Annual Business Analytics Competition Spring 2022
Saunders College of Business proudly presents the winners of the 2022 Business Analytics competition:
1st place: Tron Schell '23 (management information systems) and Matt Hochman '23 (management information systems)
2nd place: Usama Tariq (business analytics) and Kaltrine Miftari '18 (applied mathematics), MS '22 (business analytics), and Dren Gara undergraduate computer science student from Drexel University
3rd place: Sri Harsha Kurella MS '22 (business analytics), Sai Priya Todupunoo MS '22 (business analytics), Vardhan Kumar Bandi MS '23 (business analytics), Pratyusha Abbisetti MS '22 (business analytics), and Mhlambululi Mafu (business analytics)
The winning teams have given their permission to publish their materials (submission and presentation). We hope students will find these materials useful for learning purposes. The recording of the presentation is also found here.
Check out photos from the 2022 Business Analytics Competition Event.
Annual Business Analytics Competition
2022 Competition Information
The competition is open to:
- Full-time RIT and non-RIT students
- Undergraduate and graduate students
- Students looking for real-world experience with data analytics
Why Compete?
The top three teams will be recognized with the following awards:
- First place: $1,000
- Second place: $500
- Third place: $250
Other honorable mentions will also be recognized. Teams will also receive trophies and/or certifications of achievement to recognize their accomplishments.
For students who are ranked in the top three teams in the Business Analytics Competition, we also provide the following incentives for them to apply to the Saunders MS in business analytics program. Please contact Professor Manlu Liu (manluliu@saunders.rit.edu) or Peggy Tirrell (ptirrell@saunders.rit.edu) if you have any questions.
- Application fee waiver
- Opportunity for GMAT/GRE waiver
- At least 40% of tuition scholarship guarantee
- Opportunity to work with faculty on exciting research projects after enrolling in the program
Visit the 2021 Competition page to view details, winning presentations and the recording to last year's competition final day.
Team Format
- Students can form teams of up to five students to participate in the competition.
- The competition is open to both undergraduate and graduate students. Ph.D. students are not eligible for this competition.
- Non-RIT students are welcome to participate. However, non-RIT teams MUST have one student sign up for the guest account in RIT MyCourses to submit their solutions.
- Participating students must currently enroll in an academic program at a university/college.
Competition Format
The competition will feature two rounds, and both will use the same dataset. The judging for each round will be different. The competition events will be hosted by the Business Technology Professionals (BTP) student club. RIT students who wish to volunteer for the competition can contact the BTP leadership or join the club on RIT Capus Groups.
Round One - Kaggle Competition and Business Report
- All teams will get access to the competition dataset. Teams will apply different analytical techniques to make predictions and address the business questions posed in the challenge.
- Teams can upload their prediction on a Kaggle competition site for real-time evaluation of their models.
- Additionally, each team will prepare a four-page summary of their analysis and answers to the business questions.
- A panel of professors and experts will judge the quality of the summary. The panel will recommend a small set of teams to move on to the next round.
- Note: students are encouraged to use the Discussion board in the Kaggle site to find teammates
Dataset and Challenge for Round One
Click on links to download files.
- Challenge and Task
- Dataset ZIP file containing three files:
- 2022-dataset1.csv
- 2022-dataset2.csv
- 2022-Data-Dictionary.xlsx
- Kaggle submission site (https://www.kaggle.com/t/7e965e6b69c74c3f835836f7c3471e83)
- MyCourses submission site (https://mycourses.rit.edu/d2l/home/914331)
Round Two - Presentations
- Finalist teams will prepare an in-depth presentation. Additional questions may be provided to guide the preparation.
- Teams will present their presentations to a panel of industry experts. The panel will evaluate the technical sophistication of the analysis and the business value of the overall report.
- The presentation and judging event will be open to all RIT faculty and students.
Competition Dates and Details
Virtual Launch
- Competition dataset and challenge are made available to registered students.
- Email Prof. Bui (qnbbbu@rit.edu) or Prof. Perotti (vjpbbu@rit.edu) to request access to the MyCourses course shell for the competition
- In-person kick-off event with a Q&A session
- Discussion with judges to clarify datasets and challenge details
- Click here to view the recording of the kick-off meeting
Student Workshop for Q&A, and Mentorship
- In-person Q&A session
- Workshop event for students to receive advices from mentors
- Teams can submit their preliminary findings/plan of action/proposal for feedback. Please send a one-page summary in advance to Prof. Bui or Prof. Perotti.
- Click here to view the recording of the workshop
Submission Deadline for Kaggle Solution + Business Proposal
- Prediction solutions must be posted in Kaggle site
- Submission deadline for the four-page summary
- The submission system is the MyCourses course shell “Business Analytics Competition @ RIT”. Email Prof. Bui (qnbbbu@rit.edu) or Prof. Perotti (vjpbbu@rit.edu) for access.
Presentation and Award Ceremony
Frequently Asked Questions
Team Composition and Participation:
No, you only have to provide the team information in the cover page of your submission.
Yes, you can participate as an individual.
Yes. As long as there are no more than 5 students.
Competition Dataset, Software, and Procedures
The dataset and challenge are posted on this website. To submit your solution, you need to gain access to RIT MyCourses course shell “Business Analytics Competition @ RIT”. To request access to the course shell, please email Prof. Bui (qnbbbu@rit.edu) or Prof. Perotti (vjpbbu@rit.edu).
There will be a workshop in which teams will receive guidance and clarification. Teams can submit a one-page action plan for feedback. But there are no team-designated mentors.
Students can check out the submission of last year winner. However, there is no guarantee your team will succeed this year if you apply the same approach.
Yes, you can. You can request a one-year license as a student here: https://www.tableau.com/academic/students
No, you can use additional data to augment your analyses.
Please send questions to professor Quang “Neo” Bui (qnbbbu@rit.edu) or professor Victor J. Perotti.
The Saunders Business Analytics Competition is brought to you by:
