Monday night was a great time at the CCEI Startup Challenge Pitch Competition – in fact, we ran out of time before everyone had their turn to pitch! So, we have scheduled a second session to allow everyone who showed up last night the opportunity to pitch their idea, but also if you were unable to attend on Monday, this will provide you one last opportunity to participate in this fun event. We hope to see you there!
4/9/14, 6:00pm UConn Storrs Campus GENTRY 131(School of Education Building – DIFFERENT LOCATION) **Pizza, refreshments, and soda provided**
The CCEI Startup Challenge Pitch Competition is the first of two events that comprise the CCEI Startup Challengeinitiative. At the Pitch Competition,$10,000 in prize money (ten $1000 prizes) will be awarded to individuals or teams across multiple categories. Individuals or teams can pitch more than one idea, and you could win in more than one category. This competition is open to all UConn Students (all majors, levels, campuses), and the idea can be for anything – we encourage you to get creative! Five of the prize categories are listed below; the other five will be revealed at the event. Pitches will be limited to 90 seconds and will be followed by up to two minutes of Q&A. Have an idea? Pitch it!
First Five Prize Categories Revealed:
Best Pitch Presentation
Best Product/Invention Idea
Best Mobile App Idea
Most Socially Responsible Idea
Best College Targeted Idea (“Most Likely to Succeed at UConn”)
Don’t forget the CCEI Pitch Competition is being held tonight at 6pm (instead of 7 as originally planned) in ITE C-80 so that we can make sure everyone is able to watch the Huskies WIN tonight! How awesome would it be to watch that win with a giant check in your hands …. hope to see you tonight, and can’t wait to hear your ideas!
We are excited to offer a new full semester of three 3-credit courses for the incoming and current cohort. This semester will include two courses on advanced and quantitative applications in Financial Modelling and Financial Engineering and a comprehensive course on Enterprise Risk management (ERM). This change will extend our 15 month program to 19 months. The students choosing this option will graduate in May rather than in December.
Additional 5th Semester
Spring (2)
Programming and Modelling for Financial Analysis: This course focuses on the use of VBA in EXCEL, MATLAB, and SAS for financial modeling. With VBA, tudents will learn advanced materials such as Excel object programming, Database operations, file operations, graphical user interface design, bject-oriented programming, add-in, reports, and automation as well. Students will learn modeling techniques such as regression analysis, Monte-Carlo simulation, binomial trees, optimization, linear and non-linear programming, and data envelopment analysis and apply these in financial contexts such as portfolio optimization, credit risk, option pricing, capital budgeting, etc.
Advanced Analytical Applications in Risk Management: This course will use datasets and software including Bloomberg, Matlab, EViews, Risk Metrics and others to train students in advanced applications of Risk Management models.
Seminar on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM): This seminar course will introduce students to the current status of ERM. Various risks faced by multinationals including Operational Risk, Geopolitical Risk, Supply Chain Risk, Cyber Risk. The course will include the role of communication and ethical considerations in RM.
The State of Connecticut’s Office of Higher Education recently granted STEM designation for UConn’s MS degree in Financial Risk Management (MSFRM). Under the new STEM classification, MSFRM international students can now qualify for a 17-month OPT (Optional Practical Training) Extension making it a full 29 months of OPT.
MSFRM joins MS in Business Analytics & Project Management as the only two programs in the School of Business to receive STEM designation.
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields are essential to U.S. economic competitiveness and growth. Over the last several decades the country has experienced a significant shortage of qualified workers for employment in STEM fields. Increasingly, businesses have to hire international workers to meet their needs. Therefore, STEM designated educational programs make it possible for international graduates to remain stateside longer to not only establish their careers but also to help meet the demand for STEM-educated professionals.
UConn’s STEM designated programs, and their related initiatives, also play an important role in Next Generation CT, state legislation passed into law and signed by the governor, that will invest over $1.5 billion dollars in UConn over the next 10 years.
“Recruiting the best and brightest international students to our program and then enabling them to successfully begin their professional careers is an important part of our educational mission,” said Professor Chinmoy Ghosh, head of the Finance Department and director of the MSFRM program. “Furthermore, providing a sufficient and qualified pipeline of talent for the nation’s economy is core to our service mission as a public institution.”
Under the traditional OPT program, international students who graduate from colleges and universities in the U.S. are able to remain in the country and receive training through work experience for up to 12 months. Students who graduate from a designated STEM degree program can remain for an additional 17 months on an OPT STEM Extension.
