FDU Team Places High in the HSI Battle of the Brains

By Rebecca Maxon

November 20, 2025 — In its fifth straight year of participation in the Hispanic-serving Institution Battle of the Brains, FDU fielded an eight-person major team — four from the Silberman College of Business and four from the Gregory H. Olsen College of Engineering and Science. The group traveled to Austin, Texas, for the 24-hour challenge.

The team included Kelly Alas, junior marketing major (Metro); Elliot Guzman Lescas, accounting MS major (Flor); Erick Jacomes, junior computer science major (Metro); Anastasia Lim, senior business administration major (Metro); Fiorella Merriman-Mendez, data analytics MBA major (Flor); Jonathan Nunez, senior information technology major (Metro); Allan Salazar, junior computer science major (Metro); and Valentina Torres da Silva, senior computer science major (Metro).

The team “prepared for the competition by holding weekly Zoom meetings with all of the team members in the month leading up to the competition,” said Nunez.

“We learned about each other’s strengths and our roles in the competition,” said Merriman-Mendez. “Each of us did our own individual preparation as well.”

In the competition, 18 teams spent 24 hours straight developing their business plans and designing software to carry out their goals in response to a prompt to create a sustainable solution for generative AI ads and how they would be used.

“Our group created a company called Ads with Emotion (AWE), a digital marketing agency catering to small businesses in the fitness and health industry,” said Merriman-Mendez.

“The technology created was to be able to produce ads without consuming tons of energy and polluting the planet,” said Jacomes.

“Our project leveraged AI to bring digital marketing to small businesses. It can be nearly impossible for a small business to create ads, deploy them on various outlets and analyze the results,” Nunez said. “With our project, small businesses would be able to outsource their marketing to us so they can focus on their products and services.”

“When they enter our website,” said Jacomes, “they will be greeted with an introductory page that explains the benefits of using our service and then would be prompted to enter their information. Examples are produced and, if they like the examples, they can sign up to gain full access to our services.”

Overall, the team ranked sixth, with a Top Business Score on the project. The team was selected as one of seven universities to give a pitch talk, according to Team Leader and Lead Advisor Avimanyou Vatsa, associate professor of computer science (Metro).

“Participation offers majors valuable real-world experience in teamwork, innovation and problem solving while connecting directly with leading industry partners such as Capital One, Dell Technologies, Thrivent, The Home Depot and eBay,” said team advisor Luz Helena Flores, associate director for recruitment and community, the Hispanic Center and Center for Major Success.

Daniel Wischnevsky, associate dean, Silberman College of Business, also served as an advisor to the team.

Kudos go to Nunez, who received a $2,000 scholarship from Dell Technologies based on his academic excellence, leadership qualities and commitment to community engagement.

“It was surreal to hear my name on the speakers. I wasn’t expecting to get anything in a room of such talented people,” Nunez said.

He said the best skill he learned from his participation in the contest was “how to talk to people. Communication is probably one of the biggest contributors to success.” Nunez was able to network with representatives of several sponsoring companies and connect with majors from all over the country.

Merriman-Mendez said, “Collaboration and adaptability in high-pressure situations are the greatest skills I learned.”

“As a Hispanic student, these skills are so important to practice and develop,” she continued. “We can forget how much we’re capable of, but these types of competitions are important in remind us and others of just how much we can accomplish, especially as a team.”