From left to right: Robert Gianniny (Statler College), Megan Garvey (Statler College), Sean King (Chambers College), and Jeremy Ferguson (Chambers College).
The University of Pittsburgh's Race to the Case competition, modeled after the show The Amazing Race, allows students from the supply chain and industrial engineering disciplines to race, network and compete for a $3,000 cash prize.
Pitt believes that their annual competition exposes students to real-world problem solving, while also giving them the opportunity to further develop their professional skills and network with corporate partners.
This year, our business students teamed up with two West Virginia University industrial engineering students, Robert Gianniny and Megan Garvey, to compete for the winning prize.
"Once we arrived at the competition, it became clear that we would be given a case study, and relevant data, then asked to answer questions about it – which ranged widely across SCM and IE," said Sean King, global supply chain senior from Leesburg, Virginia. "Jeremy and I went over the given information during our car ride, and we both brushed up on financial information that we thought would be relevant to the case."
The competition was divided into three separate problem-solving rounds. All teams compete in rounds one and two, but only the top three teams continue to the final round. In that final round, the three teams have 30 minutes each to create a presentation based on a final challenge question.
To make it to the final round, King admits that his team worked hard and strategized in order to bring home the cash prize.
"We were extremely fortunate that we all worked together so cohesively, being able to delegate and complete tasks very efficiently," he said.
Aside from WVU and Pitt, students from Chatham, Robert Morris, Duquesne and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) also participated.
Not only did these four WVU students win this year's competition, but this is also our University's fifth Race to the Case win.
"It was very exciting and rewarding to see our hard work pay off and overcome such great competition, said Jeremy Ferguson, a global supply chain senior from Reading, Pennsylvania. "Overall, I feel as if the event was not only a success for my personal growth but a success for WVU's department of global supply chain management. Winning this competition goes to show how our courses and educators have prepared us to implement what we've learned in the classroom into real-life situations."
Global Supply Chain Management Associate Professor and Director of the Wehrle Global Supply Chain Lab in Reynolds Hall, John Saldanha, is proud of the students for representing themselves and WVU as a whole.
"We are excited that our students continue to showcase the strengths of our program in this fifth win at the Race to the Case competition alongside great schools like Pitt and CMU," said
To learn more about the competition, please visit the competition's Facebook page.
SH and 11/09/22
CONTACT: Shelby Hudnall
Marketing Strategist
WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics, Strategic Communications
Stoompa1@mail.wvu.edu