“Undeniably, international students bring valuable contributions to our programs and classrooms,” adds Jud Saviskas, executive director of the School of Business in Stamford. “STEM designation now allows these highly skilled foreign graduates to extend their post-graduate training, establish their careers, and enhance the U.S. economy.”
The snow is finally melting and temperatures are slowly rising, which means we are finally entering collegiate competition season, including our annual CCEI Startup Challenge.
The CCEI Startup Challenge is a two-pronged initiative that includes a Pitch Competition (April 7th), where ten $1000 prizes are given out for different categories of elevator pitches. Then, the second element is a written Strategy Competition, where participants submit a written application containing specific elements found in a business plan (submission is max 5 pages in length), all submissions are reviewed, and the finalists are invited to do a full length presentation for a panel of judges from the University and from the Connecticut entrepreneurial community. The details of these events can be found by vising our “Business Plan Competition” page.
So, although this is a two part initiative, participants can do either/or, or both events. However, we strongly encourage people to take the ideas that they pitch at the Pitch Competition, and flesh them out and submit written Strategy Competition entries for these same ideas. The Strategy Competition also provides winners with larger monetary prizes, details found on the Business Plan Competition page.
In past years, we have had significant overlap with other competition participants, such as Innovation Quest (iQ), the Engineering Senior Design Project (ESDP), Startup Weekend Storrs, and the State Collegiate BizPlan Competition. The Pitch Competition is an event that we designed to be “for students by students”, and this years’ judges include winners from the 2013 CCEI Startup Challenge. It is fun and interactive, and last year there were over 60 ideas presented to a packed room of over 100 attendees.
Any UConn student is eligible to participate – each person (or team) has 90 seconds to present an elevator pitch for an idea of any type (app, manufactured product, service, etc.), real or hypothetical, and we present ten participants with $1000 each for 10 different prize categories, which include things like “best green idea”, “best college-focused idea”, “best overall pitch”, etc (listed on Business Plan Competition page). If you already are working on an idea, or if you are someone who wants to become involved in entrepreneurship at UConn, please come join us for the Pitch Competition! Any type of idea pitch will be heard – be as creative and innovative as you want to be. Do you have an idea? Pitch it!!!!
The UConn School of Business Accounting Department is pleased to announce the new online Accounting Certificate Program (ACP). The program is designed for non-accounting college graduates interested in obtaining a graduate certificate in accounting. The potential applicants are likely to be working professionals who want to acquire additional accounting knowledge and potential MS in Accounting applicants, who were not accounting majors and thus do not have the required prerequisite accounting courses, providing an attractive bridge into the MSA Program. The program will offer four comprehensive accounting courses; Financial Reporting I, Financial Reporting II, Federal Income Taxes, and Assurance Services over the fall and spring semesters resulting in the completion of the certificate in May.
For more information, see ACP Information.
In a letter George Washington wrote to our own illustrious Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut on 28 June 1781:
Because of his role during the American Revolution, Jonathan Trumbull is one of Connecticut’s best-known governors, and many historians regard him as one of its greatest leaders. He was the only governor of an English colony to side with the colonists, and his opposition to England’s encroachments into the colonies made him the only colonial governor to remain in office throughout the war. Thus, he became Connecticut’s last colonial governor and its first state governor.
“Permit me Sir to add, that Policy alone in our Present Circumstances, seem to demand that every Satisfaction which can reasonably be requested, should be given to those Veteran Troops who, ‘thro almost every Distress, have been so long and so faithfully serving the States . . .”
In the spirit of George Washington’s words on this 4th of July, the recent progress on veterans issues the federal government has made towards policy satisfying every demand of our nations veterans…
On June 4th, the House passed the fiscal year (FY) 2014 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs (MilCon/VA) Appropriations bill. The bill funds homeless programs within the Department of Veterans Affairs at the highest levels in history, meeting President Obama’s FY 2014 budget request for those programs. These funding levels include $300 million for the Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program and $250 million for the Grant and Per Diem Program.
As well, the Obama administration announced the completion of a new online application that completely enables an electronic, online, disability claim to be filed with the VA. The availability of the joint VA-Department of Defense Web portal eBenefits marks a major milestone in VA’s transformation from paper claims records to a fully digital operating environment, one of the keys to VA’s goal to eliminate the disability claims backlog by the end of 2015.
Taken together, the these two developments lay in place the pieces to revolutionize the processing of disability claims and benefits for veterans and their dependents, at once bringing the system into the 21st century and working to resolve the two major and synergistic complaints plaguing veterans today: the enormous backlog in disability claims (more than half of them from Viet Nam or “other era” veterans) and veteran homelessness. There currently are just over 851,000 claims filed with the VA, with most of them — about 565,000 — past the 125-day period that VA Secretary Eric Shinseki set as a resolution time. In some parts of the country, the wait time is past 600 days.
