From Six Sigma Training to National Honors, Cal Poly Students Engage with IISE

In January, Cal Poly students brought an industry-recognized process improvement credential to campus. Four months later, a record delegation headed to Texas to present research, compete and connect with professionals from across the field.

The two experiences marked a year of growing engagement with the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, or IISE, and expanded opportunities for Cal Poly students to build skills alongside their academic work.

The Cal Poly IISE student chapter hosted a three-day Six Sigma Green Belt training Jan. 23-25, drawing 58 students, faculty and staff. The chapter also received a Gold Award through IISE’s 2026 Chapter Recognition Program before 33 graduate and undergraduate students joined six faculty members at the organization’s annual conference in May.

Bringing Six Sigma Training to Campus

The January training gave Cal Poly students access to Six Sigma Green Belt certification, a credential centered on using data and structured problem-solving to improve processes.

Rich Halstead-Nussloch led the three-day program with support from IISE. Participants worked through interactive instruction and applied exercises focused on identifying inefficiencies, analyzing their causes and developing improvements.

Training covered process mapping and root cause analysis as well as statistical thinking and the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control framework, known as DMAIC.

All 58 participants passed the final exam, including three IME faculty and staff members. Feedback after the training frequently highlighted the interactive sessions and Halstead-Nussloch’s engagement with participants.

By hosting the program at Cal Poly, the IISE student chapter made the credential more accessible while giving students another way to connect concepts from their courses with methods used across industry.

The training was supported by the IME Department and reflected the student chapter’s growing role in creating professional-development opportunities for its peers.

That involvement also brought recognition to the chapter itself. Cal Poly SLO Chapter 804 received a Gold Award in IISE’s 2026 Chapter Recognition Program. IME professor Mohamed Awwad was listed as the chapter’s faculty adviser and Erik Tanjuakio as student president.

Cal Poly's Largest IISE Conference Delegation

Cal Poly’s IISE involvement continued May 16-19 at the IISE Annual Conference in Arlington, Texas, where students represented the university in research presentations, competitions and senior project showcases spanning fields such as operations research, manufacturing systems and engineering management.

The delegation included 33 graduate and undergraduate students and six faculty members, including IME Department Chair John Pan, making it the department’s largest group to attend the conference to date. Student work represented at the conference was advised by IME faculty members Mohamed Awwad, Jill Speece, Zhiyuan Wei, Byeongmok Kim, Aditya Chivate, Puneet Agarwal and Duha Ali.

Several Cal Poly students and teams earned national recognition.

Tanjuakio received the 2026 IISE James W. Barany Award for Excellence as well as the IISE Fellows William Biles, Hamid Parsaei and Victor Zaloom Endowed Scholarship.

Daniel Hopkins, Elliot Overhiser and Liam Mahony, advised by Kim, took first place in the 2026 IISE Operations Research Division Undergraduate Case Hackathon.

Mahony also joined Nigel Stafford and Wei on a paper that placed first in the Operations Research Division Undergraduate Student Research Dissemination Competition.

Kelly Hoang was part of a multi-university team that won first place in the 2026 IISE Student Innovation Design Competition. The team brought together students from Cal Poly and institutions including Kennesaw State University, Binghamton University, Rutgers University and Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico.

Tyler Luby Howard and Awwad earned first place in the Facilities Design & Planning track for their conference paper. Howard also received recognition during the Logistics & Supply Chain Division Town Hall meeting.

Senior projects also had a prominent place in the delegation. Twelve students representing three teams advised by Awwad, Speece and Kim presented their work at the conference. One team also participated in the CISE Outstanding ISE Capstone Senior Design Project competition.

Other students shared research and applied industry work through papers and poster presentations, giving them opportunities to discuss their work with researchers and professionals beyond Cal Poly.

Students contributed to the conference in another way as well: Every Cal Poly student in attendance volunteered during the event, helping participants navigate the conference and supporting its day-to-day operations.

Longtime IME supporters and alumni Dave Hampton, Jordan Ramsey and Elias Morales also joined the Cal Poly delegation.

The growing student presence was supported through industry and alumni contributions, IME Research Experience IRA funding, the College of Engineering, Graduate Education and the IME Department. That support helped reduce financial barriers for students seeking to attend the national conference.

Taken together, the Six Sigma training and national conference participation extended IISE involvement across the academic year, giving students opportunities to earn a professional credential on campus before sharing their work and testing their skills on a national stage.

Support student organizations like Cal Poly’s IISE chapter and help expand opportunities for professional development, competition and peer-led learning by giving to the College of Engineering Club Activities Fund.