Maryam Azmandian’s Team Wins 2026 Windy City Case Competition

Northwestern Engineering’s Maryam Azmandian (MS '25) and her multi-university team won first place at the 2026 Windy City Case Competition (WCCC). An annual consulting competition, the WCCC brings together advanced degree candidates to tackle real-world business challenges in a collaborative, team-based environment.

Azmandian's team, Chicago Campus Convergence (CCC), combined expertise in computer science, epidemiology, evolutionary biology, and finance. Azmandian, a PhD student in computer science at the McCormick School of Engineering, worked with a medical device company client partner alongside students Victoria Umutoni and Tatjana M. Washington (University of Chicago), and Wanlin Shen (University of Illinois Chicago).

CCC developed and presented a Dual Channel Commercialization Strategy, outlining a pathway to increase return on investment tenfold across the healthcare ecosystem. The team’s proposal combined detailed market analysis, go-to-market planning, pricing strategy, and a risk-informed implementation roadmap.

“I'm incredibly proud of how our team worked together. Winning this competition reinforced something I believe deeply: that the most compelling solutions to complex problems come from people with a diverse set of skills; ones who know exactly how to value and utilize their collective strengths towards achieving their shared goal,” said Azmandian, who is advised by Professor Marcelo Worsley and is a member of the technological innovations for inclusive learning & teaching (tiilt) Lab. "This competition challenged me to apply my skillset in an interdisciplinary context, alongside incredibly talented teammates, to a real-world business problem. That kind of cross-disciplinary collaboration is exactly what I think graduate training should make possible, as it drives strong intellectual, professional, and interpersonal growth."

This year's competition drew 13 teams from across the three institutions. After a first round held March 27 through April 12, five finalist teams advanced to the championship round on April 25 at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Simpson-Querrey Auditorium in Chicago. Judges included representatives from ZS, Boston Consulting Group, Guidehouse, L.E.K. Consulting, and Myers & Stauffer.

The 2026 Windy City Case Competition was organized by the Advanced Degree Consulting Alliance at Northwestern University, the Gargoyle Consulting Club at the University of Chicago, and the Advanced Degree Consulting Student Club at the University of Illinois Chicago.