Information Systems 2010 students at the David Eccles School of Business wrapped up one of the strongest case competitions of the semester. Over eight fast-paced days, teams analyzed a large dataset of simulated campus foot traffic, weather trends, and coffee sales to determine whether the University should launch a mobile coffee cart and how it should operate.

Students were tasked with thinking like real analysts. They cleaned messy data, modeled demand patterns in Excel, and transformed thousands of rows of information into insights that leadership could use.

What Students Discovered

This year’s analysis revealed a clear trend: mornings matter most.

1. Peak Demand Happens Early

The winning teams consistently identified the same patterns:

• 7 to 8 a.m. is the busiest hour of the day.
• The 7 to 11 a.m. window brings in more than $60,000 in historical revenue.
• Tuesday is the strongest weekday for sales.
• Fall generates the highest total revenue.

2. Drink Preferences Shift With Temperature

Teams found consistent patterns in what people choose to order:

• Lattes lead the menu with more than 8,000 transactions.
• Hot drinks account for roughly two-thirds of all orders during colder months.
• Cold drink orders rise by about 3 percent for every 10-degree increase in temperature.

Students agreed that temperature influences what people purchase, although it does not significantly change overall revenue as long as foot traffic remains steady.

3. Foot Traffic Drives Revenue

One of the most important insights came from the relationship between traffic and sales.

• Blue Genius identified a correlation of about 0.78 between traffic and revenue.
• Another team found that traffic explains 81 percent of daily revenue variance.

More people nearby results in more coffee sold, and this relationship remained stable across seasons.

How Top Teams Turned Insights Into Strategy

First Place: Blue Genius

Blue Genius delivered a consulting-style narrative supported by clear analysis. They identified the strongest morning demand, highlighted the top-performing drinks, estimated daily revenue between $395 and $507, and recommended operating from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. based on demand patterns.

Second Place: Payton and Lucy

Payton and Lucy impressed judges with strong visual explanations of weekday patterns, seasonal shifts, and temperature-based drink preferences.

Third Place: da Goats

da Goats earned recognition for identifying multiple outliers and explaining their impact. A judge noted that the team clearly understood how to reach their conclusions and confidently stood behind their recommendations.

The Impact of This Challenge

For many IS 2010 students, this competition provided their first experience with real analytical decision-making. Throughout the week, they confirmed assumptions, worked through imperfect datasets, built predictive models, and presented recommendations under pressure. The challenge gave students a hands-on opportunity to practice the type of analytical and strategic thinking they will use in internships and future careers.

Congratulations to our 2025 IS 2010 Data Analytics Challenge participants!

First Place
Team 16 – Blue Genius – Presentation
Joel Bryan
Ronan Schultz

Second Place
Team 4 – Payton and Lucy – Presentation
Payton Crank
Lucy Sorber

Third Place
Team 55 – da Goats – Presentation
Nick Kouzmanoff
Taggart Severson
Beck Tollefson