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Career Spotlight: Data Scientist

Dylan Henson, data scientist at UCLA Events and Transportation
Transportation demand management poses an interesting challenge on a university campus, especially one with a limited number of parking spaces and a growing population. That’s where UCLA Transportation Data Scientist Dylan Henson comes in, with a talent for using analytics to predict parking occupancy throughout the day, quarter, and year. Dylan helps Events & Transportation create a positive experience for everyone coming to campus.

Dylan came to the University after a stint in baseball operations, working for Dodger Stadium. He was looking for a new position and felt UCLA was the team to join. A year and a half later, he’s an MVP in UCLA Transportation’s Commuter & Parking Services business unit, having played a critical role in the successful launch of the Bruin ePermit virtual parking permit system.

As a data scientist, Dylan pulls facts and figures to inform decision making about parking services and sustainable transportation programs. He asks questions, uses data to answer those questions, and presents findings in an easily consumable way, often through the use of visualizations. Like an artist, but with quantities instead of colors, Dylan illustrates insights pulled from data gathering to help his colleagues take action.

A typical day on the job involves collaborating with colleagues in different business units, sharing useful information to provide direction on how to proceed with various projects, plans, and programs. For example, Dylan will take information like peak parking usage and event day parking permit sales to build a predictive model to determine what day in the future there will be a certain amount of stalls available in a specific parking area, as well as the different customer types occupying each stall. This analysis, in turn, helps operations run smoother.

Dylan Henson working at his desk.
Dylan may have left the Boys in Blue to be a Bruin, but he’s still a dedicated baseball fan who found a way to strengthen his prediction skills outside the work setting. “I play this iPhone game MLB Beat the Streak. The object of the game is to pick the MLB player who you think will get a hit. It’s a fun way to work on my predictive modeling skills.”

Working with other business units on different assignments has enabled Dylan to build relationships with people across the organization. Along with the necessary math, computer science, and business expertise, this is where strong communication skills are an essential part of the job. Dylan earned degrees in statistics and business analytics at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, but playing intramural sports and participating in a student club also helped prepare him for the different facets of this career.

Each day brings a new challenge, and the work is always interesting. Next up for Dylan is making data more accessible and understandable by creating self-service dashboards that will be available to people throughout the organization.

Dylan’s advice for aspiring data scientists? “Just dive in and get started on a project. Even if the final product doesn’t give you the results you were looking for, you’ll have learned something along the way.”

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