Research Assistant

August 2017 - April 2021

I worked in the UAB Biomechanics Lab and the Human Neuromodulation Lab while completing my doctoral studies and dissertation. I collected and processed data related to human movement, conducted statistical analysis on large, complex data sets, and presented and published findings. You can see a full catalog of my academic work on Google Scholar.

Notable achievement: To date, I have 11 peer-reviewed publications and 12 national and international conference presentations from multiple projects completed at UAB. In 2019, I received the BRAIN Initiative Trainee Travel Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke (NINDS).

East Carolina University, Research & Teaching Assistant

August 2015 - May 2017

I worked in the ECU Biomechanics Lab while completing my masters studies and thesis research. I collected and processed data related to human movement, conducted statistical analysis on large, complex data sets, and presented and published findings. I also served as a teaching assistant in the ECU Department of Kinesiology. I prepared course material, delivered lectures, led laboratory work, and graded assignments for an introductory kinesiology course (Structural Kinesiology). You can see a full catalog of my academic work on Google Scholar.

Notable achievement: I published findings from my Master's thesis in the Journal of Biomechanics, one of the top peer-reviewed academic journals in my field of study. In 2016, I received the Graduate Student Grant-In-Aid from the American Society of Biomechanics to fund my research. In 2017, I received Travel Awards from AMTI Inc., The American Society of Biomechanics, and the American College of Sports Medicine. I also received American Kinesiology Association’s National Master’s Scholar Award.

University of Memphis, Research Assistant

June 2014 - May 2015

I worked in the Musculoskeletal Dynamics Lab and the Cardiorespiratory and Metabolic Lab while completing my undergraduate studies. I collected and processed data related to human movement and cardiovascular and pulmonary health, conducted statistical analysis on large, complex data sets, and presented and published findings. You can see a full catalog of my academic work on Google Scholar.

Notable achievement: I have 3 peer-reviewed publications and 2 national conference presentations from my work at Memphis. Following graduation, I received the Melvin A. Humphreys Prize for Student Research in 2016.

Education

Google Career Certificate in Business Intelligence

August 2023 - September 2023

I completed the Google Career Certificate in Business Intelligence on Coursera. The certificate require me to complete 3 separate courses, all related to data analytics. These courses included:

• Foundations of Business Intelligence
• The Path to Insights: Data Models and Pipelines
• Decisions, Decisions: Dashboards and Reports

You can view the final certificate here.

Google Career Certificate in Data Analytics

July 2023 - August 2023

I completed the Google Career Certificate in Data Analytics on Coursera. The certificate require me to complete 8 separate courses, all related to data analytics. These courses included:

• Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere
• Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions
• Prepare Data for Exploration
• Process Data from Dirty to Clean
• Analyze Data to Answer Questions
• Share Data Through the Art of Visualization
• Data Analysis with R Programming
• Google Data Analytics Capstone: Complete A Case Study

You can view the final certificate here.

University of Alabama at Birmingham, Ph.D.

August 2017 - August 2021

I worked as a graduate research assistant in the UAB Biomechanics Lab and the Human Neuromodulation Lab while completing my doctor studies and dissertation research. My dissertation, titled "Gait Adaptability with Healthy Aging and Parkinson's Disease," was published in 2021. To date, my work at UAB has resulted in 11 peer-reviewed scientific publications. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA.

East Carolina University, M.S.

August 2015 - May 2017

I worked as a graduate research and teaching assistant in the ECU Biomechanics Lab while completing my master's studies and thesis research. As a research assistant, I completed my thesis, titled "The relationships between physical capacity and biomechanical plasticity in old adults during level and incline walking," in 2017 and published data related to this work in 2018 in the Journal of Biomechanics. As a teaching assistant, I taught 14 sections of an introductory course in the ECU department of Kinesiology and aided in laboratory work for upper level Biomechanics courses. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA.

University of Memphis, B.S.Ed.

August 2011 - May 2015

I was a 4 year member of the cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track teams, was a 7-time All-Conference and 1-time All-Regional athlete, and held the school record for the indoor 5,000 meter run. I also worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Musculoskeletal Dynamics Lab and the Cardiorespiratory and Metabolic Lab. This work ultimately resulted in 3 peer-reviewed publications. I graduated Suma Cum Laude, with honors and a 3.8 GPA.

A few projects...

Work Sample #1: Sales Reporting for Global Superstore

Global Superstore - an online retailer specializing in office items - has asked for a static report that helps them understand their sales data. In addition to sales data across the store as a whole, they asked for insights into sales performance between different global regions. Finally, they asked for a list of their most profitable items.

To do this, I loaded the .csv data they provided into BigQuery, where I transformed the data using SQL prior to extracting it and loading it into R. Once in R, I used R Markdown to generate a static report that addressed their needs.

You can view the full report here (code snippets included!)

You can view the GitHub repository here

Skills demonstrated in this case study:

• BigQuery
• SQL (Filter, Aggregate, Window Functions, CTE Tables)
• R (Markdown, Tidyverse, KableExtra, ggplot)
• Data Cleaning
• Data Visualization

Work Sample #2: Customer Satisfaction at Google Fiber

Google Fiber asked me to create a dashboard using call center data to gain insight into customers who call the center multiple times. If a customer's concern is not addressed after their first call, it may be a sign of poor customer service. This dashboard should help the team undertand repeat callers and monitor repeat calls data in the future to observe whether any changes they make to their customer service process are effective. Ultimately, their goal is to decrease repeat callers by improving customer satisfaction and operational efficiencies.

Google Fiber provided me with three csv files containing all relevant data. I loaded these data into BigQuery, where I unioned them into a single table and then exported to Tableau. In Tableau, I created an interactive dashboard that provided insights into repeat callers over time, which markets the repeat calls were coming from, and which problems were most prevelant for repeat calls.

You can view the final Tableau dashboard here

You can view the final GitHub Repository here

Skills demonstrated in this case study:

• BigQuery
• SQL (Union)
• Tableau
• Data Cleaning

Work Sample #3: Peer-Reviewed Publication

This is a peer-reviewed publication related to my work as a doctoral student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The purpose of the study was to explore differences in motor adaptation during a walking task between healthy younger and older adults.

I led all efforts related to this study, including hypothesis formulation, study design, participant recruitment and enrollment, data collection, data processing (with both commercial and self-developed software), data analysis (MATLAB), statistical analysis and visualization (R), and publication.

You can view the full publication here

You can view a full list of my academic publications here

Skills demonstrated in this case study:

• Research
• Data Collection
• Data Processing
• Data Analysis with MATLAB
• Statistics and Data Visualization with R
• Scientific Writing & Publication

Contact

You can get in touch with me via email at danielkuhman@gmail.com or through any of the links below!

• Send Email
• LinkedIn
• GitHub
• YouTube

Skills

Technical Skills

• SQL
• Python
• R
• MATLAB
• HTML
• CSS
• Git

Data-Specific Tooling

• Google Cloud Platform
• Google BigQuery
• Snowflake
• dbt
• Looker
• Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio)
• Cluvio
• Tableau

Research Skills

• Hypothesis formulation
• Statistical analysis
• Contextualizing results
• Visual presentation
• Written presentation (publication)

Personal Skills

• Independent self-starter
• High bandwidth: ability to work on multiple projects concurrently
• Fast learner
• Highly motivated
• Consistently meet deadlines

Elements

i = 0;

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
}

print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';