A team of five students, known as “Advance Business Solutions,” won the annual Great Capstone Case Competition by proposing a plan for a smartphone wellness app.
Team members Salome Messam (leader), Brett Hannum, Juliana Restrepo, Justin Roszkowiak and Laureen Ramsey developed a smartphone app that would provide people with an interactive platform to better manage their decisions for living a healthier lifestyle. The team was from Regina Taylor’s lab, and was one of 18 teams out of 100 to make it to the semifinals.
(View photos from the event on our Facebook page.)
The second-place team, named “Advantage Consulting,” came from lab instructor Chaim Letwin’s class and included Daniel Dirani (leader), Robert Costa, Danilo Cuellar, Christina Jones and Parker Kyle. The third-place team, “R. J. III,” was from the lab of David Wo and included Jose Poon (leader), Jordan Gibson, Jeff Simmons and Rachel Harmon.
The Capstone course is under the direction of Bob Porter, Ph.D., a lecturer in the UCF College of Business Administration’s (CBA) Department of Management. Judges for the semifinal round included: Stephen Goodman, Ph.D., Lauryn Migenes, Richard Quinn, Kathie Holland, Marshall Schminke, Ph.D., Shannon Taylor, Ph.D., Michael Ciuchta, Ph.D., Brendan Richard and Ghada Baz.
CBA Hall of Fame members Paul Gregg, ’74 & ’76, and Bob Case, ’70, accompanied by Target representatives Nick Padoan and Grace Blankenship, were the judges for the final round and selected the order of the five winners.
“The quality of these students and their ideas are outstanding,” said Porter. “The UCF College of Business is continuing to evolve and advance as a premier business school and our students demonstrate that in these kinds of competitions.”
The Great Capstone Case Competition is held at the end of each semester and is designed to help students strengthen their analytic, communication, presentation and teamwork skills beyond the classroom by developing recommendations for real-world business issues.