ABOUT QUEST

Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST) is a multidisciplinary, hands-on

honors program for University of Maryland undergraduates majoring in business,

engineering, and science. Students participate in a challenging course of study that

focuses on quality management, process improvement, and system design. Funded in

1993 by a grant from IBM to establish total quality on university campuses, the Uni-

versity of Maryland has continued the program which has produced excellent gradu-

ates prepared to face the changing landscape of business, engineering, and technology.

QUEST Honors Program

1407 Van Munching Hall

University of Maryland

College Park, MD 20742

December 8, 2016

Dear QUEST Seniors:

Congratulations to each of you! I am very proud of your accomplishments.

You have put a great deal of energy and spirit into your projects, and it shows. Though the QUEST standards are academically rigorous and challenging, you have surpassed them.

I am very fond of this program because it prepares you to work collaboratively in inter-disciplinary teams— an experience you are likely to encounter after graduation. Hands-on experience like this makes great preparation. Once you graduate, please stay in touch through the QUEST alumni network so that we will know how you are doing.

We wish you all the best today in your conference presentation and great success in the next phase of your life.

Sincerely,

Wallace D. Loh

President, University of Maryland

Consulting Projects Portfolio

The Advisory Board Company ........................................................... 6

BD ........................................................................................................ 8

Caterpillar ............................................................................................ 10

Goodwin Brothers Shades .................................................................. 12

Intralox ................................................................................................ 14

TAMKO Building Products ................................................................ 16

Tenax ................................................................................................... 18

Thales ................................................................................................... 20

Transurban .......................................................................................... 22

Featured Speaker ................................................................................ 24

QUEST Faculty and Leadership Information ................................. 25

Notable Past Projects ......................................................................... 30

QUEST Sponsors ............................................................................... 33

Special Thanks & Acknowledgements ............................................. 34

Table of Contents

PROJECT SUMMARY Founded in 1979, the Advisory Board Company (ABC) is a best practices firm that serves the needs of healthcare and educational organizations worldwide through the use of research, technology, and consulting. ABC is headquartered in Washington D.C. and employs 3,600 people worldwide. ABC’s mission is to make healthcare bet-ter, education smarter, and communities stronger. Last year, ABC’s employee benefit expenditures were much higher than expected. As a result, ABC’s workforce analytics group is looking to gain a better understanding of which plans their employees are enrolling in to help understand their costs. Investigating enrollment numbers will allow information to be gained that will aid ABC in making decisions on potential actions regarding their benefit plans. Apex Analytics will provide a descriptive analysis that identifies trends of overall employee enrollment and demographics in each bene-fit plan offered by ABC.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS To provide an analysis of the trends of employee benefit enrollment, Apex Analytics was given four years of past employee demographics and enrollments. These four da-tasets were then organized and modified so that categories and structure were con-sistent across all datasets. The team used data visualization methods to convey trend information in an easy-to-read style. Apex Analytics then went through these graphs, reported on them, and further looked into the demographic trends within these bene-fits. This will ultimately assist ABC’s benefits team in visibility for the company’s ben-efits program, helping them maximize the potential of highly elected plans and cut-ting those that incur greater costs.

THE QUEST - ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY PROJECT

PREDICTING BENEFIT USAGE

QUEST STUDENT TEAM: APEX ANALYTICS

Chris Comfort

Bioengineering

Jason Ho

Information Systems

Dustin Kang

Mechanical

Engineering

Aarushi Puri

Finance, Operations

Management

6

Project Champion: Kevin Zhan, Director of Workforce Analytics

Faculty Advisor: Kylie King

7

PROJECT SUMMARY Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) is an American medical technology company that manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems, and reagents. The company operates worldwide and employs over 40,000 people. BD’s Diagnostic Systems division oversees Lactinex™, the only product sold by the company meant for human consump-tion. BD began selling Lactinex™ after it acquired the rights to the probiotic supplement brand over 50 years ago. Declining sales in recent years have led BD to identify the need for a formalized product marketing strategy. Therefore, our project scope includes develop-ing an understanding of Lactinex™ and the market, as well as providing recommenda-tions for tactical and strategic marketing of the product. Along the way, our deliverables have included an analysis of the product and market, a shopping gap analysis, and profit and loss estimations for our recommendations. Our ultimate objective is to provide the company with a baseline upon which it can make informed decisions regarding the final marketing strategy to be developed in-house.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Our team conducted three surveys of varying success to prospective and current consumers of probiotics, veterinarians, and physicians in order to determine consumer attitudes and familiarity with probiotic products. We also held two focus groups to first gauge consumer reactions to Lactinex™ and to supplement our survey data. The results of our primary data analysis informed the team of a need to change the Lactinex™ packaging and consider possible reformulation of the product. In addition, we also reviewed research provided by Becton Dickinson and conducted our own secondary research. This influenced numerous recommendations, most notably, the application of our focus group data to identify a need to sell Lactinex™ in capsule form. The team’s secondary research led us to recommend an algae-derived material as a feasible, effective method of encapsulation. We also developed criteria to evaluate consumer shopping experiences and visited retailers in Maryland to study the purchase process for Lactinex™. Since Lactinex™ is only sold at the pharmacy because of refrigeration needs, the team recommended that BD place advertisements in store aisles and the pharmacy counter to increase brand awareness.

