Built for Industry: Nishith Thakkar and Akshansh Akshansh lead the next wave of data analytics
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At Ravensbourne University London, learning happens through real-world collaboration with industry pioneers , and as part of our Learning with Industry initiative, postgraduate students from our MSc Business & Data Analytics course navigated through live business challenges alongside tech startup founders.
We caught up with 2 of the 40 students from the September 2025 MSc Business & Data Analytics cohort, who participated in the initiative; 21 of those working directly with startup founders to tackle real-world business challenges.
The initiative has already generated seven internship opportunities and over five Springer conference papers in development. Building on this success, new partnerships involving incubator spaces are being explored to create further opportunities for students and startups to collaborate beyond the classroom.
Externally, we are launching a targeted thought-leadership campaign linked to our research paper, Making Industry Real in the Classroom, while co-branding announcements with partner startups and new incubator spaces to position Ravensbourne as a leading hub for industry-embedded innovation.
Here is how two of our students applied data science and machine learning to deliver measurable impact for their partner companies, securing post-graduate internships in the process.
Nishith quote
I'm an MSc Business & Data Analytics student working on data analysis, dashboards, and a bit of ML/NLP along the way. My dissertation is with LEVRA, an EdTech company; I've been helping them clean up and make sense of their learner data , and that work turned into a secured internship with them.”
Nishith worked directly with EdTech startup LEVRA to refine, clean, and analyse complex learner data during his dissertation. His project led directly to a Data Analyst Internship with LEVRA. He built two interactive Streamlit dashboards using Snowflake to centralise data across 17 disparate client spreadsheets. The solution gives LEVRA clear visibility into skill demand, skill gaps, and real-time client metrics across 15 organisations and 735 learners. Additionally, he automated feedback analysis across 1,300+ open-text comments using Natural Language Processing (NLP) thematic grouping and helped resolve a critical data pipeline bug.
Margie LEVRA quote
We were thoroughly impressed by their talent, sharpness, and enthusiasm throughout the project. The insights they provided were invaluable in the shaping of our 2026 State of Human Skills report and additionally they helped us understand our data in ways that will inform what we track going forward. The level of quality and impact, and hard work from the students is something we’re so appreciative of.”
Through his MSc research, Akshansh secured two distinct roles, including a Data & Natural Language Processing (NLP) Internship at PropTech startup RealGood, which developed directly out of his dissertation work.
Akshansh quote
My MSc in Business and Data Analytics at Ravensbourne led to two internships: Business Developer & Analyst at Crescendo Digital, and a Data & NLP internship at RealGood, a PropTech start-up, which let me work with real, live data and see the direct impact of my own analysis.”
Addressing regulatory compliance in housing, Akshansh designed an automated analytical tool that parses housing tribunal case documents using NLP. The tool categorises legal infringements by type and location, presenting spatial trends on an interactive map. His analysis revealed changing geographic risk zones over time, directly shaping RealGood’s core product roadmap and risk-assessment models.
Olafare Olagbaju, Founder of RealGood quote
Working with Ravensbourne University London’s MSc Business and Data Analytics students was a memorable and rewarding experience, and reinforced the value of project-based learning in addressing real business challenges. The students brought a thoughtful, professional and data-driven approach to their work, helping us develop the foundations of realgood’s risk-assessment model and informing our future product priorities.”
To read more about MSc Business & Data Analytics course offerings, click here.
