Real World Challenges Identify Top Illinois Tech Students
Louis Wasserman Of
The University of Chicago Outscores Field of 100+ Students in The 2011 ITA Fall
Challenge Presented by GrubHub
The Illinois Technology
Association (ITA) is proud to announce the winners of the 2011 Fall Challenge
Presented by GrubHub. The Final
Challenge focused on real world issues faced by Illinois technology companies
and it proved to be a good test of ability.
From the field of 120+ finalists, the top students stood apart from the
crowd.
Louis Wasserman from the University of Chicago, Keunhong
Park from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,
and Sean Hurley from the University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign earned the top 3 scores for Undergraduates, each receiving
cash prizes of $5,000, $2,500, and $1,000 respectively.
The top scoring Graduate student is Islam Ismailov from the University of Illinois at Chicago, who
received a cash prize of $2,500.
Students in attendance participated in just over 200
interviews with Presenting Sponsor, GrubHub,
and Supporting Sponsors Allscripts,
Backstop Solutions Group, Centro, GE, Groupon,
Model Metrics, MPS Partners, and Redpoint Technologies.
The ITA thanks GrubHub,
presenting sponsor, Allscripts,
Backstop Solutions Group, Centro, Groupon,
GE, Model
Metrics and MPS Partners/Redpoint Technology,
supporting sponsors, and participating sponsor companies including Applied Systems, Authentify, Agentis, ChannelIQ, Cleversafe,
Clarity Consulting, Corptax,
Dotomi, Forte
CG, IfByPhone, kCura, Leapfrog Online, LyonsCG, MBX
Systems, Orbitz, Orc, Pointbridge, Vibes Media and ZS Associates.
The top 10 finalists’ average score was 141 out of 200
possible points. The students were given
two hours to complete the exam, which was comprised of 3 questions focused on
database architecture, algorithm development, and data rebuilding.
The 2011 participating Universities included University of
Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of
Chicago, DePaul University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Northern
Illinois University, Illinois State University, Southern Illinois University, Northwestern
University, Loyola University, Purdue, and Indiana University.
For more information about the ITA and the Fall Challenge, visit
http://illinoistech.org.
About the ITA
The Illinois Technology Association (ITA) is a driving force behind the growth
of Illinois’ vibrant technology industry.
We are relentless in championing the development and application of
technology, from start-up companies to industry leaders, leveraging the
transformative nature of technology to revolutionize industries. ITA uniquely capitalizes peer-to-peer
collaboration, networking, and access to experts across the breadth of business
to cultivate the Illinois technology industry.
The unique and powerful integration of these valuable and experienced
resources differentiates the ITA as a source of accelerated growth for the
technology industry of Illinois. For
more information about ITA, please visit www.illinoistech.org
Contact the ITA at headquarters@illinoistech.org,
follow the discussion on Twitter at @itabuzz,
and visit www.illinoistech.org to
find out more about how ITA supports the growth of the local industry.
About GrubHub
GrubHub is a ventured-backed company
founded in 2004 by Chicago-based software engineers Matt Maloney and Mike
Evans. The website shows consumers all of the local restaurants that deliver to
them and allows diners to order food for restaurant delivery or pick-up online,
by phone or through the GrubHub iPhone and Android
app. Both apps are free from their respective
app markets, and it is also free for diners to order online at
GrubHub.com. After acquiring Dotmenu,
the parent company of Campusfood and Allmenus, the company has the largest
restaurant listing in the country with 250,000 restaurant menus in over 50
major cities and countless college towns across the US.
GrubHub’s consumer site and mobile apps
currently service Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston,
Philadelphia, Washington D.C., San Diego, Orange County, Oakland, Seattle,
Portland, Denver, Boulder, Miami, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and Phoenix,
with plans to add more cities in 2011.