Big 3 with Dean H. Rao Unnava: Fall 2024

Dean H. Rao Unnava's Fall 2024 edition of the Big 3 features:

Third Annual UC Davis-Financial Times Biz Quiz Challenges Student Teams Nationwide

The UC Davis–Financial Times Biz Quiz is back for its 3rd year. On November 15-16, students from up to 12 graduate schools will compete in a buzz-in quiz contest testing their knowledge of the global news cycle based on 500+ recent Financial Times articles—with nearly $10,000 in prize money at stake. Learn more on FT

QS Ranks UC Davis MSBA No. 1 Globally for Return on Investment for Third Year

The UC Davis Master of Science in Business Analytics is once again the No. 1 program in the world for return on investment for the degree, an honor it has held for the third consecutive year in the QS rankings. Read more

Professor Beth Bechky Named Microsoft Research AI & Society Fellow

Professor Beth Bechky, an internationally recognized organizational ethnographer, explores technological impacts on work and worker collaboration. She was recently named a 2024 Microsoft Research AI and Society Fellow. Read more.

Video Transcript

• UC Davis-Financial Times Biz Quiz Coming Back This November
• QS Ranks UC Davis MSBA No. 1 Globally for Return on Investment for Third Year
• Professor Beth Bechky Named Microsoft Research AI & Society Fellow

Welcome to the Fall 2024 edition of the Big 3 video newsletter.

UC Davis-Financial Times Biz Quiz: Test Your Knowledge and Win Big!

We are excited to partner again with the Financial Times to host student teams from graduate schools nationwide for the third annual UC Davis-Financial Times Biz Quiz in November.

The Biz Quiz is a buzz-in quiz contest much like the Jeopardy TV gameshow. It challenges students’ knowledge of the global news cycle based on more than 500 recent Financial Times articles.

To kick off the competition, Financial Times San Francisco Bureau Chief Stephen Morris will moderate a live-streamed interview with Nancy Pfund, a pioneer in impact investing. Nancy is the founder and managing partner of DBL Partners, a venture fund focused on companies that enable social, environmental, and economic benefits.

The Biz Quiz teams will go head-to-head, with the top three advancing to the final round. Students will also take a multiple-choice exam for an individual competition.

Now, we’ve added a new twist this year. Other students nationwide can log in and take the same individual multiple-choice test to vie for the top honors. The Financial Times has contributed nearly $10,000 to the awards for winning teams and individuals.

We look forward to crowning our 2024 UC Davis-Financial Times Biz Quiz champions.

UC Davis MSBA Tops QS Global Rankings for ROI Three Years in a Row

Graduates of our Masters of Science in Business Analytics program in San Francisco are in high demand, earning six-figure average starting salaries and launching rewarding careers.

We are thrilled that this success has once again been recognized globally. Quacquarelli Symonds, better known as QS, recently ranked our MSBA program No. 1 in the world for return on investment on the degree.

This is the third consecutive year that the UC Davis MSBA program has garnered the top ROI ranking. We topped 161 graduate business analytics programs in 31 countries that QS evaluated.

The ROI metric is based on a 10-year mapping of average post-graduation salary, tuition costs, opportunity costs of attending vs. working, salary growth, and career progression.

Return on investment, combined with the payback period on the degree, earned our MSBA a No. 4 ranking worldwide for “Value for the Money.” It’s the sixth year our program is among the top 10 globally. QS also recognized our MSBA as the top program for gender balance among students, which reflects the percentage of the class who are women.

Overall, QS ranked the UC Davis MSBA among the top 20 programs in the U.S. and top 40 globally.

Professor Beth Bechky Named Microsoft Research AI and Society Fellow

Professor Beth Bechky is an internationally recognized organizational ethnographer and holds our Stephen G. Newberry Chair in Leadership. For her research, Beth puts herself in the shoes of workers to experience how they collaborate to solve problems, struggle to coordinate, and deal with technological change.

She’s worked as a production assistant in the film industry, assembled semiconductor equipment in a clean room, and assisted technicians in a biotech lab just to get a feel for what the workers do.

Beth was recently named a Microsoft Research AI and Society Fellow for 2024. Microsoft’s highly competitive fellows program supports interdisciplinary AI research in the context of societal impact.

In collaboration with Microsoft researchers, Beth will study how screenwriters are responding to the use of generative AI in Hollywood. She’ll explore how technologies, social structures, and economic models are shaping the future of creative work in a world of generative AI.

Thank you for watching this issue of the Big 3!