The winning teams for this year’s UBS Pitch competition have been announced. The New Jersey Big Data Alliance (NJBDA) extends its congratulations to the top three teams:
- 1st Place ($10,000 Prize) – Stevens LMWGY – Stevens Institute of Technology
- 2nd Place ($3,000 Prize) – RUAI – Rutgers University
- 3rd Place ($1,000 Prize) – Stevens Hall Galaxy – Stevens Institute of Technology and Seton Hall University
UBS, in collaboration with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the NJBDA, hosted UBS Pitch 2020, a competition that challenged qualifying graduate and undergraduate students from participating NJBDA New Jersey-based universities to invent innovative solutions for the State’s COVID-19-related economic issues.
“All the winning teams did an outstanding job in addressing the problem statements provided by UBS,” said Peggy Brennan-Tonetta, Executive Director, Economic Development and Innovation, Rutgers and President of the NJBDA. Using data science and machine learning, participants were asked to predict when a topic or theme will grow in importance, build a vibrancy model for New Jersey to determine which towns, counties and regions are becoming more or less economically vibrant, or develop an early-warning system for small businesses in New Jersey which are at risk of closure using current and historic economic data.
“The quality of submissions from the participating teams were top notch,” said Apurva Mehta, CTO for Wealth Management Americas at UBS. “The top three teams, however, not only provided predictive models, but also associated their results with commercial applicability to UBS and to the state of New Jersey, thus enhancing the appeal of their solutions to the judges. With some additional data points, such solutions can help spark ideas within UBS, and help the state of New Jersey align investment thesis by town, district and county. Such models could be applicable in the future to other states as well.”
“The students felt it was a great opportunity to work on a real-world problem, in a team environment and to collaborate with industry. Kudos to all,” said Brennan-Tonetta. UBS provided five weeks of mentoring leading up to the final round pitches and announcement of winning teams on November 17th.
The NJBDA extends its thanks to Bill Penders from the NJEDA, for his support and involvement in making this event possible.
About NJBDA
The New Jersey Big Data Alliance (NJBDA) was established in 2013 by Rutgers University, along with eight higher education partners, to catalyze collaboration among New Jersey academia, industry and government in building advanced computing and data analytics capabilities and expertise. Today, the NJBDA is a consortium of 16 higher education institutions, as well as industry and government members, that builds and leverages collaborations to increase competitiveness, generate a highly skilled workforce, drive innovation and catalyze data-driven economic growth for New Jersey. For more information: www.njbda.org.
About UBS Global Wealth Management
As the world’s largest wealth manager, UBS Global Wealth Management provides comprehensive advice, solutions and services to wealthy families and individuals around the world. Clients who work with UBS benefit from a fully integrated set of wealth management capabilities and expertise, including wealth planning, investment management, capital markets, banking, lending and institutional and corporate financial advice.