Skip to Navigation Skip to UConn Search Skip to Content
UConn University of Connecticut
Search University of Connecticut Search UConn
Site A-Z

UConn A-Z

School of Business

  • About
    • About the School

      • About the School
      • Fast Facts
      • Rankings: UConn School of Business Top-ranked by US News
      • Accreditation
    • Campuses

      • Storrs Campus
      • Hartford Campus
      • Hartford Campus – Graduate
      • Waterbury Campus
      • Stamford Campus
    • News & Events

      • Pressroom
      • Events
      • Featured Stories
      • Research
    • Contact

      • Office of the Dean
      • General Directory
      • Faculty Directory
      • Staff Directory
  • Programs
    • Undergraduate Degree

      • Advising
      • Majors
      • Minors
      • Scholarships
      • Accelerated Undergraduate-to-Graduate Programs
    • Graduate Programs

      • All Graduate Business Programs
      • Ph.D. in Business
      • Graduate Certificates
      • STEM Designated Programs
    • MBA Programs

      • MBA Programs Home Page
      • Compare our MBA Programs
      • FLEX MBA
      • Online MBA
      • Executive MBA (EMBA)
    • Specialized Masters

      • MS in Accounting
      • MS in Business Analytics & Project Management
      • MS in Financial and Enterprise Risk Management
      • MS in Financial Technology (FinTech)
      • MS in Human Resource Management
      • MS in Social Responsibility & Impact in Business
      • Accelerated Master’s Degree Programs
    • Professional Development

      • Digital Frontiers Initiative
      • Executive Education
      • Graduate Certificate Programs
  • Faculty & Research
    • Overview

      • Faculty
      • Research
      • Research Stories
      • Job Openings
    • Academic Areas

      • Academic Departments
      • Accounting
      • Finance
        • Health Care
        • Real Estate
      • Management & Entrepreneurship
      • Marketing
        • Business Law
      • Operations & Information Management
    • Faculty & Ph.D.s

      • Faculty Directory
      • Ph.D. Students Directory
      • Accounting Directory
      • Business Law Directory
      • Finance Directory
      • Healthcare Directory
      • Management Directory
      • Marketing Directory
      • Real Estate Directory
      • Operations and Information Management Directory
    • Research Centers

      • Center for Real Estate & Urban Economic Studies
      • Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis
      • Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
      • Daigle Labs
      • Digital Frontiers Initiative
      • GE Global Learning Center
  • Engagement & Outreach
    • Recruit

      • Undergraduates
      • Graduates
      • Alumni
    • Centers, Institutes, & Initiatives

      • Career Development Office
      • Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis
      • Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
      • Connecticut Information Technology Institute
      • Connecticut Small Business Development Center
      • Daigle Labs
      • Digital Frontiers Initiative
      • Diversity Initiatives
      • Family Business Program
      • Global Business Programs
      • Research Centers
    • Experiential Learning

      • Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans
      • Innovation Quest
      • International Trips
      • Student Managed Fund
    • Contact

      • Office of Engagement & Outreach
  • Search
      • A-Z Index
      • Faculty Directory
      • General Directory
    • Search this Site

UConn Takes 3rd Place in Global Analytics Challenge

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Claire Hall
UConn Takes 3rd Place in Global Analytics Challenge
UConn Takes 3rd Place in Global Analytics Challenge
UConn Takes 3rd Place in Global Analytics Challenge

Left to right, Prasanthi Lingamallu, Carl Johnson, and Barbara Lucas Johnson accept the 3rd place award in the International Big Data & Analytics Education Conference (Contributed Photo)
Left to right, Prasanthi Lingamallu, Carl Johnson, and Barbara Lucas Johnson accept the 3rd place award in the International Big Data & Analytics Education Conference (Contributed Photo)

A team of UConn students earned third place in the 2019 International Big Data & Analytics Education Conference with their passionate presentation on “The Catastrophic Effects of Global Warming—The Forces at Play.”

The team consisted of the graduate students Barbara Lucas Johnson and Prasanthi Lingamallu, and undergrad Carl Johnson. Their adviser was Marketing Professor Girish Punj.

The analytics event is a highly-regarded, worldwide competition aimed at generating innovative analytics solutions while also raising awareness around environmental issues and sustainability. The UConn team used sophisticated data mining tools to chart global warming from 1905 to 2015, identify top drivers of global warming, and recommend initiatives for a healthier planet.

