Competition winners stand with the CBS Case Study Competition judges Achala Narayanan, Saara DeWalt, Aman Imani, Emily Orr, Beth Horsager and Sarah Alabsi.
A number of enthusiastic College of Biological Science (CBS) undergraduates gathered in Bruininks Hall to compete in the annual CBS Case Study Competition in early February. Teams of two to four students choose to compete and solve real-world problems in one of three categories: healthcare, ecology and biotechnology.
Upon arrival, teams are introduced to a case study in their category. They spend the next four hours becoming rapidly familiar with their topic, brainstorming solutions, and creating a poster to present their findings to a panel of experts. Coaches are onsite to assist teams in working through critical thinking skills or help them build confidence in their science communication plans.
This year, 32 students formed 11 teams and dedicated their Saturday to addressing human genome editing, rural healthcare, and habitat destruction and fragmentation. Look through a photo album of this year’s CBS Case Study Competition and view the winners from the competition day below!
Caden J'Creo and Juunah Kang of the team "C8H10N4O2" won in the ecology category for their proposed solution of using milkweed to address the declining monarch butterfly population.
Helen Huynh and Preston Nguyen of the team "Mighty-chondrias" won in the biotechnology category for their framework outlining mutation-agnostic RNA repair technology.
Swati Menon, Akshara Dandu and Priyanka Das of the team "The Lab Rats" won in the healthcare category for using a community-based approach to expand access to healthcare education in rural communities.
— Christy Hazuka