Iowa Graduate Business Analytics Case Competition live final round April 2

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

By Rebekah Tilley

The final round of the annual Iowa Graduate Business Analytics Case Competition will be streamed live at 12:00 p.m. CST, Friday, April 2. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the case sponsor of this year’s virtual event.

“Our nationally ranked business analytics graduate program is a beacon of excellence when it comes to solving real-world problems with data,” said Dean Amy Kristof-Brown. “We’re proud to have the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for this year’s international case competition.”

Tippie College of Business alumnae and advisory board member Sue Taylor (MBA01) is currently serving as chief information officer of the Gates Foundation.

The original group of 30 participating teams, including teams from the U.S, Canada and the United Kingdom, was narrowed down to the five finalists after judges reviewed recorded presentations submitted on March 18 and announced the final round group on Friday, March 26. The teams are blind judged with no information identifying the institutions teams represent.

“The case is focused on understanding trends in global population and vaccination and use data to drive proper planning and resource allocations,” said Kristine Arens, coordinator of the competition and director of the Master of Science in Business Analytics program. “The Gates Foundation is asking participant teams to evaluate different data sets to not only help with planning, but to project potential health impacts of a variety of vaccines.”

The top three teams will be announced at the conclusion of final round, and winning teams will receive $5,000 for first place, $2,000 for second place, and $1,500 for third place. Final round judges include representatives from the Gates Foundation; Health Catalyst, a leading provider of data and analytics technology and services to health care organizations; Principal Global Investors, the investing arm of Principal Financial Group; and UnityPoint Health, a multi-state, integrated delivery system located in Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

The public will have an opportunity to watch all five of the final round presentations and listen to the live question and answer session with the judges.