The David Eccles School of Business buzzed with dashboards, predictive models, and a lot of teamwork as students took on the 2025 KPMG + Layton Construction Data Analytics Challenge. Over seven days, teams stepped into the role of real consultants by analyzing HR data from Layton Construction and transforming it into insights the company could use.

A Real-World Challenge That Felt Like Consulting

Students worked with monthly HR snapshots that included demographics, tenure, age bands, and separation categories. Their goal was not to simply visualize trends but to understand what those trends meant and recommend actions Layton’s HR team could take.

Teams were asked to:

• Build a clear, filterable demographics dashboard
• Analyze turnover categories and calculate turnover rates
• Identify drivers of attrition and propose solutions
• Go beyond description and explore predictive insights

Students leaned on tools like Power BI, Tableau, Python, SQL, and Excel as they spent late nights testing models, cleaning data, and refining their story.

Inside the Judging Room

In the final deliberations, one theme stood out: the strongest teams did more than report patterns. They explained why those patterns existed and what actions Layton should consider.

One judge put it simply: “The best teams told us what the data means and what the company should do next.”

Teams that presented confidently without reading directly from slides also earned high marks for clarity and storytelling.

And the Winners Are

1st Place: Team SQLmates2
SQLmates2 impressed judges with clean dashboards, strong insights, and a confident presentation style. Their analysis made workforce trends easy to understand and connect to real business decisions. As the team shared afterward, “Every day we found something new, and every day we gave our best. That dedication is what helped us win.”

2nd Place: Team KPMGamers
KPMGamers stood out for creativity and a business-first mindset. Their predictive “at risk employee” concept sparked discussion and showed original thinking around HR retention challenges.

3rd Place: Team SQLmates
SQLmates delivered deep analysis that surfaced seasonality patterns and detailed modeling. Their thorough approach made a strong impression.

Creative Honorable Mention: Team Data Consulting
Recognized for a fresh brochure-style presentation that showcased clear, engaging storytelling.

Technical Honorable Mention: Team Triple Byte
Celebrated for precise calculations, advanced filtering, and a thoughtful analytical structure.

Why This Challenge Matters

Students did more than build dashboards. They practiced real consulting skills, navigated messy data, defended their ideas, and learned how to make analytics useful. For many, this challenge was a turning point in understanding how data becomes insight and how insight becomes action.

A big thank you to KPMG, Layton Construction, Shoreline, Pepsi, the University of Utah Campus Store, and the Information Systems major for supporting this year’s challenge and making hands-on learning possible.

Congratulations to our 2025 KPMG + Layton Construction Data Analytics Challenge participants!

First Place

Team 16 – SQLmates 2
*Video interview of winning team
Ishita Choudhary
Olena Glod
Taehyun Noh

Second Place Winner

Team 18 – KPMGamers
Prachi Aswani
Jacob Erard

Third Place Winner

Team 15 – SQLmates
Umair Akhtar
Amiya Ranjan Sahoo
Haley Young

Creative Honorable Mention

Team 33 – Dataform Consulting
Logan Bogesvang
Christina Dong
Harleen Saini

Technical Honorable Mention

Team 11 – Triple Byte
Ryan Do
Yerke Nokenova
Maksym Taran