News & Awards Archive

MBA Team Wins Case Competition

The Smeal MBA team won the Supply Chain Case Competition hosted by Rutgers University on Friday, 30.  Lehigh, Maryland, NJIT, Rider, Rutgers, and Syracuse also participated in the competition.  The case was written by a Rutgers faculty member and focused on the energy industry of Pakistan.  Students were tasked to develop a workable plan to re-invent the energy supply chain while faced with formidable financial, social and technical challenges. The Smeal team included Mehul Pathak, Raghavan Parthasarathy, Rashmi Sharma, and Yujia Wang.  Terry Harrison served as faculty adviser.

Jeff Pilof of Macy’s Speaks at the Spisak Lecture

Jeff Pilof, Group Vice President at Macy's Logistics & Operations, gave the 2012 Spisak Lecture to a packed MBA classroom on Thursday, April 4.  Mr. Pilof holds both B.S. and M.S. degrees from Penn State, with Business Logistics as his major/primary field of study.  He has more than two decades of experience in logistics planning, development, and execution capacities. Before joining Macy’s in 2009, he co-founded and served as President of Logicity SCS Corporation.  Prior to that position, he held various logistics positions at Abercrombie & Fitch, PPG Industries, Nabisco, and Merck & Co.
The Spisak Lectureship Endowment was established to support presentations of experience-based knowledge by persons who have achieved senior-level leadership positions in logistics and supply chain management.

SC&IS Student Receives Terry L. Priest Scholarship

The Denver Foundation and The Denver Transportation Club selected Dale Eshbach to receive a scholarship from the Terry L. Priest Scholarship Fund.  Dale has held two internships. This past summer he interned at Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix, AZ, as a Materials Planner. The previous summer, Dale worked at W.W. Grainger in Harrisburg, PA, and was placed in the management trainee program. He is an active member of the Penn State SAP Interest Group and the Council of Supply Change Management Professionals Group.

Smeal Student Diversity Award

Bianca Peart, MIS Class of 2012, won the Smeal Student Diversity Award.  All Smeal students are elegible for this award that recognizes a Smeal student for leadership in an individual or group project that furthers diversity efforts at the Smeal College. Nominations are solicited from Smeal faculty, staff, student organizations, and current Smeal Alumni Society Board members. The selection committee includes, but is not limited to, the Smeal Alumni Society Board's Awards task force, Executive Committee, and Smeal's Director of Alumni Relations.

SC&IS Undergrads Take First Place in APICS Case Competition

Our team finished first in the APICS Mid-Atlantic District Case Competition.  Congratulations to Laura Cranville, Dale Eshbach, Nathan Geare, Matthew McClurken, Cassandra McRoberts, and Melany Cruz Rodriguez, and to our faculty adviser,  Dr. Felisa Preciado.

Endowed Professorships Awarded

The Smeal College of Business awarded endowed positions to three SC&IS faculty members.
•    Chris Craighead: Michael H. and Laura L. Rothkopf Early Career Professor of Supply Chain & Information Systems
•    Gene Tyworth:  John J. Coyle Endowed Professor of Supply Chain Management
•    Susan Xu:  Robert G. Schwartz Fellow in Supply Chain & Information Systems

Smeal College of Business Partners with Southern Maryland Higher Education Center to Deliver Executive Programs in Supply Chain Management

Faculty members from Smeal's highly acclaimed supply chain management program delivered four three-day executive education courses in supply chain management on the campus of the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center in California, Maryland, in January 2012. By completing three of the courses, participants were eligible to earn a Certificate in Supply Chain Management.

The Penn State Smeal College of Business is recognized as one of the world's leading providers of supply chain education and research. Technology research firm Gartner recently ranked Smeal No. 1 in the world in supply chain education, and the college has been ranked among the top five programs worldwide by leading media outlets and academic studies. Together with Smeal's Center for Supply Chain Research, Penn State Executive Programs offers three certificate programs in supply chain management. The college also offers a bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in Supply Chain and Information Systems and an online, 30-credit professional master's program in supply chain management.

Spring 2012 SC&IS Career Fair

The Spring Supply Chain Career Fair was held on January 24-25, 2012, in the Smeal Business Building Atrium. This Career Fair was once again a huge success. We had a combined total of 85 companies attending with more than 325 students from Supply Chain, MIS, IST, and Industrial Engineering. New this year, we included incoming sophomores to the Supply Chain major.  During the following two days after the Fair, the companies conducted interviews with students.

Along with the Supply Chain Career Fair, we hosted our Supply Chain Corporate Information Sessions on Monday night with 10 corporate sponsors running concurrent information sessions with about 85 students attending the event.
On September 17, 2012, the Supply Chain Corporate Information Sessions will kick off the Fall 2012 recruiting activities. The Supply Chain Career Fair will follow on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 18-19, 2012.

IBM’s Linda Cantwell is Spisak Lecturer in Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Linda Cantwell, IBM’s Vice President of Global Procurement, provided an overview of IBM’s rich history and shared her perspectives on what individuals and institutions need to do to succeed in today’s globally integrated, technology-infused world at this year's Spisak Lecture in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Penn State's Smeal College of Business.  She also portrayed the evolution of IBM’s Integrated Supply Chain and its path toward the future.

The Spisak Lectureship was founded in 1990 through a gift from the Alex and Ann Spisak family of State College. The fund supports lectures by outstanding professionals working in logistics and supply chain management.

Smeal Supply Chain MBA Students Win Competition

A team of MBA students from the Penn State Smeal College of Business won the 2011 Sam M. Walton College of Business International Graduate Logistics Case Competition, held Oct. 28-29 at Sam's Club headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. The Smeal team of Jason Jones, Mehul Pathak, Jennifer Ruelens, Rashmi Sharma, Allison Shauger, and Erlend Weggers beat out teams from nine other leading American and European business schools.

The teams received the case at 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 28 and had just 24 hours to formulate their solution and prepare their presentations. The case involved a collaboration between a retailer and a consumer goods producer in which the retailer wasn't receiving the consumer goods fast enough to keep its shelves full. The teams were challenged to analyze the supply chain and recommend improvements to meet the inventory demands of the retail outlet. To prepare for the contest, the day before the competition the teams visited a Walmart store, a Walmart distribution center, and the regional offices of Unilever. They spent at least two hours at each destination, meeting the store's and distribution center's management teams as well as supply chain and marketing managers at Unilever.

During the first round, the Smeal team was grouped with the University of Arkansas, Texas Christian University and the competition's two-time defending champions from Darmstadt University of Technology in Germany. In the final round, they beat out teams from the University of Maryland and Brigham Young University. Teams from Iowa State University, the University of Minnesota, Rutgers University, and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden also competed.

"In the finals, our team was outstanding," said Alan Stenger, professor emeritus of supply chain management and the team's faculty adviser. "Not only did they have a good solution to the case, but their presentation skills were impeccable. One of the judges for the finals told me later, 'Your team owned that platform.'" Besides their presentation skills, which they honed in the Penn State Smeal MBA Program's acclaimed communications courses, the team also credited their organizational abilities. During the brief 24 hours they had to research, write and practice their presentation, the Smeal team managed to spare about five hours to get some rest. Above all, though, it was their case analysis that won them the competition. "We took a comprehensive approach to address the issues at hand," said Pathak. "Our solution wasn't just a recommendation, but a well-structured implementation plan, complete with alternative analysis and risk and mitigation components."

In addition to bringing a trophy back to Smeal's Business Building, the team members will split the first place prize of $3,000.

Vidya Mani’s Paper Selected as Competition Finalist

A paper entitled “The relationship between abnormal inventory growth and future earnings for U.S. public retailers” by Vidya Mani and Saravanan Kesavan (UNC Kenan Flagler Business School) received second place out of eight finalists and 42 submissions in the INFORMS Junior Faculty Interest Group Paper Competition.  The submissions were reviewed and scored by anonymous judges based on the importance of the topic, appropriateness of the research approach, and the significance of research contribution.

The finalists presented their submissions in the annual INFORMS conference in Charlotte on Sunday, November 13.

Daniel Guide Named Co-Editor-in-Chief of Leading Journal

Daniel Guide, professor of operations and supply chain management and Binder Faculty Fellow at the Penn State Smeal College of Business, has been named co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Operations Management. He will share editor-in-chief duties with Thomas Choi of Arizona State University.  The Journal of Operations Management, published by Elsevier, is one of the leading journals in operations and supply chain management. It publishes original empirical research that will have a significant impact on theory and practice. As co-editors-in chief, Choi and Guide will serve as the journal’s principal reviewers, determining the content of each issue. They will focus their efforts on continuing to increase the journal’s quality while growing the scope of its audience. Guide has served on the Journal of Operations Management editorial review board since 1999 and was named the journal’s best reviewer in 2007.

At Smeal, his research focuses on sustainable operations, including the development and control of closed-loop supply chains, time-based models for commercial product returns, remanufacturing, and producer responsibility legislation. His research has been supported by grants from the Carnegie Bosch Institute and the National Science Foundation. Guide has served as a visiting research fellow at INSEAD and as a consultant on closed-loop supply chain problems to several global organizations, including Xerox, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Pitney Bowes, Robert Bosch Tools, and the U.S. Navy. He joined the Smeal faculty in 2002. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Clemson University and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.

Smeal Student Society Honors Ed Reutzel

The Smeal Student Society has honored Ed Reutzel by choosing him to be in the Smeal Student Society Spotlight. Stop by the Atrium to see the poster about Ed.

Deborah Lentz Featured in CSCMP Supply Chain Quarterly

The last issue of CSCMP Supply Chain Quarterly includes a column on opportunities for women in the field of supply chain management.  The article highlights Deborah Lentz (PSU, Business Logistics 83) and follows her career at Kraft Foods from 1983 to her current position of senior vice president, customer service and logistics for Kraft Foods North America.  For the full article, please see: A World of Opportunities for Women in SCM.

SC&IS Programs Earn Top Marks from Industry

The Penn State Smeal College of Business undergraduate and graduate programs in supply chain management are No.1 in the country, according to a new report from Gartner. The technology research firm asked more than 400 supply chain practitioners and academics to rate U.S. supply chain education providers based on industry value (40 percent), program size (20 percent), and program scope (40 percent). Respondents were asked to assess how well familiar providers meet the changing needs of supply chain professionals and how efficiently research and innovations reach the student population. Gartner also factored in information provided by the schools regarding enrollment numbers, programs, and faculty size.

"The Smeal supply chain faculty's leading-edge research combined with our industry partnerships allow us to keep our classrooms reflective of the latest trends and developments in the supply chain industry," said James B. Thomas, the John and Becky Surma Dean of Smeal. "It's nice to be recognized for these efforts by our peers and the industry leaders surveyed by Gartner."

The Gartner study is a continuation of the 2009 ranking of supply chain education providers published by AMR Research, which was acquired by Gartner that same year. Smeal was ranked No. 1 in the 2009 results as well. In this year's report, the firm published separate lists of the top 25 colleges and universities in graduate and undergraduate education. Smeal topped them both. The university rankings are part of Gartner's larger research project identifying skill and talent gaps in the supply chain industry. The results were unveiled at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference this month in Scottsdale, Ariz., and a more complete report from Gartner is forthcoming.

“The Chief Supply Chain Officer Report 2011” also identified Smeal’s SC&IS program as one of the best hunting grounds for supply chain talent. The report by Hau Lee (Stanford University) and Kevin O’Mara (Gartner) in SCM World was based on a survey of more than 750 global supply chain executives.

Smeal offers supply chain programs at every educational level. For undergraduates, the college offers a bachelor's degree in Supply Chain and Information Systems. At the graduate level, the Smeal MBA Program offers a concentration in supply chain management and, together with Penn State World Campus, Smeal offers an online, 30-credit professional master's program in supply chain management. The college also offers a Ph.D. in supply chain, and Smeal's Center for Supply Chain Research and Penn State Executive Programs offer three certificate programs in supply chain management. For more on Smeal's supply chain offerings, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/scis and http://www.smeal.psu.edu/cscr/edop.

 

SC&IS Faculty Receive Recognition

Christopher Craighead’s article “The severity of supply chain disruptions: design characteristics and mitigation capabilities” (Decision Sciences, 2007) has won one of the prestigious Emerald Citations of Excellence Awards. It has been chosen as one of the top 50 articles from the top 300 management publications worldwide that have had proven impact since their publication date (2007 in this case to allow for citation impact to be accurately measured).

Brent Moritz’s research titled “Cognition and Heterogeneity in SCP - A Study of Inventory Decision Making” was selected as one of the top 3 dissertations and earned “Honorable Mention” by the 2011 CSCMP Doctoral dissertation committee.  Entries this year came from six different countries, and covered varied topics from sustainability, humanitarian issues, SC relationships, and definition of SC construct.

Doctoral Students Land Faculty Positions at Leading Research Universities

Andrew Davis accepted a position at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.  Starting July 1, 2011, Andrew will be the Suk Y. Cha '84 MBA Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor of Operations Management at the Johnson School.  Andrew uses an experimental methodology in his research to study how human behavior impacts supply chains.  His areas of expertise include supply chain contracting and procurement auctions.  Andrew will complete his PhD during the summer of 2011.

