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

During the 2024-25 academic year, 39 industrial engineering and operations analytics seniors on eight teams participated in the Industrial Engineering and Operations Analytics Capstone Experience. The teams work on project problems provided by industry partners.

They begin in their fall semester by getting to know their industry partner and the issues motivating the project. Students then perform preliminary analysis and define objectives for their spring semester work.

In the spring, they apply their industrial engineering and operations analytics skills to develop recommendations for their industry partner, assess the potential impact of their work and create the deliverables that their industry partner will need to implement their work.

Every student pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Operations Analytics at the U of A is required to complete the two-semester course sequence. Richard Cassady, University Professor of industrial engineering, coordinates the experience.

The experience concludes with the Industrial Engineering and Operations Analytics Capstone Symposium, which was held in the Fayetteville Town Center on April 30.

The awards presented included:

TEAM AWARDS

Project of the Year
Luke Haskins - team leader, Mackenzie Johnston, Javier Muriel Coscio, Thatcher Hagen and Nathan Shipp
Project Title: Standardizing and Automating Yard Capacity Estimation
Supported by: ABF Freight

Outstanding Achievement in Data Analysis
Omar Qedan - team leader, Stella Chaney, Mikah Daniels, Emma Higgins and Ella Pearl
Project Title: Setting Staffing Levels for Poultry Further Processing Operations
Supported by: Simmons Prepared Foods

Outstanding Achievement in Modeling
Daniel Terry - team leader, Case Owenby, Thaddeus Wilson, Cesar Trujillo and Jaylen Malone
Project Title: Determining Pallet Counts using a 3D Bin Packing Problem Heuristic
Supported by: J.B. Hunt Transport Services

Outstanding Achievement in Decision Support
McKenna Heap - team leader, Alison Thomas, Amanda Davis, Hannah Strohm and Jamie Ramirez
Project Title: Automating and Standardizing the Carrier Selection Process for Managed Transportation Using Multi-Objective Optimization
Supported by: ArcBest

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Outstanding Team Leaders
Luke Haskins, McKenna Heap and Omar Qedan

Outstanding Team Members
Jalal Altal, Emma Higgins and Case Owenby

Outstanding Industry Partners
Devon Buckingham, J.B. Hunt; Jordan Fernandez, J.B. Hunt; and Ollie Nsabimana, Simmons Prepared Foods

Outstanding Faculty Advisers
Brandon Crisel, Rob Curry and Kelly Sullivan

OTHER PROJECTS

Additional projects the Capstone Experience teams completed were:

• Project Title: Optimizing Float Pool Configurations to Address Unpredictability in Medical-Surgical Nurse Staffing
  Team: Alyssa Ball - team leader, Roberta Cantu, Audrey Dizdar, Alberto Saenz Barahona and Han Siew
  Supported by: Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corporation

• Project Title: Streamlining the SBIR/STTR Topic Selection Process
  Team: Grant Bunten - team leader, Malek Altal, Trinity Colbert, Spencer Dance and Oliver Welch
  Supported by: Infinity Labs LLC

• Project Title: Improving Out-of-Network Trailer Monitoring Using Data Visualization With Microsoft Power BI
  Team: Cray Cothran - team leader, Adam Maxwell, Baile Brust, Gabe McNabb and Jack Hannan
  Supported by: J.B. Hunt Dedicated Contract Services

• Project Title: Improving Parking Enforcement Scheduling Using Integer Linear Programming
  Team: Caleb Mallett - team leader, Milagros Diaz Romero, Lily Harris and DeCory Thomas
  Supported by: U of A Transit and Parking Department

Full abstracts and posters from the 2025 Capstone Symposium can be found here.

About the Department of Industrial Engineering: The Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Arkansas was founded in 1950, led by department head John L. Imhoff who believed deeply in the global impact of industrial engineering. Today, the department averages over 200 undergraduate students and over 40 doctoral and master's students. In addition, the department has three online master's degrees: the Master of Science in Operations Management, Master of Science in Engineering Management and Master of Science in Operations Analytics. These three programs alone enroll over 600 students each academic year. To learn more about the Department of Industrial Engineering please visit our website.