MS BAnDS students take first in RMDS Global Case Competition
Thursday, November 4, 2021
Media Contact: Bailey Stacy | Marketing and Communications, Coordinator | 405-744-2700 | bailey.stacy@okstate.edu
Emma Collert, JK Chai and John Basora — a team of second-year Oklahoma State University Master’s in Business Analytics and Data Science students — won first place in the RMDS Global Case Competition, a virtual competition held from August to the end of October.
“I am delighted with the fantastic performance by our MS BAnDS students in this global competition,” said Dr. Goutam Chakraborty, MS BAnDS director. “Only a few teams receive awards out of more than 250 teams that compete. For the last two years, we have had one of our teams place first in the competition and I am so proud of our students. This is a testament to the strength of our students, faculty and program curriculum.”
The competition, judged by a panel of experts, asked contestants to develop an analytics dashboard to improve restaurant performance by collecting data sets and creating an analytics dashboard. Submissions in this world-wide competition are evaluated based on seven key criteria: impact, methodology validity, reproducibility, usability, ability to deploy, innovation, and fair and ethical use of data.
Collert, Chai and Basora, whose team name was the OG’s, submitted their winning project as a dashboard focused on accessibility and interactivity for a small business owner within the restaurant industry. As the first-place winners, each student received $1,000, a certificate, six-month premium membership at RMDS Lab and will be considered for publishing opportunities with RMDS partners.
“I attribute the compassion, tenacity, flexibility and diligence of my teammates to our success,” Collert said. “As individuals we excel, but as a team we have been able to reach new heights through our complementary backgrounds and initiative. Despite individual circumstances with lasting impacts, we have worked together on this competition and in other projects for over a year now and continue to assist each other in developing as analysts and people.”
In spite of being in different states, the OG’s were able to work together to create a global award-winning submission.
Visit the website to learn more about the MS BAnDS program.