Justin Jia will take the position of Assistant Professor in Operations Management in the Krannert Graduate School of Management at Purdue University in August 2011. Justin is finishing his Ph.D. in Supply Chain and Information Systems at Penn State. He conducts research primarily on auction models and applications, supply chain procurement designs, and stochastic inventory models.  Justin will complete his PhD by spring 2012.

2011 R. Hadly Waters Supply Chain Symposium

The 21st Annual R. Hadly Waters Supply Chain Symposium, Leveraging Logistics for Customer Value, was held on April 21, 2011, at the Penn State Conference Center Hotel, University Park, PA, with approximately 150 supply chain professionals in attendance.
This year the keynote address was given by Mary Leonard, the chief performance officer of Coinstar, owner of Redbox.  Her presentation focused on how Redbox services thousands of video kiosks around the country to make sure consumers have the latest videos to rent.  The presentation focused not only on the complex supply chain that is necessary to accomplish this but also on how logistics manages the forward and reverse flows of videos to achieve consumer satisfaction and retention.  Leonard’s presentation was exciting and certainly set the tone for the concurrent sessions that followed during the day.
The luncheon keynote address was given by Pamela Erb, the vice president of supply chain for Wegmans.  Her presentation focused on how Wegmans uses its cold supply chain to deliver freshness in all of its temperature controlled products.  Since Wegmans trademark in the grocery industry is freshness, Erb was able to highlight how the logistics operation at Wegmans provides a competitive advantage in the market by creating value for the consumer.
This year the 2011 Pashek Award for Supply Chain Excellence was presented to Sharon Piciacchio, the vice president of Chlor-Alkali Marketing, Services and Cal Hypo, and the global supply chains for PPG Industries.  Piciacchio is a graduate of the Penn State logistics program and epitomizes the essence of the award – logistics professionals who have made significant contributions to the practice and development of the logistics discipline.
Mark your calendar for the 22nd Annual Waters Symposium to be held on April 19, 2012, at The Penn Stater Conference Center and Hotel, University Park Pennsylvania.

SC&IS Welcomes New Faculty Members

Veronica Villena, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management, graduated in May 2011 with a Ph.D. in Business Management with a major in Operations Management and a Minor in Organizational Behavior from the IE Business School in Spain. She was a visiting doctoral student this past year at the W. P. Carey School of Business and CAPS Research, Arizona State University.  Dr. Villena’s research interests include investigating supply networks, open innovation, and sustainable supply chains.  Her paper (with Fabrizio Salvador, IE) titled "Mitigating Supplier Integration's Challenges in NPD: The role of Modular Design Competence" was selected as one of the best papers for presentation at the Academy of Management meeting in San Antonio in August 2010. 

Vidya Mani, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management, graduated in May 2011 with a Ph.D. in Operations, Technology, and Innovation Management from the University of North Caroline, Chapel Hill.  Dr. Mani’s research interests include retail operations in Supply Chain Management.  Her previous work experience includes understanding the current supply chain of customers and interfacing manufacturing, resource planning and revenue management modules with Oracle projects at Oracle India Pvt. Ltd.

Art Jones, Lecturer in Management Information Systems, completed his Ph.D. in Information Sciences and Technology from Penn State in 2010.  He has previously taught courses as an adjunct instructor for the SC&IS Department in Management Information Systems as well as for the College of Information Sciences and Technology.  He also served as Senior e-Business and Information Technology Specialist/Project Manager for the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PennTAP).

Zan Huang Promoted to Associate Professor

Congratulations to Zan Huang upon promotion to Associate Professor with tenure.

Christopher Craighead Selected as ISM Senior Fellow

Congratulations to Christopher Craighead on being selected as an Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Phase 3 (Senior) Fellow it its new Academic Research Support Program.  The goal of this program is to increase academic leadership within the supply management profession.  The Program is designed to acknowledge and support dedicated researchers that center their efforts on significant procurement, sourcing, and supply management issues.  Christopher was chosen based on his teaching and research record, evidence of significant academic leadership, and evidence of significant contribution to the profession of supply management.  The ISM research funds will support Christopher’s research on “Building Global Supply Resiliency to Natural Disasters.”

Doug Thomas Selected to Serve as MBA Faculty Director

Congratulations to Doug Thomas on being selected to serve as Faculty Director of the Smeal MBA program.  Doug will focus his efforts on the academic side of the program, working with faculty members, alumni and student leaders to maintain and continuously improve the MBA program’s curriculum. He will be the chief liaison to the program’s faculty for implementation of new initiatives and enhancements. He will lead the execution of the Smeal Honor Code in the MBA program and counsel students on integrity and other academic issues. He will direct the program’s course scheduling and manage the accreditation process.
Doug has served on the Smeal faculty since 1999, after earning his Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has taught supply chain at the undergraduate, graduate and executive levels, and he currently teaches elective courses in the Smeal MBA Program, where he has received several MBA Excellence in Teaching awards. His research interests lie in inventory management, production planning and coordination, and sales and operations planning. In addition to his Ph.D., he also holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech and a bachelor’s degree in operations research and industrial engineering from Cornell University.

Supply Chain Class Featured in Journal of Commerce

The Supply Chain Program at the State College Area High School has been featured in the Journal of Commerce.  The program was designed by Sarah Griffith, a teacher at State High, and Bob Novack, associate professor of supply chain and information systems.  Currently, more than 40 students are engaged in the program.  The article can be seen at Forging the First Link.

Students Compete in Boeing Competition

The fourth annual Boeing Case Competition took place this spring with Theresa Piazza, Courtney Powell, Ashley Weller, and Paul Lerew taking first place. This competition provides Supply Chain and other business students an opportunity to apply classroom instruction to real world problems. Groups of four students, typically three supply chain and one finance or accounting student, use their knowledge of LEAN concepts to determine an optimal solution to a Boeing problem. Students have Boeing mentors to contact and answer any questions.  Senior Boeing executives judge the 15 minute presentations and then drill the teams with a variety of questions.  Seven teams competed to win $2,000 in prize money provided by Boeing. The kickoff dinner and presentation dinner hosted by Boeing in the Business Building added to the professional experiences for these students.

MIS Students Attend Conference

Four MIS students took part in the Association of Information Technology Professionals National Collegiate Conference in March in Orlando, Florida. The students who attended the conference were Alex Bram, Tien Nguyen, Chris McHattie, and Katie Becker. During the conference the students participated in many contests such as Microsoft Office Solutions, Database Design, and Systems Analysis and Design. From this conference, the students were able to link what they learned in the classroom and apply it to a case that they received during the competition. The students concluded it was a very valuable conference as they were able to interact with other schools and share their ideas regarding the Information Technology field. The MISA club hopes to be able to send some students next year to the 2012 conference in San Antonio, Texas.

SC&IS Faculty Earn MBA Teaching Awards

Congratulations to John Jordan and Doug Thomas on being chosen for MBA teaching awards.  The MBA teaching award program had a new format this year: two winners were chosen from professors of 1st and 2nd-year students in four categories: most interesting, most challenging, most entertaining, and best. Doug Thomas shared most entertaining for 2nd-year students, and John Jordan shared best for 2nd-year students.

SAP Student Interest Group Members Looking for Input from Alums

The SAP Student Interest Group is looking for alumni in industry to help build up their alumni network. The Group is especially looking for alumni to come back to Penn State for information sessions or host tours at their facilities (preferably companies using SAP or other ERP systems). If you believe you could be of help or want to receive updates from the group, please fill out the form at:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFJMNnFPOXd4QkYwX2dLa0FkZEIzTHc6MQ

Dan Guide to Serve as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Operations Management

Dan Guide has been selected as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Operations Management.  His term begins on July 1, along with Thom Choi (ASU). The Journal of Operations Management is a premier peer-reviewed journal which has the highest five-year impact rating among the SC&IS Department’s  A journals.  Dan is one of the leaders in the area of green and sustainable operations.

Cassandra Furnival Receives RILA Scholarship

Congratulations to Cassandra Furnival, a junior in SC&IS, on receiving a 2011 Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) Logistics Student Scholarship. These scholarships award students interested in a career in supply chain/logistics.  Award recipients are paired with a mentor from a sponsoring organization who will assist students in putting together part of a student presentation.  Students will present a session at the 2011 Logistics Conference.

Paul Avampato Receives Smeal Undergraduate Distinguished Achievement Award

Congratulations to Paul M. Avampato (1982, Business Logistics), Vice President Process Design / Kraft Foods, on receiving the Smeal Undergraduate Distinguished Achievement Award.     Paul has been active with the Department of Business Logistics and the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems since his days at Nabisco (since acquired by Kraft).  He was also a leader in developing and managing internship and full time recruiting of Business Logistics and, now, Supply Chain majors for employment at both Nabisco and Kraft. Paul has spoken several times at our Hadly Waters Supply Chain Symposium.  Paul is also a speaker in our Supply Chain Executive programs.  Paul was honored at the Smeal Alumni Society Board Awards Program and Hammond Society Recognition Dinner on April 1, 2011, at the Nittany Lion Inn.

Susan Xu Wins Best Published Paper Award

A paper co-authored by Susan Xu, professor of management science and supply chain management at the Penn State Smeal College of Business, was recently chosen for the Wickham Skinner Award for the best published paper in Production and Operations Management in 2010.

The award honors “Dynamic Assignment of Flexible Service Resources,” co-authored by Xu, Yalcin Akcay of Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey and Anant Balakrishnan of the University of Texas at Austin. The authors will receive the award at a ceremony in Reno, Nevada next month.

Their paper generalizes a classic problem in operations concerned with the optimal commitment of dedicated and flexible resources to orders that arrive sequentially at a service facility over time. They focus on the workplace training industry as a motivating application, providing both an important contextual anchor for their analysis as well as developing important managerial insights and usable rules for this industry.

Xu joined the Smeal faculty in 1987 and currently serves as director of the Ph.D. programs. She held visiting positions at several universities including Chinese University of Hong Kong, Georgetown University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the National University of Singapore, among others.

She received a master’s degree and Ph.D. in operations research and statistics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.

David Wu Receives R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award

Mr. David Wu, Supply Chain and Information Systems major at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, was chosen by the R. Gene and Nancy D. Richter Foundation as one of ten students around the country to receive the 2011 R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award. The $5,000 scholarship is presented annually to senior supply chain students based on high-achieving academic records, strong leadership skills, high ethical standards, and a commitment to a career in supply chain management.

Along with the tuition support, Richter Scholars also are enrolled in a mentoring program and invited to attend with all expenses paid the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) International Conference which will be held May 15-18, 2011, in Orlando, Florida, where David will be honored at a special Scholarship Presentation Awards Banquet.

Winners of the R. Gene Richter Scholarship are awarded tuition assistance and are enrolled in a mentoring program where they are paired with an established executive from a Fortune 500 company. The scholarship winners are also invited to a Power Conference for executive leadership in supply chain management one year after graduation and upon gaining real-world experience. Richter Scholars attend the ISM Conference with all expenses paid two years later as well.

Throughout his career in supply chain, Gene Richter led three corporate teams to Purchasing Magazine's Medal of Professional Excellence. At Black & Decker, he fine-tuned strategies of global sourcing, long-term agreements, and centralization of key commodities. At Hewlett-Packard, he worked with a team to develop written sourcing strategies and to negotiate strategic alliances with worldwide leading-edge suppliers. And at IBM, his team formed customer solutions procurement, set up a technology convergence office to tap into suppliers' technical know-how, and moved the purchasing process to the Internet.

The SC&IS Department has been participating with the Richter Scholarship Award for seven years. Former winners are Theresa Piazza, Richard Carelli, Christina Round, Douglas Burke, Andrew Spicher, Leslie Hubbard, Marcio Oliveira, and Tania Mirabel Santiago.

Marilyn Blanco Recognized at Luncheon

Marilyn Blanco was recognized at a First Year Experience Faculty Appreciation Luncheon for having a positive impact on first-year students as they make their transition from high school to university life.  Faculty that are recognized are chosen by first-year students.

Bob Novack Awarded Paiste Learning and Teaching Fellowship

Bob Novack has been awarded the Paiste Learning and Teaching Fellowship. This fellowship rewards past teaching performance and promotes future advancements in teaching and learning.

Daniel Guide Receives Research Fellowship

Daniel Guide, professor of operations and supply chain management at Smeal, has been named the Charles and Lillian Binder Faculty Fellow in Supply Chain and Information Systems. The Binder Fellowship is named for Charles Binder, who graduated from Penn State in 1912 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, and his wife, Lillian.
Guide has been on the Smeal faculty since 2002. His research explores ways to create industrial systems that are both environmentally and economically sustainable, particularly in the context of the design, management, and control of closed-loop supply chains. His research has been published in such journals as Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, and Harvard Business Review.  Guide has served as a visiting research fellow at INSEAD and as a consultant on closed-loop supply chain problems to several global organizations, including Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Pitney Bowes, Robert Bosch Tools, and the U.S. Navy.  He currently teaches undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. courses in manufacturing and service strategies, manufacturing systems production planning and control, and sustainable operations.

