Winners announced in UB School of Management undergraduate DEAL Expo

By Matthew Biddle

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A student research project designed to make railroad shipments more efficient won first place in the second annual DEAL (Display of Efforts, Aptitudes and Leadership) Expo, a University at Buffalo School of Management event that showcases undergraduate achievements.

Ryan Hauser of Lancaster took top honors and a $1,000 prize for his project “Agent-Based Modeling of Railroad Classification Yards,” for which he developed a set of rules for classification yards that minimizes delays throughout the entire rail system.

Second place and a $500 prize went to Wen Luo of Brooklyn for his project, “Gambling on the Sun: Forecast Daily Solar Energy with an Ensemble of Weather Models,” which highlighted an algorithm he created to predict solar energy production.

Rohan Kapoor of North Babylon earned third place and a $250 prize for his work experience project about marketing and sales tactics he used as a mobile consultant for Staples.

In addition, Kapoor nabbed another $250 prize and the Open House Choice award, a special honor chosen by accepted students at the university’s spring open house held March 29, the same day as the DEAL Expo.

The DEAL Expo is a student-run poster contest that provides undergraduate students in the School of Management the opportunity to showcase their best research, class projects, internship experiences and creative activities.

The top 10 projects will represent the School of Management in the university-wide Celebration of Academic Excellence on April 23 in the UB Center for the Arts. The top 10 included projects on the free annual Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program; an internship experience at Will Foods; a successful investment strategy used in the school’s student-run Terese Kelly Investment Group; and the winning proposal from the 2014 On Target Undergraduate Club Case Competition.

School of Management alumni, faculty and staff served as judges for the competition. Alumni judges were Daniel Curry ’79, vice president of marketing and sales, Color Communications Inc.; Marc Adler, MBA ’82, CEL ’08, president, Why Not Marketing LLC; and Katherine Pizzutelli ’13, a candidate in M&T Bank’s Management Development Program. Faculty and staff judges were G. Lawrence Sanders, PhD, professor of management science and systems; and Carrie Gardner, administrative director, Credit Bearing Internship Program.

The UB School of Management is recognized for its emphasis on real-world learning, community and economic impact, and the global perspective of its faculty, students and alumni. The school also has been ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek, the Financial Times, Forbes and U.S. News & World Report for the quality of its programs and the return on investment it provides its graduates. For more information about the UB School of Management, visit mgt.buffalo.edu.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB’s more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.