THE QUEST - BD PROJECT

BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY FOR LACTINEX™

QUEST STUDENT TEAM: LACTINEXT CONSULTING

Urvashi Dayalan

Bioengineering

Chris Demek

Marketing

Sandra Soltz

Computer

Engineering

Gopal Srinivasan

Finance

Basma Hamud

Finance

8

Project Champion: Oleg Rusu, Global Business Manager,

Core Clinical & Industrial Microbiology

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey Herrmann

9

PROJECT SUMMARY Caterpillar Inc. is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equip-ment. The company primarily operates through its three product segments: Construction Industries, Resource Industries, and Energy and Transportation, generating revenues of over $47 billion in 2015. Caterpillar maintains its competitive advantage through invest-ment in IT infrastructure and employee training. The Global Information Services (GIS) division at Caterpillar oversees IT within the company and supports the firm’s digital and data-based transformation. In 2016, Caterpillar introduced “The Age of Smart Iron,” bringing digital solutions to machinery designed to improve productivity, efficiency, safety, and profitability for customers. The GIS division’s core values of innovation, creativity, and continuous learning align strongly with the firm’s vision to generate new services by utilizing digital technologies and analytics. Metapod Consulting (MPC) was tasked with designing a video game framework, ultimately to be developed by Caterpillar’s IT interns and professionals, to further an environment of collaboration and develop new IT skills. This opportunity will allow the GIS division to enhance the delivery of digital solutions to the enterprise.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS MPC utilized the DMEDI (Define, Measure, Explore, Develop, and Implement) creative design approach to create the video game framework. Within this process, MPC applied the iterative design methodology to optimize the game to the end customer while support-ing Caterpillar’s brand image. After conducting industry research and obtaining quantifia-ble insight from gaming forums and focus groups, MPC designed a level-based, physics-based puzzle mobile game for both iOS and Android. With sharp graphics and simple ani-mations, this game relates Caterpillar’s vehicles to the construction toys of a player’s youth, creating a visceral connection for the user and fitting a wide range of age and gender de-mographics. Ultimately, Caterpillar will benefit from this increased opportunity for team-work and collaboration within the GIS division, leading to higher levels of employee en-gagement, an improved intern experience, and the acquisition of new skills that can be leveraged to advance its digital transformation.

THE QUEST - CATERPILLAR PROJECT DRIVING ENGAGEMENT THROUGH GAMING

QUEST STUDENT TEAM: METAPOD CONSULTING

10

Michelle He

Marketing, Info

Systems

Andrew Katz

Marketing,

Supply Chain

Derien Scott

Computer

Engineering

Victoria Zhao

Finance

Brian Morris

Bioengineering

Project Champion: Gary Evans, Manager, Human Resources, Global Information Services

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Evan Golub

11

PROJECT SUMMARY Founded in 2005, Goodwin Brothers Shades & Specialties LLP (GB) is a shade and blind contracting company servicing the mid-Atlantic region. Working heavily with construction projects, GB installs products ranging from traditional shades to highly complex automat-ed shading systems. With two warehouses located in both Maryland and Delaware, GB currently has more than 50 employees and revenues exceeding $10 million. While their Maryland warehouse has been well utilized in the past, GB has been experiencing a spike in their number of projects leading to storage-related growing pains. The results of this unplanned growth are a cluttered warehouse with materials on the floor and a variety of misplaced or missing materials, costing them roughly $75,000 each year. Additionally, GB’s growth has created a clear need to reevaluate their current inventory management system and material staging processes. Therefore, GB has called upon QUEST to optimize logistics and warehouse efficiency from the procurement phase to the project construction phase.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS As GB sales skyrocketed, they began to experience some growing pains. In the current year, GB lost $75,000 worth of inventory by misplacing materials within their warehouse. Addi-tionally, the primary concern of every warehouse worker interviewed was the continual overcrowding of the warehouse. Also, GB currently wastes over $15,000 a year paying in-stallation teams to wait for loading docks to clear so they can begin value-added work. Shades of Glory employed the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) strat-egy to help understand and combat these difficulties. The team determined three focal points of improvement: optimizing warehouse space, implementing an up-to-date inventory tracking system, and optimizing material movement. By improving these aspects of GB’s procurement process, GB is able to save time, space, and money, allowing them to utilize all of their assets more effectively.

