The Benefits

Students get the thrill of competition. Professors get a powerful instruction tool. Everyone wins.

The Scenarios

The game is not unlike something you’d work on in real life.

Fundraising Scenario: You’re working on a fundraising campaign for a well-established, nonprofit charitable foundation. You must raise as much money as possible by using predictive modeling software; you’ll decide whom to call to get the most bang for your buck. You'll need to be strategic because cold-calling potential donors comes at a cost. Your goal? To raise the most profitable donations, quickly and efficiently. We’ll provide you with information on the organization and the data set of potential donors, as well as access to SAS^® software. Once you're done, you'll upload your call list to the leaderboard and see where you rank.

Credit Risk Scenario: You're a loan officer working for a large bank. You must evaluate loan applicants' creditworthiness by developing a predictive model to determine whether they should be approved or rejected. To accomplish this, you'll receive a file with historical customer loan information, including demographics, financial indicators, credit-related metrics, type of funding requested and prior default history – plus you'll have access to SAS^® software. Who gets a loan? Who doesn't? And, more importantly, how high will you rank on the scoreboard once your list is uploaded?

Customer Retention Scenario: Your employer, a large telecom company, has asked you to manage a customer loyalty campaign that involves planning an upscale event and courting the right customers. Your main goal, of course, is to increase loyalty and keep customers happy – but you also need to keep your employer happy by generating profits while keeping costs down. It's a delicate balance. Luckily, you'll have instructions, a data set and SAS^® software to help you make the best decisions – and crush the competition.