The finals of "Zhengda Cup"of the 15th National College Students Market Research and Analysis Competition (Postgraduate and International students), hosted by Commerce Statistical Society of China and organized by Guizhou University, were successfully held at Guizhou University a few days ago. The Faculty of Finance of the City University of Macau (CityU) organized students to participate in the competition. The team, consisting of Liu Yichang, Hu Jiajun and Hu Yangyu, students from the Master of Finance programme, under the guidance of Assistant Professor Liu Lu, won the second prize in the postgraduate category, and CityU won the Best School Organization Award.

                                                               (Hu Jiajun, Hu Yangyu and Liu Yichang)                           (Liu Yichang, Hu Jiajun and Hu Yangyu)

This year's competition achieved new breakthroughs in both the scale of the competition and the quality of the works, attracting a total of 1,184 universities and colleges and 342,000 students to sign up. Among them, a total of 589 universities and colleges participated in the Postgraduate and International students group. It took 7 months, and after going through theoretical knowledge competition, school competition, provincial competition, and national preliminary competition. Finally, 301 teams entered the national finals, including 159 teams from the Postgraduate group and 142 teams from the International students group.

The national finals was conducted in a combination of presentations and on-site defense. After fierce competition, the CityU team finally won the second prize. In the competition, by facing real business scenarios, students can apply the knowledge they have learned to solve practical problems and improve their practical skills.
 

The National College Students Market Research and Analysis Competition was founded by the China Society of Business Statistics in 2010 and has been held for 15 consecutive years. The competition aims to guide college students' innovation and practice, improve their professional practical abilities in organization, planning, investigation and implementation, data processing and analysis, and cultivate their sense of social responsibility, service awareness, market sensitivity and teamwork spirit. The Society uses competitions to promote learning, teaching, reform and innovation, promote the organic connection of the education chain, talent chain and industrial chain, and serve social and economic development.
 

Here are the three students'sharing about winning the award:
 

Liu Yichang: The three of us went to Guizhou University together. The team's journey was filled with data modeling battles that lasted from day to early morning, repeated polishing of speech drafts before the oral defense, and the shock and sobriety of competing with top universities in the finals. The final result was also very satisfying. We were fighting to the end without regrets! Thanks to my teammates, it is your hard work and persistence that made this journey brilliant. This Zhengda Cup competition left me with much more than just a certificate. It is the proof of a youthful struggle, the scale of growth, and the prelude to the next journey.
 

Hu Jiajun: The stars are the scroll and the data are the poem. I would like to thank my mentor for guiding me with wisdom and my classmates for standing side by side with me with sincerity, making each questionnaire a page that questions the world. The second prize is an echo among the mountains and mists, reminding me that the academic path should be like a stream, which requires both surging desire and sedimented tranquility. May this journey turn into the morning dew of stream, nourishing the beauty of the next season/journey.
 

Hu Yangyu: I am very honored to represent the University and won the second prize in the Zhengda Cup of the Market Research and Analysis Competition! Special thanks to mentor Liu Lu, who supported us very much during the registration stage and helped us choose topics and specific analysis directions. Secondly, I would like to pay tribute to the team. This achievement belongs to every member of the team! From the rush of data collection, the debate on model construction, to the late nights of report polishing, it was everyone's collaboration, wisdom and persistence that made the project take root. Through this competition, we have deeply realized the balance between rigor and innovation in market research, and realized our own shortcomings in the depth of data analysis and industry insights. In the future, we will use this experience as a starting point to continuously improve our professional capabilities, use data to drive decision-making, and create more practical value for society.