Month: February 2020

New England College Case Competition!

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Location : Bentley University, Waltham MA

When : March 27th 

The Institute of Business Planning and Forecasting (IBF) New England Chapter is pleased to announce the 2nd Annual IBF College Case Competition scheduled for Friday, March 27th.  The case is being written by Jesper Maaloee, Head of Demand Planning for Home Market Foods, and will focus on forecasting and sales and operations planning. There is no cost to the schools or team members other than their travel expenses.

The event is being hosted by Bentley University in Waltham, MA. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for students.  All participating students will receive a free 1-year student membership to IBF including access to the Journal of Business Forecasting.  The winning team members will receive free registration to the IBF Boot Camp on August 12th through 14th in Boston, as well as other prizes donated by our sponsors for the event.

Team Make-up

  • Must be undergraduate students
  • Limit of 5 students per team
  • Each school may have more than 1 team, but we will be able to accommodate a maximum of 7 teams.  
  • As you assemble your teams, please send the team members’ names and email addresses no later than Friday, February 28th to Teresa McCarthy (tmccart4@bryant.edu).

All team members must be present for the competition on Friday, March 27th.  

The Case

  • The topic will be forecasting and S&OP.
  • The case will address people, process, and technology, and will have a quantitative component.
  • The case will be approximately 3-4 pages plus data.
  • Students will receive access to the case during breakfast on the day of the competition.
  • Students may bring research materials for reference during analysis, and they will be provided with internet access (provided they bring their own laptops)
  • Students are not allowed to contact anyone during the case analysis other than authorized IBF members.
  • Final presentations will be judged by a panel of 3 to 5 IBF New England chapter members who are industry experts in Forecasting and S&OP.
  • Faculty and other IBF members are invited to attend the students’ presentations. 

 

Open Student Marketing Assistant Position at Greenhouse Studios!

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Greenhouse Studios is an initiative that solves the problems and explores the opportunities of scholarship in the “digital age.” Greenhouse Studios reframes the practices, pathways and products of scholarly communications through design-based, inquiry-driven, collaboration-first approaches to the creation and expression of knowledge.

 

Position Responsibilities:

  • Manage the social media accounts for both Greenhouse Studios (a highly collaborative research unit with a design studio type of feel) and Sourcery (a document delivery app produced by Greenhouse Studios)
  • Help with outreach and maintain brand identity. 
  • Help to further develop the Greenhouse Studios voice, improving GS channels, and assist with some content creation for our channels (images, graphics, video, etc.).
  • Be able to work 8-10 hours per week (flexible scheduling) 

 

This position would begin as soon as possible, and would continue through the end of the Spring semester; there is a possibility of continuation in future semesters.

Innovate Wellness Challenge Kickoff!

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Over the past two years, the UConn Wellness Coalition, Student Health and Wellness has brought together UConn students, staff, and faculty from across campus to work towards creating a culture of wellness. The UConn Wellness Coalition has teamed up with OPIM Innovate to host the 2nd Annual Innovate Wellness Challenge: this year’s challenge addresses student stress. Both departments value student voice and are passionate about creating experiential learning opportunities that allows students to voice their opinions while using their creativity to design solutions.

 The Innovate Wellness Challenge Kick-off took place in the Business Lounge on February 18th and was filled with various teams from diverse backgrounds. Tara Watrous,  Project Coordinator for both UConn’s School of Business and Student Health and Wellness, started off the kick-off by sharing the Challenge prompt and data. According to the 2019 National College Health Assessment, stress is the greatest academic impediment for students. This also outlined student responses on the impact of stress on their academic performance, stress reduction resources students have received from their universities/if any, and their experience with stress etc. 

Keinna Beeson, a senior at UConn who heard about the challenge through daily digest, talked about how she was drawn to the challenge because of her passion for self care. Keinna expressed that self-care is key to being successful in life and wants to empower others to form healthy habits. Beeson stated “Students are more likely to thrive when they receive more self care help, especially within institutions.”

