Because of these proactive interventions all students benefited, but the students who benefited the most were first generation, low-income and students of color. While some students are good at keeping track of their academic progress, students from low-income backgrounds may find it more difficult to spot a problem, chose the right courses from an abundance of offerings and navigate the university bureaucracy. Renick analyzed past student data at Georgia State to make forecasts about current students' academic outcomes, a type of study known as predictive analytics. Martin Kurzweil, director of the Educational Transformation Program at Ithaka S+R, a nonprofit research group tasked with evaluating Renick's study because it relies on federal money, called the result "pretty much unprecedented, it's fantastic." Ryan Baker, associate professor at University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, said that similar algorithms have been proved successful in auto insurance and banking.