2021 CONFERENCE COMPETITIONS

CASE COMPETITION
WHITE PAPER COMPETITION

CASE
COMPETITION

In partnership with:

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We are excited to announce our winners of the 2021 Case Competition! Now in its 8th year, our annual Case Competition gives student teams an opportunity to put their people analytics skills to the test by tackling a problem faced by a non-profit partner.

We were thrilled to partner with Teach for America for this year’s Case Competition. TFA is a diverse network of leaders who confront educational inequity by teaching for at least two years and then working with unwavering commitment from every sector of society to create a nation free from this injustice. Visit TFA’s website here to learn more about this impactful organization.

30 student teams from across the globe analyzed real data to help TFA optimize its corps matching process for placement acceptance and successful corps experiences. Finalists were selected in a multi-round process based on the degree to which they demonstrated:

  • Methodologically coherent and robust analysis
  • Actionable insights
  • Creativity
  • Clarity and presentation

On March 31, five finalist teams were invited to present to an esteemed panel of people analytics experts. Watch the 2021 Case Competition finalists here!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS
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Team NIT-K
Nishchith Sriram, Luv Nambia, Sakshat Rao
Undergraduate Students at National Institute of Technology Karnataka

A white outline of a trophy with the number 2 inside, on a purple circular background. Represents a second-place achievement.

Team Behavior Change
Arvind Bala, Dan Rosica, Jennifer Xue
Graduate Students at the University of Pennsylvania

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Team Voluntary Apple Turnovers
Christopher Bahen-Tait, Beatriz Villaça, Melissa Palumbo
MBA Students at McGill University

THANK YOU TO OUR CASE COMPETITION JUDGES

Ethan Burris (McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin), Julie Wargo (Teach for America), Mike Metzger (Teach for America), Monica Ionescu (The Wharton School at the University Pennsylvania), Namita Nandakumar (Seattle Kraken Hockey)

WHITE PAPER
COMPETITION

Sponsored by:

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Our White Paper Competition, sponsored by Google, promotes actionable and thought-provoking insights that are grounded in research. Submissions this year involved a wide array of topics, such as diversity and inclusion, employee productivity, and inequity in gender wage gaps.

Over 25 practitioner and practitioner/academic teams submitted white papers to the competition. Finalists were selected in a multi-round process based on the degree to which they were:

  • Grounded In Empirical Research and Rich Data
  • Novel, Bespoke and Thought-Provoking
  • Actionable and Practical
  • Broadly Applicable
  • Clear and Accessible
  • Included Data Visualization Insights

On April 5, five finalist teams were invited to present to an esteemed panel of people analytics experts. Watch the 2021 White Paper Competition finalists here!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNING TEAMS!
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There Are No Colorblind Models in a Colorful World: How to Successfully Apply a People Analytics Tool to Build Equitable Workplaces

by Margrét Bjarnadóttir, David Anderson, and David Ross

A white outline of a trophy with the number 2 inside, on a purple circular background. Represents a second-place achievement.

Hearsay, Rumor, and Speaking Up About Other Employees’ Issues: Why lay theories about secondhand accounts in employee voice are wrong
 by Ethan Burris, Taeya Howell, Stephen Stubben, and Kyle Welch 

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The Impacts of Algorithmic Work Assignment on Fairness Perceptions and Productivity: Evidence from Field Experiments
by Bing Bai, Hengchen Dai, Dennis J. Zhang, Fuqiang Zhang, and Haoyuan Hu

White papers went through a robust, multi-round judging process.

Thank you to our first-round reader judges: Jeff Polzer, Kate Glazebrook, Kayrn Marciniak, June Zhang, Adrian Perez, Steve Hale, Justin Purl, Feifei Xue, and Kate Grey.

We also would like to thank our panel of experts who judged the competition finals:

Aiwa Shirako, Google
Alex Nakahara, MLB Philadelphia Phillies
Lisa Donchak, McKinsey
Michael Haugen, GhSmart
Yuan Hou, COGKNITION Analytics