A fierce work ethic, great research, and many hours of practice helped the UConn Case Club win the top prize at the 32nd Kogod Case Competition at American University earlier this month.
This is the second consecutive year that the UConn team took home the top prize. A new team competed this year, and all five participants are second-year business students who had never entered a case competition before.
“Our ideas were super niche and I think that took the judges by surprise,’’ said Sophia Viar, a finance major and the president of the club. “They were intrigued by the complexity of what we had done.’’
The team prepared for months, sometimes putting in five hours a day to fine-tune their case and improve their presentation.
“We practiced over and over in the School of Business Board Room,’’ Viar said. “We basically asked each other questions over and over. We drilled. We were ready for every question that the judges threw at us.’’
Other team members included: Maria Cayward (analytics and information management), David Lu (finance), Kabir Ramnani (finance) and Daniel Barberi (finance and economics). None of the team members knew each other well before they started the competition.
The Challenge: Using AI to Help a Fortune 500 Company
The case competition involved integrating artificial intelligence into Xylem Inc., an American water technology provider and Fortune 500 company, that does business in more than 150 countries.
In their final presentation, the Husky team proposed using Novable software, which sources startups that match a company’s needs. They also recommended exploring the offerings of Oxyle, a company with a new filter that can destroy PFAS contaminants.
“One of the judges, who works for Xylem, said, ‘You hit the nail on the head. You guys are amazing!’ ’’ Viar said. The UConn team defeated four teams from American University, as well as teams from the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University. They also took the prize for Best Q&A when the competition concluded on Feb. 15 in Washington, DC.
The victory reflects the enormous effort that the team put into the project.
“We started working on the case in November and there was a lot of back and forth with the team,’’ Viar said. “We had four months to develop our idea, and we changed direction often. It was pretty rocky in the first months until we nailed it down.’’
Ramnani said the team had incredible spirit and dedication, despite some mumbling about having to work over the holiday break.
“All of us had a hunger for it. We wanted to put our best foot forward,’’ Ramnani said. “I think one of the key lessons I learned is how to articulate ideas in a concise way. If you over-speak, you overcompensate. What matters is the quality of what you say. I learned to make my answers concise and deliberate.’’
Competition Will Enhance Careers Down the Road
Viar is planning a career in management consulting and said the competition is well aligned with her career aspirations. She looks forward to discussing her case-competition achievement in job interviews.
Ramnani agreed, saying the competition highlighted the problem-solving skills of every team member.
“I really didn’t know anything about the water industry until I started working on the case competition. I had to learn so much,’’ he said. “I also learned that sometimes you have to cut your losses. If we worked on an idea for a week and it wasn’t working out, I learned not to be emotionally attached to the idea, to move on and try something new.’’
