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| Pictured here are (from left) Dr. Allen Soyster, past IIE president; Kaz Takeda, IIE vice president; Valerie Andrade; Mia Cornelius; Jayson Perlas; Dr. Kamran Abedini, faculty advisor; and Susan Sinclair, current IIE president. |
Representing Cal Poly Pomona at the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Technical Paper Competition in Orlando, Fla., in May, Mia Cornelius, Valerie Andrade and Jayson Perlas won Second Place in international competition. To qualify for the international event, the students won first prize in regional competition for their entry, “Common Conduit.” This marks the third time in the last four years that a Cal Poly Pomona team has been placed in the top three internationally and the top two nationally.
“Participating in this competition helps me appreciate the level of education and the faculty support we receive at Cal Poly Pomona, which gave us a great advantage at the regional level,” says Cornelius. “This accomplishment has given me the confidence to know I am well-equipped for the 'real world.'”
Cornelius is majoring in industrial engineering, and Andrade and Perlas are double-majoring in industrial and manufacturing engineering. They are members of Cal Poly Pomona's IIE student chapter, which is the most active chapter in the Western Region. Students must be juniors and seniors and active members of IIE to compete in the technical paper competitions. Papers may be projects done for a company as part of a course, or they may be undergraduate research projects done at the students' home institution. Competitors include Wichita State University, Universidad de Los Andes Columbia, and Rutgers University.
“The papers this year were all very high quality and, as mentioned by the competition judges, the difference between the top two was merely one point out of 100,” says industrial & manufacturing engineering professor and IIE team advisor Kamran Abedini.