Excelsior helps students in their IT skills

This year North South University Finance Club, a co-curricular club of North South University under the Department of Accounting and Finance, brought back one of the most talked about and appreciated intra-university competition since 2017 which is Excelsior 2018. Co-sponsored by Shimanto Bank Limited, it is a Microsoft Excel based competition which mainly focuses on bringing out the technical skills among students. For the fourth time, Excelsior was organised with the tagline 'Learn, Implement, Excel' with the motto of helping participants develop their professional skills via this competition.

This two round-based competition's registration started from March 27, 2018. Only the first 200 applicants were able to participate in this competition. The first round was an online round based on basics of Microsoft Excel. In the first round, the contestants were given a case where they had the raw data of an organisation--a multinational corporation or a school. They had to apply various Excel functions with creativity to come to the end conclusions suggesting that organisation what to do. A detailed workshop was held right before the first round where the participants were showed and demonstrated all the sophisticated Excel functions needed for the first round.

The second and final round took place on the North South University premises based on sophisticated problems of a professional organisation such as crunching big data and usage of advanced functions of MS Excel. In the second round, the participants had to solve a series of Excel files that included things like calculating and identifying the likeability and diversity of a wide range of products and do a statistical analysis of the company inventory and share, based on provided data, then use more advanced functions to provide conclusions. The participants were briefed about this round in the workshop that was held before it. All relevant resources, including instructional videos, was presented to the participants. Besides introducing the participants to the essential tools of Microsoft Excel, the workshops covered detailed instructions on how to utilise the resources provided to get the most out of them. Only a few hours were presented to the participants to complete each round.

The workshops were conducted by the professionals from the strategic partner of this event LightCastle Centre for Advanced Learning (LCAL). The first workshop was held by Silvia Rozario, business analyst, Rafayet khan, junior associate, Kazuki Kunimoto, junior associate and Sumaiya Siddiqua, junior associate of LightCastle Partners. The second workshop was also moderated by Sumaiya Siddique along with Md Shabbir Nowsher, business analyst of LightCastle Partners.

The prize giving ceremony of Excelsior 2018 was held on April 17, 2018 on North South University premises. The chief guest Md Muklesur Rahman, managing director and CEO of Shimanto bank Limited along with guest of honour Dr Mohammad Mahboob Rahman, dean of School of Business and Economics of North South University were present in the event. Parisa Shakur, director of Student Affairs and Farhana Zahir, director of Career and Placement Centre also graced the event with their presence.

In the event the chief guest Md Muklesur Rahman stated, "Being technologically forward is a must for every occupation. Without technology a person cannot move forward in his/her career or business." He also shared his working experience in City Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. He expressed his experience on how the technology improved throughout the time from a calculator to Microsoft Excel and how crucial it is for students now to be technologically robust.

Among all participants, the top ten were provided with certificates from the Department of Finance and Accounting, School of Business and Economics, North South University. The champion Faisal Mahmud Khan, first runner-up Md Faysal Hossain and second runner-up Syed Salman Rahman received the prize money of Tk 25,000, Tk 15,000 and Tk 10,000 respectively. The champion of Excelsior 2018 shared his experience with Excelsior 2018 in this way: "Excelsior 2018 has been a remarkable journey starting from the brain-twisting case for the first round till the exhilarating last minute of the final round. Throughout the whole time span, besides being glorified as the Champion of Excelsior 2018, I have also achieved significant learning of Excel through its extensive practical implementation in the cases. My utmost gratitude goes to NSU Finance club for creating this ultimate platform to push undergrads towards excellence by looking beyond the numbers."

Excelsior has been aiming to clear the fear of using the most sophisticated software among students and to make sure that everyone knows about the importance of MS Excel in different professions.

The writer is currently studying at North South University and is also a sub executive of NSU Finance Club. She can be reached at [email protected]