Penn State’s MIS Programs Ranked #2

According to a recent survey by The Wall Street Journal, Penn State ranks as the top institution in the country among recruiters from leading companies, nonprofits, and government agencies.  Recruiters were asked to identify schools “whose bachelor degree graduates were the best-trained and educated, and best able to succeed once hired.”  MIS was ranked second as part of the best composite score that included Accounting (5th), Finance (6th), Computer Science (7th), Engineering (9th), and Business/Economics (11th).

 

 

SC&IS Welcomes New Faculty Members

C. John Langley, Jr. will join the SC&IS Department faculty in January 2011as a clinical professor of supply chain management.  He will also serve as the director of development for the Center of Supply Chain Research.

Saurabh Bansal graduated in May 2010 with a Ph.D. from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. His undergraduate education is from the Indian Institute of Technology - Roorkee.  His current research work focuses on supply chain decisions under multiple sources of uncertainties and is motivated by problems in retail, petrochemical, and semiconductor industries.

Brent B. Moritz earned his Ph.D. from the Operations and Management Science Department of the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.  He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Valparaiso University and an M.B.A. from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.  He previously held positions in manufacturing management and supply chain management at BorgWarner, Eaton, and Parker Hannifin, which included international experience working in Mexico, England and Germany.

Anup Sen, Visiting Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems, is a Professor in the Management Information Systems group of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He has also worked as Visiting Professor in the School of Industrial Management, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), USA and Dept of Computer Science, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He is an M. Tech and Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Calcutta.

Marine Corp Fellows Update

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Feyedelem and Major Christopher Cannon were selected as Penn State Marine Corps Logistics Fellows for 2010-2011. Fellows spend one year taking supply chain courses and completing a research project. Lieutenant Colonel Feyedelem’s education includes a bachelors degree from Purdue University and masters degrees from Averett University and the Naval War College.  His personal decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, Meritorious Service Medal with gold star, Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and the Combat Action Ribbon.  Major Cannon is a graduate of Rutgers University.  His personal decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Marine Corps Commendation Medal (2nd Award), Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Air Force Achievement Medal, Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon.

Harrison Elected President of INFORMS

Terry Harrison, professor of supply chain management, has been elected 2011 president-elect of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the world's largest society for professionals in the field of operations research, management science, and business analytics. Harrison, who has served INFORMS for five years as vice president of publications, will begin his term as president-elect on January 1 and will succeed the organization's 2011 president in January 2012.

INFORMS is an international scientific society with 10,000 members, including Nobel Prize laureates, dedicated to applying scientific methods to help improve decision-making, management, and operations. Members of INFORMS work in business, government, and academia.

Forbes.com Running a Mini-Series on Data Analytics by John Jordan

A multitude of converging facts has given rise to numbers-based decision-making. In "Analytics Goes Mainstream," John explained why numbers-driven decision-making is being used so widely now. In the “Data Analytics Boom,” he examines nine converging reasons, among many, for the rise of interest in analytics.  The last of the series focuses on practical considerations that still make analytics difficult, including the need for improved statistical numeracy.

John Jordan, clinical professor of information systems, came to Penn State from Capgemini, where he led R&D efforts in partnership with the Chief Technology Officer.

Christopher Craighead Wins Best Paper Award

Chris Craighead and his co-authors are the winners of the 2010 Decision Sciences Journal Best Paper Award for their article “Risk Uncertainty and Supply Chain Decisions: A Real Options Perspective.  The paper was chosen for this award for its exceptional managerial significance, high level of intellectual stimulation, and academic contribution.

Akhil Kumar Serves as co-PI on $800,000 Grant

Akhil Kumar is serving as a co-PI on a new HK $800,000 grant to the City University of Hong Kong from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. The topic is collaborative intelligence for liquidity risk mediation.

Deloitte Consulting Targets Smeal for Recruiting Efforts

Deloitte Consulting has selected the Supply Chain Management program at Smeal as one of four programs in the country for a targeted recruiting effort focused on supply chain management professionals. Deloitte has made this decision based on the quality of our SCM graduates.  This recruiting effort will begin this fall.

Students Participate in Summer Courses in Denmark and Italy

Frank Chelko from SC&IS along with associate professor Dr. Lou Gattis from Finance conducted a 3 credit course "Doing Business in the European Union" in Copenhagen, Denmark. Eighteen Business students from Smeal College representing supply chain, finance, accounting, management, and marketing participated in the 6-week summer course.

Russell Barton on Assignment to NSF

Russell Barton has been selected to serve as a program director by the National Science Foundation. He will manage two research areas within the Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation Division: Manufacturing Enterprise Systems and Service Enterprise Systems. Combined, these programs receive approximately 200 proposals a year from institutions across the United States. He will be on assignment from Penn State to NSF for two years, with an office in Arlington, Virginia.

Susan Xu Receives NSF Grant

The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant of $345,000 to The Pennsylvania State University for support of the project entitled "Risk Management of Supply Chain Networks with Dependent Disruptions." This project is under the direction of Susan H. Xu (PI) and Sounda Kumara (co-PI, IE Department ) during the period 7/1/21010-6/30/2013. The project will develop a framework to study crucial issues of risk management problems stemming from supply chain disruptions, along with a scheme for investigating the effects of supply chain structure on performance.

Chris Craighead Featured on “Penn State Live” Series:  To The Point

With the oil spill in the Gulf Coast and the recent volcano eruption in Iceland, some global businesses have seen their operations come to a halt due to transportation issues.

Christopher Craighead, assistant professor of supply chain management in Penn State’s Smeal College of Business and researcher in the area of strategic procurement, is a Penn State expert on supply chain risk and disruptions. Such impediments to business production and distribution, he said, affect everyone: the military, retailers, pharmaceutical and automobile industries, to name just a few. If it’s a global business, Craighead said, it will face disruptions regardless of the company’s preparedness. He answered some questions about how natural and manmade disasters affect companies' operations and how they deal with the aftermath.

 

Russell Barton speaks at NSF Workshop

Russell Barton delivered one of four invited talks at an NSF-sponsored workshop to determine future directions for simulation optimization research. His talk was entitled "Metamodel-based Optimization." The workshop was held at the University of Maryland May 24-25 and included 30 participants from the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

SC&IS PhD Students Receive Scholarships

Congratulations to Andrew Davis on receiving the Jeanne and Charles Rider Graduate Fellowship and to Keitlin Dunn on receiving the Kessler Graduate Scholarship.  Eleven Smeal PhD students were chosen from 23 nominations.

Welcome to Janie Jones, New SC&IS Administrative Assistant

The SC&IS Department is pleased to announce that  Janie Jones has joined the Department as the new Administrative Assistant. Janie had held the position of Finance Assistant and Program Manager for Smeal’s Executive Programs Department since 2004. Before joining Executive Programs, Janie worked for the University Faculty Senate office as the student petition coordinator. Prior to coming to Penn State she held positions with Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, Paul & Tony’s Stereo, Mid State Bank and as an elementary school teacher in the Philadelphia area. Janie lives in Julian, Pennsylvania with her husband Charles.

Dan Guide Becomes Full Professor

Congratulations to Dan Guide on his promotion to the rank of full professor.

SC&IS Senior Receives Commission for Achieving Women Award

Congratulations to Mercedes Davis, a graduating senior in supply chain and information systems, for receiving one of the the Achieving Women Awards from the Commission for Women at Penn State.  These awards are given to employees and students who have shown leadership and are accomplished in their fields; have supported Penn State's diversity efforts and promoted equal opportunity; and have contributed to human causes and public service activities.

Doctoral Student Wins NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant

Congratulations to Andrew Davis, SC&IS PhD student, on winning a Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant from the National Science Foundation for his project entitled "Service-Level Agreements and Supply Chain Coordination."  His work is supervised by Dr. Elena Katok.  The money will support Andrew’s dissertation expenses relating to, primarily, his experiments and travel.

Andrew's dissertation will investigate supply chain contracts from both a theoretical and experimental standpoint.  It will determine how supply chain profits are affected when different parties avoid or incur inventory risks by testing various theories in a controlled, laboratory environment.  These results will then help develop new theoretical predictions, and ultimately which type of supply chain contract leads to the highest profits for the parties involved.

SC&IS Staff Recognized at 2010 Staff Award Luncheon

Congratulations to Alice Young on receiving the 09-10 Smeal College Outstanding Staff Award. The award was presented at the annual staff award luncheon at the Nittany Lion Inn on April 19. The purpose of this award is to recognize Smeal College staff who consistently demonstrate loyalty, integrity, dedication, and respect for the College and for the University. Congratulations also to Beth Bower, who was recognized for 25 years of consecutive service at Penn State.

Alice Young and Nicole Butterworth won Outstanding Staff Awards at the same luncheon. Alice was one of the very first staff members to receive this award at its inception back in 1997, and is one of the very few to have received it for a second time. Alice will be retiring at the end of June after 33 years of service.

Beth Bower was honored at the Staff Award Luncheon on April 19th for 25 years of service at Smeal. She began working part-time for the College when she was an undergraduate student at Penn State. In addition to the SC&IS department, Beth has worked in the Accounting Department, the Dean's Office, the Graduate Student Office, and Executive Programs.

 

SC&IS Helps State College Area High School Develop New Supply Chain Course

As one of the top supply chain departments in the nation, Smeal's Supply Chain and Information Systems (SC&IS) Department has taken on a new endeavor. Department faculty are working in conjunction with State College Area High School to develop a supply chain class for students in grades 9-12 starting in the fall of 2010.

SC&IS Students Receive Richter Scholarships at ISM International Conference

Ms. Theresa Piazza and Mr. Richard Carelli, Supply Chain and Information Systems majors at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, were chosen by the R. Gene and Nancy D. Richter Foundation as two of seven students around the country to receive the 2010 R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award.

SC&IS Senior Receives University Leadership Award

Congratulations to Mercedes Davis, senior in Supply Chain and Information Systems, who received the Leadership Award at the 19th annual Senior Awards and Diversity Recognition Reception sponsored by the Multicultural Resource Center at the Hintz Alumni Center.

Doctoral Students Win Summer Research Grants

Natalia Santamaria and Justin Jia won Smeal Summer Research Grants support their dissertation research.

Natalia’s dissertation deals with the problem bidders have to solve to formulate their bids, in two types of auctions used in practice (mostly in procurement operations): combinatorial auctions and reverse auctions. These auctions pose complex and interesting problems for the bidders, so she hopes that the results of her research help to gain a better understanding of the bidding strategies in these two auction formats.

Justin's dissertation, entitled "Enriching Auction Models: Design and Analysis," focuses on the huge gap between theory and practice in auction studies: Many theoretically elegant auction models, such as Vickrey auction, have rare applications in practice. The dissertation aims to relax some unrealistic assumptions of classic auction theory and enrich auction models with practical concerns. The research extends classic models in four dimensions: information variability, auctioneer fee policy, bidder migrations, and dependent supplier reliability. The study will provide insight into auction design for applications.

New Web-Based Application Developed for Strategic Procurement Course

Evelyn Thomchick co-developed a new web-based learning tool for use in undergraduate and graduate coures on strategic procurement, which she co-presented at the 2010 Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology at Penn State. Evelyn discussed her use of the web-based application in SCM 810, which is the strategic procurement course that is part of the on-line Masters of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management.

Evelyn Thomchick Selected as Editor

Evelyn Thomchick was selected to be the editor of the Transportation Journal, as of July 1, 2009.  The Transportation Journal  is an academic journal that is published by the American Society of Transportation & Logistics.  Evelyn was also elected to the Board of Directors of the American Society of Transportation & Logistics.

Terry Harrison Continues Positions with Informs

Terry Harrison has been reappointed for 2010 to serve as Vice President of Publications and a member of INFORMS’ Board of Directors.

Spring 2010 SC&IS Career Fair

The Spring Supply Chain Career Fair was held on January 26-27, 2010, in the Smeal Business Building Atrium. This Career Fair was once again a huge success. We had a combined total of 52 companies attending with more than 250 students from Supply Chain, MIS, IST, and Industrial Engineering. During the following two days after the Fair, the companies conducted interviews with students.

Along with the Supply Chain Career Fair, we hosted our Supply Chain “Coffee House” on Monday night with 11 corporate sponsors running concurrent information sessions with about 70 students attending the event.

On September 20, 2010, the Supply Chain Coffee House will kick off the Fall 2010 recruiting activities. The Supply Chain Career Fair will follow on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 21-22, 2010.

Survey Ranks Smeal's Supply Chain Program No. 1

A survey of 126 companies and 19 academic institutions conducted by AMR Research, a research firm focused on the global supply chain and its supporting technologies, has identified Penn State's Smeal College of Business as having the best supply chain program in the United States in terms of industry value, program depth, and program scope.

SC&IS Department Highlighted in the Smeal College of Business Highlights for 2009

The Supply Chain and Information Systems Department #1 ranking, Robert Novack’s Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Center for Supply Chain Research were highlighted in the 2009 Smeal College of Business Highlights.

