Students of Business Engineering harvest international awards
A group of Maastricht University's Business Engineering Bachelor's students won three awards at this year's edition of the renowned ENGCOMM, the Engineering and Commerce Case Competition, held by the University of Concordia in Montreal (Canada).
Helene Flach, Melanie Jeschke, Philipp van Delden, and Luce Kaiser tackled real-life cases supplied by the competition’s sponsors, which require solutions from both engineering and business students. The UM-team competed against teams consisting of a mix of engineering and business students. The Maastricht team was the only one that consisted of four students from the same bachelor's programme, with each student combining both fields.
From left to right: Philipp van Delden, Melanie Jeschke, Helene Flach en Luce Kaiser
Compliment
"We saw that we were able to compete with the multidisciplinary teams as our students won the competition and the sustainability award, while Luce Kaiser also won the award for best presenter", says team leader Carla Koopman, associate professor Circular Chemical Engineering at the Faculty of Science and Engineering. She considers the awards a compliment for the first cohort of talented students in the new programme of Business Engineering."
Helene, Melanie, Philipp and Luce started with a case on wind turbines. Students had to design a new sensor. “Our students decided that a new sensor was not necessary because the existing sensor offered the perfect solution. This raised the question of whether the students complied with the assignment, but I am very proud that they stood by their solution even after this feedback", says Koopman
In a second case, students needed to find new applications for non-used stadiums. The Business Engineering made a difference with their circular solution, for which they received the sustainability award at the end of the competition. They introduced vertical gardens in the stadium centre and housing for the homeless in the stadium structure.
Victory
The final case, on designing an event booth for sponsor L3Harris, made the difference. The UM-team did a perfect job by creating a modular design targeting new customers, as well as new employees and suppliers, with a VR experience on L3Harris technology as a hook. The representative of L3Harris actually said that they would definitely use their solution in the new design. "When hearing they reached the finals, our students were shaken. It was a very narrow escape, but they made it", says Koopman.
The bachelor’s programme in Business Engineering is a joint effort of Maastricht University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering and School of Business and Economics. The programme bridges the gap between engineering and commerce by enabling students to adequately respond to rapid technological developments and radically different business models in our ever more technology-driven world.