NJIT Management Students Win Big at Avanade Conference
A contingent from NJIT’s Martin Tuchman School of Management (MTSM), which included new dean Oya Tukel, crossed the country in June to attend the Avanade FUEL Innovation, Leadership, and Technology Conference in Pomona, Calif. Among those invited to the prestigious event were 30 Avanade Scholars from three North American universities. Eight were from NJIT and either business majors or minors: Tracey Brereton ’20, Emily Costagliola ’20, Shana Dominique ’22, Katharine Ilyutovich ’20, Julia Lizik ’24, Racheal Ogungbile ’20, Priya Ravi ’19 and Dikasse Zalla ’19.
Avanade, a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture, is an international business consulting and solutions company. It established its scholarship program in 2015 to invest in young women studying STEM through mentoring, networking and internships. NJIT is one of only nine universities worldwide to partner with Avanade for this program.
The conference featured a Student Hackathon challenging participants to develop innovative solutions to three critical problems facing their college peers in the U.S.: homelessness, hunger and food insecurities, and obesity and diminished wellness. Four of NJIT’s Avanade Scholars were on the teams placing first and second, and Zalla was on the overall winning team, e.g., the team that received the popular vote among all the participants.
“I was lucky to have been on a team with brilliant and creative minds that worked hard to help deliver the final product. During the competition, I got to … truly utilize all the skills I acquired at Martin Tuchman School of Management, … using technology to solve a ‘business’ problem,” said Zalla, a newly minted business analyst at Avanade who graduated from NJIT with a B.S. in international business and marketing. “I had an amazing experience at the Avanade FUEL Conference. … I really enjoyed having so many like-minded individuals in one place, sharing ideas, networking and learning from each other.”
Following are the winning proposals from MTSM’s students.
Tracey Brereton: Obesity/Wellness, First Place
Brereton’s team developed an easy-to-use, accessible-on-campus, incentive-driven app called Plate Points. Designed for use in campus cafeterias and aligned with a student’s meal plan, the app enables students to earn points for choosing healthy foods. It also awards points for attending gym classes. Points can then be redeemed for either healthy food purchases or on-campus services such as workout sessions, appointments with a nutritionist or time with a personal trainer.
Shana Dominique: Obesity/Wellness, Runner-up
Dominique’s team created Bit by Bit, an all-in-one app that addresses student wellness in three categories: physical health, nutrition and mental health. Among the app’s many functions, the physical health portion allows users to set exercise goals; the nutrition portion facilitates finding healthy recipes based on the user’s dietary preferences along with grocery store coupons for ingredients; and the mental health portion gauges the user’s mood via a daily survey and then offers either tips to improve mood or access to university counseling resources. Bit by Bit also employs a chatbot that promotes a user-friendly experience, and utilizes the university’s student dashboard to display progress metrics and connect students with similar goals.
Julia Lizik: Homelessness, First Place
Lizik’s team designed an app called HOM-E that would also be made available at kiosks for students without access to technology. The app allows students facing homelessness to connect with Multi-Family Tax Exemption, an existing program that reduces apartment costs for low-income families and other groups, including students. Through an interface using artificial intelligence, students are matched with and assisted in securing available housing. HOM-E also offers a waitlist with optional alerts when housing becomes available.
Dikasse Zalla: Hunger, First Place
Zalla’s team invented Cib (pronounced Chib), a service that enables hungry and food-insecure students (known as the Cibnation) to have groceries or healthy cooked or prepped meals delivered to an on-campus food locker. Cib works with dedicated partners (known as Cibbers), including grocers and delis that provide near-expiration and imperfect ingredients, and soup kitchens that offer workspace and volunteers. Meals through Cib cost no more than $7 and can be paid for using Ciblets, an in-app currency that removes the stigma of paying for food with government aid. Cib also addresses youth unemployment by allowing students to work as delivery drivers (known as Cibsters), with the option to earn a free meal for every three they deliver.