Six Sigma Black Belt Certification

Students in the Smeal MBA program will now be able to obtain their Six Sigma Black Belt certification during their second year of their program.  Frank Chelko will be teaching a course that will cover the topics necessary for the exam and are not covered in other Supply Chain courses.  Thanks go to Professor Gene Tyworth, Chair of the SC&IS Department, and Senior Associate Dean Arvind Rangaswamy for helping to make this possible for the MBA students.

First Class Program: Smeal’s Marine Corps Logistics Fellowship

Marine Corps Officers Lieutenant Colonel Bill Mackey and Major Mark Robinson have been stationed on a tropical island in Japan for the last six years. They haven't seen snowfall in about a decade or a season change in six years. So arriving at University Park in August 2009 after being selected by the Marine Corps for Penn State's Marine Corps Logistics Fellows Program (MCLFP) brought about many new changes and a well deserved break from their normal, military routine.

SC&IS Department Involved in International Business Courses in Denmark and Italy

Students can now earn six credits in a new six week program this summer at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in Denmark.  One course will be taken with other CBS students and a second course will be taught by PSU faculty from Smeal.  Frank Chelko, SC&IS, will introduce the European Union, its governance, and business operations from a Supply Chain and Marketing perspective.  Lou Gattis, Finance, will then cover business financing, investment, currency markets, and financial services.  The program description can be found at http://www.outreach.psu.edu/summerabroad/study-Denmark/.

Russell Barton and Frank Chelko will be teaching Supply Chain and Manufacturing Management in Florence, Italy this summer.  Students will visit international corporations and evaluate their supply chains, experience Italian food and culture, and see historic art and architecture.  The program description for this program can be found at http://ugstudents.smeal.psu.edu/study-abroad/choosing-a-program/summer.

Paper Receives Honorable Mention for Best Theoretical/Empirical Research Paper

Jack Hayya, Terry Harrison, and X. James He (Fairfield University) received Honorable Mention for Best Theoretical/Empirical Research Paper for their paper entitled “Crashing Stochastic Lead Times” submitted for the DSI Annual Meeting, November 14-17, 2009, at New Orleans.

MPS Student Paper to be Published  in Wiley & Sons Textbook

Michael Jacobs, Toys “R” Us, Inc.,  Senior Vice President of Logistics and second year student in the Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management Program, will have his SCM 594 Professional Paper published in John Wiley & Sons forthcoming book, The Shipping Point: Rethinking China’s Role in Global Supply Chain Management.   According to a John Wiley & Sons’ prospectus, “The book [to be published in January 2010] will focus on the re-emergence of China as an economic superpower and the impact this will have on global supply chain management.  The book will also describe changes taking place in consumer retail and how the convergence of these elements will drive the formulation of leading edge supply chain innovation in the 21st century.”  His professional paper will be a chapter titled “The Origin Consolidation Supply Chain Model.”  Michael’s advisor is Dr. John E. Stevens, Director of the Master’s program.

Fall 2009 SC&IS Career Fair

The Fall Supply Chain Career Fair was held on September 23-24, 2009, in the Smeal Business Building Atrium. This Career Fair was once again a huge success.  We had a combined total of 90 companies attending with 500 students from Supply Chain, MIS, IST, and Industrial Engineering. During the following two days after the Fair, the companies conducted interviews with students.

Along with the Supply Chain Career Fair, we hosted our Supply Chain “Coffee House” on Monday night with 12 corporate sponsors running concurrent information sessions with about 170 students attending the event.

On January 25, 2010, the Supply Chain Coffee House will kick off the Spring 2010 recruiting activities.  The Supply Chain Career Fair will follow on Tuesday and Wednesday, January 26-27, 2010.

Michael Rothkopf Memorial Conference

On June 1-3, 2009, the Michael H. Rothkopf Memorial Conference was held to honor and celebrate the life and work of Michael H. Rothkopf. The broad themes of the conference were research areas that Mike Rothkopf studied throughout his career: the theory and practice of auctions, energy policy, and more broadly, market design. The conference was made possible thanks to generous sponsorship by the Smeal College of Business and INFORMS. More than 60 guests attended the conference and keynote speakers included world renowned scholars of auctions and market design:

Peter Cramton - University of Maryland
Jacob Goeree – University of Zurich
Steve Graves - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ron Harstad - University of Missouri
Richard O'Neill - Chief Economic Advisor FERC
Shmuel Oren - University of California, Berkeley
Tuomas Sandholm - Carnegie Mellon University
Rakesh Vohra - Northwestern University

For a complete list of guests, talk abstracts and pictures, please visit: http://www.smeal.psu.edu/rothkopf-conference.

Laura Rothkopf has established a Graduate Scholarship in memory of her late husband, Professor Michael H. Rothkopf. The scholarship will provide recognition and financial assistance to outstanding graduate students enrolled in the Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management Program.

Students Compete in Boeing Case Competition

The second annual Boeing Case Competition took place this spring with Bethany Round, Angela Robin, Andrew Spicher (SC&IS majors) and Abishek Viswanathon (Finance major) taking first place. This competition provides Supply Chain Students an opportunity to apply classroom instructions to real world problems. Groups of four students, three supply chain and one finance or accounting student, use their knowledge of LEAN concepts to determine an optimal solution to a Boeing problem. Students had a Boeing mentor to answer any questions and competed to win $2,000 prize money provided by Boeing. Presentations were 20 minutes with a five minute period of question and answer. The kickoff dinner and presentation dinner hosted by Boeing in the Business Building were an added bonus to the entire event.

Smeal MBAs Establish Carbon Footprint Toolkit for Supermarket Industry

A group of our MBA students recently completed an excellent research effort on the topic of “Carbon Footprint 101.”  Under the sponsorship of the Food Marketing Institute, the team produced an information toolkit for food supply chain producers, retailers, and intermediaries to use to gain a basic understanding of carbon and greenhouse gas issues, including potential regulation.

Senior Award Recipients

Congratulations to SC&IS major Danielle Gallagher upon receiving the Helen Eakin Eisenhower Award and to Joann Kong and Andrew Spicher upon receiving the Ralph H. Wherry Student Service Award.

Spring 2009 Accomplishments of Department Clubs

SCMA and MISA joined together for THON in February.  Both groups had at least one member dance.  The clubs together raised $7,253.97, which is a great achievement for their first year of involvement.  Also, MISA worked with the Centre County Youth Service Bureau on a System Analysis and Design project and began work with them on their web site.  BASH raised $7,000 for THON; and the SAP club was voted most improved SIG this year.

Zheng Jia Receives Rider Graduate Fellowship

Zheng Jia, PhD student in Supply Chain and Information Systems, has been selected to receive one of the four Jeanne and Charles Rider Graduate Fellowships for 2009-2010 because of his record of academic excellence.  The Ryder Fellowships were endowed by Jean and Charles Ryder to support the Smeal College of Business in its goal of continuing to be a top business program.

Emma Oswald Receives Lehigh Valley Roundtable Scholarship

Congratulations to SC&IS major Emma Oswald, who has been selected as the winner of the scholarship from the Lehigh Valley Roundtable of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals for Spring 2009.

Michael H. Rothkopf Memorial Conference

On June 1-3, 2009, the Michael H. Rothkopf Memorial Conference will be held to honor the life and work of Michael H. Rothkopf. The broad themes of the conference are research areas that Mike Rothkopf studied throughout his career: the theory and practice of auctions, energy policy, and more broadly, market design. Thanks to generous sponsorship, the conference has no registration fee and has reduced hotel rates. Further information can be found at http://www.smeal.psu.edu/rothkopf-conference.

Christina Round Receives R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award

Ms. Christina Round, Supply Chain and Information Systems major at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, was chosen by the R. Gene and Nancy D. Richter Foundation as one of eight students around the country to receive the 2009 R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award.

Telaina Myers Receives Leadership Award

Congratulations to Telaina Myers, a senior in the SC&IS major, who was selected to receive the Multicultural Resource Center’s Leadership Award.  She was honored at a ceremony held at the Hintz Family Alumni Center on March 24, 2009.

Scott Bailey Publishes Professional Paper

Scott Bailey, a member of our first Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management graduating class, published his SCM 894 Professional Paper in the spring 2009 issue of Educational Procurement Journal, a journal of the National Association of Educational Procurement.

Penn State Honors Novack With University’s Prestigious Atherton Teaching Award

In honor of his record of distinction in undergraduate education, Penn State's Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence has presented Robert Novack, associate professor of supply chain management at the Smeal College of Business, with a 2009 George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Spisak Lecture To Address Economy's Effect On Freight Transportation

J. Michael Kilgore, president and chief executive officer of Atlanta-based Chainalytics LLP, a leading supply chain consultancy, will address how the economic crisis is affecting the freight transportation industry at this year's Spisak Lecture in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Penn State's Smeal College of Business.

Russell Barton Appointed Department Editor

Russell Barton has been appointed as a department editor for IIE Transactions Focused Issue on Quality and Reliability Engineering.  He will be responsible for submissions in the areas of design of experiments and process optimization jointly with Professor Irad Ben-Gal of Tel Aviv University.

Smeal MBAs Develop Sustainability Scorecard For Campus Paper Needs

In an effort to use more environmentally friendly bathroom tissue and other janitorial paper supplies on campus, Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant (OPP) turned to a group of eight Smeal College of Business MBA students to develop a method for identifying more sustainable paper products.

Michael H. Rothkopf Graduate Scholarship is Established by Laura Rothkopf

Laura Rothkopf has established a Graduate Scholarship in memory of her late husband, Professor Michael H. Rothkopf.  The scholarship will provide recognition and financial assistance to outstanding graduate students enrolled in the Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management Program.  All full-time graduate students enrolled in the Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management Program who have achieved superior academic records or who manifest promise of outstanding academic success are eligible.

Russell Barton Receives INFORMS Simulations Society Distinguished Service Award

Russell Barton received the INFORMS Simulation Society (I-Sim) Distinguished Service Award at the Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) in Miami, Florida, on December 8.

Douglas Burke Graduates as Student Marshal

Congratulations to distinguished Supply Chain Fall 2008 graduate Douglas Burke for adding Smeal College of Business Student Marshal to his long list of accolades.

Christopher Craighead Receives Best Paper Award

Christopher Craighead and his co-authors received the 2008 Best Paper Award from Business Horizons.  The paper is Ketchen, D.J. Jr., Craighead, C.W., & Buckley, M.R., 2008, "Time Bandits: How They are Created, Why They are Tolerated, and What can be Done about Them," Business Horizons, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 141-149.

The American Society of Transportation and Logistics, Inc. Establishes Scholarship

The American Society of Transportation and Logistics, Inc. has established the “American Society of Transportation and Logistics Scholarship in the Smeal College of Business.”  All undergraduate students majoring or planning to major in the SC&IS major in Smeal who have achieved superior academic records or who manifest promise  of outstanding academic success will be eligible to apply.

Smeal MBA Team Places First In Case Competition

Reginald Amoa, Carl Asher, and Tai Parks, won first place in the fourth annual MBAE Minority Case Competition sponsored by Howard University and LMI Government Consulting.

Smeal Student Society Honors Norm Aggon

The Smeal Student Society has honored Norm Aggon by choosing him to be in the Smeal Student Society Spotlight. Stop by and see the poster about Norm in the Atrium.

Elena Katok Receives Endowed Fellowship

Elena Katok, professor of supply chain and information systems, was recently awarded the Calvin E. and Pamala T. Zimmerman University Endowed Fellowship of Business Administration.

Cal was a 1967 graduate of the College of Business.  The Zimmerman’s created the professorship to strengthen, reward and recognize outstanding scholarship among faculty. Cal and Pam are local civic-minded Penn Staters devoted to strengthening the economic development and quality of life in the Centre region.

McCombs School (University of Texas) to Fund Study of Remanufactured Consumer Goods by Smeal Researchers

Dan Guide (SC&IS), Meg Meloy (Marketing), and Selin Atasu (Marketing) will conduct a study of consumer attitudes and perceptions of remanufactured consumer goods that will be funded by the McCombs School of Business at UT.  Dan plans to parlay the results of this pilot study into a large scale study funded by the NSF and interested companies.

Smeal Student Society Honors Felisa Preciado

The Smeal Student Society has honored Felisa Preciado, Clinical Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management, by choosing her to be in the Smeal Student Society Spotlight for instructional excellence. Stop by and see the poster about Felisa in the Atrium.

Fall 2008 SC&IS Career Fair

The Fall Supply Chain Career Fair held on September 23-24, 2008 was another great success in the Smeal Business Building Atrium. We had a combined total of 90 companies attending with 500 students from Supply Chain, MIS, IST, and Industrial Engineering. The following two days the companies conducted interviews with the students.

Along with the Supply Chain Career Fair, we hosted our second Supply Chain “Coffee House” on Monday night with 12 corporate sponsors running concurrent information sessions with about 150 students attending the event.

The Spring 2009 Supply Chain Career Fair will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, February 10-11, 2009.

Smeal Professors Pen Eighth Edition of Supply Chain Textbook

John Coyle and Robert Novack along with Edward Bardi of the University of Toledo, Brian Gibson of Auburn University and C. John Langley of the Georgia Institue of Technology coauthored the eighth edition of Supply Chain Management: A Logistics Perspective.