These twin developments in the month of June promise to solve these problems by the end of 2015!
On Monday, Feb 11th, former SSgt Clinton Romesha was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Obama for his heroic actions in the Oct 3rd, 2009 Battle of COP Keating (also known as the Battle of Kamdesh), during which the position was nearly overrun. It would have been the first time a US unit was overrun since the Viet Nam war. The COP was attacked by a force that outnumbered the US forces by almost 10:1. The COP occupied the low ground, and was surrounded by ridges. The COP has since been called “indefensible.”
American, allied, and Afghanistan forces, including the Observation Post about 2 km away and the mortar pit, included 57. The Taliban attacked with more than 300. The attack was a complex, supported attack. Breaches occurred at a latrine area close to the perimeter wire; the main entrance where civilian guards, Afghan Security Guards were overwhelmed; and from the eastern side—where Afghan National Army soldiers were stationed. Despite the efforts of two Latvian military advisors, who tried to convince the Afghan National Army forces not to flee, the Afghan defenders quickly broke and ran. US soldiers reported that none of the Afghan soldiers held their ground. Once the perimeter was breached, the Taliban set fire to numerous buildings, while the Americans and allied soldiers formed an internal defensive perimeter around two buildings. From there, the Americans counter-attacked to retake the COP and restore the integrity of their base.
The insurgents began to retreat later in the day. Quick reaction forces from 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment did not reach the outpost until 7:00 pm that day, while insurgents remained in parts of the outpost as late as 5:10 pm. On October 5 and 6, coalition troops conducted operations in the area in an attempt to locate and destroy the Taliban forces responsible for the attack on the outposts. Another 10 Afghan soldiers and 4 Taliban fighters were killed during these operations.
American forces had already planned to pull out of the area as part of a plan to move forces to more densely populated areas, so closure of the base was imminent when the attack occurred. The attack accelerated those plans, with the troops’ departure taking place quickly after the battle that some munitions were abandoned. The outpost was evacuated two days later, and bombed on October 6 by a B-1 bomber to prevent insurgents from looting the munitions abandoned in the hasty withdrawal. The outpost’s depot was promptly looted by the insurgents and bombed by American planes in an effort to destroy the lethal munitions left behind.
Eight US soldiers were killed and 22 wounded; eight Afghan soldiers were wounded, along with two Afghan private security guards. The US military estimated that 150 Taliban militants were also killed as a result of repulsing the assault. The US soldiers killed in the battle were: Justin T. Gallegos, Christopher Griffin, Kevin C. Thomson, Michael P. Scusa, Vernon W. Martin, Stephan L. Mace, Joshua J. Kirk, and Joshua M. Hardt. Twenty-seven purple hearts were awarded, as well as 18 Bronze stars for valor, 9 Silver Stars, 8 Distinguished Flying Crosses, and 1 Medal of Honor.
SSgt Romesha’s combat has been called epic. According to his citation, Romesha moved uncovered under intense enemy fire multiple times to muster reinforcements and fire on attackers. He took out an enemy machine gun team and, while engaging a second, was wounded by shrapnel when a generator he was using for cover was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. He fought on undeterred, exposing himself to “heavy enemy fire” while moving “confidently about the battlefield. Romesha engaged and destroyed “multiple enemy targets.” He also directed air support to destroy more than 30 enemy fighters and saved other wounded troops.
“Staff Sergeant Romesha’s heroic actions throughout the day long battle were critical in suppressing an enemy that had far greater numbers. His extraordinary efforts gave Bravo Troop the opportunity to regroup, reorganize and prepare for the counterattack that allowed the troop to account for its personnel and secure Combat Outpost Keating,” according to his award citation.
On Tuesday, Feb 12th, Adam Burke of Veterans Farm and the Farmer Veteran Coalition will receive the Presidential Citizenship Medal from President Obama. Connecticut’s own Working Vessels for Veterans works closely with Veterans Farm and the Farmer Veteran Coalition to help veterans learn about farming and start their own farms. Adam Burke is a Purple Heart recipient who started Veterans Farm in 2009 in Jacksonville FL. It is planning to expand to our state in the near future.
I find it very interesting that two veterans are receiving such important Presidential recognition in such close proximity, and so close to the 2013 State of the Union address. I have long believed that this current generation of combat veterans would lead the way in the next decade for solving some of the economic ills that have beset our nation. At the same time, in grand scheme of things, this generation of veterans are creating both social value and economic value by committing to reintegrate veterans into the workforce and American economic life.
