Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/61375
Spotlight Clockwise from left: The UConn campus; marketing major Ashley Battle, star forward for UConn's women's basketball team; Students working in edgelab, a joint venture of UConn and GE; Dean William Hunter; UConn's proposed financial accelerator, a hands-on learning lab and trading facility in Hartford. Championship Season University of Connecticut School of Business Storrs, Connecticut UConn's School of Business distin- guishes itself with its experiential learning laboratories. The school's hands-on learning laboratory, edge- lab, opened in nearby Stamford three years ago with the help of GE. It puts MBA and undergraduate 64 on both teams are also business school all-stars. Senior Emeka Okafor, votedMost Outstanding Player in the Men's Final Four, is a finance major and student fund manager. Junior Ashley Battle, star forward on the women's team, is a marketing major. Okafor, a favorite as a first-round draft pick, will have a tough decision upon graduation, saysWilliam Hunter, the school's dean: NBA or MBA? "I think theMBA would be the wiser move," Hunter jokes. Off the basketball court, The University of Connecticut has had a banner year. Its men's and women's basketball teams won the NCAA Final Four championships, making it the first school to win both men's and women's national titles in the same year. It doesn't hurt that starting players students to work on actual GE proj- ects. The lab is staffed full-time by three GE executives, who serve as mentors and company liaisons. Once students enter edgelab, they are behind GE's protective firewall, which gives thememployee-level access to GE's data. Students have run riskmanagementmodels for global mortgage portfolios, evaluated the use of biometrics to facilitate better busi- ness processes and security, and devel- oped new models for e-business envi- ronments. Students also have patented a system to evaluate emerging tech- nologies and offer guidance for the best way to use them. The success of edgelab inspired the school to create a similar facility based on finance, which will open in Hartford this fall. The $17 million lab, or "financial accelerator," includes 12 classrooms, a student trading room—and an actual trading company. Students and professional traders will be separated by a glass partition, but the two groups will interact regularly so that students can see the financial professionals in action. The accelerator will benefit the insurance companies, hedge funds, and investment companies in Hartford's financial district. Eventually, says Hunter, the school plans to open similar labs in manage- ment and entrepreneurship. Such learning laboratories are BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2004 accelerator, however, students and corporate representatives work togeth- er on critical projects that require timely solutions. In fact, GE estimates that student solutions have saved the company $300 million in cost avoid- ance and revenue enhancement. Moreover, 17 percent of edgelab stu- dents end up taking jobs with GE. While the close-knit relationship between UConn and GE requires a commitment of time and resources, the partnership is a win-win-win proposition, says Hunter. "Our stu- dents come away with their manage- rial skills tested, our faculty come away with projects that can lead to scholarly publications, and GE comes away with real solutions to its prob- lems," says Hunter. The University of Connecticut's School of Business is accredited by AACSB International.s z unusual among business schools, says JimMarsden, head of the School of Business's department of operations and information management. He notes that most corporate partner- ships with business schools are at "arm's length" via faculty visits and student internships. "Companies may give students projects, but they're not 'front-burner'—if the company gets value from a project, fine. If it fails, there's no risk," he says. "There's no day-to-day interaction." With edgelab and the new financial