USC Viterbi Transportation undergraduate Fernanda Gushken was part of the winning team in at the Supply Chain Digital Transformation Hackathon - Innovating Port Community IT systems  held from November 18^th to November 20^th at Ronald Tutor Center, USC by the USC Marshall Center for Global Supply Chain Management. Gushken was joined by 2 other participants, Aysar Khalid, a computer engineer from York University, and Jim Lee, an investment management professional. The team was awarded a cash prize of $7,500.

Fernanda is pursuing a progressive bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering with a minor in Business Administration, and a Masters of Engineering Management degree at USC. This was her first hackathon, and she reflected that it helped her acquire knowledge and experience, giving her an opportunity to connect to successful professionals. When we asked her why she went and what she did to prepare, she shared, “It was my first hackathon. I went mostly because I enjoy the subject of Supply Chain. I had read and understood the documents in the hackathon page, articles about the companies present in the conference, and reviewed concepts learned in my ISE310 class (Logistics and Supply Chain) and visited the websites of the LA ports. I also contacted friends who had prior experience in hackathons to understand how they work.”

“I am currently involved in the committee of a case competition to be hosted next year by BRASA (Brazilian Student Association),” she added. “This will be a global case competition among Brazilians that study abroad in the US, China, Europe, and Canada. Since I had not participated in technical competitions other than case competitions, I decided to explore and see how a hackathon works so I would get the understanding to organize one. I felt that it was an excellent opportunity to challenge myself under pressure, learning how to network with experienced professionals, including my teammates who were already exposed to the industry and hackathons.”

Fernanda Gushken

Fernanda Gushken, born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is currently pursuing her major in Industrial and Systems Engineering and minoring in Business Administration. Also, she is pursuing her Masters’ in Engineering Management at USC. She is interested in the field of transportation and has been the winner of California Transportation Symposium this year. Last summer, she interned at a Management Consulting company in Brazil called Visagio. As per her skills, she was selected to pursue a project at the logistics department of Suzano, one of the biggest Paper and Pulp companies in Brazil.  After completing her masters in December 2017, she intends to work in a major consulting company to acquire exposure in global supply chain and later become a senior partner. Besides that, she intends to be an active alumnus that sponsors and participates in student hackathons and competitions, so that she can help them with her experience and learn a lot from the new generation of leaders.

Deepa Hegde

Deepa is a graduate student in Business Analytics at Marshall School of Business. Her interests are Social Media Analytics and Human Behavioral Analytics. She aims to leverage Data Analysis techniques in bringing a positive transformation to real-life problems.