On October 27 the University of Connecticut School of Business participated in the Travelers IT Case Competition. In this year’s competition, six teams representing schools all across Minnesota and Connecticut, competed against each other in an effort to market insurance to millennials using technology. Each team was given two weeks to create a innovative strategy to tackle this problem. They were allotted 20 minutes to present their ideas towards a solution in front of a judging panel of Travelers’ senior management. Following the presentation, the judging panel had ten minutes to ask any questions they had in regards to the project.

Each school invited was allowed one team, composed of three members chosen from the school’s sponsor. The participants from the University of Connecticut, Victoria Trautman (MIS), Benjamin Bosco (MIS), and Arshia Monshi (Business Administration), were introduced two weeks prior to the competition and given the case to work on. The team decided to build a seamless platform that included both a website and application that tied into a dash cam system.  In theory, the app would connect  to the  dash camera that records a user as he or she drives to see how many times a millennial checks his or her phone. In order to spread word of such an app, the group implemented a detailed social media strategy to enhance the application’s popularity and usage rate.

Case competitions are important to give students the exposure to real world problems and encourage their critical thinking, problem solving, and leadership skills. Victoria Trautman (MIS), spoke of the importance of participating in case competitions saying, “it is a great learning experience working with people from all over the Connecticut area in different fields.” This case competition was especially important to the students because it acted as a round of an interview for the summer internship program they were all trying to get in to. This allowed them to show off their presentation skills while networking with potential future employers.

On October 27, twenty five students from the University of Connecticut School of Business were invited to participate in PwC’s annual case competition. They broken down into five separate teams and each were assigned a PwC mentor and a faculty mentor from the School of Business. The teams had two weeks to create a strategy to push Country’s Best convenience store, a real-world client of PwC, to full automation. Each team was allotted ten minutes to present their ideas towards a solution in front of a judging panel of PwC’s senior management. Following the presentation, the judging panel had ten minutes to ask any questions they had in regards to the project.

The team represented by Michael Greco (’21), Scott Kwon (’21), Tiffany Cheung (’20), Xiangyu Mu (’19), and Karina Zhao (’20) was mentored by MIS Academic Director, Jonathan Moore. “Our team’s plan of action was to implement automation in stages across the different tiers, grow a loyalty program, and introduce a private label in the stores. We wanted to adjust to the changing market environment while maintaining the close-knit, community feel of Country’s Best,” said Karina Zhao, a sophomore accounting major.

Although the case was heavily focused on the accounting and finance fields, the team was able to include their knowledge from a variety of their business courses, specifically marketing and management, in order to build their action plan. Case competitions are “a great opportunity to apply knowledge you learn in business classes, meet new people, and network with professionals,” said Karina. They allow students to get the exposure to the real world that is unparalleled in the classroom.

On Wednesday, October 25, the Operations and Information Management Department (OPIM), held its 2nd annual Networking Dinner. This dinner is held for UConn School of Business Management Information Systems (MIS), Business Data Analytics (BDA), and Business Technology students, past and present, in order to enhance their networking skills and connect with people of similar backgrounds and interests.

This year’s Networking Dinner was held at UConn’s Graduate Business Learning Center in Downtown Hartford, where students, faculty, and alumni participated in a dinner similar to speed dating. At the dinner, alumni and faculty take their seats, and students move  from table to table in between each course to speak to a new set of alumni. This networking method not only helped break the ice, but allowed for students to talk to more alumni in a structured setting.

Calvin Mahlstedt (’19) a junior MIS major, emphasized the importance of networking, not only for getting internships and jobs, but also for gaining valuable insight towards what others in the field have experienced and accomplished.

Each student attended the networking event for different reasons, some for insight on what alumni have experienced and others to hear about what the alumni have accomplished. However to many students, the largest benefit is being able to establish a connection with alumni for job opportunities and potential career paths after graduation.

A senior MIS student, Alex Martinez (’18),  was happy to have attended the networking dinner because of  the valuable connection he made. During one of his table rotations, Mr. Martinez met John Calabrese, an alumni who works at Travelers. Calabrese advocates for the program that he will be entering post graduation and Martinez is excited to have a connection when he makes that transition.

As the benefits for current student are evident, the event was also an opportunity for alumni to stay up to date on the advancements the department has made. During the dinner, the MIS Academic Director Jonathan Moore updated the audience on OPIM Innovate, a departmental initiative for experiential learning with emerging technology. He encouraged the alumni to become involved with teaching, workshops, and mentoring students within the department.

On Friday September 29th the Operations and Information Management Department (OPIM) held  their annual Management Information Systems (MIS) Case Competition. A total of 10 teams, each consisting of 4 students, presented their business case solutions to a panel of 3 faculty judges. Each team was given 20 minutes to present their solution and another 10 minutes to answer any of the judges questions.

Not only MIS but multiple majors from the School of Business were represented. The department was extremely please to see students from every class standing participating as well. IMA President and senior Tyler Lauretti says, “it’s awesome to see freshman specifically already getting involved in these competitions. Sooner than not they’ll be running IMA and paving the way for future MIS majors so it’s great that they’re gaining experience this early”. The team ‘NextGen Consulting’, entirely compromised of freshman, also all attested to how the competition was both rewarding and beneficial for them.

The teams spent an entire week researching different types of software and educating themselves on to their highest capability. Belma Pehratovic shared how she initially felt extremely nervous about presenting, however she reflected on a moment of reassurance during her presentation, “I was talking about a software I did not know prior to this week, and I saw someone, who is incredibly educated on the topic, nodding and confirming that my points were correct. It’s such a great experience that not only expanded my knowledge but also gave me new sense of confidence”. Pehratovic’s fellow teammate, Victoria Trautman, thought the competition was eyeopening in the fact that it reassured her, a young female professional, that she had the ability to study, research, and eloquently talk about IT related topics such as this.

Freshman Alexander Zevin spoke candidly about his first case competition experience, “it was a challenge to produce an innovative and feasible solution to present to the judges. We spent many hours researching various emerging technologies that could play a role in solving the University’s unique set of goals. Throughout the week of the competition, we would meet to discuss our findings and truly gain an understanding of the technologies we wanted to bring to the University”.

At the Awards Luncheon on Friday, October 6th the top three teams were announced. . Team “NextGen Consulting”: Alexander Zevin, Alexander Gmuer, Ali Taouil, and Rashad Lum You took first place and were each awarded $500. “Dream Team”: Victoria Trautman, Belma Pehratovic, Chris Connelly, and Joel Thomas took second place and were each awarded $250. “Girl Bosses”: Hannah Bonitz, Radhika Kanaskar, Maggie Howie, and Olivia Villecco took third place and were each awarded $125. All teams received certificates and gift bags as a thank you for participating.