Shree Reddy ’17 MSBAPM was the winner of a competitive McKinsey Online Analytics Hackathon last fall. McKinsey & Co. is one of the most well-known global management consultancy groups in the world.

She and the other competitors were tasked with using prediction models to address a complex traffic issue. She ended up using multiple algorithms to solve the problem and also employed a technique that she had experimented with during one of her class projects.

“The spirit that I gained from being in the UConn MSBAPM program was to take up the challenge,” she said. “Real data means something unexpected and unusual. You will almost never come across a problem which you have seen earlier. But all new problems can be solved when the problem is understood and the concepts are applied in the right way.”

“Experimenting with creative, non-traditional methods to solve the problem was the most exciting part,” she said. “The fact that one of my ambitious ideas gave the best result was a huge confidence booster. It gave me great joy when I realized that all my efforts in that small period of time had led to a solution which turned out to be top-notch!”