By: J.D. Ross
(315) 443-3094
For the third consecutive year, Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media division (MLB.com) and the Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool) are hosting the MLB.com College Challenge.
The College Challenge is an all-night hack-a-thon style event where teams of students will work together on a problem proposed by MLB.com staffers, and pitch their solutions the next morning. This year, the contest will focus on a hot new trend in technology, gamification.
“We are excited to again be partnering with Major League Baseball to offer this opportunity for our students,” said Julie Walas, director of undergraduate recruitment at the iSchool. “Our students are technically savvy, and frequent users and consumers of interactive technologies like the ones MLB.com works on, so we believe the teams will come up with insightful and innovative proposals for MLB.com to consider.”
iSchool alumni and MLB.com employees Josh Frost ’08 and Joe Kanakaraj ’00, along with Syracuse University graduate, Mike Hoffman ’93, helped to initiate the contest three years ago with Walas and iSchool Professor of Practice Jeffrey Rubin.
The Challenge kicks off on Thursday, November 29th with a technology tour of the Carrier Dome. After dinner at the Dome’s Club 44 restaurant, students will retreat to classrooms in the iSchool’s Hinds Hall to spend the night working on their solutions. After lunch the next day, students will head to Alliance Bank Stadium and pitch their ideas to MLB.com staffers and judges. A full schedule of the activities is available on the College Challenge website.
The winning team will receive a trip to New York City to tour MLB.com headquarters and have lunch with MLB.com employees.