Month: April 2012

Hall of Fame 2012

Posted on by Claire Hall

On Friday, April 27, 2012, the UConn School of Business inducted alumni with outstanding achievements in business into their 19th Annual Hall of Fame Celebration which was held in Hartford, Connecticut. The School’s Hall of Fame was established in 1993 to recognize the outstanding business and community achievements of its alumni and students. Since then, over 100 alumni have been inducted.

This year’s alumni inductees are Melinda T. Brown ’77, ’85 MBA, Senior Vice President, Global Financial Shared Services, PepsiCo Inc.; Gerald “Jerry” D. DesRoches ’82, Managing Director, Wealth & Tax Advisory Services, Inc.; Sheldon F. Kasowitz ’83, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Indus Capital Partners LLC; and Edward M. Satell ’57, President, CEO & Founder, Progressive Business Publications.

Cigna received the Outstanding Strategic Partner Award. Recognition was also given to the UConn School of Business Ackerman Scholars and Annual Faculty Award recipients.

Ten School of Business students were also honored as Hall of Fame Student Fellows. The Student Fellows awardees are: Undergraduate Program: Ricardo A. Hernandez, Elise K. Prairie, and Liang Jian Wu; Full-time MBA Program: Eric Chang; Hartford Part-time MBA Program: Kinga Gawron; Stamford Part-time MBA Program: Michael J. Zacchea; Waterbury Part-time MBA Program: Thomas E. Manning II; Hartford EMBA Program: Marcella Ferrara; MS in Accounting Program: Bruce B. Monahan; and Ph.D. Program: Hieu V. Phan.

Pictured: (L-R Front) Ida Chaplinski, Cigna HR Leadership Development Manager and Melinda T. Brown ’77 ’85 MBA, Senior Vice President, Global Financial Shared Services, PepsiCo Inc. (L-R Back) Gerald D. DesRoches ’82, Managing Director, Wealth & Tax Advisory Service; Edward M. Satell ’57, President, CEO & Founder, Progressive Business Publications; Karla H. Fox, Interim Dean, UConn School of Business; and Sheldon F. Kasowitz ’83, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Indus Capital Partners, LLC.

CCEA Collaborates in Winning Major DOE Grant for Solar Installations

Posted on by Claire Hall

CCEA Collaborates in Winning Major DOE Grant for Solar Installations

In an effort to make photovoltaic solar installations more attractive and competitive, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) is funding a variety of initiatives designed to reduce non-hardware costs by 15-20%.  The core objective is to develop innovative policies, models, tools, and data management systems that will deliver this result. The program has two phases: the first provides support for one year for development and evaluation of initiatives.  The second phase will scale up and expand those initiatives funded in the first year that prove particularly effective in achieving program objectives.  The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund brought together a broad collaborative group to develop a proposal, which has won nearly $500,000 in the first round.

The Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis (CCEA), now housed in the UConn School of Business, assembled a University team including faculty from the Departments of Geography and from Natural Resources and Environment.  The UConn team will analyze hardware and non-hardware costs for roof-top solar PV.  The second task includes two deliverables: first, the UConn team, in collaboration with Yale’s Center for Business and the Environment, and Snugg Home, will develop a state-wide cost index for rooftop solar PV.  Second, UConn, Yale University, Solar Connecticut, and Snugg Home will work together to create an online tool to evaluate the energy potential and the financial performance of solar rooftop systems for any given location in Connecticut. This tool will use currently available overflight digital maps linked with sophisticated NASA databases that provide information on available technologies, their efficiency ratings, and the potential of site-specific solar radiation to deliver an economic and financial analysis of PV potential.  In other words, the ultimate objective is to create a tool that would permit any homeowner or business as possible purchasers or any PV vendor to evaluate the solar potential of the roof of their building and then directly see what technologies are available, at what cost, with what efficiency.

The bottom line is that, if the team is able to develop this tool fully, it will deliver material benefit to PV panel vendors, vastly simplifying their marketing, and to home and business owners who can directly see the what the cost and payoff would be for installing PV panels.  If the consortium then wins one of the much larger (million plus) second round grants, CCEA and its partners will expand coverage possibly to the entire country.

For more information, please visit http://ccea.uconn.edu/.

UConn MBAs Win First Prize in APICS Supply Chain Case Competition

Posted on by Claire Hall

UConn MBAs stood first in the APICS Northeast Region Supply Chain case competition hosted at UConn’s business school on Saturday, April 21st, 2012. Twenty one teams from across the northeast participated, including undergraduate and MBA teams from Boston University, Rutgers, Northeastern, and Bryant. Prof. Manuel Nunez mentored the UConn undergraduate team and Prof. Suresh Nair mentored our MBA teams. The winning team members were Anup Ratnakaran, Nanxin (Nick) Li, and Samir Mohanty. Another UConn MBA team won the fourth place in the competition. Continue Reading

Universitas 21 – Doctoral Research Conference in Business

Posted on by Claire Hall

The University of Connecticut School of Business hosted the Universitas 21 Doctoral Research Conference in Business (DRCB) April 10-13, 2012. Ph.D. students from twelve U21 schools, including UConn, presented research and received feedback regarding their dissertations from their counterparts, faculty from the participating universities, and UConn faculty. The vision of U21 DRCB is to create a global learning and research platform to prepare the next generation of intellectual leaders in the fields of business, commerce and economics.

