As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape how organizations operate, Ivey’s MSc Hackathon challenged students to do more than understand that shift – they were asked to help lead it.
Held April 8-23 and sponsored by SAS and Scotiabank, the event brought together students from all three MSc in Management fields – International Business, Business Analytics, and Digital Management – for a corporate-style hackathon. The goal was to give them hands-on experience tackling challenges at the leading edge of industry change.
“The challenges you're doing over the next two weeks – three years from now, you'll look back and think they're trivial,” MSc Faculty Director Warren Ritchie told the students at the event kickoff on April 8. “But right now, you're practising skills at the leading edge, and what you learn now will only set you up to do more complicated things as you move into an organizational environment.”
Formerly known as Hack the Case, the MSc program’s signature hackathon experience evolved in format and scope this year. Student teams were organized into three tracks – financial services, health care, and consulting – each anchored by a client organization and a real business challenge. Their task was to design and prototype AI-driven solutions to problems their clients are actively trying to solve.
Three challenges, three industries
The student teams were assigned to one of three tracks, each built around a challenge presented by a client organization.
In the financial services track, Scotiabank asked teams to address customer “primacy” – a key metric measuring whether a client considers the bank their primary financial institution.
“We're great at acquiring primacy customers. What we're not good at is keeping them,” said David Cruickshank, Director and Head of Data Strategy and Governance at Scotiabank. “We have models. We know what drives primacy. But we don't know what to do with them.”
In the health-care track, Southlake Health challenged students to design a solution using synthetic data – artificially generated datasets that mirror real-world data without compromising privacy – to support its transition to a distributed health network.
“AI is a four-letter word in health care right now,” said Matthew Meyer, Executive Director of Population Health at Southlake Health. “We have to demonstrate to our risk teams and our leaders that this synthetic data does not touch any actual records. The exercise here is: show them it can be done, and get them excited.”
In the consulting track, CGS Advisors asked the students to rethink how consulting firms must evolve by designing AI-driven solutions that could disrupt traditional advisory models.
“We are the shoemaker making brilliant shoes for our clients, but if you look down at our own feet, we're not spending enough time doing AI for ourselves,” said Greggory Garrett, CEO of CGS Advisors. “The market is sneaking up on us, and it's sneaking up pretty quickly.”
Exploring the impact of AI
At the event kickoff, keynote speakers focused on how AI is changing how organizations operate and what that means for future leaders.
“Everything is changing right now… and the opportunity to learn, build, and experiment while that change is happening is important because those who can apply these tools effectively will have a significant advantage,” said Rene Frey, HBA ’03, MBA ’06, Executive Director of Ivey Online.
Bryan Mehi, Senior Global Academic Manager at SAS Canada, built on that idea, encouraging the students to think beyond technical skills.
“Being a coder is no longer a golden ticket,” he said. “The real talent going forward will be people who are aware of the full analytics life cycle and familiar with enterprise ecosystems. That will be your golden ticket.”
From ideas to prototypes
Over the course of the competition, the teams developed their solutions with support from client representatives, faculty, and technical training provided by SAS. Each track awarded three top teams, with first-place teams advancing to the Pitch Day finals on April 23, where finalists presented their solutions and competed for the overall Best in Show prize.
Congratulations to the winners
Two teams tied for Best in Show honours: Primacy 360, from the financial services track, and Synthlake Health, from the health-care track.
- Primacy 360: Evan Hao (Digital Management), Rico Rao (Business Analytics), Bo Wu (Digital Management), Jiaqi Xie (Business Analytics), and Hongya Zhao (Business Analytics)
- Synthlake Health: Andrew Brehaut (Business Analytics), Mingyan Cai (International Business), Anthony Cao (Digital Management), Matthew Razvi (Digital Management), and Drew Wawrow (Digital Management)
In addition to the Best in Show winners, top teams were recognized in each track:
Financial services (Scotiabank)
- First place: Primacy 360 – Evan Hao, Rico Rao, Bo Wu, Jiaqi Xie, Hongya Zhao
- Second place: Primacy 5 – Muhammad Abdullah, Mohit Mansharamani, Lindsay Shea, Mia Morassutti, Michelle Zhou
- Third place: Ca$h Me Outside – Laiba Akhtar, Aidan Huynh, Jackie Lac, Usman Usman-Ur-Rehman, Sally Yan
Health care (Southlake Health)
- First place: Synthlake Health – Andrew Brehaut, Mingyan Cai, Anthony Cao, Matthew Razvi, Drew Wawrow
- Second place: BlueByte – Titan Li, Peter Peng, Ruby Song, Rita Wen, Eason Wu
- Third place: Vitalytics – Omar Elhaw, Mila Ivanisevic, Musawer Jalal, Rayan Temraz, Youssef Youssef
Consulting (CGS Advisors)
- First place: Brave Agents – Shaamini Gopala Krishnan, Matthew Josephson, Cameron Maxwell, Ben Nguyen, Jialin Xu
- Second place: Green Goblins – Faisal Abdel Wahid, Newt Chen, Kiran Multani, Max Savehilaghi
- Third place: Shoemakers – Zihao Guo, Aubrey Huang, Victor Lin, Zixuan Peng, Linda Wang
(Photo above) The first-place team from the consulting track, Brave Agents l-r: Cameron Maxwell, Matthew Josephson, Jialin Xu, Shaamini Gopala Krishnan, and Ben Nguyen.
Recognizing the judges
The event was supported by a panel of judges from industry and academia.
Financial services track: David Cruickshank, Shaner Ye, Mathieu Cardinal (Scotiabank); James Berry and Lorne Rothman (SAS); and Ting Li (Ivey)
Health-care track: Matthew Meyer, Sam Fielding, Tyler Chalk, Sukumar Guganthan (Southlake Health); Michelle Dodokin, EMBA ’16 (NICC Canada); and Bryan Mehi (SAS)
Consulting track: Greggory Garrett (CGS Advisors); Jay Gunasekaran (SAS); and Ryan Alary, Vanessa Hasse, Rene Frey, HBA ’03, MBA ’06, and Jason Chew (Ivey)
