The University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Business
PITTSBURGH, PA (PTTP) – The University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Business’ Super Analytics Challenge just crowned its most recent victor. The Challenge, which ran between November 24th, 2024 and February 9th, 2025, gave students from all schools at Pitt, Duquesne University, Carnegie Melon University, Penn State University, and West Virginia University the chance to work together and propose solutions to the current issue of a lack of healthcare opportunities for the homeless community of Pittsburgh.
The students used cutting edge analytics techniques, teamwork, and their business skills to create and pitch a solution that was later judges by a panel of professors and business insiders. The winning team, which was comprised of students from Pitt, CMU, and WVU, won a $5,000 grant they plan on using to tackle the lack of dental care in populations at high risk of homelessness. Their proposal included plans to spread awareness of early signs of dental diseases, provide screening opportunities and even provide mobile dental clinic services to populations at high risk of homelessness.
Winning team member and current Pitt dental school student Shivangi Patel said, “when I saw that this was specifically healthcare for the homeless at least from my perspective [that meant] dentistry for the homeless, and I saw that there was a huge need in the city.” Patel plans on providing the services included in her group’s proposal to several communities at high risk of homelessness starting with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated Pittsburghers.
This was the fifth edition of the Super Analytics Challenge. The first Challenge was launched virtually in 2021, lasted only two days, and was only open to Pitt students. It has since expanded to its months-long current form and has been opened to students from the four other regional partner universities. As for the future, only time will tell just how ‘Super’ this challenge will become.