Student team from Purdue among winners of Conexus Indiana National Collegiate Case Competition

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Students from Purdue University's Krannert School of Management were among the first-place winners in the sixth annual Conexus Indiana National Collegiate Case Competition held on Nov. 4-5.

The case competition fielded 24 teams and challenged the students to solve one of two advanced manufacturing and logistics business cases with first- second- and third-place winners named in three different tracks. The three first-place teams each won $5,000, with second- and third-place teams each taking home $2,000 and $1,000, respectively.

The Conexus Indiana Case Competition is held annually and encourages college students to use what they’ve learned in the classroom in a simulated real-world environment. In addition, students interact with Indiana advanced manufacturing and logistics professionals during a career fair and throughout the event with industry leaders serving as judges.

This year, 24 companies and organizations participated in the career fair and 18 professionals, representing all facets of the advanced manufacturing and supply chain industries, served as judges.

The Krannert team was comprised of Christopher Ghita (Finance and Accounting, 2025), Tyler Spurling (Integrated Business and Engineering, 2025), Hayden Phillips (Finance and Marketing, 2024), and Jackson Hahn (Finance and Accounting, 2025).

"Our case was about a candle company who had recently acquired the building next door to be utilized for their manufacturing process," said the teammates. "As a result, their current building would be used for distribution to consumers. We had to find an effective, weather proof solution in which the product could be transported from the factory to the distribution center with the goal of zero waste."

The students learned about the competition on the Communications Center website. "As none of us have ever done a case competition before, we came into it with a fresh pair of eyes, having to do research on how to actually present a case competition," they said. "Each one of us were eager to solve the issue and enjoyed being able to work together and combine our strengths to make the best presentation we could."

The teammates credits their cohesion for a strong performance. "While we all have met each other within the past two months, we all have become friends and have begun to know our strengths and weaknesses when working in a group," they said.