UConn Today – Two OPIM professors, known for their scholarship and groundbreaking work in the classroom, were honored with prestigious awards by the Information Systems Society at its annual conference in San Francisco earlier this month.
Department News
Articles about activities within the academic departments
Two Teams of UConn Grad Students Win Big at InsurTech Innovation Competition
UConn Today – Two teams of UConn graduate students walked away with impressive victories and $7,000 in prize money after the InsurTech America Innovation Challenge in Hartford last week.
UConn MSBAPM students Jeff Xu and Mingdi Luo and FERM student Bingjie Liu took home first place and $5,000 for their ideas about minimizing theft risk for long-haul cargo. Their innovative platform, called CargoShield, is designed to help freight brokers and insurance companies. The team conducted a simulated demonstration to show how to evaluate the risk, generate a risk score, and provide recommendations to protect cargo prior to transport.
UConn Professor Co-Chairs National Academies Study of Federal Small Business Innovation Programs
UConn Today – When the federal government invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually in small-business research and development, how should it determine whether those investments make a meaningful impact?
That question was pivotal to a comprehensive National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine study co-chaired by UConn business professor Timothy B. Folta, the Thomas John and Bette Wolff Family Chair in Strategic Entrepreneurship at the School of Business.
Steve Gillette ‘26 MSA Trades Police Badge for Business Balance Sheet
UConn Today – Imagine waking up one morning and trading a police uniform and bulletproof vest for a dress shirt and tie. The handcuffs, patrol car, and emergency sirens are gone, replaced by the new tools of the trade: spreadsheets, financial statements, and the latest accounting software.
For most people, such a transition would be a shock to the system. But for Steve Gillette ’26 MSA, a former Glastonbury police officer turned accountant, that change was a hard but intentional choice.
UConn Researcher’s Insight on Small-Business Bankruptcy Recovery Draws the Attention of Congress
UConn Today – New research by UConn finance professor Xiang Zheng indicates that an improved bankruptcy procedure, designed to make reorganization easier and less expensive for small businesses, is proving successful in enabling many of those companies to regroup and remain in business.
Ask the Experts – Weining Bao
Wallethub – Q:Who should try zero-based budgeting?
I think anyone who wants every dollar to have a job should try zero-based budgeting. For example, people with steady income and a clear goal (paying off debt, building savings). Like Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory, it runs best when the flow is predictable.
Q: Who is most likely to struggle with zero-based budgeting?
I have a couple of examples. (1) Irregular earners. Their volatile income is like unreliable supply, and the system needs smoothing before it works. (2) People with no buffer and heavy fixed costs. Any shock could make them go straight to debt, like a JIT line with no safety stock.
Suhitha Sreedhar, Co-Founder of the Thrift Den, to Represent School of Business at U.N. Climate Conference
UConn Today – Representatives from around the world will descend upon Antalya, Turkey, next month to discuss one of the most complex and important issues facing our world—climate change.
Suhitha Sreedhar, a senior in the School of Business, will get a front-row seat to those conversations. She is one of the UConn delegates who will attend the United Nation’s Conference of Parties (COP), an annual symposium held this year from Nov. 9 to 20.
Sreedhar, a management major with a minor in social responsibility and impact in business, is excited for the trip, seeing this as a culmination of her work at UConn and a boost to her future aspirations.
Professor Bird Speaks at Top Global Legal Research Center
UConn Today – Business law professor Robert Bird gave two lectures last month at the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, Germany.
The Institute is a top global center for foundational comparative legal research and is renowned for its academic rigor and expert policy advising.
UConn Student Justin Fargo Went from Family iPhone-Fixer to Small Business Cybersecurity Champion
UConn Today – In the last year, Justin Fargo ‘28 has created a new cybersecurity and compliance firm to help small- and medium-sized companies meet the requirements needed to become U.S. government contractors.
“I really think people should know that just because you’re a college student and you have a lot of obligations, you can still take risks. You don’t have to wait until you graduate to start a business,’’ says Fargo.
Three New Faculty Members Join the School of Business
UConn Today – The School of Business is welcoming three new faculty members this Fall, who bring expertise in accounting, entrepreneurship, and real-estate research.
“Hiring new business faculty is always exciting, because the nature of our field is to stay on the cutting-edge of innovation and its application in the real world,’’ said Interim Dean Bob Day. “Looking at these three new hires and their current research programs I see innovation throughout: I see new taxation policies and new means of studying their implications; I see AI and autonomous-vehicle policy; I see research on manufactured homes and the impact of solar panels on real estate investment, among other topics.’’