Every year Loyola hosts a Supply Chain Data Analytics competition that gives student teams the opportunity to analyze data, draw meaningful insights from that analysis, and effectively communicate those insights to stakeholders. While we normally reserve this competition to student teams from universities in the Chicago-land area, as we are hosting the competition virtually this year, we will be opening participation up more broadly.
Along with giving students an opportunity to execute an end-to-end analytics project (from data cleaning and transformation to storytelling), we are also happy to be able to offer $5,000 in prize money. Maybe most importantly, the competition is based on strategic and tactical planning issues faced by Feeding America in their pursuit of ending hunger.
Students of all levels (undergrad through PhD) and all backgrounds are encouraged to participate. Information regarding the competition is below and attached. Please share this information with your student bodies so we can help Feeding America in its important mission.
Please note there is a kickoff event that all teams must attend on Thursday, February 25th @ 7:00 pm Central time.
Registration link for kickoff on Thursday, February 25, 2021: https://forms.gle/QSTBTCaSMxHKHKVt5
Please register with a school-affiliated email address.
Loyola University Chicago
3rd Annual Supply Chain Data Analytics Competition
The Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago is proud to announce this year's Supply Chain Data Analytics Competition, which will take place this Spring, 2021. This competition will give students the opportunity to work with and analyze large-scale data sets from Feeding America to help them in their charge of ending hunger. Student teams will be assessed based on their analysis of these data sets as well as their ability to present insights derived from that analysis to a panel of industry experts. Participation is open to teams of at most four students. Student teams from any university are eligible to participate and both undergraduate and graduate students are welcome. We anticipate awarding $5,000 in prize money to the top-performing teams.
The competition will proceed as follows (all times Central time):
- Thursday, February 25, 2021, 7:00 – 8:30 pm: A kickoff event for the competition will be held over Zoom during which representatives from Feeding America will discuss their organization as well as give background on the data set and the problems they seek to see solved. Teams will be informed of how to access the data for this competition, as well as provided links to subsequent Zoom sessions for the competition at this event.
To attend this event, please register via this page with an email address associated with an institution of higher learning (e.g. one that ends in .edu): https://forms.gle/QSTBTCaSMxHKHKVt5
- Thursday, March 11th, 2021, 7:00 – 8:00 pm: First of two check-in zoom sessions for teams to ask questions of representatives from Feeding America regarding the data sets and initial analysis ideas.
- Thursday, March 18th, 2021, 7:00 – 8:00 pm: Second of two check-in zoom sessions for teams to ask questions of representatives from Feeding America regarding the data sets and initial analysis ideas.
- March 25th, 2021 @ midnight: Teams will submit a 15-minute presentation of their analysis, including a 3-5 page supplementary document which contains details regarding how their analysis was done. Submissions will be made via Dropbox, and evaluated by a panel of academic and industry members, including representatives from Feeding America.
- April 8th, 2021: The top three teams will be notified that they have been selected to present their analysis to a panel of industry experts
- April 15th, 2021, 7:00 – 9:00 pm: A final event for the competition will be held wherein the top three teams will give their presentations to a panel consisting of supply chain professionals from Bayer Crop Science, BluJay Solutions, Redwood Logistics, and Feeding America. At the end of this event, the first, second, and third place teams will be announced, and $5,000 in prize money will be awarded.
Registration link for kickoff on Thursday, February 25, 2021: https://forms.gle/QSTBTCaSMxHKHKVt5
Please register with a school-affiliated email address.
Any and all questions may be directed to Dr. Mike Hewitt, mhewitt3@luc.edu
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Mike Hewitt
Associate Professor
Loyola University Chicago
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