The group project – a defining experience of not only the iSchool, but perhaps the modern workplace itself. No one accomplishes anything in a vacuum anymore. Rather, today’s buzz words such as “collaboration,” “teamwork” and “synergy” reflect a renewed focus on problem solving with your peers. Few activities exemplify teamwork better than baseball and we aim to prove that with the MLB.com University Challenge. We’ll be giving iSchool students real-world digital media and sports technology case studies to solve with their classmates as part of this semester-long program.
We can’t reveal all the details of the competition until registration is completed, however we can say that participants will put their user experience, web accessibility, graphic design and teamwork skills to the test. Joe Kanakaraj (’00), Mike Hoffman (’93) and myself (Josh Frost, ’08) are very excited to kick off this program. We’ve been keeping up with Syracuse ever since we graduated and continually look for ways to stay involved, particularly the ability to connect it to our every day experiences. We work in the Technology and Marketing departments at MLB.com so we came up with the MLB.com University Challenge. Remembering back to the days of group projects (and how strongly they correlate with the “Real World”), we wanted to share first-hand experiences of our work at MLB.com with iSchool students. We’ll be sharing the regular challenges facing this industry and putting your teams to the task of seeing how you solve them best.
Two events in this Challenge that we’re particularly excited about are the Virtual Q&A in mid-October and the final presentations taking place right here at our MLB.com offices in New York City. We’ll be setting up a live chat to answer student questions, share ideas and offer initial feedback on the projects. In mid-November, we’re looking forward to the Final Presentations of competing teams here at our offices. There’s no one way to reach solutions so we’re expecting to see a varying array of strategic, thought-provoking ideas during your presentations.
We believe this program will be a unique experience in applying iSchool coursework to real business issues and creating innovative solutions for a fast-paced, always-changing field. Show us you have what it takes to make it in the Big Leagues. We look forward to your participation. Sign up now!
