2021 Champion® Analytics Case Competition
October 21-22, 2021
The Elon Center for Organizational Analytics and HanesBrands are hosting the Champion® Analytics Case Competition (CACC) virtually this year!
The collegiate competition provides undergraduate students with an opportunity to build and demonstrate their data analytics and visualization skills to professionals in the data analytics community.
Team Prizes
- st place: $6,000
- nd place: $3,000
- rd place: $1,500
The Task
Teams must analyze the client’s problem, identify insights and formulate their results and recommendations into a formal PowerPoint and submit a video recording of their presentation. Teams are also expected to prepare a two-page executive summary report explaining the their approach, methods and insights. The case problem and data will be distributed via email to all confirmed participating teams mid-September. A panel of corporate judges will evaluate teams on their quality of solution, methodology/modeling and quality of presentation delivery.
The competition is limited to 12 undergraduate teams from top public and private universities throughout the United States. We highly recommend teams be comprised of students representing different disciplines. While team members do not have to represent different majors, we believe teams will benefit from diverse perspectives and backgrounds.
Participation is limited to one team per university. Teams should be comprised of three students currently enrolled in undergraduate level programs from any discipline.
Any teams attempting to register after the first 12 spots have been filled will be placed on a waiting list in order of registration.
Sept. 17: Required documentation from registered teams due
Mid-Sept.: Case problem and data will be distributed to confirmed teams
Oct. 8: Team hype videos due
Oct. 15: Teams must upload their video recordings, presentations and reports to the link provided in a subsequent email by Competition officials, no later than 8 a.m. ET.
Oct. 21/Day 1: All teams are expected to log on to the virtual event by 11 a.m. ET. Day 1 will include the event kickoff and social activity. Judges will announce the hype video winners, as well as the four teams advancing to the second round of the Competition on Oct. 22. The four finalist teams will be given a new business question that expands upon the original problem using the original data. Each finalist team will have approximately 20 hours to address the new question and revise their presentations accordingly.
Oct. 22/Day 2: All teams are expected to log on to the virtual event by 11 a.m. ET. Finalists will give live presentations addressing the new business question. Each finalist team will have 20 minutes for the presentation and up to 10 minutes of Q&A from the panel of corporate judges. The top 3 teams will be announced during the closing ceremony.
Business Understanding – Understanding the problems and opportunities that drive the analysis. This is typically an issue that the sponsor wants to understand using analytics.
Data Understanding – Understanding the data that is to be analyzed. This includes defining each of the variables in the analysis process.
Data Preparation – Cleaning up any issues in the data to allow it to be analyzed using various software tools.
Data Modeling – Analyzing the cleaned data using supervised and unsupervised modeling to discover useful insights from the data that can help address the sponsors’ problems and opportunities.
Evaluation – Comparing the results found in the modeling phase to the original issues provided by the sponsor to see if the issues have been addressed. This phase also looks at recommendations for future projects.
Presentation – Delivering a strong, professional presentation to the HanesBrands Inc. executive team.
Passion for learning and problem solving plus some Excel skills qualifies any student to take part in the challenge. We recommend students team up with others with complimentary skillsets for a successful challenge experience.
Teams may have a faculty advisor, however, at no time should the advisor provide explicit direction, instructions or analysis support to the business problem or final presentation/report.
All work submitted and presented must be performed by the students. No outside help is permitted. Students may reference and cite third-party research, as appropriate.
It is all about the TEAM
Show us in a 30-second introductory video what makes your team a CHAMPION® TEAM and how each team member inspires the whole team to be its best. Check out this video for inspiration!
Please send your mp4 video file or a link to the file to coa@elon.edu by Oct. 8, 2021.
HanesBrands makes everyday apparel that is known and loved by consumers around the world for comfort, quality and value. Among the company’s iconic brands are Hanes, the leading basic apparel brand in the United States; Champion, an innovator at the intersection of lifestyle and athletic apparel; and Bonds, which is setting new standards for design and sustainability.
Each year, our company produces roughly 2 billion pieces of apparel, manages half a million SKUs and ships to tens of thousands of retailers in more than 40 countries. We harness the power of advanced analytics to dissect millions of production, distribution, inventory, sales and other data points to fuel our business – from guiding the company’s innovation strategy … to ensuring supply meets demand down to the SKU level … to identifying the right information to deliver to the right consumer at the right time.
The company actively partners with universities to sponsor advanced analytics case competitions. The events augment the efforts of our talented team of professionals, generate diverse ideas and approaches to business challenges, and provide real-world experience to some of our country’s best and brightest talent. And it is just another way HBI is building on its unmatched strengths to unlock its #FullPotential and deliver long-term growth that benefits all of its stakeholders.
Get in the game during the Champion Analytics Case Competition!
Scott Ryan
Senior Manager, Global Advanced Analytics
HanesBrands
Scott.Ryan@hanes.com
Haya Ajjan
Associate Dean, Love School of Business
Associate Professor of Management Information Systems
Gordon Professor in Entrepreneurship
Elon University
hajjan@elon.edu
Participating Schools
Hosts
Agenda
All times listed are in ET
Day 1 – Oct. 21
| Time |
Activity |
| 11:00-11:20 a.m. |
Competition Kickoff!
Remarks from:
- Haya Ajjan, Associate Dean, Elon University
- Manoj Chari, Director of the Center of Organizational Analytics, Elon University
- Jon Ram, Group President of Global Activewear, Hanesbrands
|
| 11:20 a.m.-12:05 p.m. |
Breakouts for students led by:
- Scott Ryan, Senior Manager, Global Advanced Analytics, Hanesbrands
- Lydia Thomas, Data Science Manager, Hanesbrands
- Maggie Lancaster, Decision Analyst, Hanesbrands
- Matt Englebert, Lead – Analytics, Global Data Strategy & Transformation, Hanesbrands
- Emmylou Jordan, Manager of Digital Analytics, Hanesbrands
Breakout for Faculty Mentors led by:
- Haya Ajjan, Elon University
- Manoj Chari, Elon University
|
| 12:05-12:20 p.m. |
Break |
| 12:20-1:00 p.m. |
Remarks about Round 1 submissions – Ben Martin, Chief Analytics Officer, Hanesbrands
Announcement of the 4 advancing teams + the Round 2 problem – Scott Ryan, Senior Manager, Global Advanced Analytics, Hanesbrands |
Day 2 – Oct. 22
| Time |
Activity |
| 11:00-11:15 a.m. |
Welcome |
| 11:15-11:40 a.m. |
Team 1 Presentation – NC State University |
| 11:45 a.m.-12:10 p.m. |
Team 2 Presentation – Duke University |
| 12:15-12:40 p.m. |
Team 3 Presentation – Bucknell University |
| 12:45-1:10 p.m. |
Team 4 Presentation – Elon University |
| 1:10-1:50 p.m. |
Break |
| 1:50-2:05 p.m. |
Judges’ remarks |
| 2:05-2:20 p.m. |
Announcement of winners |
| 2:20-2:30 p.m. |
Closing remarks |
