A team of three Lipscomb University students has taken top honors and $9,000 in prize money in the first-ever Deloitte Challenge, a competition among Nashville’s colleges and universities that allows students to demonstrate their technical know-how by developing a working mobile application to solve a practical business problem.

For the inaugural event, teams were asked to develop a mobile app that would facilitate coffee/food runs for groups working on client sites. Each team had access to a mentor from Deloitte to assist them in thinking through customer needs and other development issues.

The LU School of Computing and Informatics fielded two teams in the challenge. Alexander Givant, a senior computer science major; Marian Rushdy, a senior electrical and computer engineering major; and Stuart Pounders, a junior computer science major, placed first ahead of teams of undergraduate and graduate students from Belmont, Fisk and Middle Tennessee State universities.

The Lipscomb team, under the faculty guidance of Steve Nordstrom, director of undergraduate programs for the School of Computing and Informatics, won with its app iOrder, a mobile application for the Android platform allowing users to order premium coffee and lattes from the convenience of their mobile phone. Each team member received $3,000 in prize money.

Also competing in the challenge from Lipscomb was a team of computer science seniors led by captain Phillip Yates and including Christina Martin and Dylan Jones.

“Their passion for their craft along with their enthusiasm and strong work ethic carried the day,” Nordstrom said in a release regarding the two LU teams.

Following a three-week intensive development period, each team submitted its apps and delivered a presentation to a team of judges from Deloitte. The apps were evaluated based on usefulness, innovation, technology and quality. Results were announced at a banquet recently hosted by Deloitte at the Music City Sheraton Hotel.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has reaffirmed Fisk’s accreditation for a year but prolonged the probationary period as school officials cited “financial stability” and “adequate financial controls” as two of the reasons it wasn't removed from probation.

Pierce Greenberg and The City Paper have the full story here.

The two finalists to take over from Hazel O'Leary as president of Fisk University will visit the campus next week. One, James Williams, is the dean of the business school at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. The other, Lawrence Drake, is a former Coca-Cola executive who now heads up a management consulting firm in Atlanta that works with General Electric and CSX, among others.

Fisk University officials on Friday released a breakdown of how they intend to allocate the $30 million they will receive from Arkansas' Crystal Bridges Museum. Half will go to the school's endowment, while almost $6 million will settle accounts with the attorneys who have represented Fisk in recent years. Also in the mix is $5 million for strategic initiatives, one heck of a tool to help recruit a successor to President Hazel O'Leary, who is stepping down at the end of this year.

Fisk University and Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton have sealed their agreement to share the Alfred Stieglitz collection of Georgia O'Keeffe works. The $30 million deal will have the collection migrate between Nashville and Fayetteville, Ark., every two years. Court documents show that Fisk will set aside $3.9 million to create a fund that will maintain the art.

The Tennessee Supreme Court said Monday it will not let Attorney General Bob Cooper appeal a lower-court decision to allow Fisk University to share its Stieglitz Collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas.

One of the items that must be sorted out in chancery court is whether that fund is large enough for the task at hand. Fisk also must show that the gallery where it displays the collection on campus has been adequately refurbished.