The Benefits

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

Professors  can:

• Adjust the level of the game based on student needs. Prebuilt SAS^® Enterprise Miner^™ diagrams are available for inexperienced students, while advanced students can create their own models.
• Encourage students to work on the game individually or collaboratively.
• Access a full suite of curriculum content, including an instructor guide and how-to videos.
• Deliver a complete experience to students by allowing them to play on a local install of SAS or 20 hours of access in the cloud.

Students can:

• Celebrate victory when results are uploaded to the leaderboard. Once students see how their results compare to their classmates', they can give it another shot to improve their ranking.
• Practice skills that will become an impressive addition to their résumés.
• Learn technology that could have a significant impact on their future careers.
• Earn a digital badge that can be shared online.

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.

The Starting Point

Ready to play? Follow these instructions. Put your game face on. Go.

Professors

1. Contact us at cortex@hec.ca and tell us a little about the courses you're teaching and the experience level of your students. We'll send you access so you can test out the platform. We'll also answer any questions you have.
   
   
2. Watch the on-demand webinar to learn more about the game, how to access it and how to get your students involved.

Students

1. Interested in playing the game? Watch the video at the top of the page to see if Cortex might benefit your coursework.
2. Encourage your professor to visit this page to learn more.