Congratulations to our MMT student Jonah on winning the QTEM data challenge 2022!
Jonah is studying the MMT in his 5th semester. The MMT students are the only ones who can participate in the QTEM program. He got a QTEM place in cohort 21/22 and then went to HEC in Montréal in summer semester 22. The program also includes an internship; Jonah did that at Horváth consulting.
Part of the QTEM program is always a Global Business Analytics Challenge, which consists of two online courses about analytics and digital leadership. Furthermore, the students take part in a global group work (=Data challenge), which is worked on in international teams of three. The best four teams then present their results at the QTEM Annual Event and one group is awarded as winner by an expert jury. Jonah was on the winning team for the latest challenge. He was also awarded "best speaker", meaning he was particularly convincing during his presentation.
The QTEM Annual Events also function as graduation celebrations, which always take place at one of the 25 partner universities of the QTEM network - this year in Porto.
You competed with about 40 different teams and won! Tell us more about the challenge in general and the data you analyzed for the British Red Cross.
Jonah: The great thing about the QTEM data challenge is that we get real world data and can therefore try to achieve a real impact with our analysis.
In my batch, we got the survey data from two waves of a representative vulnerability study that was conducted in the UK by the British Red Cross. We had about three month’s time to work with the data and to gain valuable insights. After getting a better understanding about the different dimensions of vulnerability, we decided to focus on mental health issues, because it seemed to be the most urgent topic at the time.
What are the ups and downs of remote team work during the challenge? When was the first time you guys met in person? Porto?
Jonah: Working together without having met before and only remote came with some challenges: The biggest were being in different time zones and having different university schedules regarding exams.
Luckily, we were getting along well and enjoyed having personal conversations besides the challenge, for example about different situations in our home or exchange countries. This international encounter was valuable to me. The first time we met in person was at the final in Porto and it is really exciting to see someone in person, after having worked together for almost half a year only remote.
Why did you join the QTEM network and what are the three main benefits ? How did your study background in MMT help you in tackling the data challenge?
Jonah: The QTEM network offered the perfect opportunity for me to deepen my quantitative knowledge while getting more international experience and meeting people from all over the world.
Therefore, I see the three main benefits as educational opportunities, international impressions, and personal encounters.
Educational opportunities, because QTEM sharpened my profile and helped me to learn more about quantitative topics that are relevant and interesting to me. International impressions, because it enabled me to pick one of the many great host universities across the world. And last but most valuable, it gave me the chance to meet so many interesting people from all over the world, some of whom became close friends.
With my technical specialization in informatics in the MMT program, I was very well prepared to use my previous data science knowledge in the data challenge. Seeing how these learnings can be applied to real world problems was a very motivating experience for me.
