Competitors from eight top business schools will put their heads in the clouds for the first annual Haas Tech Challenge at the Haas School Sept. 29 through Oct. 1.
The event, hosted by the Haas Technology Club, will focus on business models and challenges in cloud computing. Students will tackle a case from VMware, who is sponsoring this first-ever Berkeley-Haas competition with Amazon Web Services and Salesforce.
“This is the only competition that brings top-tier MBA students to America’s foremost tech center to innovate around the strategic issues faced by industry-leading firms,” says Tech Challenge committee member Ben Hopkins, MBA 12. Teams from Berkeley-Haas, Kellogg, MIT, Stanford, Chicago, Wharton, UCLA, and Michigan will compete for $7,000 in prize money. They also will have the opportunity to network with industry professionals and hear from keynote speaker Shekar Ayyar, VMware’s VP of strategy and corporate development.
“Cloud computing is at the forefront of much of the technology innovation we see today,” says committee member Hubert Lin, MBA 12. “Haas has a well-established reputation as a business school with a strong connection to technology innovation. The school is in a great position to further the discussion of how cloud computing will continue to affect businesses for decades to come.”
The Haas Tech Challenge launches with a welcome dinner on Thursday and an introduction to the case on Friday morning. Students will make their final presentations on Saturday afternoon and close out the competition with networking, awards, and an after party in the evening. Find more information on the Haas Technology Challenge website.
Tech Challenge Organization Committee (l. to r): Amit Adalti, EWMBA 13; and Hubert Lin, Ben Hopkins, Sheila Vashee, Marissa Chacko, and John Noonan, all MBA 12. Members not pictured are Sam Kanakamedala and Lisa Reed, both EWMBA 13, and Alex Gaysinsky, MBA 12.