The Real-Life Case Study Award is a celebration of a semester’s worth of research and preparation by students enrolled in Prof. Eusebio Scornavacca’s Principles of Information Security Management course. Scornavacca is the university’s Parsons Professor of Digital Innovation and Director of the Center for Digital Communication, Commerce and Culture (CD3C).  His students, working in teams of three, set out to solve a specific problem presented to the class by a local company. In addition to earning a grade in his class, his students’ analyses are evaluated by the partner company in order to subsequently select the winning team. Students are challenged to apply the knowledge gained in class to develop solutions for the company’s real-life problem. They have about a month to put together their business report. The business case in this edition of the real-life case award was rather complex as it required an in-depth analysis of the cybersecurity market and the identification of potential target areas of growth.

“Our goal with the real-life case competitions is to develop partnerships with local business in order to create meaningful, hands-on, learning experiences to our students that translate into marketable skills. It enables students to experience real-business situations and put to work the knowledge they gain in the course while positively contributing to the Baltimore business community,” Prof. Scornavacca says. “It was a pleasure to develop a fruitful partnership with the Canton Group.”

This year’s award recipients were chosen by Ethan Kazi, president and CEO of The Canton Group. The first was launched when the Internet was in its early years and what began as web design and development company has evolved into a forward-thinking technology firm that has projects in area of website development, mobile application development, cloud-based computing,  robotic process automation, and machine learning.

“It was an absolute pleasure to work with Prof. Scornavacca in the formulation of the real-life digital business challenge project.” said Kazi. “Our collaboration with UB ensured meaningful relevance to The Canton Group and alignment with the students’ educational objectives. While addressing the business challenge, the students provided thorough and well researched analyses as well as insightful and useful recommendations. It was a great experience – I would highly recommend working with Prof. Scornavacca and his students.”

Recent MBA graduate Christopher Hamilton, one of the team members who won this semester’s business challenge, shared his thoughts about taking on this project in a entirely online environment.

“As classes have transitioned to web-based the idea of normal interaction has changed making the learning experience different,” said Hamilton.  “Dr. Scornavacca’s use of an actual business case changed the dynamic again bringing it back to the physical verse electronic, which helps take intellectual concepts and places them in real world applications. This approach helped me see the day-to-day uses more easily and was a great learning tool. ”

From left to right: Dean Murray Dalziel, Ethan Kazi, CEO of Canton Group, Adam Hedrick, Christopher Hamilton, Eusebio Scornavacca. Student not in photo: Wafa Anazi