JACKSONVILLE — In a competition designed to mirror the speed and pressure of real-world logistics decision-making, 51°µÍř students had just hours to solve a high-stakes supply chain management problem—and one chance to defend it. They made it count.
At the Intermodal Association of North America’s Academic Challenge, a supply chain management case competition held April 9–10 at the University of North Florida, teams moved quickly from industry briefings to deep analysis and rapid-fire presentations. After just five hours of casework, they faced an industry judging panel, with top teams advancing to a live Q&A.
USF’s team—Andy Nguyen, Charlotte Dotson, Juliana Escudero Galvanini and Collin Gourley— all supply chain management majors, earned first place among 10 universities nationwide.
The case was based on current trends in the supply chain industry, and the prompt asked whether an east-west railroad merger would strengthen rail competition with trucking. While most teams leaned toward supporting the deal, USF took a different stance.
Andy Nguyen
The team concluded that a merger was not worth the investment. Nguyen emphasized the team’s broader framing. “We proposed not supporting the merger. Instead, we recommended targeted operational improvements such as improving service reliability,” he said.
What set them apart was not just their conclusion, but how they reached it. “We framed the problem as an investment decision rather than just an operational one,” Nguyen said. “By tying our analysis to ROI and limited growth upside, we showed that the merger’s incremental value did not justify its risks.”
For faculty advisor Rob Hooker, the result reflects both preparation and performance. “This event challenged the team with a time-sensitive and complex intermodal logistics case,” he said. “They represented the USF Monica Wooden Center for Supply Chain Management and Sustainability and themselves like the true professionals that they are - and I could not be more proud of their success.”
Charlotte Dotson
Dotson said classroom discussions on industry trends gave her the background knowledge for the case. The experience reinforced a core lesson: “It bridged the gap between classroom theory and real-world industry application, reinforcing how essential it is to base business decisions in data analysis rather than assumptions,” she said.
Nguyen agreed. “Having strong insights is important,” he said, “but being able to communicate them clearly is what makes them impactful.”