THE QUEST - GOODWIN BROTHERS SHADES PROJECT

WAREHOUSING LOGISTICS OPTIMIZATION

QUEST STUDENT TEAM: SHADES OF GLORY

12

Laura Bell

Supply Chain,

International

Grace Cha

Supply Chain,

Info Systems

Avi Kozlowski

Finance,

Accounting

Samuel Lewis

Mechanical

Engineering

Tomas

Garchitorena

Finance

Project Champion: Mark Anchor, Chief Financial Officer

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Pamela Armstrong

13

PROJECT SUMMARY Intralox LLC is the world leader in providing comprehensive conveyance solutions, in-cluding conveyor belting, conveyor equipment, and services, to streamline plant opera-tions. The company’s passion for innovation is exemplified by its proprietary Activated Roller Belt (ARB) technology, which enables modular belting to sort, merge, and switch products. SherLox had the distinct opportunity to engage with the Order Engineering department at the facility in Savage, Maryland this semester. This department is responsi-ble for the design phase of order fulfillment. Intralox is growing rapidly, with expectations of business doubling in the next two years. Currently, the company provides solutions to customers in approximately sixteen weeks, four weeks more than the industry standard of twelve weeks. Additionally, the Order Engineering design process is responsible for 49 percent of internal errors, resulting in significant inefficiencies downstream. Intralox sought the help of Sherlox in reducing both error and lead time in order to allow the com-pany to accommodate a heightened number of projects.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Through interviews, surveys, and shadowing, SherLox recognized areas of improvement within Intralox’s means of project assignment, peer reviews, and data-sharing. Current project assignments are done on a case-by-case basis with great respect for the engineer’s skills, talents, and experience. SherLox recommended specializing the Order Engineering department by equipment type, allowing for efficiency through expertise while maintain-ing project variety and sufficient workloads. Additionally, to improve the accessibility of past project data, SherLox developed a functional database prototype allowing for searches of project information based on a logical tagging system. We provided a detailed deploy-ment strategy of this tool for future integration and deployment. Finally, to formalize the design peer review process, SherLox recommended a system of rotating review teams con-ducting quicker, more comprehensive checks. Overall, these recommendations save about $600,000 and 1,200 business days per year, or about $3,000 and 6 days per project.

THE QUEST - INTRALOX PROJECT

CONVEYOR SYSTEM DESIGN PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

QUEST STUDENT TEAM: SHERLOX

14

Rebecca Grossman

Electrical Engineering

Andrew He

Computer Science

Dominick Montero

Aerospace

Engineering

Morgan Taverner

Supply Chain,

Marketing

Project Champion: Kashyap Alur, Mechanical Engineer

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey Herrmann

15

PROJECT SUMMARY RoofTop Consulting (RTC) worked with TAMKO’s facility in Frederick, MD this semes-ter. TAMKO is a national manufacturer of roofing shingles and other building products, and the Frederick facility alone processes over 17,000 trucks per year. The median wait time for trucks passing through the facility is 88 minutes, and RTC was tasked with reduc-ing that time to 60 minutes. Meeting this goal would have many benefits for TAMKO Frederick, such as increasing revenue by increasing throughput and helping TAMKO ne-gotiate better shipping rates with carriers.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS RTC tackled this issue through the lens of the process’s two most important stakeholders: the forklift drivers and the truck drivers. We analyzed issues facing truck drivers through interviews and site visits and discovered extraneous processing and a complex procedure. We recommended a simplified process that included increased automation and greater clarity for drivers via robust signage. We expect these recommendations to reduce approxi-mately 10 minutes of waiting time. We analyzed issues facing forklift drivers via a focus group and site visits, as well as GPS loggers to track forklift movement in the factory. Our team discovered that forklifts are used inefficiently, and therefore, there are not enough forklifts available to load trucks. To address this issue, we developed an Excel Model to predict wait times from the number of forklifts deployed. Based on this model, TAMKO can expect to save approximately 22 minutes by increasing the number of forklifts de-ployed. We made several recommendations to increase the efficiency of their use to facili-tate this.

THE QUEST - TAMKO ROOFING PRODUCTS PROJECT

TRUCK PICK-UP MEDIAN WAIT TIME IMPROVEMENT

QUEST STUDENT TEAM: ROOFTOP CONSULTING

16

Gedaliah

Knizhnik

Mechanical

Engineering

Amy Liang

Operations

Management,

Info Systems

Noelle Majorczak

Electrical

Engineering

RJ Walton

Finance,

Supply Chain

Patrick Lin

Accounting,

Info Systems

Project Champion: Joe Burkhardt, Materials Manager

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Pamela Armstrong

17

PROJECT SUMMARY Founded in Italy in 1960, Tenax is a leading manufacturer of high end plastics, specializ-ing in the production of extruded netting. Tenax’s products are used in a variety of indus-tries including oil and gas, aquaculture, agriculture and construction. The company’s im-pact is global; currently, over 60% of their revenues come from outside of Europe, with offices set up all around the world including an American headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland. Team Tenacity has come together to take a deep dive into a Voice of the Cus-tomer Analysis (VOC) for Tenax’s Performance Plastics customers. Tenax prides itself in the flexibility and customization that they provide to companies in order to meet the spe-cific needs of the client. Team Tenacity has been tasked with gauging overall satisfaction with the client’s current purchases in addition to exploring the types of innovations or changes to preexisting products that Tenax could create to best tailor their current offer-ings to industry shifts in the next 3-5 years.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Team Tenacity began the project by gaining a greater understanding of the Tenax organiza-tion. The team conducted extensive market research, contacting 26 current customers and some potential and future clients in order to understand the various drivers in innovation and usages of Tenax products for end-users across multiple industries. Using the data gar-nered from interviews, Team Tenacity generated a fishbone diagram, conducted a GAP analysis, and further investigated underlying issues for Tenax in regards to three core areas: marketing, sales team, and use of distributors. The team’s final recommendations include a revamped website with a decision tree feature to emphasis customizability, an apprentice-ship program designed to spearhead new business development, and a formalized feedback process that loops end users, distributors, and Tenax together. The team also provided graphs to visually display the gaps in product offerings in addition to cataloguing all of Tenax’s merchandise by technical specifications.

