Zicklin MBA Students Pull All-Nighter to Win infosys Global Business Challenge

Zicklin School of Business student Jose Zapata (MBA, ’23) recently led a team of summer interns to victory in a round-the-clock “hackathon” for Infosys, the technology consulting firm, while another Zicklin MBA student, Jeff Levenberg (MBA, ’23) took third place with his team in the same competition.

Jose Zapata (MBA, ’23)

In the competition, which is called InStep BizHacks Global, Infosys summer interns have a 24-hour deadline to brainstorm a tech-based solution to a business problem, write a business plan for the proposed solution, and present it to a panel of judges (Infosys executives and external experts). Twenty-one teams from top business and engineering schools around the globe participate, making it highly competitive.

First-place winner Jose, a student in the Evening MBA program who is graduating this winter, called the hackathon “the highlight of my summer.” He and his team members, from universities based in Indiana, the United Kingdom, and Belgium, brainstormed how an Infosys Artificial Intelligence tool could be used in education. They devised a learning aid for students with special needs, which could be personalized according to the users’ dominant learning style (for example, visual, auditory, verbal, etc.). 

The team’s winning presentation focused on the tool’s viability, desirability, and feasibility. Though sustainability was not a judging criterion, the team went an extra mile to highlight that feature as well. Jose believes this is what helped them win; as he puts it, “Sustainability goes hand-in-hand with ESG, which is gaining traction in many big companies.” He also credits a class he took with Associate Professor Maria Halbinger (Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation) for his success in the challenge.

Jeffrey Levenburg (MBA, ’23)

Third-place winner Jeff Levenberg, who is also an Evening MBA student, partnered with students from North Carolina and Manchester, UK. They worked on a solution that applies deep-learning AI models to help people in a health emergency find the nearest emergency room or urgent care facility with the shortest wait time. Invoking the Zicklin School’s midtown Manhattan location, the team used a hypothetical emergency at the Empire State Building for their presentation.

“The Hackathon gave the students a sticky, messy, real-world problem to help solve in a team of peers – keys to success as they begin to build a career in code,” said Jeff Auker, the leader of Infosys Digital and Innovation Hub in Hartford, CT. 

“It was a professional highlight,” says Jeff of the competition. He adds jokingly, “Zicklin did so well in this contest that I even suggested that Infosys move its office from downtown to the Madison Square area!”

Zicklin alumna Shona Kulkarni (MBA, ’23) was the Infosys employee member of the first place team. She explains that the InStep BizHacks Global challenge pairs undergraduate software engineers and programmers, who write code, with MBA students, who make sure the final product makes good business sense. 

“Programmers are so brilliant, but they sometimes approach projects primarily as an intellectual exercise or a challenge. The end user is not always top of mind. MBAs like Jose and Jeff bring a customer-centric mindset and a deep understanding of business to their teams which is invaluable. It’s the perfect combination.” Shona observes.  

The teams took home some really cool prizes as well. This is the second year in a row that a team lead by a Zicklin MBA has taken the top spot in the competition. Last year Zicklin full-time MBA Andrew Anderson (MBA, ’22) and his teammate, evening MBA student Jay Ravi (MBA, ’23) took home the top prize.

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