FDU Team Places Third in HSI Battle of the Brains National Competition

October 7, 2024 — A cross-disciplinary team of FDU students competed this past week at the fourth Annual HSI Battle of the Brains National Competition, placing third in this competition.

Teams from 18 colleges across the country participated in the event. At the competition, participants must “develop a solution based on the business challenges presented, and create a marketing plan with collateral, and a go-to-market strategy.”

The students who represented FDU at the competition held in Orlando, Fla., from Oct. 2-5, include: Tiffany Coelho, a senior computer science major; Joulliann Collado, BA’23 (Metro), a cybersecurity and information assurance graduate student; Jannet Martinez, AA’24 (Metro), a junior accounting major; Fiorella Merriman-Mendez, a senior marketing major; Ashley Rodriguez, a junior accounting major; Valerie Sanchez Caro, a sophomore accounting major; Valentina Torres Da Silva, a junior computer science major; and Oliver Villalta, a senior computer science major.

The team won $10,000 and two individual student scholarships — Villalta received a scholarship from Dell Technology, and Da Silva received a scholarship from eBay.

Faculty advisers include: Avimanyou Vatsa, associate professor of computer science; Eun-Jeong Ko, associate professor of entrepreneurship; Laila Khreisat, professor of computer science and associate dean of Maxwell Becton College of Arts and Sciences; and Luz Helena Flores, associate director for recruitment and community of FDU’s Hispanic Center.

“Congratulations to everyone involved on an amazing performance,” said FDU President Michael Avaltroni. “It’s great to see our students competing on a national stage and representing us so proudly!”