DemandTec Awards Scholarships to Winners of First Annual ‘Model for Success’ Math Contest
November 21, 2005 - Posted in Online Education, ScholarshipThree High-School Students Win a $5,000 College Scholarship in Math Contest That Challenged Them to Create a Retail Sales Forecast
Yahoo News. DemandTec today announced the successful culmination of its first annual Model for Success program by awarding each of the three winners of the contest a $5,000 scholarship to be used for college, university, or other institution of higher education. The judges announced the winning team, consisting of Rebecca Fleenor, Jesse Schoboue, and Jenna Jerkovich, at an awards ceremony held at DemandTec headquarters on November 18 attended by students, school faculty, parents, and DemandTec employees. Of the four finalist teams that presented their forecasts to a panel of DemandTec judges, Ms. Fleenor, Mr. Schoboue, and Ms. Jerkovich submitted the best answer and gave the best presentation.
The DemandTec Math Contest, which began September 27, is designed to promote and reward the practical application of advanced mathematics in a business environment. Students from Sequoia High School in Redwood City, California, were challenged to develop and conduct a sample sales forecast analysis using simulated retail point-of-sale data.
“We’re proud to award the winners of the Math Contest, which is one element of DemandTec’s philanthropy program designed and run by our employees,” said Dan Fishback, CEO of DemandTec. “We wanted to find a way for students in our community to see that math has important, real-world practical applications, so we created a contest that simulates an everyday business situation. The forecasting problem we challenged the students with is similar in concept to the ones that DemandTec solves every day for our retail clients around the world.”
The eighteen students that signed up and had the requisite background in statistics were divided into six teams of three. The math problem involved using advanced statistical techniques to analyze simulated retail point-of-sale data to forecast future sales volumes for five products at two retail outlets.
To support and assist the students as they worked to solve the problem, DemandTec provided mentors who over the course of the challenge held weekly office hours at DemandTec’s headquarters. The student teams each spent between 10 and 15 hours solving the problem, and an additional five to 10 hours packaging their results and finalizing their team presentations for the judges. Judging was based on several criteria, including each team’s understanding of the problem, the accuracy of their forecasts, their ability to articulate how they achieved their results, and the collaboration and teamwork they demonstrated in presenting their results and work process.
“From a real world perspective DemandTec has provided our students with insight into business issues they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to in their everyday classes,” said Joshua Yezerski Department Chair-Mathematics of Sequoia High School, “I believe everyone who participated will benefit from this experience as they move onto college and their future careers.”
About DemandTec
DemandTec’s Consumer-Centric Merchandising software helps retailers and consumer products manufacturers strategically plan, optimize, and execute consumer-centric merchandising and marketing programs based on a quantified understanding of consumer demand. Retailers have ranked DemandTec #1 in Strategic Value, Customer Satisfaction, and Quality of Service among the top 50 retail software vendors in the 2004 RIS Leaderboard survey. DemandTec customers include B&Q, Best Buy, Brookshire Grocery Company, Duane Reade, Giant-Carlisle, Giant Eagle, H-E-B Grocery Co., Longs Drugs, Monoprix, Piggly Wiggly Carolina Company, RadioShack, and Safeway. For more information, please visit http://www.demandtec.com.
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