Christopher Craighead Receives Awards

Christopher Craighead was recipient of the Best Associate Editor Award, Journal of Operations Management.  He also received the Best Paper Award for International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, “Postponement: An Evolving Supply Chain Concept.” Chris was chosen by the Editors of IJPDLM for the Outstanding Paper Award Winner at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2008.

New SC&IS Faculty

The SC&IS department has several new faculty members this year:  Christopher Craighead, assistant professor; Sandra Transchel, assistant professor; Lisa Mensinger, instructor; and Ralph Sees, instructor.

New SC&IS PhD Students

Five new students have joined the Ph.D. program in SC&IS:  James Abbey, Kaitlin Dunn, Maurice Johnson, Hiroko Okajima and Yang Zhang.

New Marine Corps Fellows

Two new Marine Corps Fellows are onboard for the 2008-2009 academic year:  Lieutenant Colonel John Kasperski and Major Michael Monroe.

Susan Xu Receives NSF Grant

The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant of $167,066 to The Pennsylvania State University for support of the project entitled "Collaborative Research: Reliability Analysis of Spatial Systems with Local Interactions." This project is under the direction of Susan H. Xu, in collaboration with Li Haijun of Washington State University (PI, awarded $154,063) and Way Kuo of the University of Tennessee (co-PI, awarded $88,864).

SC&IS Participates in PSU International Studies Program

The SC&IS Department participated this summer in the PSU International Studies program at the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, Italy. This was the first time faculty from PSU directly participated in a course at this Institution. The six-week three-credit course was “Production in Italy.” Seventeen PSU business students from varied majors and 14 students from the University of Connecticut comprised the class. The course introduced business students to a variety of manufacturing businesses as well as a number of unique manufacturing processes. Manufacturers included olive oil processing, a marble quarry, a textile mill, winery, as well as motorcycle and automotive manufacturing (Ducati and Lamborghini). Class assignments included student journals documenting their observations of key lessons learned and a “lean” exercise. Frank Chelko represented PSU while Dr. Jeff Rummel represented the University of Connecticut.

OEM Remanufacturing Round Table Meets At Smeal

Top managers from Alcatel-Lucent, Bosch Tool, Caterpillar, Cummins, GE Transportation and Xerox, all OEMs that engage in product recovery and remanufacturing , met May 1 and 2 at a round table held at Penn State's Smeal College of Business.

Promotion and Tenure

Congratulations to Elena Katok on her promotion to the rank of full professor and to David Huff on his promotion to clinical associate professor.

Big Ten Information Systems Research Symposium

Edward Glantz recently participated in the 7th Annual Big Ten Information Systems Research Symposium hosted by the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.

SC&IS Graduate Students Receive Scholarships

Congratulations to Zheng (Justin) Jia on receiving one of the four Jeanne and Charles Rider Graduate Fellowships for 2008-2009 and to Andrew Davis on receiving one of the two Liberti/Olian Scholarships for 2008-2009.

Two SC&IS Majors Win Richter Scholarship Awards

Douglas Burke and Andrew Spicher, Supply Chain and Information Systems majors at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, were chosen by the R. Gene and Nancy D. Richter Foundation as two of six students around the country to receive the 2008 R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award.

Three SC&IS Professors Win Dillwyn Paiste Awards for Excellence in Teaching

Dr. Robert Novack, associate professor of supply chain and information systems, Dr. Edward Glantz, clinical assistant professor of information systems, and Frank Chelko, instructor of operations and supply chain management, were winners of the Dillywn P. Paiste, III Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

2008 R. Hadly Waters Supply Chain Symposium

The 18th Annual R. Hadly Waters Supply Chain Symposium, Managing Supply Chain Complexity, was held on April 24, 2008, at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, University Park, Pennsylvania, with approximately 200 supply chain professionals in attendance.

Supply Chain Management Association Tours Staples Distribution Center

The Supply Chain Management Association (SCMA) went on a field trip to the Staples distribution center in Chambersburg on Friday, April 4, 2008.

Management Information Systems Association (MISA) Wins Most Improved Organization of 2008

Congratulations to Management Information Systems Association (MISA) on winning the "Most Improved Organization of 2008" award for Smeal Student Clubs. MISA received $500 for the club.

Valery Pavlov Receives Smeal Doctoral Dissertation Award

Congratulations to Valery Pavlov on receiving a Smeal Dissertation Award. The award is based on an evaluation by the Competitive Research Grants Committee and will providing funding for Valery’s research experiments.

Senior SC&IS Student Named ‘Next CEO’

Douglas Burke, a senior majoring in supply chain and information systems, outlasted nine of his classmates on April 21 to win the college's unique executive simulation challenge, The Next CEO.

Douglas Burke and Andrew Spicher Receive R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award

Douglas Burke and Andrew Spicher, Supply Chain and Information Systems majors at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, were chosen by the R. Gene and Nancy D. Richter Foundation as two of six students around the country to receive the 2008 R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award.

Senior Award Recipients

Congratulations to SC&IS majors Douglas Burke, Amanda Garries, and Jessica Volpe upon receiving the Ralph H. Wherry Student Service Award.

S.T.A.R.T. Diversity Award Presented

Congratulations to Shanice Barnum (SC&IS) for her first place S.T.A.R.T. (Striving Toward Awareness & Respect for Tomorrow) Diversity Award. Shanice’s presentation was entitled Diversity Has No Identity.

Students Compete in Boeing Case Competition

Congratulations to all of the participants in the first Boeing Undergraduate Supply Chain Case Competition. Seven groups of three Supply Chain students and one Finance/Accounting student competed for the $2,000 in prize money provided by Boeing. Students were required to use their knowledge of LEAN concepts and apply them to a real world business problem. Special thank you goes to Kitty Riley, Norm Aggon and Tami Barnes for their administrative support of the competition and to Frank Chelko for being the Penn State Judge (along with three Boeing judges) in the competition. The kickoff dinner and presentation dinner hosted by Boeing in the Business Building Dinner Theatre were an added bonus to the entire event.

Smeal’s Supply Chain/Logistics Program Ranked 5th by U.S. News

U.S. News has ranked Smeal’s supply chain/logistics programs as fifth in the nation, up from 6th last year. The U.S. News rankings are based on peer assessment (25%), recruiter assessment (15%), starting salary (14%), employment at graduation (7%), employment after three months(14%), GMAT score (16.25%), undergraduate GPA (7.5%), and acceptance rate (1.25%).

In Memoriam: Michael H. Rothkopf, 1939-2008

 

Miichael Rothkopf was an applied mathematical modeler who studied and wrote about auctions and bidding since 1965. Most recently he was Smeal Chaired Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems at Penn State's Smeal College of Business.

Smeal Student Society Honors Kitty Riley

The Smeal Student Society has honored Kitty Riley by choosing her to be in the Smeal Student Society Spotlight. Stop by and see the poster about Kitty in the Atrium.

MBA Team Takes Third Place in Logistics Case Competition

Our MBA students: Jodie Vanderman, Brad Updegrove, Quang Dang, Hovig Vartan, Philip Cahill, and Aron Meadow excelled in their performance at the 11th Annual FedEx Freight International Graduate Logistics Case Competition in Fayetteville, AR.

SC&IS Faculty Teaching Quality Improvement Team Recognized

An SC&IS Faculty Teaching Quality Improvement team will be one of several quality teams recognized on April 30 by Provost Erickson and the Office of Planning and Institutional Assessment. Current SC&IS faculty team members include Edward Glantz, Norm Aggon, Kitty Riley, Gary Gittings, Evelyn Thomchick and Marilyn Blanco.

Kumar Appointed to Editorial Board of New Journal

The IEEE Computer Society has appointed Akhil Kumar, professor of information systems at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, as an associate editor of its new journal, IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, set to launch this year.

Lilien Awarded Highest Honor For A Marketing Educator

The American Marketing Association (AMA) has named Gary Lilien, distinguished research professor of management science at Smeal, as the 2008 recipient of the AMA Irwin/McGraw-Hill Distinguished Marketing Educator Award, the highest honor a marketing educator can receive.

Bob Novack Gives Resume/Interview Workshop

Thanks go to Bob Novack, who once again had standing room only at the Resume/Interview Workshop sponsored by MISA, SCMA, and BASH. The workshop was held the week before the SC&IS Career Fair so students received valuable help in their preparations to meet with companies coming on campus.

Jun Shu and Russell Barton Present at NSF Foundation Conference

Jun Shu and Russell Barton presented their work on "Supply Chain SPC" at the National Science Foundation CMMI Grantees Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee, on January 7-10, 2008. They received a grant in 2006 from the Manufacturing Enterprise Systems Program.

Ed Glantz Cited in USA Today

Ed Glantz was cited in an article in USA Today about virtual office hours. He has used virtual office hours for the last six years.

December 2007 PhD Graduates

Congratulations to Janine Spears, Long Gao, and Mahesh Srinivasan on their December graduations.

Leslie Hubbard Graduates with Honors in Supply Chain

Congratulations to Leslie Hubbard on her December graduation from Penn State. Leslie was in the Schreyer’s Honors College and graduated with a BS in Supply Chain and Information Systems with honors in Supply Chain and Information Systems. Her thesis was titled Gauging the Preparedness of Recent Supply Chain Graduates with Respect to Job Skills. Leslie now begins her career at Deloitte & Touche in Philadelphia.

Spring 2008 Supply Chain Career Fair

The Spring Supply Chain Career Fair on February 5-6, 2008, was a roaring success in the Smeal Business Building Atrium. We had a combined total of 94 companies attending with 500 students from Supply Chain, MIS, and Industrial Engineering. The flurry continued the following two days with companies staying to interview.

Along with the Supply Chain Career Fair, we hosted our first Supply Chain “Coffee House” on Monday night with nine corporate sponsors running concurrent information sessions with about 65 students attending the event.

The Fall 2008 Supply Chain Career Fair will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 23-24, 2008.

Faculty Present at Conference

Ed Glantz, John Dischinger of IBM Integrated Supply Chain, and Fred Rodammer of Michigan State presented in the Current Issues track at the 2007 CSCMP Annual Conference in Philadelphia, October 22, 2007. The presentation was titled, "Emerging Skills in the Supply Chain: A Model for Industry and Academic Collaboration," and was done in conjunction with Bill Verdini of Arizona State, Huei Chuen Huang of National University Singapore, and Vincent Hargaden of University College Dublin.

Yaru Liu Receives Scholarship

Ms. Yaru Liu, Ph.D. student in SC&IS, received a scholarship awarded by the Society of Industrial and Office Retailers (SIOR) at a ceremony held in the Nittany Lion Inn on Friday, November 16, 2007.

Dennis Lin Serves on NSF Panel

On December 11-12, 2007, Dennis Lin served on a panel on grant proposals on the Service Enterprise Engineering (SEE) program at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia.

40th Annual Winter Simulation Conference

Russell Barton served as program chair for the 40th anniversary Winter Simulation Conference held in Washington, D.C. on December 9-12, 2007. The conference was sponsored by seven organizations, including INFORMS, the American Statistical Association, ACM, and IIE.

Alums in the News

Simon Golding (BLog) has been appointed as vice president of logistics and related business for Tube City IMS Corporation.

John Abromitis (BLog) has been appointed as one of the top 40 attorneys in the state under age 40 by the New Jersey Law Journal.

Daniel Petryszyn (SC&IS) opened a co-branded restaurant and retail store in Manhattan. The restaurant will feature Soup Kitchen International’s The Original SoupMan’s soups and Cold Stone Creamery’s premium ice cream.

Victor Yates (BLog) has been appointed as an associate for NAI Pittsburgh Commercial to handle leasing and sale of office, retail, and flex space for landlords, tenants, buyers, and sellers.

Kris Nagel (MIS) has been appointed as a vice president and general manager of worldwide sales of Mu Security, a pioneer in the security analyzer market.

Janet Harrington (BLog) has been appointed as a senior sales executive for the PharmaReady team of TAKE Solutions.

Faculty Present at Conference

At the 38th Annual Meeting of the Decision Sciences Institute Conference in Phoenix on November 18 - 21, 2007, Gene Tyworth presented the paper "Supply Chain Challenges".

Also at the conference, Jack Hayya presented the competitive paper “On the structural properties of the (D,0) inventory model” by Jack Hayya, Terry Harrison, and Dean Chatfield, presented the paper “Reminiscences and Lessons” at the Invited Fellows Session, and was chair of the session on Supply Chain Challenges I.

Terry Harrison Holds Position for INFORMS

Terry Harrison has recently been elected to a second two-year term as vice president of publications for INFORMS.

Six Sigma Black Belt Course

Frank Chelko and Jeya Chandra of the Industrial Engineering Department will be conducting for the fifth consecutive year the Six Sigma Black Belt course in support of MMM graduate students and undergraduate IE students on January 9-11, 2008, as well as May 12- 14, 2008.

Faculty Present at Conferences

John Spychalski presented a paper entitled "Drivers of Intermodal Rail Freight Growth in North America," co-authored with Evelyn Thomchick, at the 2007 European Transport Conference in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands on October 17, 2007. John also chaired two refereed paper sessions at the 2007 Supply Chain Management Educators' Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 21, 2007.

