Seven hand-chosen, whip-smart UC Merced students descend on Austin, Texas, this week to pit their teamwork and business skills against representatives of other Hispanic-serving institutions in a high-pressure — and potentially highly rewarding — competition.
First, there’s the contest. Every team in the HSI Battle of the Brains gets the same brief about something a company needs. Squads then have 24 hours to assemble an imaginative, airtight and technically sound solution.
This round-the-clock effort must yield a five-page business plan, presentation slides, an executive summary and supporting documents. It’s a task that demands imagination, coordination and, one hopes, a few hours of rest.
“I reckon I can find time to sleep. Definitely,” said Daniel Castillo, Team UC Merced’s tech lead and a third-year computer science and engineering major. He figured he and prototype lead Matthew Chan, a third-year electrical engineering major, will invest eight to 12 hours writing code. “Once that’s done, I can rest a bit.”
But the Battle of the Brains is also an opportunity for representatives of companies such as Dell, Amazon and Crowdstrike to meet face-to-face with some of the brightest young minds in higher education. Networking, lunches and dinners are built into a week full of opportunity.
“This is an invitation-only competition, so the stakes are high. Many kids are hired at an event like this, or are at least offered a job,” said Alejandro Gutiérrez, a teaching professor in the School of Engineering who led the selection of the first UC Merced team to enter the Battle of the Brains. “They’ll be hanging with the CEOs. They’ll be in the same room with the big shots.”
All Battle of the Brains teams fit the federally established criteria of an HSI – an institution where at least a quarter of enrolled students are Hispanic. At UC Merced, it’s more than half.
Judges will select finalists from the 16 teams entered in Tuesday’s 24-hour business plan marathon. On Friday, the finalists will pitch their plans on stage (like a kinder, friendlier “Shark Tank”) and a winner will be crowned.
This is an invitation-only competition, so the stakes are high. Many kids are hired at an event like this, or are at least offered a job.
St. Mary’s University in San Antonio is the defending champion for this, the competition’s sixth gathering. Other previous winners are the University of Central Florida and the University of Texas at Austin.
UC Merced’s Division of Equity, Justice and Inclusive Excellence is sponsoring the team, whose appearance is the first at the Austin contest for any UC campus.
Adrian Ucieda, the business lead, said being the first UC team leaves the door wide open. “We can only make a positive impact.”
“We’re special,” joked Praneeth Sudhakar, the team’s research lead and a third-year mechanical engineering major.
Gutiérrez said team members bring strong backgrounds to the contest. Experience includes engineering conference presentations, coding hackathons and a reputation for excelling under pressure.
Ucieda worked for two years at Apple headquarters in Cupertino. Sahana Veldani, the product lead and a third-year cognitive science major, was on a high school robotics team that competed at international levels. She specialized in scouting opponents, looking for weak spots in robots or tactics to exploit.
“I worked in these high-pressure situations, which I think can help this team,” she said.
Rounding out Team UC Merced are Alexander Vas Dinas, the business plan pitch lead, and overall team lead Aniyah Barnes. Both are third-year mechanical engineering majors. Rudy Ortiz, a professor of molecular and cell biology, accompanied the team to Austin as a mentor.
“There are so many brilliant minds on this team,” said Barnes, who works with a NASA team developing carbon dioxide scrubbers that maintain breathable air for astronauts. “It’s kind of amazing just working with these guys.”