THE QUEST - TENAX PROJECT

INVENTING NEW PRODUCTS FOR NEW CUSTOMERS AND MARKETS

QUEST STUDENT TEAM: TEAM TENACITY

18

Malcolm Davis

Finance

Sydney Tommins

Marketing, Opera-

tions Management

Mimi Verdonk

Finance,

Arabic Studies

Gabe Vostal

Materials Science &

Engineering

Project Champion: Vaishali Patel, Business Segment Director, Performance Plastics

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Linda Schmidt

19

PROJECT SUMMARY Thales Defense & Security, Inc. is a U.S. defense contractor that serves defense, federal, and commercial markets. A world leader in military tactical radio solutions, their main engineering facility in Clarksburg, MD is home to numerous high-tech labs and equip-ment used for research and development of cutting edge products. The Defenders have been tasked with providing recommendations to the Thales software engineering and IT departments. Software engineering focuses on embedded real time coding and signal pro-cessing algorithms for their radios, while one of IT’s primary goals is to maintain security on the Thales computer network. Thales currently utilizes a linear workflow process for vetting, installing, and updating open source software (OSS) packages. Not only does the linearity create time and cost inefficiencies, but there is also no formal method for securely checking possible vulnerability and licensing issues with the OSS packages. Furthermore, Thales cannot track which products contain which software, which presents security con-cerns for customers when new vulnerabilities are found. Therefore, we developed a faster workflow that also takes into account OSS licensing and code vulnerabilities. In addition, we recommended a system that can track the whereabouts of OSS. Our process not only saves time and money for Thales but will also ensure the reliability and functionality of their products.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS By maintaining close and continuous contact with the senior engineers and IT department manager, our team was able to adapt and develop a solution that closely fits Thales’ needs. We discussed our solution with the Thales staff regularly to determine the feasibility of our improved process within their current system and to see how we could leverage systems they already have in place. Our new software scanning tool that analyzes licensing and vul-nerabilities streamlines the process and eliminates the human error factor. Furthermore, it aligns well with the restructuring of the process into parallel steps which saves 44% of workflow time. The scanning tool saves up to $50,000 every time it prevents a new vulnera-bility needing to be patched, and it avoids the cost of licensing infringement which could force Thales to reveal their proprietary information. In addition, integrating a configura-tion management database to easily locate code will increase the value of Thales as a relia-ble defense company as it enhances their customers’ sense of security.

THE QUEST - THALES PROJECT

IT NETWORK SECURITY METRICS

QUEST STUDENT TEAM: THE DEFENDERS

20

Justin Kelman

Electrical Engineering

Neha Kundagrami

Finance, Statistics

Anthony Prus

Marketing

Linda Yau

Electrical Engineering

Project Champion: Steve Kutchi, Engineering Lab Manager

Faculty Advisor: Dr. James Purtilo

21

PROJECT SUMMARY Transurban is an Australian-based company that leases and operates toll roads. Transurban expanded their operations to the United States in 2001 and currently manages the I-495 and I-95 Express Lanes in Virginia. Transurban’s operations include monitoring the traffic on the toll roads, managing the tolling process, and collecting fees. Transurban hopes to become the partner of choice in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area and continue to expand their operations within the United States. The current process of toll violation collections involves manually inputting a variety of information on the toll violators into Microsoft Excel. This includes names, driver’s license numbers, any previous court dates, and other information. Transurban’s process involves sending emails between stakeholders and manually inputting information into a variety of spreadsheets, which is both inefficient and error prone. QUEST Xpress was given the opportunity to streamline Transurban’s toll violation collection process in order to improve both the scalability and efficiency of the process. As Transurban aims to grow, lease, and operate more roads within the Virginia area, they will need a proven and tested process to replace the current system.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS QUEST Xpress analyzed the current toll violation collection process by mapping out the current system. In order to understand the stakeholders’ perspectives on Transurban’s current process, the team sent out a survey to those directly involved in the process to un-derstand the key inefficiencies. Upon completion of the analysis phase, the team conclud-ed that implementing a database software would be most effective to monitor, track, and document the toll violation collection process. QUEST Xpress researched database software and narrowed down the choices to five alternatives: Microsoft Access, Tableau, Apache OpenOffice, AxisBase, and Google Suite. The team compared the requirements of the stakeholders to each software’s capabilities in order to find the most optimal solution. The final recommendation was to implement a Microsoft Access database to update, store, and query the toll violation information. The team built a framework for how the data should be stored and processed and also provided an implementation plan for the employ-ees to smoothly transition to the new system.

