The University of Vermont (UVM) earned the award for Best Economic Solution at this year’s ENGCOMM—the Engineering and Commerce—Case Competition at Concordia University in Montreal last week. ENGCOMM is the only student-led multidisciplinary case competition in the world.  

Teams from the Egypt, Israel, the Netherlands, Canada, the U.S. and other countries compete to develop the best solution to a real-world problem within a limited time. Six hours of preparation in the first two rounds and then 12 hours for the third and final case are allotted. Students present their proposed solutions to a panel of judges that includes industry executives and subject matter experts, and are judged on sustainability, the creativity and novelty of their business and engineering solutions and the quality of their presentation. 

UVM was among only four of 11 teams that earned accolades, including the overall winners, Maastricht University. This year’s UVM team included Ethan Ryen, Business Administration (Global Business) and Meredith Gove, Business Administration (Sustainable Business) from the Grossman School of Business, as well as Olenka Duncan, Environmental Engineering, and Kristina Sitcawich, Biomedical Engineering, within the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS). Ethan is a sophomore and the other students are seniors. ,Ken Burkman, Professor of Practice, Engineering Management with CEMS, was the team coach.

UVM has earned recognition at three of the last four competitions. The intersection between engineering and business makes the student-led ENGCOMM competition unique among other case competitions that business students are familiar with. 

Congratulations to the UVM team for their outstanding job well done!