16 April 2018 – A team of six Business Analytics and Information Systems students won first place in the recent Y3-NUS Innovation Challenge 2018 on 7 April.
Winning team, Team Optimate, is made up of three Year 4 Business Analytics students Chew Shao Quan, Michelle Goh and Lai Shumin, two Year 3 Business Analytics students Goh Jie Da and Jerald Seow, and Year 4 Information Systems student Zhang Zhi Xuan.
A total of 105 students spread across 19 teams competed in the one-monthlong challenge. Team Optimate was the only undergraduate team that advanced to the finals, with seven other graduate teams.
The Y3-NUS Innovation Challenge, which was held from 22 February to 7 April, invited NUS students from diverse backgrounds and expertise to devise cutting-edge solutions using Y3’s propriety and industrial data. Teams had to use data analytics tools, blockchain technology and optimisation techniques to create new and commercially viable solutions that can optimise shipping routes and solve supply chain problems.
According to team member Jie Da, it was the team’s creative solution to integrate cutting-edge optimization algorithms, business analytics tools and blockchain technology into a web and mobile application that impressed the judges.
“Despite being just undergraduates, we outdid ourselves by implementing solutions outside of what is being taught in our school curriculum. Our group also took another step forward, to stand in the shoes of Y3 and came up with an end-to-end solution to solve multiple problems,” Jie Da added.
“We were extremely excited when we heard we were chosen for the finals. We took part in a similar competition last year as well and managed to clinch second place. We were hoping to improve from the previous win and were determined to try our best for this,” said Jie Da.
Y3 Chief Operating Officer Mr Gabriel Tho said, “We are impressed with the caliber of the student participants. Within less than two months, they picked up a basic understanding of logistics and combined it with their academic learning to develop innovative and practical solutions for cross-border trade.”
The Y3-NUS Innovation Challenge is organised by software solutions provider Y3 Technologies, cross-border cloud-tagging specialists veriTAG and NUS Business Analytics Centre.