THE QUEST - TRANSURBAN PROJECT

TOLL VIOLATION ENFORCEMENT PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

QUEST STUDENT TEAM: QUEST XPRESS

22

Danielle Golden

Finance, Info Systems

Young Park

Finance,

Accounting

Benjamin Seibert

Civil Engineering

Vinny Venkat

Computer Science

Project Champion: Eric Coraggio, Business Analyst, Operations

Faculty Advisor: David Ashley

23

FEATURED SPEAKER

PATRICK O’REILLY PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER APPLIED PREDICTIVE TECHNOLOGIES Patrick O'Reilly, President and Chief Operating Officer of APT, leads the company’s core growth, strategic alliances, and corporate development initiatives.

Prior to joining APT, Mr. O'Reilly helped run Infirmation.com, a career service pro-vider for attorneys. Mr. O'Reilly developed the company's strategy, negotiated partner-ship agreements, and led its fundraising and marketing efforts. He helped drive Infir-mation.com, now a part of Thomson Reuters, to a successful acquisition in 2000. Pre-viously, Mr. O'Reilly was an Associate with Dean & Company, where he focused on customer segmentation and marketing, private equity, and telecommunications.

Mr. O'Reilly received a JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School. He holds a BA in economics from Duke University, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

KEYNOTE OVERVIEW

HYPE OR OPPORTUNITY? BIG DATA, MACHINE LEARNING, AND PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS

Big data, machine learning and predictive analytics are all terms receiving lots of hype

and PR. Mr. O'Reilly will review what he believes is meant by each term, what aspects

he believes to be hype and where he sees opportunities for transformative value crea-

tion.

24

QUEST FACULTY AND LEADERSHIP

DR. PAMELA ARMSTRONG ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, QUEST HONORS PROGRAM ASSOCIATE CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE ROBERT H. SMITH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS PROJECTS ADVISED: GOODWIN BROTHERS SHADES, TAMKO

Dr. Pamela Armstrong is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Decision, Operations & Infor-mation Technologies department at the Smith School. She teaches the introductory QUEST course on design and quality and the QUEST mentors course. Dr. Armstrong also teaches courses in operations management, operations strategy, decision analytics and project manage-ment. Her areas of interest include quality, performance excellence, and service operations. Prior to joining the Smith School, Dr. Armstrong ran a management consulting firm that pro-vided operational analysis, strategic planning, and performance management services to federal clients. Before consulting, she served on the faculty at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Dr. Armstrong also worked as an engineer at IBM, AT&T Bell Laboratories & Hughes Aircraft Company. She earned her Ph.D. in Operations and Information Manage-ment at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, her M.S. in Operations Re-search and Industrial Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and her B.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Arizona.

DAVID ASHLEY, M.B.A. EXECUTIVE IN RESIDENCE, QUEST HONORS PROGRAM ROBERT H. SMITH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS PROJECT ADVISED: TRANSURBAN

David Ashley is an adjunct professor and an Executive in Residence at the University of Mary-land’s Smith School of Business. He is currently the Human Capital Data Analytics Division Manager at the Department of Homeland Security. In that role, Mr. Ashley manages a division overseeing analytics and reporting of the DHS workforce that includes 230,000 people across the 10 DHS components. Before his current role at DHS, he was a program analyst for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) within the Department of Homeland Security where his duties involve developing business models, performance measurement and survey work, and program management and program reviews. Before joining FEMA, Professor Ashley also worked at the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and the Small Business Development Center at the University of New Mexico. He also served as president of the University of Geor-gia’s Marketing Research Institute International and he served two terms as president of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Marketing Research Association. Professor Ashley has many publi-cations including a marketing research college textbook published by Kendall Hunt Publishing. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina and a graduate degree from the University of New Mexico.

25

QUEST FACULTY AND LEADERSHIP

DR. EVAN GOLUB SENIOR LECTURER, ACADEMIC ADVISOR, AND RESEARCHER, DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION LAB COLLEGE OF COMPUTER, MATHEMATICAL, AND NATURAL SCIENCES PROJECT ADVISED: CATERPILLAR

Evan Golub, Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer, Academic Advisor, and Researcher in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland and an Assistant Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab. He has been involved in the creation of, or modification of, numer-ous courses across the curriculum. His research interests include children and technology, edu-cational classroom technologies, ubiquitous computing, and creativity support tools. He works to understand how technology can be utilized by users across the spectrum of skill and experi-ence bases to achieve a variety of goals. He disseminates his results through submissions to aca-demic publications and conferences. His research approach commonly incorporates student involvement, at both the graduate and undergraduate level. He sees his work with students not only as a part of his role as educator but also a valuable part of both he creative and research processes. He has co-authored a textbook on Information Technology and authored a Visual C++ workbook and Student Response System faculty guidebook and is an avid photographer and citizen photojournalist.

DR. JEFFREY HERRMANN ACADEMIC DIRECTOR, QUEST HONORS PROGRAM PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND INSTITUTE FOR SYSTEMS RESEARCH A. JAMES CLARK SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING PROJECTS ADVISED: BD, INTRALOX

Dr. Jeffrey Herrmann is a Professor at the University of Maryland, where he holds a joint ap-pointment with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute for Systems Re-search. Dr. Herrmann earned his B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Georgia Institute of Tech-nology. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow from 1990 to 1993, he received his Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Florida. His dissertation investigated production scheduling problems motivated by semiconductor manufac-turing. He is the author of the textbook Engineering Decision Making and Risk Management. His current research interests include risk-based path optimization for unmanned aircraft systems and improving engineering decision making.