This inaugural event was created as a model for future international conferences to be sponsored with Universitas 21. Participants were welcomed at an opening reception at the Hartford Hilton by Robert Bird, Program Chair; Gary Powell, Ph.D. Program Director; and Michele Metcalf, Program Manager. Interim Dean Karla H. Fox greeted the group at the Graduate Business Learning Center the following morning where presentation sessions were held throughout the day. All presentations were video recorded with copies of tapes being provided to presenters. That evening, a Gala Dinner was held at the Hartford Society Room featuring Mr. Jonas Haertle, UN PRME Secretariat. The final day of the conference was held at the Storrs campus at the School of Business and the Alumni Center. Two panel sessions were held on “Finishing the Dissertation” and “From Dissertation to Publication”- which were also recorded and will be available on the website soon. Participants also enjoyed lunch at the School of Business Café, dinner at the Alumni Center as well as a tour of the campus. An optional trip to Boston was also available to participants on Friday.

Attendees at the event included faculty and Ph.D. students from the National University of Singapore, Tecnológico de Monterrey, University College Dublin, University of Amsterdam, University of Auckland, University of Birmingham, University of Delhi, University of Glasgow, University of New South Wales, University of Nottingham, and University of Queensland.

The tracks included International Business, Exchange Rates, Advertising and Branding, Knowledge, Accountability, Investment, Consumer Behavior, Leadership, Management Information Systems, Economics, Corporate Finance, Creativity, Strategy, Taxation and Auditing, Strategies, Markets and Products/Services, and Cognitive Theory.

Photo: Attendees of the Universitas 21

Celebrating SAS/OPIM Partnering and JMP Starting the Future of Analytics

Posted on by Claire Hall

The challenge was set. What could one analyst do with a laptop, 123,000,000 observations, and JMP pro software? The answer, provided by SAS co-founder and JMP guru, John Sall, was “just about any known statistical analysis” and all in a matter of seconds!

On Friday, April 6th, SAS and UConn’s Department of Operations and Information Management (OPIM) jointly hosted a gathering of local business executives and academic researchers. The focus was on the growing importance of analytics in the business world. But the spotlight was on how a partnership between SAS and OPIM has supported the successful development and launch of the new MS in Business Analytics and Project Management (MS-BAPM) and has helped demonstrate the business value in deep data analytics.

Following an interactive and lively lunch, Ram Gopal, Head of the Department of Operations and Information Management, kicked off Friday afternoon’s program with welcoming remarks, expressions of gratitude for all those in attendance, and a brief summary of the SAS/OPIM partnership and details on the new MS-BAPM program. Ram’s remarks were followed by a presentation from Peter Bothwell, Senior VP at the Travelers and a Founding Member of the MS-BAPM Advisory Board, who spotlighted the business value of competing on analytics using a compelling array of examples in the property and casualty industry. Pete also highlighted the growing partnership between The Travelers and the new MS-BAPM, emphasizing the mutual benefits of such public/private partnering.

After being introduced by Zhongju Zhang, Director of the MS-BAPM program, John Sall, or “Mr. JMP”, then took the podium for a live and real time demonstration of how a slightly souped-up (added memory) laptop could do deep analytics in seconds either on a 123,000,000 record data set or on a broad, flat data set involving hundreds of variables and millions of records. The demonstration of the power of JMP Pro was evident but what caught the attention of all was the sheer enjoyment John was getting out of this very powerful demonstration. He demonstrated and emphasized the growing power and speed of deep data analytics – most importantly, he caught the attention of Connecticut’s business community.

Radhika Kulkarni, VP R&D Analytics at SAS, noted how difficult it was to be the speaker following John Sall, but Radhika’s knowledge and presentation made it evident she was John’s parallel as the “analytics genius of SAS”. Emphasizing the enterprise-wide focus of SAS, Radhika walked us through the challenges facing the analytics community and advancements in enterprise analytics from SAS in responding to those challenges. Radhika’s clarity of examples and ability to demonstrate high-value analytics’ links across the enterprise gave the audience a variety of possible analytics use-paths to think about in their own business settings.

While the business attendees headed home after the early evening networking reception, UConn faculty and students along with our SAS visitors prepared for a full day of workshops on JMP 10 Pro and SAS Rapid Predictive Modeling (RPM) that took place on Saturday. JMP’s Mia Stephens handled the JMP 10 Pro hands-on workshop, while SAS’ Andre de Waal took our faculty and students through a journey on the RPM highway where traditional statistics and analytics collides with the need for virtually instantaneous model development and implementation in today’s e-world.

