Eller MBA students win competition for third year

MBA students at the University of Arizona's Eller Graduate School of Management took first and third place in the annual UA/ASU Intel Case Competition held Saturday, Feb. 1, in Phoenix.

They brought home the state competition trophy for the third straight year. A student team from Arizona State University took second place. A total of six teams participated in the event.

The first-year Eller team of Jonas Ewen, Michael Gottlieb and Kirk Vidinghoff captured first place while second-year MBAs, Amit Nag, Surya Pandruvada and Nilam Patel took third.

The statewide competition was established by the Eller College to foster competition and collegiality among Arizona's graduate business programs.

Intel Corporation has sponsored the competition since its inception four years ago, and Intel executives serve as judges.

"This annual event has been such a success that Intel is willing to consider making it a ĪPac-10 wide' business competition," said Carol Shuherk, interim associate dean and director of the Eller MBA program.

UA alum, crew willing to stay aboard space station

When Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry Feb. 1 killing all seven astronauts aboard, UA alumnus Don Pettit was one of the three crewmembers aboard the International Space Station.

"When I first heard (about the Columbia crash), at that point it wasn't known what condition the crew was in," Pettit said during a talk with reporters on Feb. 11. "And so we were hoping that there were going to be survivors. Then, as it unwound, we learned that there were no survivors, and that's when the magnitude of that really hit me."

Suddenly, Pettit, Commander Ken Bowersox and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin were the only people in space and the only ones likely to be there for some time. Further shuttle flights were cancelled, pending an investigation of the Columbia accident.

Bowersox and Pettit told Mission Control they are willing to stay in orbit for a year or more if necessary, and they would consider the extra time a bonus, not a hardship. They had been scheduled to return to Earth next month.

A Soyuz taxi flight is scheduled to arrive at the station in late April with a crew of three astronauts. The composition of this crew and whether they will take over from the current crew is under discussion, but no decision has yet been made.

One future scenario for the space station might be to cut the crew to two astronauts to reduce the need for supplies. Pettit noted that this would call for additional work by the remaining crew members to maintain the station's systems. But they still would have time to work on some scientific research.