Evelyn Thomchick and Kusumal Ruamsook presented in the Trade Compliance track at the 2007 CSCMP Annual Conference in Philadelphia, October 22, 2007. The presentation was titled, "Landed Cost Models: Clarification and Update," and was done in conjunction with Drs. Richard Young and Peter Swan of the Penn State Harrisburg Campus.

John Spychalski Celebrates His Retirement

John Spychalski's retirement was celebrated on October 23, 2007 with a train ride on the Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad. Dick Robley, Chairman & CEO donated the use of the railroad; and Jeff Pontius, Vice President of Operations donated the use of his personally owned train cars. A great time was had by all who road the train as the "Train Ride Pictures" will show.

Two SC&IS Staff Members Receive Promotions

Congratulations to Beth Bower and Teresa Lehman who recently received promotions in their jobs. Both SC&IS staff members were promoted up one grade level in their current positions. The upgrades Beth and Teresa received are a reflection of their hard work and their dedication to the SC&IS Department.

Gary Gittings Nominated for Outreach Award

Gary Gittings has been nominated for the Vice President's Award for Award for Excellent Service. This nomination is a tremendous honor since Outreach has more than one thousand faculty and staff. All award nominees and winners will be recognized during the Day of Connection from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on December 12, 2007, in Presidents Hall I and II at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.

SC&IS Corporate Recruiting Effort

The SC&IS Department is having a successful recruiting program again this fall. LuAnn Jaworski retired in July 2007 and Tami Barnes has assumed the role of Recruitment Coordinator. Kitty Baker and Norm Aggon also assist Tami with corporate recruiting.

Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management Update

The first online Master of Professional Studies in Supply Chain Management (MPS/SCM) class will graduate in December 2008. This group, composed of 22 students who had completed the graduate certificate in SC&IS, began their master’s studies in late October with a four day residency.

Zan Huang Presents at Conference

Zan Huang presented an invited paper titled "Selectively Acquiring Ratings for Product Recommendation" at the International Conference for Electronic Commerce, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 19-22, 2007, and received Best Paper Award Nomination.

Dennis Lin Receives Patent and Serves as Council Member and Editor

Dennis Lin has been recently elected as a new council member for ISBIS (International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics). Beginning in 2008, Dennis will be the new editor for ASMBI (Applied Stochastic Models for Business and Industry).

At the Inventors Recognition Program on September 5, 2007, Dennis was recognized for receiving a Penn State patent for “Single-Pass Low-Storage Arbitrary Probabilistic Location Estimation for Massive Data Sets.” This patent was one of 37 patents issued out of 529 applications.

Elena Katok Research Cited

The August 2007 issue of Scientific American cites research by Elena Katok, associate professor of supply chain and information systems, and Gary Bolton, professor of business economics. "Trust is a critical issue on eBay, in which sellers are anonymous and have little pecuniary incentive to actually ship the items they have sold. To figure out why they ship anyway, Ockenfels, Bolton and Penn State business professor Elena Katok asked 144 university students to play a trust game that mimics the situation on eBay." (Is Greed Good?).

Janine Spears Passes Defense

Janine Spears successfully completed her thesis defense on Friday, September 21. Her topic was "Institutionalizing Information Security Risk Management: A Multi-Method Empirical Study on the Effects of Regulation." She will be spending the coming academic year as a postdoctoral fellow at HEC Montreal (École des Hautes Études Commerciales) working with Professor Henri Barki, Canada Research Chair in Information Technology Implementation and Management. Best wishes, Janine!

OM and BLOG Alum Updates

William Hackney (Operations Management, 1980) has been appointed president and publisher of The Reporter and president of publications for Action Advertising in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

Jon Finkelstein (Operations Management, 1986) has been appointed as chief operating officer for SLM Holdings, Inc. in Reston, Virginia.

Dawn Andre (Business Logistics, 1991) has been appointed as vice president of customer operations at Everest Software in Dulles, Virginia.

Fall 2007 Supply Chain Career Fair

A record 55 companies took part in the Fall 2007 Supply Chain Career Fair on September 17, 2007, in the Smeal Business Building Atrium. A total of 495 students participated, including 351 SC&IS majors, 63 Industrial Engineering majors; 20 Supply Chain MBAs, 18 MIS majors, 29 Manufacturing Masters Program majors. The Spring 2008 Supply Chain Career Fair will be held on Thursday, February 7, 2008.

Two Pillars of Original BLOG Department Retire from Smeal

Two pillars of the original Business Logistics Department, John Spychalski and LuAnn Jaworksi, retired from Penn State this Summer. John retired after four decades at Penn State, and LuAnn Jaworksi retired with thirty-five years of service.

New SC&IS Faculty and Staff

The SC&IS department has several new faculty members this year: Michael Rothkopf, Smeal Chaired Professor; Mirko Kremer, assistant professor; Felisa Preciado-Waltelrs, clinical assistant professor; William Machuga, instructor. John Stevens has been appointed as the director of the Masters of Professional Studies (MPS) in Supply Chain Management and Tami Barnes has joined the SC&IS Staff.

New SC&IS PhD Students

Five new students have joined the Ph.D. program in SC&IS: Andrew Davis, Mrinmay Deb, Paolo Letizia, Yaru Liu, and Natalia Santamaria.

New Marine Corps Fellows

The 2007-2008 Marine Corps Fellows are Lt Col James Rubino and Major Christian Richardson.

Akhil Kumar to Co-chair Workshop

Akhil Kumar will co-chair the 17th Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems (WITS'07) to be held in Montreal in December 2007 in conjunction with the International Conference on Information Systems.

Mahesh Srinivasan and Long Gao Pass Defenses

Mahesh Srinivasan successfully defended his dissertation July 30, 2007. The title of his dissertation is: Optimal and approximate policies for periodic review inventory systems. This fall Mahesh will be joining the faculty at the University of Akron as an assistant professor.

Long Gao successfully defended his dissertation on August 5, 2007. The title of his dissertation is: The Impact of Read-time Information on Supply Chain Strategies and Operations. This fall Long will be joining the faculty at the University of Dayton as an assistant professor.

 

Smeal, World Campus Launch Online Supply Chain Management Master's Degree

Penn State's Smeal College of Business and World Campus are offering a new master's degree program in supply chain management that will allow working professionals to earn a graduate degree by taking courses online. The Master of Professional Studies in supply chain management (MPS/SCM) starts in the fall 2007 semester. Applications for admission will be available online on July 9, 2007 and will be accepted until August 1, 2007.

Journal of Operations Management Names SC&IS Professor 'Best Reviewer'

The Journal of Operations Management has named Daniel Guide, associate professor of operations and supply chain management at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, as the journal's Best Reviewer for 2006-2007. Guide has served on the journal's editorial review board since 1999.

Six Sigma Black Belt Program

Frank Chelko, Smeal College of Business, and Dr. Jeya Chandra, College of Engineering, completed the third consecutive year of the Six Sigma Black Belt program concluding in certification exams. The program was offered to QMM and engineering students and required six full days of intensive education in preparation for the certification exam in addition to their degree course work. The effort resulted in twenty new Blue Belts awarded (Black Belt Body of Knowledge). A number of the certified Blue Belts will continue their efforts to secure a Penn State Black Belt. This will require the successful completion of a 4-6 month project that demonstrates process or product improvement using Six Sigma tools and techniques at their new place of employment with project facilitation provided by Frank Chelko.

Thomas Shuman Appointed VP of Sales And Marketing

Thomas Shuman (B Log, 1975) of Dallas, Texas, has been appointed vice president of sales and marketing for Sweet Success Enterprises, Inc. Mr. Shuman will initiate coverage of major unfilled markets as well as coordinate the company’s marketing efforts. Mr. Shuman has held positions in senior sales, marketing, and product development for Liberty Imports USA, Inc., Global Brands Inc., DS Water of America, LP, DrPepper/7-UP, inc., Coca Cola USA, and Proctor and Gamble.

Tom Robbins Passes Defense

Congratulations to Tom Robbins, who successfully defended his dissertation. He will be teaching for SC&IS next year as he begins his search for an academic position.

Colonel Chiarotti Awarded French National Defense Medal Award

Congratulations to Colonel Chuck Chiarotti who was awarded the French Silver Medal of National Defense at the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C., on May 16, 2007. Prior to his program here at Penn State, Colonel Chiarotti served as Head of the Logistics Office on the Staff of the Multinational Force in Haiti starting in 2004. This award recognizes Chuck’s work in facilitating the insertion of French officers under his command and improving the living conditions of the entire multinational force.

Michael J. Wright Receives Award

Congratulations to Michael J. Wright (B LOG, 2001), Library Supervisor IV in the Schreyer Business Library, who has been chosen as a recipient of the Margaret Knoll Spangler Oliver Libraries Award.

Alice Young Honored for 25 Years of Service

Congratulations to Alice on 25 years of service at Penn State. Alice received her 25-year chair at the Smeal College Staff Recognition Luncheon on April 6, 2007 at the Nittany Lion Inn.

Quality And Manufacturing Management Teams Pitch Product Ideas To Elmers

In collaboration with Elmer's Products, Inc., five teams of students enrolled in the Quality and Manufacturing Management (QMM) program, administered jointly by Penn State's College of Engineering and Smeal College of Business, explored new product development experiences for two semesters with the goal of complementing the strategic marketing directions of Elmer's.

This story can also be found atexduco.net, which is a guide to the best graduate schools. See http://www.exduco.net/V1/index.php and then click on the line "All news about graduate schools."

Leslie Hubbard Receives R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award

Ms. Leslie Hubbard, a Supply Chain and Information Systems major at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, was chosen by the R. Gene and Nancy D. Richter Foundation as one of six students around the country to receive the 2007 R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award.

2006-2007 SC&IS Award Recipients

Helen Eakin Eisenhower Award: David M. Montgomery
Ralph H. Wherry Student Service Award: Thomas Richard Bender and Robert T. Trost
Carol Elizabeth Patterson Scholarship: Nicole L. Brody and Carin M. Perretta
Claude G. Wright Scholarship: Neha Sawhney and Bryan T. Sferra
Jody Kishbaugh Memorial Scholarship: Amanda Jones
John J. Coyle Scholarship: Ling Z. Chen, Shixiang Ou, Hieu T. Phan and Michael X. Yu
Lansdale Warehouse Scholarship: Amber Grilli
Merck Scholarship: Darryl L. Bellmeyer and Robert W. Montgomery
Paul V. Maier Scholarship: Robert T. Trost
Robert D. Pashek Scholarship: Robert W. Montgomery and Cassandra Skavery
Robert S. & Patricia M. Ingram Scholarship: Ashley E. Bandish, Charles W. Cobb, Christopher A. Coombs, Barbara A. Fiske, Stephen D. Loeffler, Xuan Luo, Anna Mak, and Shea M. Muldowney
Target Scholarship: Leslie E. Hubbard
William C. & Olga P. Bender Scholarship: Hisham Z. Adamjee and Darryl L. Bellmeyer
R. Gene Richter Scholarship: Leslie Hubbard
ISM Services Group 2006 University Relations Scholarship: Neha Sawhney and Matthew Fisher

Teaching Awards

Doug Thomas received the MBA Excellence in Teaching Award. Tom Robbins and Marilyn Blanco received the Dillwyn P. Paiste III Awards for Excellence as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Also nominated by the SC&IS Department were Henry Bi and Jun Shu.

Presentations at POMS

At the Production & Operations Management Society (POMS) 2007 Annual Meeting in Dallas, TX, May 4-7, 2007, Jack Hayya presented Alternatives to mathematical optimization in inventory analysis by Jack Hayya, Terry Harrison, Uttaryan Bagchi (Texas-Austin), and Dean Chatfield Virginia Tech (2001) and now at Virginia Tech. Daewon Sun (2004), now at Notre Dame, presented Performance of single-unit buyout auctions by Daewon Sun, Jack Hayya, Zhaolin Li (2005), now at City University of Hong Kong. Jack was also a discussion leader on the Emerging Scholars Program.

Dan Guide Wins International Case Study Award

Daniel Guide, associate professor of operations and supply chain management at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, along with his colleague Luk Van Wassenhove of France's INSEAD, has won the 2007 European Case Award for best teaching case study in production and operations management. The European Case Clearing House (ECCH), the world's leading provider of case studies, presented the award to Guide and Van Wassenhove for their case entitled "Managing Product Returns at Hewlett-Packard."

Spring 2007 Supply Chain Career Fair

The Spring Supply Chain Career Fair was a huge success! There were 42 companies in attendance with 341 students participating in the event. Of the 42 companies, 31 companies have participated in the past, four companies were new Center for Supply Chain Research corporate sponsors, and seven were new companies. We set a record of being out "SOLD OUT” within 48 hours after the invitations were distributed. Thanks to all who helped make this career fair such a success.