UConn staff and faculty attended the kick-off as well. Colleen Attikson, a Health Educator with Student Health and Wellness, who supported the challenge last year, working closely with Team Pawsitivity talked about the importance of having student input. Attikson expressed her excitement for seeing the variety of ideas, and interacting with the students. Tara Watrous, Project Coordinator, explained “Students have the best vantage point to grapple with these problems. We are all eager and excited to see what the students come up with.” 

 

Our next event is March 4th, 2-5PM, in the North Reading Room, Wilbur Cross. The student teams will be sharing their ideas through poster presentations. All students, staff and faculty are welcome! For more information about the challenge visit the Innovate Wellness Challenge page. 

Interested in Analytics? Come to these workshops!

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Ready to take your analytical skills to the next level? This semester, OPIM Innovate is hosting a data analytics workshop series. These workshops are designed to help better your functional skill set. 

 

Feb 21 – Visual Analytics with Tableau

1 – 3PM

BUSN 391 – OPIM Gladstein Lab  (Can be used as OPIM 3103 requirement) 

 

This session is an informative workshop for UConn faculty, staff, and students interested in learning about Visual Analytics. The discussion will include an overview of the Tableau software platform and how it is used in visualization. We will touch upon the best practices of data visualization and the strengths and weaknesses of telling a story with data using Tableau. We will be providing additional resources for those who would like to learn more. Seating in the lab is limited, please complete the workshop registration form to reserve your spot. 

 

Presented by a team of lab specialists 

 

Feb 28 – Introduction to Python 

1 – 3PM

BUSN 391 – OPIM Gladstein Lab  (Can be used as OPIM 3103 requirement)  

 

This session is an informative workshop for UConn faculty, staff, and students interested in learning about the basics of Python programming. The discussion will include an introduction to Python, a powerful and easy-to-learn programming language favored by data scientists. We will cover basic syntax and data structures and conclude by writing some simple programs. We will be providing additional resources for those who would like to learn more. Seating in the lab is limited, please complete the workshop registration form to reserve your spot.

 

Presented by a team of lab specialists 

 

Mar 6 – Applications of Machine learning 

1 – 3PM

BUSN 391 – OPIM Gladstein Lab  (Can be used as OPIM 3103 requirement) 

 

This session is an informative workshop for UConn faculty, staff, and students interested in learning about the topic of machine learning. The discussion will include an overview of the different perspectives around ML (Machine Learning) and A.I. (Artificial Intelligence). We will discuss several direct search methods such as Nelder and Mead, Shor’s r-Algorithm and random search. Direct search methods are using reinforcement learning strategies in machine learning. We will be providing additional resources for those who would like to learn more. Seating in the lab is limited, please complete the workshop registration form to reserve your spot. 

 

Presented by Nadia Udler, Fordham University Faculty Member

 

Mar 27 – Alexa Skills with VoiceFlow 

1 – 3PM

BUSN 391 – OPIM Gladstein Lab  (Can be used as OPIM 3103 requirement) 

 

This session is an informative workshop for UConn faculty, staff, and students interested in learning about developing skills for Amazon Alexa. The discussion will include an overview of virtual digital assistants and smart speakers. Participants will be introduced to the VoiceFlow software platform and work to develop a basic Alexa skill. We will be providing additional resources for those who would like to learn more. Seating in the lab is limited, please complete the workshop registration form to reserve your spot. 

 

Presented by a team of lab specialists 

 

Apr 17 – Introduction to 3D Modeling 

1 – 3PM

BUSN 391 – OPIM Gladstein Lab  (Can be used as OPIM 3103 requirement) 

 

This session is an informative workshop for UConn faculty, staff, and students interested in learning about the use of Solid Works for 3D Modeling. The discussion will include an overview of 3D Modeling technologies and how they are used in different industries. Real world demonstrations of 3D printing different models will be shown.We will be providing additional resources for those who would like to learn more. Seating in the lab is limited, please complete the workshop registration form to reserve your spot. 