26

QUEST FACULTY AND LEADERSHIP

EMILY KELLY GRADUATE ASSISTANT, QUEST HONORS PROGRAM

Emily Kelly is the Graduate Assistant for the QUEST Honors Program. She assists with daily operations, works with the QUEST Alumni Board, oversees the Alumni Advantage Program, and chairs QUEST’s 25th Anniversary committee. Emily received a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Iowa in 2015 and is a current student in the University of Maryland’s Higher Education M.A. program. Her research interests include higher education and workforce align-ment, learning outcomes assessment in higher education, high-achieving students, and federal policy in higher education. KYLIE GOODELL KING, M.A. PROGRAM DIRECTOR, QUEST HONORS PROGRAM PROJECT ADVISED: ADVISORY BOARD COMPANY

Kylie King is QUEST's Program Director. Kylie teaches a course related to BMGT 490H, Defin-ing Consulting and Innovation Projects, where she works with students to identify QUEST clients and outline capstone projects. She also teaches an applied data analysis course. In addi-tion to teaching, Kylie manages QUEST's program operations, including learning outcomes assessment, program marketing, and alumni relations. Kylie is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Quantitative Methodology in Maryland’s College of Education. Her research involves evaluating measurement techniques for team-level variables. Previously, Kylie served as an assistant director and graduate assistant with QUEST while earning her MA in higher education at the University of Maryland. Before joining QUEST, she received a BS in industrial and systems engineering from North Carolina State University and worked as an Industrial Engineer in the Tyco Elec-tronics Leadership Development Program.

JESSICA MACKLIN, M.A. PROGRAM MANAGER, QUEST HONORS PROGRAM

Jessica Macklin is the Program Manager for the QUEST Honors Program. She coordinates the program’s daily operations, leads the program’s recruitment and admissions efforts, plans and executes conferences and orientation, advises QUEST’s student organizations, and supports professors as needed. Jessica received her BA in Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park and her MA in Higher and Postsecondary Education from Teachers College, Co-lumbia University. Jessica is an active member of the Teachers College National Research Team on College Educational Quality. Prior to joining QUEST, Jessica was the Graduate Assistant in Columbia University’s Office of Student Engagement.

27

QUEST FACULTY AND LEADERSHIP

DR. JAMES PURTILO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, COMPUTER SCIENCE COLLEGE OF COMPUTER, MATHEMATICAL, AND NATURAL SCIENCES PROJECT ADVISED: THALES

Dr. James Purtilo specializes in software development and product assurance, and his research is currently funded by the Office of Naval Research on a cyber security systems project. With prior support from the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and various corporate sources, Purtilo has studied and published on topics of software producibility, formal methods, rapid prototyping and testing. Purtilo has served on the Defense Biometric Support Team (an advisory group to the Office of the Secretary of Defense) and consulted with the Division of Civil Rights within the Department of Justice. At the Uni-versity of Maryland, he has served as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, chaired the undergraduate Comput-er Science program and directed the Master's of Software Engineering Program. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1986. DR. LINDA SCHMIDT PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING A. JAMES CLARK SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING PROJECT ADVISED: TENAX

Dr. Linda Schmidt is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, actively teaching and reflecting upon engineering design issues for the past 20 years. She holds a doctorate in Mechanical Engi-neering from Carnegie Mellon University and B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University. Schmidt co-authored three texts related to engineering design and manufacturing, partnering with co-author George Dieter on the 4th and 5th editions of the McGraw Hill text “Engineering Design.” Schmidt also won the American Society of Engineer-ing Education’s 2008 Fred Merryfield Design Award. Dr. Schmidt has published over 100 refer-eed publications in the areas of mechanical design theory and methodology, product develop-ment and manufacturing, mechanism design, graph isomorphism issues in generative design and effective student learning on engineering project design teams. Four refereed conference papers were cited for excellence, two on design theory and two on research to improve the effec-tiveness of student project teams. Schmidt’s current collaborations include faculty partners in Columbia and Peru on developing educational case studies on sustainable design and manufac-turing.

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QUEST FACULTY AND LEADERSHIP

DR. J. GERALD SUAREZ PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE IN SYSTEMS THINKING DESIGN FELLOW, CENTER FOR LEADERSHIP, INNOVATION, AND CHANGE SENIOR EXECUTIVE COACH ROBERT H. SMITH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Dr. J. Gerald Suarez is a premier educator, speaker and consultant in the fields of Organization-al Design, Systems Thinking and Total Quality Management. He joined Smith in 2005 as Exec-utive Director of the multidisciplinary Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST) Honors program. Dr. Suarez currently teaches 390H, the required QUEST class on "Systems Thinking for Managerial Decisions." Additionally, he teaches at the corporate, executive MBA, custom EMBA, international, and undergraduate levels. From 2008 to 2010 Dr. Suarez served as Associate Dean of External Strategy, leading the offices of marketing communications, re-cruitment and career services. Prior to joining the Smith School, he served under two admin-istrations in the White House as the Director of Presidential Quality. Dr. Suarez holds a mas-ter's degree and a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico.

