Applied data science grad earns major promotion

When Matthew Ray became a captain in the U.S. Army, he was detailed to the Adjutant General Branch, the military’s version of human resources.

He had no experience in this domain but thought it was “going to be a breeze.”

“It turned out to be one of the hardest things, namely because of how heavily involved it is with data,” said Ray, a fourth-generation military member who grew up at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Ray adjusted to the role and is now a data whiz — so much so that he was promoted to major on Monday at a ceremony in Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he works as senior data engineer for the Army Human Resources Command.

Between his realization that he needed to strengthen his data skills and his promotion were two invaluable educational experiences at UNC-Chapel Hill.

First came a certificate in data science from an online bootcamp program in 2023. Ray followed that by earning a Master of Applied Data Science this August from the UNC School of Data Science and Society. Ray and other summer graduates will be recognized Dec. 14 at Carolina’s Winter Commencement.

Ray’s data science schooling at Carolina gave him the needed skills and credentials to grow in his career, find innovative and efficient solutions to large-scale problems facing the Army and even pass on knowledge to his colleagues.

“Hey, If I can do it, anyone else can do it,” he told them.

‘Screw-it moment’

At Fort Bragg, Ray managed people logistics. Between the military members on base and those with the 18th Airborne Corps, he was tracking around 100,000 people.

“Those people have hundreds of attributes — things you’re looking at, ways of describing the data,” Ray said. “You’re detecting patterns, and you’re trying to pursue automation.”

He had reached the limits of Microsoft programs Excel and Power BI and was attempting to teach himself more advanced programs and techniques.

But he kept hitting a wall.

Finally, Ray had what he called a “screw-it moment”: the realization that he needed more formal education to get unstuck.

As an undergraduate at Virginia Military Institute, Ray nearly switched his major from civil engineering to computer science but decided not to, a decision he regretted. He remedied that choice with his studies at Carolina, taking every assignment to the “nth degree.”

“I’ve got 14 years of pent-up energy,” he said. “The passion for data drove me more than the requirement to use the data, if that makes sense. Because if I have a four-hour task of manual input and clicking buttons, I would rather spend the four hours trying to figure out how to automate it.”

After completing his certificate program, Ray felt the MADS program was a natural next step. Once enrolled, he benefited from an interdisciplinary curriculum that gave him a “history lesson” on data science and the evolution of the field and its mechanisms.

Ray even had the opportunity to teach fellow students about how he was using lessons in his Army job, a testament to the “applied” data science degree they were pursuing.

“Hey, I’m touching the new thing actively in my job,” Ray said. “Let me show you all.”

The MADS degree has helped Ray become a more credible voice within the Army on data science topics and gives him a greater influence over policy.

The toughest part of earning the degree for Ray was finding time for it while working full time and raising four children alongside his wife, also in school and working.

He hasn’t run the numbers, but there were plenty of sleepless nights. How’d Ray pull it off?

“Willpower,” he said.