1. By Nate Harold
For The Diamondback
A team of students from the University of Maryland placed second overall
at an information systems competition last month after deliberating for 24
hours.
Hosted by the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management,
the Competition on Management Information Systems has had a team of
students from this university represented there every year. The annual
competition began in 2012 and is open to universities around the world.
Teams began deliberating the morning of April 1 and had 24 hours to
develop a solution to an assigned case and present it to the judging panel.
"CoMIS is an international case competition [that] is held to connect with
other universities with strong information systems programs," said Kathy
Zhang, a junior accounting and information systems major. "It's a student-
run competition, which made it unique because it was sponsored by
multiple companies."
This year, the competition included teams from 11 universities across the
country, with three undergraduate upperclassmen and one faculty member
comprising each team. This university's team, called Team ConsulTech,
included junior Young Kim, an English and marketing major who goes by
Kevin, and junior Zoscales Assefa, a finance and information systems
major, along with Zhang.
Don Riley, an information systems professor with the business school,
accompanied the team to the competition.
"I was one of a small group of five or six faculty involved with preparing
[the team]," Riley wrote in an email. "Then I volunteered to accompany

2. them. I was a faculty member at [Minnesota] for a number of years before
coming here, and my two kids live there."
The team read over the case regarding an information system error within
Medtronic — the medical device company that sponsored the event — then
discussed the different types of potential solutions. The team researched
the company's background to look at what types of technology it uses, how
much it spent on that technology and what kind of technology it suggests
using, Kim wrote in an email.
"As soon as the case was delivered to us, our 24-hour deliberation started,
and we were confined to a hotel room during the entire period without any
communication with anyone else," Kim wrote. "We couldn't use our phones
as well, so it was just the three of us for the next 24 hours."
After presenting to the judging panel and advancing past the first round,
Team ConsulTech presented once again in the second and final round and
placed second overall in the competition.
"[Assefa] worked on financials, Kevin worked on the managerial aspect of
the case, I worked on the PowerPoint and we all came together to go over
the platform we were proposing as that was the main solution of our case,"
Zhang said. "It was important that we had someone focusing on different
aspects of the case. As a team, we had very different viewpoints and that
came together."
Second place was the university's highest finish since the competition
began.
"For the Smith School and the University of Maryland … it helps establish
and reinforce our reputation and validates the quality of our students and
the education that we are providing to them," Riley wrote.

3. He noted it also presented a career-building opportunity for the students
involved.
"Participating in these kinds of competitions are great experiences for the
students," Riley wrote. "Some companies that recruit at business schools
use 'case-based interviews' as a tool for selecting those to whom they make
offers, so this is another way of preparing for those interview situations."