Industrial engineering students were honored this spring for two semesters of work solving real-world problems alongside industry partners.

During the 2020-21 academic year, 65 industrial engineering seniors participated in the Industrial Engineering Capstone Experience as part of 14 teams of 3-5 students. The teams are matched with an industrial partner and led by a student project manager. Every student pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering at the University of Arkansas is required to complete the two-semester course sequence. Richard Cassady, university professor of industrial engineering, coordinates the Industrial Engineering Capstone Experience courses.

This year, 12 of the 14 projects were process improvement projects. During the fall semester, these teams developed an understanding of the details of the process of interest and the concerns that their industry partner had about the process. They then identified the key measures of process performance and assessed and evaluated process performance under current operating policies. In the spring semester, they made recommendations for improving process performance and evaluated the potential impact of these recommendations. They also provided deliverables that facilitate the implementation of recommendations.

The two remaining projects were system design projects. During the fall semester, these teams developed an understanding of the issues creating the need for the system, identified the system stakeholders, detailed the system requirements, assessed the perceived user value of each requirement, and defined the minimum viable product. In the spring semester, they designed the system and evaluated the potential impact of implementing the system. They also provided deliverables that facilitated implementation of the system.

Each year, the experience concludes with the Industrial Engineering Capstone Symposium. In 2020, the symposium was cancelled due to the pandemic. This year, the symposium poster session and presentations were conducted remotely, but the awards ceremony was held in person.

The awards presented included:

Team Awards

• Project of the Year: Parker Tankersley, Project Manager; Grayson Lee, Remy Kirk, Jacob Underhill, and Alyssa Roth.
  Project Title: Balancing Inbound and Outbound Flow of Trailers by Predicting Customer Compliance and Seasonality
  Supported by: J.B. Hunt 360 Box Engineering Team
• Data Analysis Award: Madeline Suellentrop, Project Manager; Garrett Clark, Chase Cottrell, Nicholas Jaco, and Jaclyn Walls.
  Project Title: Improving Multi-Stop Truckload Pricing using Random Forest Regression
  Supported by: J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.
• Modeling Award: Warren Lewis, Project Manager; Sam McKinney, Kyle Sprang and P. Marshal Smith.
  Project Title: Increasing Violation Capture Rates by Improving Parking Control Routing and Scheduling
  Supported by: University of Arkansas Transit and Parking Department
• Decision Support Award: Amie Beckwith, Project Manager; Suelly Samudio Ortega, and Joseph Goodman.
  Project Title: Forecasting Category Sales using Data Mining and Predictive Analytics
  Supported by: Nestlé USA
• Impact Award: Conner Waybright, Project Manager; Ryan Brim, Yok Lin Ong, Brandon Ward, and William Warner.
  Project Title: Facilitating Chemical Risk Analysis by Organizing Toxicological Databases with a Flexible Open Platform
  Supported by: Istituto Superiore di Sanità

Individual Awards

• Outstanding Project Managers: Madeline Suellentrop, Parker Tankersley, and Matthew Walters.
• Outstanding Team Members: Sam Griffin, Xander Smith, and Jacob Kinney.
• Outstanding Faculty Advisors: Professor Sandra Eksioglu, Professor Xiao Liu, and Professor Manuel Rossetti.
• Outstanding Industry Partners: Edosa Aibangbee, Nestlé USA; Katie Parker, Baptist Memorial Healthcare; and Kyle Kraichley, J.B. Hunt Transport Services.

Other Projects

Additional projects the Capstone Experience Teams completed were:

• Project Title: Reducing Empty Costs of ReloCube Repositioning through Forecasting and Optimization
  Team: Laura Acosta, Project Manager; Tate Thornley, Joseph Cummings IV, Kate Burrows, and Xander Smith.
  Supported by: ABF Freight
• Project Title: Improving the Offer Creation Process by Standardizing ArcBest's Bid Model
  Team: Ben Barron, Project Manager; Jackson Marshall, Ben Baser, Blake Parrish, and Joseph Ellis.
  Supported by: ArcBest Corporation
• Project Title: Reducing Emergency Department Wait Time by Improving Nurse Scheduling using Simulation
  Team: Matt Nixon, Project Manager; Junwoo Chang, Jacob Kinney, Matt Murry, and Hawkin Starke.
  Supported by: Baptist Memorial Healthcare
• Project Title: Reducing Length of Stay Overages by Improving Hospitalist's Rounding Paths and Patient Assignments
  Team: Lauren Law, Project Manager; Adam Corral, Courtney Johnston, Dania Quintero, and Owen Stuckey.
  Supported by: Baptist Memorial Healthcare
• Project Title: Predicting Transitions of Steel in the Molten Scrap Metal Casting Process
  Team: Esteban Lopez, Project Manager; Emily Feuerborn, Linden Van Hoose, and Logan Rodriguez.
  Supported by: Gerdau
• Project Title: Reducing Production Costs by Optimizing the Assignment of Parts to Machines using Cost-Benefit Analysis and Monte Carlo Simulation
  Team: Matthew Walters, Project Manager; Cameron Blann, Christofel Enslin, Alyssa McKnight, and Jasia Porchay.
  Supported by: Hytrol Conveyor Company, Inc.
• Project Title: Improving Driver Integration across Dedicated Contract Services Accounts using Resource Identification and Capacity Planning
  Team: Brianna Bert, Project Manager; Jose Beltran, Gabriel Figueroa, Sam Griffin, and Emily Rodriguez.
  Supported by: J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.
• Project Title: Automated Pairing of Clients to Job Opportunities based on a Quantitative Assessment of Skills and Abilities
  Team: Lawson Porter, Project Manager; Patrick Dougherty, Andrew Powers, and Hatem Alsayed.
  Supported by: Open Avenues
• Project Title: Improving Course and Classroom Scheduling Policies through Correlation Analysis and Forecasting
  Team: Michael Rechtin, Project Manager; Alyssa Bobalik, Olivia Hope, and Jacob Pannell.
  Supported by: The office of the Provost at the University of Arkansas