P.C. Rossin College of
Engineering and Applied Science
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Cecil (Jelissa) Kayo Kamguem

Student: Cecile (Jelissa) Kayo Kamguem

Project: Social Media Mining for Understanding Users' Sentiment and Informing Stakeholders

View: Research Poster (PDF)

Institution: Lafayette College

Major: Chemical Engineering and Data Science

Advisor: Christian Lopez Bencosme

Abstract

 As an engineer, designing exactly what is required by a client is most of the time a challenge. This is because many clients consuming the same product have different perspectives on what should be improved. Nowadays, customer reviews on a specific product can be obtained online which provides valuable information for an engineer on what problem to solve. Using data mining, this process is simplified  since data obtained is analyzed and represented in features and insights that can be understood by engineers and designers. 

The aim of this study is to demonstrate the value of data mining in the engineering design process. A case study is presented were online reviews from Walmart’s coffee maker are analyzed. Close to a hundred reviews were collected and a word cloud and semantic network analysis were performed. These data-mining techniques allow extracting valuable insights from online customer reviews. For example, the results showed that the inconsistent taste of the coffee maker was a significant drawback. Data-mining tools could be very useful for engineers to incorporate clients' views in  identifying potential growth areas of a product. In addition to this, for some new market products, with no customer reviews, searching for customer reviews of similar products could be a valuable alternative. This data obtained from customer reviews will ensure that engineers stay on the tract of producing what the clients want; hence, helping to ensure the long term success of their product.

About Cecil (Jelissa) Kayo Kamguem

Kayo Jelissa is a first-year student studying Chemical engineering and data science at Lafayette college. As a Bezos Scholar 2018, she was able to design a curriculum for the South African Ideas Festival 2019 that took place at the African Leadership Academy. Passionate about research, she did an independent study on the production of bioethanol from potato peels. In addition to this, She interned at the Bezos foundation and worked with a team to organize the Aspen Challenge 2020. She is currently doing research at Lafayette college on the use of data mining and online customer reviews to add value to the engineering design process. She looks forward to sharing her experience in data mining during the David and Lorriane Freed undergraduate research symposium.