The University of Washington captured first place in the Tippie College of Business’ annual business analytics case competition for master’s degree students held April 8.

The competition was sponsored by Fastenal, a Minnesota-based global manufacturing and supply chain logistics company, which provided data to the students and asked them to find trends and correlations in the freight and market sectors in relation to North American economic trends. Judging was done by a panel of experts from Fastenal and other analytics professionals from various industries.

Other finalists included second-place finisher Purdue University, third-place finisher Oklahoma State University, and honorable mention recipient Tippie College of Business. Other competitors included the University of Alabama, Boston College, Cal Poly, University of Cincinnati, Iowa State University, University of Nebraska, University of California-Riverside, University of South Florida, Wake Forest University, Western Illinois University, and the University of Wisconsin. Best Presenter was Piper Doyle from Purdue.

“We were pleased to offer an opportunity to contribute to student’s learning, build some brand recognition, and witness so many innovative ideas from teams that can be quickly implemented.” said, Troy Parkos, regional vice president at Fastenal. 

“We felt we had the right team of data professionals on our side and right problems to create a compelling statement and data,” said Brian Keeling, director of business intelligence at Fastenal.

MEDIA CONTACT: Tom Snee, 319-384-0010 (o); 319-541-8434 (c); tom-snee@uiowa.edu