Ever since the Oakland Athletics’ ‘Moneyball’ days, participants at the highest level of America’s national pastime have relied on statistics, looking for an edge on the competition. Now, research from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business is helping Minor League Baseball players do the same.

During TechFest 2021, undergraduate students from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business took home top honors in the KPMG Excel Competition. Hosted by the Department of Decision, Operations and Information Technologies, the competition was open to all UMD students. 

At Maryland Smith’s annual TechFest, speaker Jesse Hwang opened his presentation with a warning. “The COVID-19 crisis has forced banks and their customers to use digital tools and processes to compensate for branch, office and call center closures,” said Hwang,  a senior manager of cyber technical at Capital One. “This embarking on a cloud and digital transformation journey makes banks lucrative targets for cyber-criminals, who treated the pandemic as a once-in-a-lifetime gold rush.”

Maryland Smith’s Department of Decision, Operations & Information Technologies is getting ready for TechFest. The annual forum brings together industry leaders who are at the forefront of addressing cybersecurity and privacy issues using modern tools. This year’s industry speakers will include Jesse Hwang, a senior manager of cyber technical in the financial sector, and Lahar Mishra, MS ’19, a technical risk management analyst at Verizon Media.