A team of students representing the College of Charleston’s Global Logistics and Transportation Program recently won the Intermodal Association of North America’s eighth Intermodal EXPO Academic Challenge in Long Beach, California.

The students representing the College were Brenden Cornell, Ashley Markow and Alejandro Vega. Each of the participating teams responded to a case that focused on rail network optimization.

“Students from the College of Charleston were thrilled to participate in the Academic Competition at the 2018 EXPO,” says Kent Gourdin, professor and director of the Global Logistics and Transportation Program at the institution’s School of Business. “The task exposed them to the incredibly complex world of managing day-to-day rail operations with the goal of lowering costs without adversely impacting customer satisfaction or profitability.”

RELATED: Learn more about the Global Logistics and Transportation Program.

The other competing undergraduate schools included Georgia Southern University, SUNY Maritime College, and the Universities of Maryland, North Florida, North Texas and Wisconsin-Superior. The competition is an integral part of the association’s scholarship program, which supports the development of academic curriculum designed to meet the need to educate tomorrow’s intermodal leaders.

“The Academic Competition is always an impressive display of teamwork and critical thinking,” says Joni Casey, president and CEO of IANA. “Congratulations to the team from the College of Charleston.”