UConn Today – Two student teams from the UConn School of Business’s Business Analytics and Project Management (MSBAPM) master’s program won competitions at the QuantumUP! hackathon at the UConn Graduate Business Learning Center in Hartford on April 8, combining cutting-edge technologies, innovation, and collaboration to solve complicated transportation issues. Both teams will be awarded $5,000 prizes.
OPIM
Professor Robert Day Named Interim Dean of Business School as University Renews Search For Permanent Leader
UConn Today – The University has announced plans to relaunch its search for a permanent dean of the School of Business.
Management professor Greg Reilly, who has filled the interim dean position for more than a year, will return to the faculty in mid-May, and OPIM professor Robert ‘Bob’ Day will take the top leadership post until a permanent dean is named.
UConn Grad Students Win InsurTech NY Challenge By Offering Practical Solutions to Insurance-Provider Woes
UConn Today – For the second consecutive year, a team of UConn grad students won the InsurTech NY University Case Competition.
Graduate students Trishan Kundu (BAPM) and Vitosavero Avila Wibisono (FinTech) took home the top prize and a $2,500 award on Tuesday at the event in New York City. The competition was judged by insurance leaders, investors and practitioners.
UConn Online Grad Programs Get High Marks; Nursing Skyrocketing in National Prestige
UConn Today – UConn’s excellence in graduate education is being recognized nationwide, with U.S. News & World Report granting high rankings for 2026 to several online programs for their quality, affordability, and flexibility for distance-learning students.
For Second Consecutive Year, UConn OPIM Professor Wins Prestigious Early Career Award
UConn Today – OPIM Professor Jing Peng, a prolific researcher who has also recently developed and taught artificial intelligence courses at the School of Business, has been awarded his second promising young scholar award in three years.
Peng is one of five recipients of the 2025 Information Systems Society’s Sandra A. Slaughter Early Career Award, which recognizes faculty on the path to making outstanding intellectual contributions to the information systems discipline.
An All-Nighter, Perseverance Helped UConn Grad Student Win Predictive Modeling Championship
UConn Today – Graduate student Uday Pandey was working so diligently on a model for the 2025 Travelers University Modeling Competition that he actually forgot to go to sleep one night.
“I was working on the model and was so engaged that I didn’t notice the time,’’ he said, laughing. “When I finally looked at the clock it was 5 a.m.!’’
Two Ambitious UConn Grad Students Win Top Prizes in National Insurance Competition Focused on Pet-Care Policies
UConn Today – Two UConn graduate students took home the first-place and runner-up awards in the ACORD Student Challenge, an insurance-industry competition that drew dozens of participants from across the country.
Manasa Ramaka, a graduate student in the Business Analytics and Project Management (BAPM) program, took first place and accepted the $5,000 grand prize. Rutendo Mahanzu, a graduate student enrolled in the Financial and Enterprise Risk Management (FERM) program, shared the runner-up prize with a student from Georgia Tech, and took home a $2,000 award.
Alumna Kenzie Blowers ’25 Works as Allocation Expert at HomeGoods Headquarters
UConn Today – Call it fate, serendipity, or just plain good luck, but alumna Mackenzie “Kenzie’’ Blowers ’25 had a stroke of career fortune during her second year as a UConn student.
Blowers was assigned to the second floor of Belden Hall and her RA was Danielle Harrington ‘24. Harrington had created a poster for students to get to know a bit about her, and she included her experience as an intern at The TJX Companies.
UConn Business Students Place in Top Three at BU Case Competition
UConn Today – A dream team with great chemistry, months of brainstorming, research and practice, and a well-executed presentation helped five UConn Case Club teammates finish in the Top 3 in the prestigious Boston University Questrom 50K Sustainability Case Competition.
Professor: Supply Chain Management Can Strengthen Connecticut’s Vital Manufacturing Sector
UConn Today – Connecticut’s manufacturing sector remains a powerful economic engine, supporting thousands of jobs and driving innovation in aerospace, defense, health care, and beyond.
Last year, the state’s manufacturers generated more than $34 billion in output, approximately 12% of the state’s gross state product. Connecticut is home to more than 4,500 manufacturing companies and more than 153,000 people work in the industry in our state, according to the latest data.