The two-day event gave all of us an exposure to the power of analytics and to how powerful new tools capable of rapidly analyzing massive amount of data are emerging. The two days gave us much to ponder, but one thing is clear. The SAS/OPIM-UConn partnership is yielding large benefits. Our students are being educated at the forefront of methods and analytics platforms. Our faculty have the benefit and power of tools that support innovative teaching and frontier research. The Connecticut business community continues to see the value of programs such as MS-BAPM, including interactive experiential learning projects and a growing high-quality job candidate pool. SAS has the opportunity to enhance use of its tools along with feedback that helps them continue to expand and enhance the analytics support tool set.

A great two-days – a great continuing partnership!

Photo: Ram Gopal, Head of the Department of OPIM & John Sall, SAS Co-founder and JMP Guru

Ackerman Scholars Announced

Posted on by Claire Hall

The Dean’s Council has reviewed the Ackerman Scholars at the University of Connecticut School of Business and made the following awards:

Appointed for the next two years (2012-13 and 2013-14) are:

Continuing in their second year are:

  • Sulin Ba, OPIM
  • Joe Golec, Finance
  • John Harding, Finance
  • Suresh Nair, OPIM
  • Rex Santerre, Finance
  • Zeki Simsek, Management

The Ackerman Scholar award recognizes significant and continuing all round academic productivity among the faculty of the School. It is awarded to faculty who are not already supported by Chair or Professorship appointments. The award is supported by the Ackerman Fund, the School and the departments. The purpose of the Ackerman Fund is to “grant a monetary reward to faculty members who have excelled in classroom teaching, curriculum development, research, outreach to business and state agencies.”

UConn MIS Team Wins Inaugural CoMIS Case Competition

Posted on by Claire Hall

On April 4-7, University of Minnesota hosted the first of hopefully many undergraduate case competitions in the area of Management Information Systems. This event is named CoMIS and provided the students to test their business skills and information systems knowledge against an elite group of competitors from all around the USA. Ten leading universities sent their representatives to compete, including Arizona, Arizona State, Texas-Austin, Texas-Dallas, Minnesota, Minnesota State, Indiana, Maryland, Utah and UConn.

UConn team was represented by Sebastian Guzera(MIS Senior), Walid Namane(MIS Junior) and Michael Whiteman(MIS Junior). Dmitry  Zhdanov served as the team’s coach. It is my great pleasure to inform you that UConn team became the winners of this inaugural competition.

Teams were given 24 hours to analyze a case and prepare their presentations. Case sponsor and topic were not known in advance; to everyone’s surprise and excitement, the case was about Minnesota Wild – a professional hockey team playing in the NHL. Students were asked to identify the best way for the team to boost its social media presence and turn it into revenue. As part of the case, students were given a wealth of data collected from the Wild’s Facebook page (data known as Facebook Insight). Students had to prepare a 20-minute presentation followed by an intensive Q&A session from the judges.

A panel of industry experts judged students’ performance, including two members of the Minnesota Wild front office, as well as executives from 3M, Medtronic, Ernst and Young and others. To preserve competition integrity, university affiliations were not available to the judging panel. UConn team went as Team Apollo.

The teams were broken down into three groups for the first round of the presentations. Group winners went on to the finals to give their talk one more time. UConn was matched with UT-Austin and Arizona State in group B. After winning the group, UConn’s Team Apollo went on to the final to face Utah Cyber Snipers and Maryland’s Dream Team. Utah finished second and Maryland third.

This was a fun an exciting event, many new friendships were made. The fact that our team ended up as the winners makes it even more exciting and speaks highly of the quality and dedication of our students and MIS program. We’ve set a high bar for ourselves going forward.

Pictured left to right: Jan DeGross (of MIS Quarterly) presents the CoMIS 1st place award to UConn Team – Walid Namane, Michael Whiteman, Sebastian Guzera and Dmitry Zhdanov (Coach)

Etiquette and Business

Posted on by Claire Hall

The UConn School of Business Career Center hosted two Etiquette Training events on April 4, 2012. The first event was specifically geared toward MBA students focusing on the impact etiquette has on the business environment including production loss, executive-level etiquette responsibility and potential business situations that tie into social environments.   The second event was held for the Undergraduates in which the event speaker, Daniel Post-Senning (the great-great grandson of Emily Post, a renowned expert in the field of etiquette), guided students on a multitude of topics including: job interview and follow-up etiquette; when it is appropriate for a guest to discuss business topics; and, more importantly, how etiquette is the power that fuels our business relationships and offers a guide to success by combining manners and principles. The Emily Post Institute’s principles have been guiding business professionals since 1922 when Emily Post first wrote “to make a pleasant and friendly impression is not only good manners but equally good business.”

These events provided business and social etiquette advice to over 75 students and were sponsored by our generous corporate partner Pepperidge Farm, located in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Photo: Daniel Post-Senning