PICC 2019 was a huge success! We would like to send a special thanks to all of our donors. With graduate-level researchers pursuing non-academic careers at increasing rates, the need to gain experience outside of the lab will correspondingly expand. Because of your monetary generosity and support, we were able to expose 12 teams of non-MBA graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to a real-world business challenge and showcase their creative problem-solving skills.

Team Inspector Graduate won the grand prize of $4,000 and Team Pentalution took home the second-place prize of $2,000. Both teams were praised for their detail of analysis, ingenuity, and communication of their pitches. Angela Jiang, a team member from Team Inspector Graduate, shared, “PICC is well-run, professional, and fun. The highlight of the event was getting to network with consultants from top firms. Before the competition, I’d been trying to land off-cycle interviews at Bain and Mckinsey, which as far as I could tell, was only feasible via networking. I spent enormous amounts of time trying to secure one-hour phone calls with various consultants. At PICC, I not only got to chat with several consultants for hours, but they also got to see me in action. I was able to meet several McKinsey consultants and now I have an off-cycle interview there! I’m so grateful for PICC!”

The collaborative planning of PICC between 4RS and CMGCC truly showcases the vibrant interdisciplinary efforts in the greater Pittsburgh area. Through our efforts, we were able to inform and connect students to possible consulting careers. 

Thank you once again for your support!

Best,

Song-My Hoang

Judges and Sponsorship Chair, PICC 2019

With only one week to go, we are so close to reaching our goal!  A BIG thank you to the generosity of the Pittsburgh community, our friends, and our families who have helped us raise $2,330 towards our goal of $2,500! 

The Pittsburgh Innovation Case Competition (PICC), co-hosted by the graduate student consulting organizations at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, is a valuable opportunity for advanced professional degree candidates to collaborate and solve a real-world business challenge. Participants will also network with peers from universities nationwide, as well as leaders from top-tier consulting and industry firms. Our mission is to provide bright, capable graduate students and postdoctoral fellows with greater access to non-academic career opportunities. 

We can’t make PICC happen without your help. Every dollar that we raise through this campaign will go directly to our competition expenses. Your support will help the professional advancement of graduate and postdoctoral trainees at the University of Pittsburgh.

More information on PICC can be found through our crowdfunding link (https://engage.pitt.edu/4RS) and PICC website (www.picc2019.org). 

Please help us spread our word through social media and email.  Our campaign will end on September 30, 2019!

Thank you for your support,

Song-My

First and foremost, we’d like to thank all the donors once again for supporting our efforts to host the 2019 Pittsburgh Innovation Case Competition. Your generous contributions have helped us raise over $1000 towards our target amount of $2500. In addition, we were also able to secure sponsorships from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pitt Department of Bioengineering and the Center for Medical Innovation, The Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey and Company.

The event will take place at Nova Place and Alloy 26 (see photo below) on October 26th, 2019. We will have judges from McKinsey and Company, BNY Mellon, Innovations Works and the University of Pittsburgh Center for Medical Innovation and Department of Bioengineering. We are currently in the process of reaching out to other potential judges and guest speakers for the event.

The case creation team is excited to have a first draft of the case prompt ready. We believe that the innovative technology featured in the case does justice to the PICC name, and that the case will help students develop broadly applicable business skills as well as showcase their creativity. Over the next few weeks we will be seeking feedback from judges and past participants to further refine the case prompt. 

We are hosting 2 informational sessions on September 13th where we will be discussing event logistics, including cash prizes for the winning teams. These info sessions will be led by members of the PHICC 2017 winning team- Justin Wendzicki and Deepthi Vijayraghavan. In addition, we are hosting a workshop on how to structure and a solve a business case that will we led by Shreyas K and David Bermeo, both members of the CMU Graduate Consulting Club. To RSVP to the events please visit the events page on our website- www.picc2019.org or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.