Penn State Smeal Alumni’s New Appointments

Mirage Networks, Inc. recently promoted its top executive, Greg Stock, to CEO. Greg Stock graduated from Smeal College of Business in with both a B.S. in Business Logistics and then an MBA. Before his promotion, Greg served as chief marketing executive for Mirage since 2003. Mirage, founded in 2001, is an Austin based software company with 350 customers.

Gary Greenberger, a Smeal Business Logistics graduate, was appointed Executive Vice President of America Sales for Citadon, a leader in integrated Web-based collaboration and business process management provider. Gary joins Citadon with more than 20 years of experience building revenue and sales teams for high-technology companies including Constructware, CompuCom Systems, and Entex Information Service.

Norfolk Southern Corporation announced that Daniel Mazur has been named vice president of strategic planning effective December 1, 2006. Before joining Norfolk Southern Corporation, Mazur worked more than 35 years in the railroad industry. An army veteran with the rank of Captain, Mazur graduated from Smeal College of Business in with both a B.S. in Business Logistics and an MBA. Norfolk Southern Corporation is one of the nation’s premier transportation companies.

A Smeal College of Business graduate with a Bachelor in Business Logistics, Kurt Homfelt was appointed President of Dunhill Vacations, one of the country’s leading electronic marketing companies focused on the travel industry and recently acquired by Online Vacation Center Holdings. Kurt joined Online Vacation Center Holdings from Club Med, most recently serving as its Director of National Sales.

New Smeal Chaired Professor

Michael Rothkopf, professor of management science and information systems at Rutgers Business School, has been named the next Smeal Chaired Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems.

Rothkopf has been on the Rutgers faculty since 1988, where his teaching and research interests have focused on applied mathematical modeling, auctions, applications of operations research, and energy models. He is widely published in journals dealing with management science, operations research, and economics, and is a leading expert on the modeling of competitive bidding.

Prior to joining Rutgers, Rothkopf was on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley and worked on the research staff for Xerox and Shell. He has a master's in industrial management and a Ph.D. in operations research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

SC&IS Ranked 8th by Wall Street Journal

The SC&IS Department at Smeal has been ranked eighth in the operations management discipline in the Wall Street Journal business school rankings. The top ten universities include:

1. Carnegie Mellon University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
3. Purdue University (Krannert)
4. University of Michigan (Ross)
5. Michigan State University (Broad)
6. Ohio State University (Fisher)
7. Cornell University (Johnson)
8. Pennsylvania State University (Smeal)
9. Arizona State University (Carey)
9. Dartmouth College (Tuck)

 

Survey Ranks Penn State No. 1 In Supply Chain Education

A recent survey of supply chain practitioners and academics in Canada, Mexico and the United States ranks Penn State's Smeal College of Business as having the top supply chain program in North America.

CSCMP Supply Chain Teaching Innovation Award

Evelyn Thomchick, Wenyi Ho (World Campus), Michael Wright (Schreyer Business Library) and Jill Lane (Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence) were recipients of the Supply Chain Teaching Innovation Award at the CSCMP Educator’s Conference in San Antonio in October for a manuscript that was presented at the conference and published in the conference proceedings. This was the first year CSCMP offered the award. The manuscript, titled “Problem-Based Learning in an International Logistics Course: Biting the Bullet and Lessons Learned,” described the implementation of an educational project that was funded by a Smeal College of Business Teaching Enhancement Grant and supported by the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence.

RFID Article Published by Quality Progress

Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) article "Challenges in RFID Enabled Supply Chain Management" produced by our RFID study group has been published in the latest issue of Quality Progress, Vol 39, pp.23-28. The article focused on challenges facing supply chain management and how RFID technology provides both opportunity and challenges for the future of supply chain management. The Penn State Smeal RFID study group is organized by Dennis Lin and members include Russell R. Barton, Susan H. Xu, Doug Thomas, Michael Freimer, Jun Shu, Henry H. Bi, and Zan Huang.

Ching-Hua Chen-Ritzo receives Honorable Mention in Dantzig Competition

At the recent 2006 annual INFORMS meeting, former doctoral student Ching-Hua Chen-Ritzo’s dissertation “Availability Management for Configure-to-Order Supply Chain Systems” was a finalist for the prestigious Dantzig Award, where she received an Honorable Mention. Terry Harrison was Ching-Hua's dissertation adviser and chaired the doctoral committee, while Susan Xu, Dan Guide, and Tom Cavalier served as committee members.

Dennis Lin Presents in South Africa and at Columbia

Dennis K.J. Lin, professor of supply chain management and statistics, gave one of the keynote speeches in the 2006 South Africa Statistical Association (SASA) Conference, which was held at University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, from October 30, 2006 to November 3, 2006. The other keynote speaker from the United States was Jerome Friedman at Stanford University. During his first trip to South Africa, Dr. Lin also gave a seminar at
SASOL, Witwatersrand, and the University of Capetown.

On November 16, 2006, Dr. Lin gave a seminar at Columbia University for the School of Public Health on "B/I/G Statistics." The following day he gave a seminar at IBM Watson Research Center. Two of our recent Ph.D. students from SC&IS, Ching-hua Chen-Ritzo and Rong Chen attended the seminar.

MBA Students Win Rutgers Supply Chain Case Competition

MBA students Brian Bonnell, Krishna Chovishya, Dan Madden, and Jeremy Vallimont entered and won the Rutgers Supply Chain Case Competition, which was held at Rutgers Business School in Newark on October 27, 2006. The competition included teams from Lehigh, Rutgers, NYU, and others. Student teams competed before a panel of faculty and industry executives from companies such as AmerisourceBergen, AstraZeneca, Becton Dickinson, Johnson & Johnson, Park B. Smith Ltd., and PSEG, and were judged on several key areas, including analysis of critical business issues, originality of solutions, articulation of ideas, and presentation style. The winning team will receive a trophy and $1,000. This outstanding achievement reflects well on the SC&IS program, the MBA program, and the Smeal College of Business. The team supporting members include Andy Gustafson, Nancy Mahon, Doug Thomas, and Bob Novack.

BLOG Alum Richard Dobry Joins Cott Corporation

Congratulations to Richard Dobry, who has been appointed as Chief Manufacturing and Supply Chain Officer of Cott Corporation, one of the world’s largest retailer brand soft drink providers. Richard received a BS in Businsess Logistics from Penn State in 1978 and an MBA in Finance from University of Akron. His work experience also includes Kraft, Hershey Foods, Tropicana, and he served as president of Americas Supply for Diageo.

Jack Hayya Presents at DSI Conference

Jack Hayya was Chair of the Invited Fellows Track and was co-author of presentations with papers on the proceedings CD at the meeting of Decision Sciences Institute, San Antonio, Texas, on November 18-21, 2006.

Fall 2006 Supply Chain Career Fair

A record 48 companies took part in the Fall 2006 Supply Chain Career Fair on September 25, 2006, in the Smeal Business Building Atrium. A total of 457 students participated, including 286 SC&IS majors, 59 Industrial Engineering majors; 36 Supply Chain MBAs, 32 MIS majors; 11 SC&IS minors, three Finance majors, three Marketing majors, 23 Manufacturing Masters Program majors, and two Economics majors.

Fall Supply Chain Leaders Forum was Hosted by the Center for Supply Chain Research (CSCR)

The Center for Supply Chain Research was pleased to host its Fall Supply Chain Leaders Forum at University Park on September 7-8, 2006. The event attracted nearly 50 senior-level logistics practitioners from many industries and lived up to its reputation for fostering peer-to-peer discussions of current issues in logistics and supply chain management.

Evelyn Thomchick Receives Supply Chain Teaching Innovation Award

Evelyn Thomchick, associate professor of supply chain and information systems, received the Supply Chain Teaching Innovation Award for her contribution to the supply chain educational community. The manuscript she submitted to the conference resulted from the Smeal Teaching Enhancement Grant she was awarded a few years ago for incorporating problem-based learning into B LOG 455. The co-authors are Jill Lane, who works at the Schreyer Institute, Wenyi Ho, who is now with the World Campus, and Michael Wright, who now works for the Schreyer Business Library. The award will be presented for the first time at the 2006 CSCMP Educator's conference.

Paper Presented at RFID Integrated Supply Chains Seminar Series

"RFID, Stochastic Dominance, DEA, and Decision Analysis" was presented by Liam O’Neill at the Second annual RFID Integrated Supply Chains Seminar Series at Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business on September 28-29. Coauthors include Jack Hayya (Penn State University), Uttarayan Bagchi (Texas Austin), Alfred Guiffrida (Kent State), Liam O’Neill (University of North Texas) and Amy Zeng (Worcester Polytechnic Institute).

Brenda Lantz Passes Defense

Brenda Lantz passed her defense in early October. The topic of her dissertation was “The Effects of Technologies on Commercial Vehicle Safety and Service: A Supply Chain Perspective.” Brenda used existing data and survey data to show how safety is affected by successful and unsuccessful adoption of technology in the trucking industry. The results were interesting and were counter to expected results for some technologies. Attending the defense were Co-Chairs Alan Stenger and Pete Swan and committee members John Spychalski and Paul Jovanis. Jim Miller assisted but could not attend the defense.

Russell Barton and Jun Shu Receive Award

Russell Barton and Jun Shu have been awarded a grant of $98,618 by The National Science Foundation for their research on Multiscale Methods for Supply Chain Monitoring. With cooperation with the Center for Supply Chain Research and the E-Business Research Center, Russell Barton and Jun Shu also received a Smeal Competitive Research Grant earlier this year for their work in applying statistical process control methods to the timeliness and correctness of item movement through a supply chain.

John Spychalski Presents in Norway

John Spychalski gave a presentation in a plenary session at the Nordic Transportation Research Conference held in Oslo, Norway on September 4-5, 2006. The presentation was entitled, "Rail Infrastructure - The Scene in the USA" and covered private and public sector roles and issues concerning the pricing, funding, and utilization of infrastructure for the supply of rail freight and passenger transportation services.

New People in SC&IS

The SC&IS Department has several new faces this fall: Dr. David Cantor joins the faculty as Visiting Assistant Professor of Supply Chain & Information System. Three new Ph.D. students joined our program this year: Zhe Shan (Zenga), Jianfeng Guo, and Zheng Jia. The 2007-2007 Marine Fellows are Lieutenant Colonel Charles G. Chiarotti and Major Peter Mahoney.

Russell Barton Named MMM Co-Director

Russell Barton, professor of supply chain and information systems, has been named co-director of the master's degree program in manufacturing management. He represents Smeal in the Master of Manufacturing Management (MMM) degree program, which is administered jointly between Smeal and the College of Engineering. Barton was also recently appointed as associate director of the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change, where he's charged with increasing the research center's connections with students in the MMM program. For more on the MMM degree, visit http://www.mmmdegree.psu.edu.

Ed Glantz Successfully Defends Ph.D. Dissertation

Congratulations to Ed Glantz, who successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation entitled "Challenges Supporting Cognitive Activities in Dynamic Work Environments: Application to Policing" at Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology.

Center for Supply Chain Research (CSCR) Receives Award

The Executive Board of Directors of SOLE, The International Society of Logistics has selected the Center for Supply Chain Research to be the 2006 institutional recipient of the Society’s Eccles Medal. The Eccles Medal was established in honor of the late Admiral Henry Eccles, one of the most highly respected logisticians of the 20^th Century. The Society presents this award to recognize outstanding achievements in the development or administration of logistics education.

Janine Spears To Attend 2006 ICIS Doctoral Consortium

Janine Spears has been selected to attend the 2006 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) Doctoral Consortium. The competition was very intense, with eighty-six nominees from around the world competing for forty available slots. Almost all of these nominees were deserving of admission to the consortium. The challenge for the consortium faculty was to identify the subset of candidates who would benefit most from participation in the consortium, and whose participation might best contribute to the overall consortium experience for all. The final group of admitted students is diverse in many aspects, including research topic, theory base, research methodology, gender, and culture.

Terry Harrison, Earl P. Strong Professor of Executive Education

Terry Harrison, professor of supply chain and information systems, has been named Earl P. Strong Executive Education Professor in Business, a professorship named for the founder of Penn State's first Executive Management Program, now known as Penn State Executive Programs.

Lin Honored As American Society for Quality Fellow

Dennis Lin, University Distinguished Professor of Statistics and Supply Chain Management has been elected as American Society for Quality Fellow.

New NSF Grant

Elena Katok's NSF proposal "Procurement Mechanism Design" has been recommended for funding by a program director from the Manufacturing Enterprise Systems (MES) program at the NSF. The MES program is part of DMII, and it is the NSF program that funds most of the mainstream supply chain research. This work is in collaboration with Richard Engelbrecht-Wiggans from the University of Illinois. The total grant amount is about $250,000. The work the NSF will be funding builds on the research that was funded through the Smeal Summer Grant program in 2005 and a resulting paper that recently came out in /Management Science.

Papers Presented

A paper by U. Bagchi (Texas-Austin), Guiffrida, A. (Kent State), and Hayya, J., "Identification Technologies and Inventory Costs," was presented at Hong Kong Informs, June 24-26, 2006.

Tom Robbins presented a paper he coauthored with Terry Harrison at POMs entitled Manpower Planning with Limited Hiring Opportunities: The Value of Stochastic Modeling. Tom also has a paper that he co-authored with Dr. Deb Medeiros that will be presented at the Winter Simulation Conference this December.

