A team of four CMU students led by Professor of Computer Information Systems Johnny Snyder, PhD, qualified for the finals at the GoCode Colorado competition in Denver. GoCode Colorado is a statewide competition organized by the Business Intelligence Center at the Colorado Secretary of State’s office.
As part of a course in CMU’s new business analytics program, students Rikki Cook, ‘19, Danielle Fleig, ‘19, Brian Kimbrell, ’19, and Nathan Garcia produced and submitted a project that earned them a spot in the finals after four months of work this past spring semester.
More than 40 teams and nearly 200 individuals competed and were tasked with generating useful business insights, analysis and products using research collected from public data to benefit the Colorado business community.
In years past, teams could only submit physical product concepts to the “Business Product” track of the competition but this year GoCode Colorado added a second “Business Analytics” track.
“The purpose of the business analytics track was to generate ideas of how to use the massive amounts of publicly available data currently being collected by the state of Colorado,” said Snyder.
Snyder, Garcia and Cook attended the finals at the EXDO event space in Denver and presented the team’s project in front of a panel of judges. The team developed a project related to the restaurant and business industry.
“Our project incorporated a data visualization so that potential restaurant entrepreneurs can analyze where to locate a restaurant based on selected filters, which include if the restaurant was successful or not, what type of cuisine is currently available in a particular area and how long the restaurant has been in operation,” said Snyder. “Further, the team explored data sets that could assist in monitoring the restaurant’s operation to indicate whether the restaurant is being successful or not.”
GoCode Colorado provides individuals with the opportunity to learn, create and produce projects that may one day shape Colorado’s business community. The CMU team did not take first place this year but they are optimistic for next year’s competition.
“We had a wonderful experience and are looking forward to refining our model for next year’s competition, and possibly starting a new project as well,” said Snyder.