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NOTABLE PAST PROJECTS

SPRING 2016: THE QUEST—INTRALOX PROJECT PROJECT: OPTIMIZING PALLET MANAGEMENT FREDRIK BERGENDAL ANDREW DICKEN SHMUEL GOLD VICTOR WESSEN PROJECT SUMMARY Founded in 1947, Intralox is a global leader in design and manufacturing of conveyor belt systems. They provide technical and consulting support, placing customer service at the top of their priorities. Intralox is globally headquartered in New Orleans, LA and acquired the Savage, MD location in order to continue to grow and produce the industry's most innovative conveyance solutions. They seek to deliver superior quality to their customers through focusing on four key attributes including Service, Technol-ogy, Accountability, and Results. The issue our team has been confronted with is the excess waste left behind from deliveries to the Intralox facility. The shipments are cur-rently delivered on large wooden pallets with excess plastic and packing materials which are all useless upon arrival. Intralox is paying skilled laborers to unpack pallets and dispose of the trash totaling to more than 30 hours per week. This is purely wast-ed time and money. Our goal for the project has been to reduce the amount of time and money it takes to unpack and dispose of packing materials and pallets. CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS After looking at the surface of the problem, we began by examining the potential root causes. Those causes led us to create a SWOT analysis, process flow diagram as well as a floor plan flow analysis. These analyses began to illuminate the issue of wasted re-sources in the facility. Through further research, including interviews and a focus group, we were able to pinpoint specific inefficiencies in the client’s current process. The unsystematic way in which the material was delivered, unpacked and organized provided a significant window for improvement. Our team decided to design 3D CAD drawings of a reusable cart to provide the client with a more optimal and leaner meth-od of receiving and unpacking shipments in a faster and more organized manner. Fur-thermore, we developed an alternative floor plan analysis of an idealized state of the facility.

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NOTABLE PAST PROJECTS

FALL 2015: THE QUEST—SPECTRUM FOODS PROJECT PROJECT: INVENTORY MANAGEMENT ALEX CHIARAMONTE DELANTE DESOUZA BEN HSIEH BROGAN SHEEHEY PROJECT SUMMARY Our team worked with Spectrum Foods, a small, family-owned poultry distributor located in Landover, Maryland. The client supplies a wide range of products to grocery stores and restaurants in the area, including District Taco and Sardi’s Pollo a la Brasa. These products range from dry goods such as charcoal, rice, and beans to refrigerated and frozen goods such as chicken, beef, and crinkle-cut french fries. Currently, Spec-trum Foods is struggling to track both the physical flow and the data flow (in terms of inventory counts) of its inventory goods. As a result, Spectrum is experiencing waste due to incorrect shipments and a need for frequent, time-intensive visual inventory checks. More importantly, the company’s current state of inventory tracking is a clear impediment to future growth. A functional and complete inventory tracking system will enable them to keep track of their inventory flow while making room for expan-sion. CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS We recommend that Spectrum Foods take two main actions to improve its inventory tracking. The first is to standardize processes by creating purchase orders for all incom-ing orders and by renegotiating with suppliers to ensure that most incoming products have barcodes. The second recommendation is to incorporate FoodConnex barcode scanning technology, featuring a SWAMI (Scan, Weigh, and Measure Instantly) sta-tion for each of the seven loading docks. The scanning solution also features a scale for weight-based product sales and three barcode printers for incoming products that arrive without barcodes. Alternative solutions that were considered, but not chosen, were handheld scanners and location-based barcodes. These solutions were eliminated due to the amount of change required to fit the technological solution as well as cost. The chosen recommendations will allow Spectrum Foods to reduce their time spent on physical inventory counts by 83% and increase their warehouse capacity by 4% and revenue by $3.6 million.

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NOTABLE PAST PROJECTS

SPRING 2015: THE QUEST—CFR ENGINEERING PROJECT PROJECT: STREAMLINING THE BID PROPOSAL PROCESS TOMMY JOHNSON AVI SILVERMETZ AARON SIRKEN HALLEY WEITZMAN PROJECT SUMMARY CFR Engineering provides comprehensive mechanical, plumbing, and electrical engi-neering design services for the building industry in various market sectors. They are small enough to accommodate different scopes and schedules yet large enough to take on small, medium and large projects. CFR has successfully performed critical design and development for numerous complex, multi-user projects for the National Institute of Health (NIH), National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), and a num-ber of private firms. The many projects CFR develops come in the form of Requests for Proposals (RFPs). When CFR receives a new RFP, they must look through the many projects they have done in the past to find comparable pro-jects in order to esti-mate costs more accurately in order to win the bid. Our team was tasked with improv-ing this time-consuming process in order to increase efficiency during cost estimation. With improved efficiency and centralized data, CFR will make more accurate pro-posals. CONTRIBUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Our team created a searchable database for CFR Engineering, so that all of CFR’s past project data is in one centralized location. The database can generate a unique report for the proposal at hand, saving the business development team 20% of their total hours worked, during which most of their time is spent looking through past project data. Ultimately, the business development team will have the time to read 16% more proposals. To further improve this process, we have recommended that CFR convert all of their old Excel data into one Access database. With this first step, CFR could be well on their way to creating an automated proposal generator. Through in-depth in-terviews, we were able to understand CFR’s current cost estimation algorithm. Con-ducting data analysis on CFR’s algorithm and the past project information, we tested the old model against competing new models. With the improved model, CFR will increase their RFP win rate and grow their revenue through the addition of extra pro-jects, which in turn will increase their profits.

