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.