 

Presented by a team of lab specialists 

 

Apr 24 – Drones in Action 

1 – 3PM

BUSN 391 – OPIM Gladstein Lab  (Can be used as OPIM 3103 requirement) 

 

This session is an informative workshop for UConn faculty, staff, and students interested in learning about drone technology.  This event is a collaboration between OPIM Innovate and On Course Drones, the owner of a drone pilot training company. We will discuss how Drones have disrupted a number of industries including insurance, logistics, medicine, and entertainment. This will lead us to a demonstration of different types of drones and how to fly them. We will be providing additional resources for those who would like to learn more. Seating in the lab is limited, please complete the workshop registration form to reserve your spot. 

 

Presented by Jason Otrin, CEO of On Course Drones

Earn up to $4,000 for your student-led project!

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Is there a creative endeavor you want to engage in, or an original research project you would like to conduct? Do you have a product you would like to develop, an entrepreneurial venture you want to launch, or a service initiative you would like to implement? This is your chance to flex your creative muscles, innovate, and explore! 

 

Applications are currently being accepted for the UConn IDEA Grant academic year funding.

The UConn IDEA Grant program awards funding of up to $4000 per student to support student-designed projects including:

  •  Artistic & creative endeavors
  • Community service initiatives
  • Entrepreneurial ventures & prototype development
  • Research projects
  • Other innovative, student driven projects

 

Undergraduates in all majors at all UConn campuses can apply. Applications accepted from individuals and small groups. 

 

Application Deadline:

Monday, March 9, 2020

Click here for more information

Attention Seniors — Exago is Hiring!

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Exago, a 14 year old software company operating in the business intelligence and analytics space, is looking to hire for both their Business Intelligence Implementation Specialist role & Technical Support Engineer role. 

 

Business Intelligence Implementation Role

Location: Shelton, CT

Within their Business Intelligence Implementation role, you will be responsible for working directly with clients, becoming a product expert with the Exago BI solution, and coordinating with their solutions and support team. This role requires the ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously and providing clients with operational guidance on hosting the Exago BI platform. 

 

Requirements: 

  • Prior IT and/or software hosting experience
  • Knowledge of network architecture and cloud hosting solutions (AWS, Azure, etc.)
  • Demonstrated advanced analytical, troubleshooting and problem solving skills
  • Experience with relational database concepts and design

For more about this role and to apply 

 

Technical Support Engineer Role

Location : Kingston, NY

Those interested in their Technical Support Engineer role, will be responsible for working with software developers from Exago clients companies who are integrating Exago BI into their host application. You will also be responsible for continuing to innovate and expand on internal troubleshooting tools and resources. In this role, you will work closely with our development team to resolve software, data, configuration, and other operational issues.

 

Requirements: 

  • A degree in Computer Science or relevant professional experience
  • Moderate to advanced skills in one or many of the following areas:
    • Relational databases (SQL, MySQL, Oracle, etc) including reading/writing queries and understanding of fundamental database principles
    • Object-oriented programming (preferably C#)
    • Web Application Basics (client server relationship, web APIs, etc.)
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills; ability to communicate with a variety of technical and non-technical people

For more about this role and to apply

Innovate Wellness Challenge – Register Today!

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Interested in taking a proactive and innovative approach to student stress? Well you’re in luck because the UConn Wellness Coalition and OPIM Innovate are hosting UConn’s second campus-wide Innovate Wellness Challenge. 

This year, undergraduate student teams will address student stress. Students have the best vantage point to take on this challenge and all perspectives from our talented, innovative huskies are welcome. Through this challenge participants will use the Design Thinking Process, build their skills and resumé, work with students, staff, and faculty, and have the chance to implement their solutions, and win up to $2,250!

The Innovate Wellness Challenge is composed of three rounds:

  • Poster Presentations
  • Semi-Final Presentations
  • Final Presentations

We value student voices and are looking for creative solutions that allow and encourage students to share their ideas for empowering students to reach their full potential both in and outside of the classroom.

The Challenge is open to all students and we highly encourage interdisciplinary teams. Registration is open now until February 11, 2020. Click here to learn more on our webpage.