Spears School of Business

 

A team of four Oklahoma State University business analytics students recently placed third in the University of Iowa’s Graduate Business Analytics Case Competition.

 

Katelyn Byrne, Sugandhi Akula, Kalyan Kumar Alisetty and Tonmoy Paul won third place in the virtual contest while competing against 30 teams from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The OSU team won $1,500.

 

“Placing third in this competition was a huge honor and accomplishment for our team,” Byrne said. “We spent many hours preparing for the case and earning third was amazing affirmation of everything we have learned in class and the hard work put into our presentation. Also, it meant a lot to our team to be selected to represent OSU, the Spears School of Business and our program in a competition that included schools from across the world.”

 

Sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the teams were asked to evaluate different data sets to not only help with planning but to project potential health impacts of a variety of vaccines.

 

“The final round of the competition being a simulation of a business stakeholder meeting really helped the team slip into the shoes of true analytics professionals,” Akula said. “We had the opportunity to rub elbows with some brilliant minds who think out of the box. Not only did we learn about new analytical tools and methods, but we also learned how to leverage known methods in new ways. This competition has put us a step closer to becoming more well-rounded business professionals who are ready for a successful career in analytics.”

 

“This competition taught me a lot about teamwork and preparing a presentation for executives of a company,” Byrne said. “This has immensely prepared me for a career in business analytics where I will need to take an analysis and turn it into business insights and actionable items that can be used in decision making across the business in marketing, finance, etc.” 

 

Dr. Goutam Chakraborty, director of the business analytics and data science program, was pleased with how the four performed against students from across the world.

 

“Our students spent many long hours coming up with the solution of a real-world problem through data analysis and visualization,” he said. “I am very proud of both their analytical and presentation skills and finishing third in such a prestigious competition that had teams from universities such as Northwestern, the University of Wisconsin, the London Business School, the University of Iowa, Wake Forest, Michigan State and others.

 

“This is the second time we have finished among the top teams in this competition the last three years. The credit goes to our hard-working students and our faculty who have prepared students over the course of the curriculum to excel in competitions against the best teams from around the world.”

 

For more information about the master’s in business analytics and data science program at OSU, visit the website.