Ateneans among global finalists in Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge

Students from Ateneo de Manila University were among 20 individual finalists who competed in the Global Finals of the 2023 Microsoft Excel Collegiate Challenge (MECC) in Tucson, Arizona last December 2.

Management engineering seniors Zefanie Gayle Tan, Mark Samuel Santiago, and Jedric Ivor Zafra were recognized for their performance in the 2023 MECC season. They placed fourth, 14th, and 20th respectively during the online qualifiers earlier this year, competing against 3,272 participating students from 531 universities across 73 countries.

Ateneo has the distinction of being the university with the most individual participants who placed in the top 20. 

The students were supported in their efforts by Alfonso Miguel Sevidal (BS ME ’17) from the Department of Finance and Accounting, and Armin Paul Allado (BS ME ’12) and Beatrice Marie Chan (BS ME ’23) from the Department of Quantitative Methods and Information Technology.

The MECC is a global competition for university students that tests Excel modeling and logical thinking skills. The competition involves case studies and preparation of financial models under individual and team categories.

The competition is organized by the Financial Modeling World Cup and the University of Arizona - Eller College of Management.

This year’s final round was hosted in person at the Eller College of Management in the University of Arizona. In addition to the individual and team competitions, the organizers hosted mini-games, seminars, and networking sessions for the attendees.

In one of the seminar sessions, Beyond Excel Founder Craig Hatmaker presented 5G modeling, wherein models are assembled from components rather than formulas. 5G modeling aims to make “dynamic arrays in financial models a reality.”

In another session, Erik Oehm, Principal of Oehm Automation, shared how his passion for Microsoft Excel pushed him to start his own firm and use his “Excel superpowers” to help others. “The future of Excel is you,” Oehm said, challenging the student participants to “cultivate [their Excel] superpowers.” 

According to MECC Founder and University of Arizona Associate Professor David Brown, PhD, “by seeing what we can do in Excel, we can realize our full potential.” He concluded the 2023 MECC season by encouraging all participants to continue connecting and building, and to “Excel on.”

Recently, Ateneo, through the John Gokongwei School of Management, became the first MECC Partner School in Southeast Asia.