“It is such an important topic that all else is meaningless. Once you start understanding the meaning of all the data, it takes your breath away,” said Lucas Johnson. “When I began this project, I thought I knew a lot about climate change. But after analyzing tons of data and reading hundreds of articles, I realized I knew very little. The climate crisis is really more of a grand challenge, like the fight against cancer. But unlike cancer research, we can all play a role in fighting climate change, each and every one of us.”

Punj said he thinks the students did an exceptional job under challenging circumstances. The project had to be completed in addition to their regular coursework and much of it had to be done over winter break. This is the first time that UConn had entered the competition.

“Much of what’s reported on climate change is factual or based on weather episodes, but the impact is momentary. People are getting ‘climate change fatigue’ and they begin to ignore the impact. Our students used an analytics approach to bring together the facts and connect them with a thread. They were able to relate things like rising sea levels and forest fires. They walked away with something valuable. This is a great example of how science and business can combine to help the world.”

Lingamallu said the team members were all passionate about global warming, climate change and sustainability, and their research fueled their interest.

“We each had very different backgrounds, education, experiences and perspectives on the problem statement, but it is this diversity in thought that helped us put together a very rich and well-rounded presentation,” she said.

Lucas Johnson is a graduate student pursing an advanced certificate in digital marketing strategy; Johnson, her son, is an undergraduate majoring in OPIM, and Lingamallu, a vice president at Bank of America, completed her MSBAPM graduate degree in May. She was also in the Digital Marketing Strategy certificate program.

The students started work in November 2018. They learned in March that they were among the Top 10 teams, and the third-place award was announced June 4 at the conference, sponsored by the University of Maryland in College Park.

“I could never have imagined how much effort it was to find the data, clean it and harmonize it, then try to analyze it,” Lucas Johnson said, adding that the competition and learning to develop important presentations will be instrumental in her career.

She credits OPIM Professor John Wilson for teaching storytelling and visualization and Punj for teaching students about big data, analytics and artificial intelligence.

“The insights and tools from these classes boost any student’s value in the marketplace,” Lucas Johnson said.

Categories:
Feature, Feature Secondary, Global Engagement, Graduate Case Competitions, Marketing, News, OPIM, presstop
Tags:
Girish Punj, John Wilson
Share on:
facebookFacebook TwitterTwitter LinkedInLinkedIn emailEmail

You might be interested in:

Professor Fasheng Yu accepting the 2025 Chelliah Sriskandarajah Early Career Research Accomplishments Award at the POMS Annual conference (contributed photo)
OPIM Professor Fasheng Xu, a ‘Forward-Thinking’ Scholar, Wins Early Career Award
Exterior photo of the Wilbur Cross Building at UConn in Storrs, CT.
Accounting Professor George Plesko Wins Award for Excellence in Community Engaged Scholarship
Tony Bertoldi '89, CEO of CREA, at the 2025 Real Estate Awards Banquet in Storrs. (Zack Wussow Media)
CREA Foundation Creates Two Scholarships, Bonus Opportunities for Real Estate Students

← Previous
Next →

View News by Category

Recent News

  • OPIM Professor Fasheng Xu, a ‘Forward-Thinking’ Scholar, Wins Early Career Award
  • Accounting Professor George Plesko Wins Award for Excellence in Community Engaged Scholarship
  • CREA Foundation Creates Two Scholarships, Bonus Opportunities for Real Estate Students
  • Commencement Speaker: Servant Leadership Distinguishes Top Companies, Stellar Executives from the Rest
  • Their Final Class Project? A Beer-Tasting Showdown

All News »

Upcoming Events

    https://events.uconn.edu/live/json/v2/events/response_fields/location,summary/date_format/%25F%20%25j,%20%25Y/group/School of Business/max/3/start_date/today/end_date/6 months/
  • May
    21
    MS BAPM Virtual Information Session
  • May
    27
    STEM Virtual Office Hour
  • May
    28
    MS SRIB Virtual Information Session
engagement pixel ftmba_rt pixel ptmba_rt emba_rt mshrm_rt msbapm_rt msa_rt

Related Content

  • Recruiters
  • Alumni
  • Make a Gift
  • Pressroom
  • Faculty/Staff Resources
  • Student Resources
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • © University of Connecticut
  • Disclaimers, Privacy & Copyright
  • Accessibility
  • Webmaster Login
  • Student Consumer Information
  • A-Z Index
  • General Directory