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UNO Business Students Earn Second Place at FNBO Datathon

A four-student CBA team placed second among 10 teams from Nebraska universities, behind another UNO team.

  • published: 2026/11/04
  • contact: Melissa Lindell Kozak - Sr. Director of Communications & Marketing - UNO CBA
  • email: melissalindell@unomaha.edu

A team of University of Nebraska at Omaha College of Business Administration students placed second at the 2026 FNBO Datathon, a statewide competition where students use data analysis to work on business problems facing FNBO. First place also went to UNO, to a team of computer science and artificial intelligence students.

Ten teams from UNO, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the University of Nebraska at Kearney and Creighton University competed. Each team chose one of two problems related to FNBO client accounts. The CBA team looked for patterns that could signal a customer was preparing to close an account, then developed recommendations to help FNBO address it.

The team of Adriana Gomez-Guerrero, Raquel Burton, Kent Kuchma and Elaine Klepinger competed under the name “Dr. Luke #1,” a tribute to their economics instructor. Their participation began with an invitation from Dr. White, who encouraged the Economics Club to join the competition. The team was brought together through the Economics Club and received guidance and mentorship from Dr. Jose Mota and Dr. Garcez.

Rather than a single leader, each member took charge of a different part of the project. Klepinger and Kuchma handled the data analysis. Gomez-Guerrero and Burton built the presentation, and Burton also created the data visualizations.

The students started preparing well before the competition, meeting weekly on Zoom and keeping in touch by message between meetings to trade ideas and work through problems.

Gomez-Guerrero, president of the Economics Club and a senior studying business administration with concentrations in business analytics and logistics and supply chain management, said the team went in with modest expectations.

“We competed not expecting much more than to represent UNO, so when we won 2nd place, we were very grateful to our mentors and the organizers for the privilege of being there to present,” she said.

What made her proudest, she said, was how her teammates treated the competition. Throughout the event, they went out of their way to congratulate and encourage the other teams.