Students Build Industry Skills Through Systems Optimization Club Projects

The Systems Optimization Club gives Cal Poly students across class years and majors capstone-style project experience that helps them apply classroom concepts and prepare for industry.

Known as SOC, the club serves 130 students through 16 industry projects each year. External Vice President Sarah Chung oversees partnerships by building relationships with companies and helping define projects in manufacturing, technology and operations. The club also draws on longtime partners and alumni who mentor the next generation of engineers.

Project Director Yujiun Chen helps manage each project from team formation through final deliverables. Teams typically include five students, from first-years to seniors, representing 14 majors across five academic colleges. Students are selected through an interview process that considers their technical skills and professional development goals.

This year, the club’s project directors introduced workshops to strengthen communication and presentation skills among project leads and applicants. The sessions help students explain their work clearly to different audiences.

One recent SOC project paired students with Sequel Tea to improve the floor layout and operational scalability of the company’s new Campus Market location. Project lead Darin Gong coordinated a team of four industrial engineering students and organized the work into clear deliverables that members could share directly with Sequel founder and Cal Poly alumnus Justin Chan.

By defining stakeholder needs and identifying each teammate’s capabilities, Gong helped the group succeed with a decentralized approach. The project reduced queue times by 18% and generated an estimated $10,000 in monthly labor savings through workflow distribution and line balancing.

SOC also measures success through the growth of its members. Braden Willie, a first-year student on the Sequel Tea team, joined with relevant industry knowledge but limited technical experience. During fall quarter, a supportive team culture helped him develop those skills through techniques such as time studies and muda analysis, a lean manufacturing method used to identify waste.

Surrounded by peers who took time to teach him, Willie assumed responsibility for more deliverables and gained confidence through the work. 

For team member Evelyn Cortez, working directly with employees reinforced why successful engineering solutions require more than technical analysis.

“Hearing feedback directly from employees helped ensure our solutions were realistic and aligned with actual workflows,” Cortez said.

At its core, SOC puts Learn by Doing into practice. Students apply engineering methods to industry challenges while working alongside professionals and seeing the impact of their solutions.