Undergraduate students in Professor Mohamed Awwad’s Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering (IME) 417 class are once again being recognized for their exemplary research.
While most students work on submitting their research to industry experts at the graduate level, Awwad’s undergraduate students are getting a head start. The students in the supply chain and logistics management course have had the unique opportunity to submit their research to industry experts at conferences around the globe.
Tyler Deis (industrial engineering, ‘22), Zoe Atkins (industrial engineering, ‘22), Karshin Gupta (industrial engineering) and Duc-Huy Dam (industrial engineering) co-wrote the paper “Backlog of Container Ships at Los Angeles Ports” and were recognized at the 2022 Australian Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management where they placed first.
“In Professor Awwad’s class, we collaborated in a team environment in order to research and propose our solution,” said Gupta, a student researcher. “The class was very well structured, and I felt we were able to formulate our paper with proper guidance.”
Students gain a different perspective when working on research at the undergraduate level.
“Research publication is an inclusive pedagogical approach,” Awwad explained. “The students will continue to learn to work in teams as they usually do in other classes. However, this time, the nature of the teamwork they have to do is a little bit different and might require them to plan and coordinate in different ways.”
Although most of Awwad’s focus is to help undergraduate students in his IME 417 class publish their research, he has also helped a wide range of undergraduate and graduate students become published. This includes BEACoN (Believe, Educate & Empower, Advocate, Collaborate, Nurture) student researchers and College of Engineering students who participate in the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP).
Awwad wants Cal Poly students to benefit from the experience of having their research critiqued by professionals in the field.
“Students can receive immediate feedback from experts on the work they have done and acquire external validation on their work,” Awwad said. “This is more beneficial than submitting a term paper that will only be viewed by the instructor, who would provide limited feedback with almost no chance of improving upon the work or research.”
The 2022 Australian Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management was a hybrid event, taking place in person with online access for those who chose to attend virtually.
In addition to the first-place honor, a second group of Awwad’s students submitted a paper in the conference, titled “End-to-End Enterprise Visibility Software Packages,” which was co-authored by Kiyavash Azim (manufacturing engineering), Samantha Giangreco (manufacturing engineering), William Marquez (manufacturing engineering) and Zack Wagoner (manufacturing engineering).
In May, two teams of undergraduate students and one graduate student guided by Awwad will be recognized at the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE) conference for their research. The titles of the two abstracts that were accepted at the IISE conference are “The Effect of the Russo-Ukrainian War on the Global Energy Supply Chain” and “The Rise in Private Brands: A Supply Chain Perspective.”
Students in Awwad’s other courses have equally unique hands-on opportunities to expand their industry knowledge. This quarter, San Luis Marble sponsored Awwad’s IME 443 course project. Students were able to visit the Santa Maria site for their facilities planning and design course.
Past Publications
At the fifth North American conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management in August 2020, Cal Poly students presented five separate papers and placed first, second and third in the supply chain competition.
Awwad’s students also had two papers published at the 2020 annual conference of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and seven papers published at the third International Conference on Industrial and Mechanical Engineering and Operations Management, a virtual conference that was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2020.
By Taylor Villanueva
