Global Case Competition teams focus on digital inequality in Tanzania

The seventh annual Global Case Competition, presented by WSU’s Office of International Programs, focused on digital inequality: information and technologies in Tanzania.

The winning team selected from 120 participants was TanzEquity. Its members are graduate student captain Sarah Boothman, senior mechanical engineering major Parth Chandak, junior economics major Danica Swiggart and international business major Christen Velasquez.

TanzEquity addressed digital inequality by collaborating with Tanzanians to improve the access and use of Information Communication Technology in education.

“This was truly a collaborative team effort in which everyone contributed,” Boothman, who is studying biology, said. “We have varied majors, backgrounds, and even campus locations. The best part for me was working together as a team. We each had strengths to offer and we were better together as a whole than any of us would have been individually.”

Swiggart, who attends WSU through Global Campus, added, “The collaborative nature of the competition allowed our solution to be a success. Individual ideas were strengthened by the creativity and thoughtfulness of our team.”

Final presentations for the competition were made Oct. 25. The winners receive scholarship money and have the opportunity to travel to Tanzania with their faculty advisor Cigdem Capan from College of Arts and Sciences at WSU Tri-Cities.

“Our achievement would feel arid if it wasn’t for the impactful hard work complemented by a cohesive team with persistent teammates,” Parth, an honors student, said.