Student Case Competitions
Three districts held student case competitions recently. Here are the results:

Northeast district event 
Northeast District Student Case Competition award winners announced 
The Third Annual APICS Northeast District Student Case Competition was held on Saturday, April 16th at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. The event was hosted by the APICS Boston and New Haven chapters.

Sixty-eight students from 11 different universities competed in this year's event with nine teams competing in the graduate division and seven teams in the undergraduate division. Each team of competitors is presented a case to analyze, which includes specific problems for which they must develop solutions to present to the judges. Companies represented at the competition included BD Biosciences, Bigelow Tea, BASF, Dupont, Welch's, GN Netcom, Webster Industries, GE, and Covidien. Monetary prizes were awarded in each division along with student memberships to the APICS chapter of their choice (to the top five teams in each division).

The 2011 winning teams

Graduate Division

• 1st Place – Boston University – $1,200 prize
• 2nd Place – The University of Connecticut* – $800 prize
• 3rd Place – The University of Connecticut* – $500 prize

Undergraduate Division

• 1st Place – Northeastern University – $1,200 prize
• 2nd Place – Rutgers Business School – $800 prize
• 3rd Place – Bryant University – $500 prize

*Schools could enter more than one team in each division

Colleges represented at the 2011 Student Case Competition were:

• Boston University
• Bryant University
• New Jersey Institute of Technology
• Northeastern University
• Quinnipiac University
• Rutgers University
• Southern Connecticut State University
• Western Connecticut State University
• The University of Buffalo
• The University of Connecticut
• The University of Massachusetts -- Boston

Southwest District
40 students from 7 different schools competed as 13 teams in the 5th Annual Student Case Competition hosted by the Southwest District of APICS during the February 11-12, 2011 in San Diego, California. Ten teams competed in the undergraduate division and three teams in the graduate division. The case focused on a current, real-world consumer products company struggling with consumer loyalty, brand recognition, an under developed workforce, and cash flow. The students were told to make recommendations to the executives of the company on ways to address their problems. Teams competed for cash awards and recognition among their peers. 

The winners were:

Other schools represented were Loyola Marymount University in the Graduate division. In the Undergraduate division, schools represented include University of Texas at El Paso and Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, who teamed up together. The balance of the undergrad teams were from the San Diego area including University of California at San Diego (UCSD), San Diego State University (2 teams), University of San Diego, and Cal State University at San Marcos (2 teams).Congratulations to all the students who competed!

View the action and meet the teams on the Southwest District Website here.


Great Lakes District
The 16th annual Great Lakes District Student Case Competition was held on February 25-26, 2011 in Downers Grove IL.  This year 21 teams from colleges and universities in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Texas participated, and were it not for a bad snow storm moving east through the Ohio Valley there would have been 23 teams.  There were almost 200 student competitors. Adding to that a combination of academic advisors and APICS professional members brought the total attendance to over 235.

Cases were given to the teams at 7.00 P.M. Friday evening and the students got to work immediately. The student and professional attendees networked in a hospitality suite while the case authors answered clarifying questions until midnight. The written solutions were given to judges Saturday morning followed by afternoon oral presentations.

The event ended in a tie for the first time ever.   The 1st place teams shared the top of the points table and their student chapters took away $1,500 in prize money split evenly. Had there not been a tie the first place team would have won $900 and the second place $600.

Planning for next year’s event will start soon. The 2012 Case Competition will offer a new, special, networking session for academicians in addition to the customary idea interchange and Association update for APICS volunteer leaders.

To see pictures, visit the Great Lakes District webpage at: http://www.apicsgreatlakes.org/StudentNews.htm.

Mid-Atlantic District
The 2nd Annual APICS Mid-Atlantic Student Case Competition was held February 11-12, 2011 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Forty-one students from nine universities participated in this two day event.  $6,125 was awarded. Winners in the undergraduate category were:  1st Place – University of Toledo; 2nd Place – Duquesne University; and 3rd Place – University of Dayton.  Graduate category winners were: 1st Place – Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland); and 2nd Place – University of Pittsburgh. Other universities participating were: Bowling Green State University; Penn State University; Ohio State University; and Cleveland State University. 

Undergraduate (UG) 1st Place – University of Toledo

MAD Group Shot

Graduate 1st Place – Case Western University