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PROJECT SPONSORS

The companies below have made significant contributions to our students as they completed their capstone learning projects. In addition to financial contributions, these sponsors have given enormous amounts of time and thought leadership to our student teams.

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QUEST would like to thank and acknowledge all of the individuals, committees, and organizations who have contributed to this event.

QUEST STUDENTS QUEST ALUMNI

FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND UNIVERSITY COLLEAGUES QUEST PARTNER COLLEGES

A. James Clark School of Engineering

College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences

Robert H. Smith School of Business

COURSE TEACHING ASSISTANT Elijah Biggs (Q22)

QUEST OFFICE ASSISTANT Brian Yuwen (Q28)

ROBERT H. SMITH EVENTS Jack Blaney

Marlo Smith

RIGGS ALUMNI CENTER Rhea Smirlock

CATERING The Chef’s Table

PHOTOGRAPHY Christian Jenkins

COVER DESIGN John Hardies (Q23)

STUDENT VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE Michael George (Q23)

Aditya Mithas (Q25)

Chineme Obiefune (Q25)

Jash Shah (Q28)

Christina Sowah (Q28)

Nahom Tekle (Q24)

Foluke Tuakli (Q23)

Rou Tzamaras (Q26)

Mingkai Xu (Q27)

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QUEST DEV Genny Allen (Q23)

Eric Appelbaum (Q28) Tim Chen (Q28) Eric Ding (Q28)

Michael George (Q23) Shmuel Gold (Q23)

Akshay Guthal (Q27) Brian Hornak (Q28)

Jay Huang (Q23) Yufei Huang (Q28) Pranav Khatri (Q25)

Radhika Kshirsagar (Q23) Daniel Laurence (Q19) Julia Lomakina (Q26)

Dan Selzer (Q27) Christina Sowah (Q28)

Peter Wang (Q28) Jeffrey Zhao (Q28)

QUEST STUDENT ORGANIZATION Elijah Biggs (Q22) Uva Dayalan (Q24)

Clair Devaney (Q25) Kelsey Earle (Q23) Jill Gelinas (Q28) Jared Hyatt (Q26)

Sherry Levine (Q26) Liam Mercer (Q28) Megha Reddy (Q27)

Napiera Shareef (Q27)

QUEST MARKETING Alia Abdelkader (Q27)

Chris Demek (Q23) John Hardies (Q23) Andrew He (Q24)

Allie Lyubimova (Q27) DJ Sharma (Q28)

Ivy Xia (Q25)

QUESTPRESS EDITORIAL TEAM

Alia Abdelkader (Q27) Grace Cha (Q24) Jason Ho (Q24)

Brian Hornak (Q28) Andrew Jones (Q26)

Jacob King (Q27) Manas Kulkarni (Q18) Karthik Menta (Q18)

Chineme Obiefune (Q25) Joseph Piscitelli (Q25)

Samantha Weaver (Q26) Jacob Wilkowsky (Q19)

QUEST RECRUITING Tim Baker (Q27)

Silvia Caceres (Q27) Michael George (Q23)

Jason Ho (Q24) Summer Legambi (Q25)

Jessica Lewis (Q23) Alexandra Malek (Q25)

Sameera Polavarapu (Q27) Noah Vernick (Q28) Alvin Wang (Q26) Ryan Wong (Q25)

QUEST CORPORATE Dustin Kang (Q24) Jordan Litter (Q21) Rahul Menon (Q28)

Nimit Patel (Q26) Prateek Sayyaparaju (Q28)

Erica Shields (Q26) Brayan Varghese (Q26) Michael Vetter (Q28)

Ryan Wong (Q25) Victoria Zhao (Q24)

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CURRICULUM REVIEW COMMITTEE

Pamela Armstrong David Ashley

Ben Brown (Q13) Nicole Coomber

Debbie Feinberg (Q1) Emily Kelly

Kylie Goodell King Jeffrey Herrmann Jessica Macklin James Purtilo

Ben Seibert (Q24) Rou Tzamaras (Q26) Katelyn Walter (Q23)

Ivy Xia (Q25)

QUEST ALUMNI BOARD Mark Baumgardner (Q4)

Brian Bender (Q5) Kalika Bhusry (Q16)

Ben Brown (Q13) Max Cooper (Q19)

Debbie Feinberg (Q1) Debi Goldschlag (Q20)

Shirley Han (Q19) Elaine Hui (Q18) Josh Kohn (Q18) Ben Krefting (Q7) Steve Kutchi (Q1)

Daniel Laurence (Q19) Karthik Menta (Q18)

Stephanie Nguyen (Q16) Steve Otis (Q4)

Linda Rassenti (Q17) Vidya Sathyamoorthy (Q16)

Masha Sitnova (Q17) Bryan Towns (Q7)

Jacob Wilkowsky (Q19) Richard Wilson (Q6)

Aditya Yerramilli (Q14)