This past weekend, BHP hosted the second annual Interdisciplinary Case Competition, which brings together BHP, CS and Engineering students. The competition is an opportunity for business and tech students to learn to work together, and bring their unique skills to the table to solve a business problem. This year’s case involved a struggling fictional airline facing issues with their workforce, technology and operations.
Southwest Airlines partnered with BHP for the competition, sending managers from various departments to judge the competition alongside McCombs faculty members and BHP alumni. Though the airline was fictional, the competition co-chairs created a case which was very relevant to issues major airlines face every day. Teams came up with creative solutions, based on data analytics and extensive research. BHP Faculty Director Robert Prentice said he was impressed in the final rounds. “It was amazing to see how much they knew about the airline industry. They really did a great job researching the industry,” he said. The Southwest Airlines managers were also impressed. One of them even commenting that he learned something from the students that he hadn’t known about before.
It was a hard-fought battle, but in the end a team of juniors took first place, with the key differentiators being comprehensiveness of their plan and clarity of their case. The winning team will receive $1,000. Great job to all the teams participating and kudos to Sai Yeleru and Abhishek Ramchandani, the competition co-chairs, for organizing such a well-run competition and putting together a great case!
First Place Team: Eric Saldanha (BHP), Diane Sun (BHP), Mandeep Patel (ME), Malvika Gupta (BME)
Second Place Team: Saagar Pateder (BHP), Maitreya Movva (BHP), Luca Tomescu (EE), Vishal Vusirikala (CS)
Third Place Team: Catherine Cheng (BHP), Eric Sun (BHP), Wesley Klock (EE), Lee Rao (CS)
