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AIS Student Chapters Cybersecurity Challenge

A James Madison University Association of Information Systems (AIS) team advanced to the finals and competed on the international stage in the AIS Student Chapters Cybersecurity Challenge in Miami, Florida, March 30-April 1, as part of the 2023 AIS Student Chapter Leadership Conference. In addition to a friendly competition, students had the opportunity to meet peers and industry professionals from across the world, gain new perspectives, expand their professional skill set and make lasting friendships. 

Global Assest Management Education Forum

The Quinnipiac Global Asset Management Education Forum (GAME) was hosted in New York City from March 30-31, and was attended by more than 120 colleges and universities. Twelve members of the Madison Investment Fund attended and had the chance to hear from professionals across different industries and firms in finance. Alongside the opportunity to network, the Fund also participated in the Global Portfolio Competition, taking second place.

 CFA Institute's Investment Research Challenge 

Five students from the College of Business made the deepest run a JMU team has ever made in the CFA Institute's Investment Research Challenge, a prestigious international competition for college-level business analysts.

Their designation as co-champions of the Southeast U.S. subregion qualified them to advance to the regional semifinals, in which they were pitted against 16 other teams from North, Central and South America.

This represented an unprecedented degree of success for the 2023 team, surpassing the first-place finish achieved by last year’s team at the state level of the competition.

FDIC Academic Challenge

For almost 9 months, the 2022-’23 JMU Banking Team students worked tirelessly on original research for the prestigious FDIC Academic Challenge - interviewing bank CEOs, hedge fund managers, regulators, reading academic research, writing original research, practicing presentation skills and more. 

In addition to achieving the team’s primary goal of professional growth and development, the students also achieved an impressive win in being invited - for the second year running - as one of only five finalist teams chosen from top business programs across the country. 

The 2022-’23 team’s honorable mention in the final round builds on a JMU Banking Team legacy that includes a past 1st place finish in the FDIC Academic Challenge, as well as 1st and 2nd place finishes in the CSBS Community Banking Case Study Challenge. They embody the COB’s vision of being collaborative business partners, engaged with ideas and the world. 

 RNMKRS

At the annual RNMKRS competition, Marketing major Lily McAllister, was among the 15 students who placed in the top one percent. She competed against more than 3,000 student participants from 60-plus colleges and universities from across the U.S., Canada and Europe.

The competition featured Alex, the AI bot, which was programmed to respond to students as they led a mock sales meeting on their phone. The competition scenario had students representing Dell Technologies as they virtually 'met' with Alex to sell the company’s Dell Latitude Rugged laptop computer line to a fire department. Alex’s program graded each student based on his or her performance, and then institutions were ranked based on their students’ results.

James Madison University placed first overall for the competition and Professor of Marketing, Andy Wood, placed in the top one percent of coaches for the fifth year in a row. 

International Business Ethics and Sustainability Case Competition

A team of four JMU College of Business students traveled to Los Angeles to Loyola Marymount University to participate in the International Business Ethics and Sustainability Case Competition.

They were tasked with selecting a business-related issue and then creating a presentation that analyzed the ethical, sustainable, legal and financial aspects of that issue. Uber Female, the team’s concept created to alleviate the fear that many women have of sexual assault, was presented to a team of judges. Their proposal would align Uber with the United Nations sustainability goals No. 5, No. 8 and No. 10, creating a safer world for women.

Of the three rounds of competition, JMU was named the winner of the 10-minute and the 90-second case competitions, and finished as a runner up in the 25-minute competition.