The Center for Excellence in Logistics and Distribution (CELDi) in the College of Engineering/Industrial Engineering hosted its Spring 2015 Industrial Advisory Board Meeting and Research Symposium at the Hilton Atlanta Airport on April 8-9. The CELDi meeting drew together faculty and students from five partner CELDi sites and industry leaders from nine of the 16 membership companies and two guest companies.

The meeting kicked off with Peer Mentoring, which has been a well-received activity for several years. This allows students to spend one on one time with industry leaders to ask questions, learn about the industry and careers beyond college. The Reception and Poster Session followed. During the Poster Session the students present their project poster to industry members and network in a relaxed atmosphere. Each poster is evaluated and submitted with remarks. The student with the best poster is then presented with an award.  Both students and industry leaders agree this dedicated time spent together allows them both time to connect and learn from each other.  This year's Student Poster Award was presented to Payam Parsa, an industrial engineering doctoral student at the University of Arkansas, for his poster "A Decision Support Tool for Partner Evaluation in Continuous Replenishment Program (CRP)."

The industry and research presentations took place the following day. Bill Abernathy with Bayer CropScience began the day by presenting on the value of CELDi for Bayer CropScience.

The Faculty Research presentations are the focus of the CELDi meeting. Completed projects are presented by the faculty researcher/primary investigator of that project. This year's projects included:

• "Models and Solutions to Support Critical Decision making at Glen Raven Custom Fabrics," by Brad Willett with Glen Raven.
• "Improving Striping Operations through System Optimization," by Ronald McGarvey, University of Missouri, for the Missouri Department of Transportation.
• Kimberly Ellis, Virginia Tech, and Bill Ferrell, Clemson University, concluded the meeting by presenting "Material Handling & Logistics U.S. Roadmap."

The meeting, open to all Industry members, invited guests, and faculty and students from partnering universities was a success. A few attendees' comments:

• "Great opportunity to get to know great students better and to offer guidance on industry career paths."
• "I really enjoy learning more about what other CELDi members are up to.  It gives me ideas for my company's next project."
• "CELDi has allowed me to meet a number of highly regarded workers in industry, as well as helped provide me my internship this coming summer."
• "Great exposure to the problems of others. It's always interesting how nearly all industries can relate when it comes to supply chain issues."

The fall 2015 meeting will be held in October in Chicago. 

CELDi is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. At this center, engineering faculty from the University of Arkansas, Clemson University, Virginia Tech, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Missouri collaborate with members of industry to identify and carry out research projects in the area of logistics and distribution that are the most relevant to industry needs. CELDi's 15 member organizations come from commercial, military and government sectors of the economy.

For more information on CELDi, contact Manuel Rossetti, CELDi director, rossetti@uark.edu, 479-575-6756. For more information the upcoming fall conference, contact Karin Alvarado, karina@uark.edu, 479-575-2124.