Podium place for Beedie undergrads at APEX case competition

The 2015 Beedie School of Business APEX Business-IT Global Case Challenge team. From left to right: Natasha Tsoy, Madeline Millsip, team coach Dr. Kamal Masri, and Carmela Luongo.

A team of Beedie School of Business undergraduate students earned the bronze medal in the prestigious APEX Business-IT Global Case Challenge, regarded as one of the top management information systems (MIS) case competitions in the world.

The APEX Business-IT Global Case Challenge, held this year from May 4 to 8, is hosted annually by Singapore Management University (SMU) and highlights the intertwined nature of business and IT.

It invites undergraduate students from universities across the world to propose solutions to real-life scenarios focused on Information Systems solutions, corporate transformation imperatives and business impacts.

The Beedie team, consisting of BBA students Carmela Luongo, Natasha Tsoy, and Madeline Millsip, along with team coach and Beedie lecturer Dr. Kamal Masri, overcame difficult circumstances in the build-up to the competition to earn third place.

In addition to none of the team members possessing any MIS experience – traditionally a necessity considering the competition’s focus on the subject – Luongo had only joined the team ten days prior to the competition as a late replacement.

The team’s hard work and dedication paid off with their podium finish, while Luongo also earned the individual best speaker prize.

“It was a challenge to transform three non-MIS students into world class case competitors in just ten days,” says Masri. “The team spent close to 80 hours in the last ten days preparing for the competition, taking a crash course in MIS, big data, and data analytics. Their dedication to preparation was admirable, and they can be rightly proud of their performance.”

“Apex BIZ IT Case Competition offered us a once in a lifetime experience,” says Luongo. “With the help of our coach, Kamal Masri, we were able to train and truly compete in a competition that was, in all respects, out of the scope of our studies. Our team made a lasting impression on our competitors and I am extremely proud of our performance.”

The 2015 competition featured 16 top universities from across the globe, including Corvinus University of Budapest, Technical University Dortmund, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of Minnesota, and Universitas Indonesia.

Competing teams were given 24 hours to develop a business recommendation on their case before presenting to a panel of judges. After advancing through the opening two rounds, the Beedie team had only 15 hours to prepare for the main presentation.

For more information about the APEX Business-IT Global Case Challenge visit http://apex.smu.edu.sg/