Frequently asked questions
Proposals will be judged for their understanding of the problem through the articulation of the scope of the challenge and the approach to the solution i.e. the framework for the model, underlying key drivers and assumptions and the data sources used.
Submissions should include a proposal (see below) and an abstract, which should be a short (less than 150 words) summary of the proposal
- Clear articulation of the scope of the problem under consideration. E.g. For Problem Statement 2, teams must articulate which regions or industries they are focusing on and why (potentially a commercial impact)
- Clear articulation of the approach to the solution. E.g. For Problem Statement 2, teams must define the framework for the vibrancy model including all key variables that positively or negatively impact performance and all key assumptions
- Clear articulation of data sources for the above stated variables and assumptions
- 1000 words or fewer than two pages
- Must be submitted in Microsoft Word or PDF format
All entries will be judged against the following criteria:
- The competition is open to teams of college and or/graduate students of the participating NJ universities only
- Students can enter the competition individually, or as a team comprised of no more than 5 people per team
- Individual students can be part of only one team
Based on the proposals, six finalists teams will be selected for the final pitch event in November. The finalists team will work on the proposals to create the model and make a recommendation at the final event. Each team will be paired with two mentors, leaders from UBS Global teams, for any support on the technical and business aspects of the pitch.
In the final event, teams will present their solutions and will be assessed for robustness of the model, commercial applicability and overall final presentation of their recommendation. You will be required to tweak your model’s weights during the presentation to prove that it is a working model, and it can adapt to changing requirements.
