New Interdisciplinary BHP Case Competition Tackles Austin Traffic Issues

First Place Team: Abhishek Ramchandani, Eric Saldanha, Tejas Choudhary, and Andy Patel

First Place Team: Abhishek Ramchandani, Eric Saldanha, Tejas Choudhary, and Andy Patel

The Business Honors Program in partnership with Women in Computer Science (WiCS), hosted its first interdisciplinary case competition focused on Austin traffic this past weekend. Given the population explosion, record number of crashes, and insufficient infrastructure development, students were asked to provide City of Austin with a technology-driven solution to substantially alleviate these transportation issues for a significant portion of the population. Forty-four students from Business Honors, Computer Science, and Engineering competed for the top spots. The teams thoroughly enjoyed the chance to work with people outside of their majors, and the winning team talked about how the interdisciplinary team structure helped them approach the case from multiple angles. BHP sophomore Eric Saldanha said, “I focused on all the political considerations, while the engineering and CS majors figured out the mechanics behind our solution, and the other BHP-er ran the numbers to ensure the financial sustainability.”

The competition judges included experts from the City of Austin, the Austin Transportation Department, transportation start-ups, venture capitalists, and UT professors in IROM, urban planning, and civil engineering. They watched eleven teams pitch innovative and imaginative solutions, but it was ultimately team Pacific Solutions, made up of Abhishek Ramchandani, Eric Saldanha, Tejas Choudhary, and Andy Patel, that won our judges’ approval and took home first place in the competition. Their solution focused on two key aspects: (i) Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) – automated traffic signaling, hard shoulder reform, and variable speed limits, and (ii) Traffic Demand Management (TDM) – a dynamic pricing model for parking, a carpooling program, and staggered work shifts. The judges were highly impressed with the quality of the presentations, the innovative ideas, and the incredible team work reflected by the teams.

This competition focused on a public sector issue that Austin residents face on a daily basis and gave students a chance to make a significant impact in improving the safety and mobility of our city. We were extremely impressed to hear that many teams had already reached out to key figures in government influencing the transportation dialogue to present their findings outside of the competition. Congratulations to all the teams that competed, and we hope to continue this new tradition of collaborating with other UT colleges on real, societal issues every year.

Students Take Fourth Place in a Non-Profit Case Consulting Competition

BHP students Robert Ma, Thomas Pigeon, Jane Tedjajuwana and Shannon Wey took fourth place at the McDonough-Hilltop Business Strategy Challenge at Georgetown University in Washington, DC this month. Twenty teams competed, 11 from the U.S. and nine international, in this unique non-profit case consulting competition. This year’s case centered on expanding job opportunities available to members of the National Institute for the Blind (NIB).

MCC

From left: Jane Tedjajuwana, Robert Ma, Thomas Pigeon, Shannon Wey

“The main goal of NIB is to help the blind become independent personally and financially. Our job in the case competition was to find ways for the NIB to open up job opportunities not only within the federal government, but in the private sector and in the service industries,” said Shannon Wey.

The team presented a three-pronged solution which involved starting an internship program allowing blind people to get a foot in the door with employers, building a stronger network of partner companies across the nation, and implementing a talent showcase open to companies to show what blind people are capable of with current assisted technologies.

The unique emphasis on non-profit organizations altered the way the students view not-for-profit work, “We realized all the different obstacles that are placed in front of a non-profit, be it people’s biases against the people the organization is trying to serve, to limited opportunities, to financial restrictions,” said Thomas Pigeon. “It gives you a greater appreciation for how they maximize every dollar they are given.”

“Non-profit put such a huge twist on it. I’ve done six or seven case competitions and this is the one I’ve enjoyed the most because the nature of the case made if feel more fulfilling because I felt like I was contributing to a greater cause,” said Robert Ma. The students were also able to dedicate more of their efforts in areas, which may not receive as much attention in typical business case competitions. “Because it’s a nonprofit we didn’t just focus in on revenue,” said Jane Tedjajuwana. “We didn’t look at the financial projection at all in the first round because they just wanted to hear our ideas and gage how realistic it was because ideally they wanted to be able to implement the solution.”

The team also enjoyed meeting other competitors from outside of the U.S. and hearing their global perspective on the case. “It provided a really unique experience for all of us. We appreciated how international it was. We met people from Hong Kong, Australia, Germany and Singapore,” said Robert Ma.

After taking a closer look at non-profit organizations, all of the team members said they would now definitely consider working with non-profits after college.

The trip was not all work. The group managed to find time to visit the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and made sure to make a pit stop at Georgetown Cupcake.

 

BHP Students Take First Place In SCI Case Competition

It is no secret that Austin, Texas is the place to be right now for anything to do with business. Entrepreneurs are flocking to get their startups off the ground, businessmen and women are migrating from the Silicon Valley to the Silicon Hills and everyone who’s anyone is talking about ATX. As businesses are growing, they’re also presented with bumps along the way, which is when consultants are able to lend a helping hand. The UT Student Consulting Initiative (SCI) is more than happy to offer their services to the booming business of Austin.

SCI hosted their Annual Fall Case Competition Saturday, November 23, which was sponsored by the BBA Alumni Excellence Foundation, EYAdvisory, OSL, Student Government and SCI alumni. The competition lasts two months and teams were tasked with assisting a local business with their needs from internal communication to marketing and more. Nine teams competed in the competition pairing with different local businesses. “We were very impressed with the results this year,” said SCI Co-Chair, Holli Wertheimer. “The students created a wide range of deliverables from marketing campaigns to inventory management tools to compensation requirements among many others.”

The winning team worked with Fair Bean Coffee on their internal communications and employee retention for a prize of $1,200. The team consisted of Jason Prideaux, BHP, Finance and Plan II ’16, David Kaplan, BHP & Corporate Finance ’16, Douglas Berkman, BHP ’16, and Catherine Anne Prideaux, BHP & Plan II ’16.

“This was a tremendous learning experience,” said Douglas Berkman, a member of the winning team. “The case competition provided me with insight on what it is like to be a consultant for a real company with real employees and a real owner.” Many of the students felt it was a good experience even for those not currently pursuing consulting, “I entered the competition for experience,” said Catherine Anne Prideaux. “I would highly recommend doing SCI even if you’re not considering consulting!” All four team members noted that their group meetings were one of their favorite parts of the competition.

If you’re interested in learning more about SCI, visit their website.

This article originally appeared on BBA News.