University of Southern California students showed overwhelming interest in the first university-wide global health case competition, which takes place March 2, 2012. The winning team will go on to represent USC at the national 2012 Emory Global Health Case Competition in Atlanta, GA, on March 31.
The USC Institute for Global Health organized the pool of more than 80 registrants into 15 teams, each of which will present before a panel of expert judges, including Institute Director Jonathan Samet.
“This competition gives students of all disciplines a chance to work together to apply their classroom knowledge and problem-solving skills to a real world challenge,” said Associate Director Heather Wipfli, who has hosted similar competitions in her own classroom.
The Institute has teamed up with a well-known nongovernmental organization to develop the case, which will be revealed to the teams on Feb. 27. The case will pose a realistic global health challenge for which the teams, acting as consultants, must propose viable solutions. They will have the rest of the week to pull their presentations together.
On competition day, three teams will move on from the preliminaries and be presented with a twist in the case. They will have 45 minutes to accommodate the new information and present again, after which the top team will be selected.
The Institute for Global Health sent a team to the Emory competition in 2011, but this year is the first time USC students will compete against each other for the chance to compete nationally. This year, the first place prize is $6,000.
