News Graduate Students Go Deep in Competition
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wo Georgetown McDonough School of Business teams qualified for the semifinals in the Mid-Atlantic Business Plan Competition, hosted again by Georgetown University this spring. Sponsored by the MIT Enterprise Forum of Washington-Baltimore, the competition allows budding graduate student entrepreneurs to meet investors and receive counseling from business professionals while vying for the coveted championship belt and a cash prize. The Georgetown team Employee Aptitude Test, made up of Venkat (Kashyap) Hothur (MBA ’10) and Kodonate Lakshmanan (MBA ’10), developed a business plan designed to advance the recruitment process in the information technology industry in India. The current system is cumbersome and expensive and does not guarantee that the best candidates are selected, Hothur and Lakshmanan argue. The team’s standardized recruitment platform will add value to both employers and aspiring software professionals. The business plan of team SolarCycle, composed of Shyam Sundaram (MSFS ’10) and Drew Durbin (a colleague but not a student), offers a solution to the staggering health problems caused by contaminated drinking water in the developing world. The team has designed a new material, made from used plastic bags and the aluminized interior of potato chip bags, to be used as a cheap reflective material in solar cookers and water pasteurizers. The competition attracted 44 student teams from 17 universities. The top-scoring teams presented their plans before a judging panel of prominent entrepreneurs and venture capitalists for semifinal and final rounds, held at Georgetown on May 2.
— Jill Lindstrom Drew Durbin and Shyam Sundaram
Lauren Migliori, Andrew Madorsky, and Patrick Go
Team Takes Quiz Bowl Title
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team of Georgetown Bowl was a fantastic expeMcDonough School of rience for our team,” says Business undergraduMigliori. “We were able ate students placed first to combine our quantitain the Quiz Bowl among 35 tive financial skills with our schools at the Financial Manunderstanding of the current agement Association’s (FMA’s) economic environment and Student Leaders’ Conference in historical factual knowledge to New York, March 5–6. succeed.” We were The team included The Student Leadable to juniors Andrew combine our ers’ Conference is an Madorsky and Lauren quantitative annual gathering for financial Migliori and sopholeaders of student skills with our FMA chapters from more Patrick Go. understanding around the country. The Quiz Bowl of the current tested students’ Professor Lynn Doran, economic knowledge of finanenvironment faculty adviser of and historical Georgetown’s FMA cial theory, problemfactual solving, and current chapter, attended the knowledge financial events. conference with Go, to succeed. Georgetown’s team — Lauren Migliori Madorsky, Migliori, scored highest in this and additional FMA preliminary round, which members Will Chu, Bonjean featured a written test of conKoo, and Po-Cheng (Raycepts and problems in finance. mond) Lin. The top four teams competed “The conference enabled in a Jeopardy-style competiour students to learn about tion, featuring categories such both the successes and the as “financial institutions in problems of FMA chapters at distress,” “acronyms,” “Buffett other schools,” Doran says. quotes,” “option plays,” and “This will allow our students “financial felons.” to be more effective officers of “Participating in the Quiz our FMA chapter.”
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Georgetown University McDonough School of Business
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