OSU engineering students shine at regional conference

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Oklahoma State University Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) students placed first and third during a five-state competition at the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Students South Central Conference held recently in Norman.

The competition included students from universities in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. A fall 2014 senior design team from OSU placed first for work it did for the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. Team members included including Andrea Lewis, from Tulsa, Katey Luster, from Edmond and Weikao Wu, from Sichuan, China. 

James Darling, an IEM sophomore from Plano, Texas, placed third for his civil engineering company project, which was a continuation of an internship he completed with Alpha Testing, Inc., last summer. The winning team will present at the IIE annual conference and expo set for Nashville, Tennessee May 30 – June 2.

The senior design team’s winning project, for the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, included logistics, routing and software tuning recommendations. The team’s work allowed the bank to double the projected amount of food it can distribute to the homeless and the hungry in Oklahoma using existing resources. The results translated to 90,000 meals per week or more than four million meals per year in increased food distribution.

Darling’s project, demonstrated through a report, spreadsheet models, and a presentation, proved he could save a fast-growing company with 190 employees approximately $300,000 each week. Closely connected to his internship with Alpha Testing, Inc., a civil engineering company located in Dallas, Texas, Darling developed models to optimize the staking, drilling and lab testing processes in the company. He was inspired by Camille DeYong’s Introduction to Industrial Engineering class at OSU.

“It was a good showing for the industrial engineering department at OSU as a whole,” said Darling. “It indicated the depth we get throughout our study.”

The Institute of Industrial Engineers is a professional society dedicated solely to the support of the industrial engineering profession and individuals involved with improving quality and productivity. University regional conferences offer students the opportunities to begin building their resumes so they can jump-start their careers.

For more information on the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at OSU, visit www.ceat.okstate.edu.