Last year, Drexel University and CIO.com teamed up to present the first Analytics 50 Awards program. We're proud of our partnership with our friends at Drexel’s Lebow College of Business and proud of the 50 innovative winners from our debut program, which included such impressive organizations as AstraZeneca, Farmers Insurance, GE, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Major League Soccer and UPS -- to name just a few.

We may be a bit biased, but we think the Analytics 50 is great example of what can happen when media and academia collaborate. Drexel University's Decisions Sciences department and CIO.com both remain committed to recognizing excellence in analytics and its real-world applications. We love the Analytics 50, but the year-long coverage of analytics on CIO.com and the range of business analytics programs offered by Drexel shows we share the passion exemplified by last year's winners.

Enter the Analytics 50

“Last year’s inaugural recognition provided an exciting look into the powerful ways analytics are being used across industries,” said Murugan Anandarajan, PhD, Department Head, Decision Sciences and MIS at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business. “We anticipate another lineup of impressive nominations this year, and we’re eager to continue to bring analytics to the forefront of industry achievements.”

We know that innovation never takes a year off. If you entered the Analytics 50 last year, we hope you will again this year. If you didn’t, we hope you will submit your project here before April 30, 2017.

A panel of technology leaders from both academia and the IT industry will review the nominations and judge submissions based on the complexity of the business challenge, the innovation of the analytics product or service used, and the impact the project had on the organization.

Drexel’s Lebow College of Business and CIO.com will host an Analytics 50 awards ceremony and dinner at Drexel University’s Philadelphia campus on November 2, 2017. Winners will also be featured on CIO.om and in CIO Digital Magazine.

Read about last's winners: Analytics 50: How big data innovators reap results

Listing of 2016 Analytics 50 honorees