Cornell Student Team goes to National Finals of Microsoft’s Firenze Business Competition
This March, six Cornell graduate student teams participated in the Microsoft Firenze BXT business innovation competition. This year, the Cornell competed with about thirty teams from Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, New York University, and University of Washington. One Cornell student team comprised of Abhishek Kumar Jha (Master of Engineering Program in Computer Science, 2010), Derek Peterson (MBA, 2011), Jess Haswell (B.S. Interior Design, 2010), and Chris Haine ( Master of Professional Studies in Real Estate, 2010) was selected to compete in the National Finals held on March 20th and 21st at Microsoft’s headquarters in Seattle.
“The National Finals of Microsoft’s Firenze competition was an amazing experience. Twenty students from all over the country head to Microsoft for a weekend where designers, engineers and business students all collaborate to generate innovative business concepts,” stated Chris Haine, MPS/RE. “It was great to have the opportunity to compete at the National Finals and to work alongside Cornell teammates, other student teams, and Microsoft professionals.”
Microsoft Firenze is a multidisciplinary student competition focused on business innovation and multi-disciplinary collaboration. Each team, composed of students from engineering, business and design disciplines, is presented a ‘real-world’ problem of significant strategic value to Microsoft. Student teams are challenged to create innovative solutions and demonstrate the concept is technically and economically feasible. Five teams are selected to compete in the National Finals, where students have the opportunity to collaborate with Microsoft leaders on project concepts, software architecture, and business plans. The competition culminates with each team presenting to top executives at Microsoft headquarters and a $20,000 prize to the winning team. This year’s wining team included Cornell’s Derek Peterson, MBA 2011 and one students from each of the four competing schools. More information about Microsoft Firenze can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/firenze/ .