ISM Services Group to Provide Scholarships

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Services Group will be donating scholarships at its December conference. The scholarships will be $2,000 per school and $1,000 per school for travel expenses.

Scholarships Presented

Scholarships for the 2006-2007 academic year were presented to the following students:

Carol Elizabeth Patterson: Nicole L.Brody and Carin M. Perretta
Claude G. Wright: Bryan T. Sferra and Neha Sawhney
Jody Kishbaugh Memorial: Amanda Jones
John J. Coyle: Ling Z. Chen, Hieu T. Phan, and Michael X. Yu
Kodak: Jessica D. Rush
Merck: Robert W. Montgomery and Darryl L. Bellmeyer
Paul V. Maier: Robert T. Trost
Robert D. Pashek: Robert W. Montgomery and Cassandra Skavery
Robert S. & Patricia M. Ingram: Shea M. Muldowney, Anna Mak, Stephen D. Loeffler. Ashley E.Bandish, Xuan Luo, Barbara A. Fiske Charles W. Cobb, and Christopher A. Coombs
Target: Leslie E. Hubbard
William C. & Olga P. Bender: Hisham Z. Adamjee and Darryl L. Bellmeyer

Visiting Assistant Professor

Dr. David Cantor will be joining our faculty as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the next academic year. David successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis at the Smith School of Business, where he pursued a major in logistics and supply chain management and a minor in information systems.

Faculty Receive Tenure

Congratulations to Dan Guide and Doug Thomas. Both received promotion and tenure.

Stenger To Hold Inaugural Visiting Professorship In New Zealand

Alan J. Stenger, professor of supply chain management, will be on leave for the 2006-2007 academic year while he serves as Ports of Auckland Visiting Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management in the University of Auckland Business School in Auckland, New Zealand. He will be the first visiting holder of this new position. Stenger, who joined the Smeal faculty in 1972, is currently on the faculty in the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems and serves as associate director of the Center for Supply Chain Research. For more on his visiting professorship, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/releases/may06/stenger.html.

Faculty Receive Awards

At the recent Spring 2006 meeting of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), Terry Harrison was inducted into the Franz Edelman Academy as an "Edelman Laureate" for prior work on the design of supply chains. The Franz Edelman Prize is awarded annually to recognize the best practice of Operations Research in the world. As a former finalist in the Edelman competition, Harrison was inducted into the initial group of Edelman Academy members.

Congratulations also to Terry for his appointment as the Earl P. Strong Executive Education Professor in Business.

John Coyle received the Director's Award for Outstanding Achievement from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency in Washington, D.C. This was in recognition of contributions to the Agency with their Supply Chain Transformation efforts.

The Smeal Teaching Innovation and Excellence Committee has awarded Kitty Baker and Ed Glantz a Teaching Enhancement Funding for Smeal College Faculty grant. This grant will be used to support the development of MIS 204, Introduction to Business Information Systems, from a two-credit course to a three-credit course.

Frank Chelko received the award of Outstanding Faculty Member in Support of Freshmen by the East Halls Freshmen through the East Halls Housing Administration.

Emily Liu and John Saldanha Pass Oral Defense

Congratulations to Emily Liu on passing her oral defense. Special thanks go to her committee members: Akhil Kumar, chair, Dawn Russell, Alan Stenger, and John Yen (College of Information Sciences and Technology) for all their help and cooperation. Emily will be taking a position at the IBM Watson Research Center in New York.

Congratulations also to John Saldahna, who also passed his oral defense. Special thanks his committee members: Bob Novack and Alan Stenger (co-chairs), Hans Baumgartner and Arkady Tempelman (Statistics) for all their help and cooperation. John will be taking a position at the Ohio State University.

2006 Supply Chain Doctoral Symposium

The 2nd annual Supply Chain Doctoral Symposium was held at University Park from May 29 through May 31, 2006. The purpose of this gathering is to bring together logistics and supply chain professors and doctoral students to share thoughts and ideas on how to successfully complete a Ph.D. program. Faculty and students attending were from: Penn State University, Michigan State University, University of Tennessee, Ohio State University, University of Maryland, University of Oklahoma, University of Alabama, Arizona State University, and Iowa State University.

The format for the Symposium sessions included presentations and panels. Some of the topics explored included: What Does it Take to Become a Good Researcher?; Balancing Teaching and Research; Critical Career Success Factors; Selecting a Dissertation Topic and Managing the Process; The Successful Road to Tenure; The Job Search; and an Editors' panel.

This was the second offering of this Symposium. The initial program was offered last year at the University of Oklahoma. Next year's Symposium will be hosted by the University of Maryland.

Presentation at 2006 POMS Meeting

The following paper was presented at the 2006 Production and Operations Management Society meeting, which was held April 28 to May 1, 2006, in Boston, MA:

Hayya J., A. Guiffrida (University of Buffalo, SUNY), U. Bagchi (University of Texas - Austiin), L. O'Neill (University of North Texas), A. Zeng (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), "The Effect of RFID On Inventory Management & Control," paper (004-0091).

Undergrad Receives National Supply Chain Honors

Marcio Oliveira, a supply chain and information systems major, has been chosen by the R. Gene and Nancy D. Richter Foundation as one of six students around the country to receive the 2006 R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award. The $5,000 scholarship is presented annually to senior supply chain students based on high-achieving academic records, strong leadership skills, high ethical standards, and a commitment to a career in supply chain management. For more on the honor, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/releases/may06/richter.html.

Russell Barton Named Associate Director of CMTOC

Russell Barton, professor of supply chain and information systems at Smeal, has been named associate director of CMTOC to encourage even more collaboration between the research center, its corporate partners and MMM students.

Alan Stenger Obtains Visiting Professorship in New Zealand

Al Stenger will take a one-year leave of absence this July to serve as the Port of Auckland Visiting Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management with the University of Auckland Business School in New Zealand. This is a new, prestigious chair at the University, and Al has been selected as the first visitor to fill the position.

Janine Spears Passes Comprehensive Exam

Janine Spears passed her comprehensive examination on March 28. Her research will develop a theory of the consultative form of user participation emphasizing the congnitive benefits, which will ultimately lead to improved information security through enhanced policies and procedures. Her committee consists of Russell Barton as chair, Akhil Kumar, Linda Trevino, Hans Baumgartner and Eileen Trauth (IST).

Marcio Oliveira Chosen as a Winner of the Richter Scholarship Award

Marcio Bogoricin Oliveira has been chosen as one of six winners of the 2006 R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award. Marcio is invited to attend the 91st Annual ISM Conference to be held in Minneapolis, MN May 7 - 10. The conference details can be found at www.ism.ws. Marcio is a senior in the SC&IS major.

Doug Thomas, David Huff, and Norm Aggon Receive Teaching Awards

The Smeal College of Business MBA Association has awarded Doug Thomas the 2006 Excellence in Teaching Award. Each year two core faculty members and two elective faculty members are chosen for this award. Doug also received this award in 2004.

David Huff and Norm Aggon each received the Dillwyn P. Paiste, III Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. The awards were presented at an Awards Reception on April 28. Read further information on the awards.

2006 R. Hadly Waters Supply Chain Symposium

The 16th Annual R. Hadly Waters Supply Chain Syposium, Strategies for Supply Chain Transformation , was held on April 27th at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.

With over 200 attendees in the audience, Roger Kallock opened the 16th Waters Symposium with a riveting keynote presentation addressing transformation in both the private and public sectors. Mr. Kallock is the former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Material Readiness in the Clinton Administration.

The luncheon address, given by Frank Britt of C&S Wholesalers, elicited many positive comments from the attendees because of its focus on redefining retail distribution. Mr. Britt provided many examples of how demographics are changing the face of retailing in the United States.

The Pashek Award for Supply Chain Excellence recipient was Ronald D. Schnur, Vice President of Strategic Sourcing for Coors Brewing Company. Prior to joining Coors, Mr. Schnur held executive positions at various firms in the automotive and spare parts industries. Mr. Schnur received his MBA degree in Business Logistics from Penn State University.

Doug Thomas Cited In Traffic World

Doug Thomas, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management, was prominently cited in the March 20, 2006 edition of Traffic World .

Jun Shu Accepted As Participant At 2006 Young Research Roundtable

Jun Shu of the Department of Supply Chain & Information Systems has been accepted as a participant in the 2006 Young Research Roundtable, joining a group of outstanding young faculty nominated from leading universities.

Smeal MBA Team Wins International Supply Chain Case Competition

The Smeal MBA Team won the International Supply Chain Case Competition for the third time in the last four years. Participating universities included Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio State, Michigan State, Maryland, Arizona State, and Darmstadt. Read the full story.

QMM Program Certifies First Black Belt

Penn State's Quality and Manufacturing Management (QMM) program has certified its first Six Sigma 'black belt.' Ryan Atkins, a 2001 graduate in business logistics and international business, has received this prestigious title.

SC&IS Dilwyn Paiste, III Nominees

Terry Harrison, David Huff, Norm Aggon, and Long Gao were selected as SC&IS nominees for Dilwyn Paiste, III teaching awards.

Christina Butterworth Receives Traffic Club Of Pittsburgh Scholarship

Christina L. Butterworth, an undergraduate in the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems, was awarded the $2500 Traffic Club of Pittsburgh scholarship.

Marcio Bogoricin Oliveira Named as Finalist For The Richter Scholarship

Marcio Bogoricin Oliveira has been selected to participate in the final round of interviews for the R. Gene Richter Scholarship Award. As a finalist, he will have the opportunity to interview with Steve Kesinger, Vice President of Corporate Procurement-Nordstrom and Clive Heal, Head of Global Procurement-Genentech, Inc. Marcio is a senior in the SC&IS major.

Michael Hreha Receives Toyota Scholarship

Michael S. Hreha has been awarded a Toyota Scholarship. Michael is a junior in the SC&IS major. As well as being an excellent student, Michael is also involved in service work. He spent his spring break helping cleanup after the recent hurricanes in Louisiana.

Paper By Jack Hayya Presented At Southeast DSI Meeting

J.D. Hong of the South Carolina State University presented the paper "VBA applications for the minimum cost transportation model" (J. D Hong - South Carolina State University & J.C. Hayya - Pennsylvania State University) at the Annual Meeting of the Southeast Decision Sciences Institute held at Wilmington, NC, February 22-24, 2006.

Spring 2006 Spisak Lecture

On February 13, 2006, Daniel M. Mazur, Assistant Vice President/Strategic Planning of Norfolk Southern, presented a lecture on Railway Infrastructure and Capacity Planning of Norfolk Southern.

Ph.D. Students Pass Candidacy Exam

Recently, graduate students Kaan Kuzu, Kate Li, Valery Pavlov, and Tom Robbins of the SC&IS Department passed their candidacy examinations.

Spring SC&IS Career Fair Held In January

The Spring SC&IS Career Fair held on January 25, 2006, in the Atrium of the new Business Building was a great success. Plan ahead to take part in the Fall 2006 SC&IS Career Fair on September 25, 2006.

Center For Supply Chain Research Adds Corporate Sponsors

The Center for Supply Chain Research (CSCR) welcomes industry leaders to consider membership in its Corporate Sponsorship Program.

Gordon J. Brown Receives Appointment

Gordon J. Brown has recently been appointed Senior Vice President of Global Laboratory Operations for Orchid Cellmark in Princeton, New Jersey. Gordon received his B.S. in Business Logistics from Penn State in 1987 and an MBA in Finance from Fordham University. Orchid Cellmark is a Princeton-based company that provides DNA testing services.

Russell Barton Makes Presentation at Northwestern

Russell Barton presented a seminar on "Experiment Design Strategies for Fitting Forward and Inverse Approximations" at the Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences Department, Northwestern University, on January 17, 2006.

Janine Spears Presents At Two Conferences

Janine Spears, PhD candidate in Supply Chain and Informationtion Systems, recently presented at the Joint Working Conference on Security Management, Integrity and Internal Control in Information Systems; and at the 39th Hawaii International Conferences on System Sciences.

Xu Joins Operations Research Editorial Board

Susan Xu, professor of management science and supply chain management at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, has been appointed to the editorial board of Operations Research , a leading journal in the field.

Ventura, Tew Picked To Lead Master Of Manufacturing Management Degree Program

Jose Ventura, professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering, and Jeffrey Tew, clinical professor of supply chain and information systems, have been named co-directors of the master's degree program in manufacturing management.

Purdum Sits On Awards Ceremony Advisory Panel

Susan Purdum, administrative director and senior research assistant for the Center of Supply Chain Research at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, served on the advisory panel as a judge for the Defense Logistics 2005 Awards Ceremony, held Nov. 29 in Washington, D.C.

Huang Wins Best Dissertation Award

Zan Huang, assistant professor of supply chain and information systems, received the ACM SIGMIS Doctoral Dissertation Award for the best dissertation in the field of information systems at the International Conference on Information Systems in Las Vegas this month.

Dennis Lin Elected As Fellow Of The American Society For Quality

Dennis Lin has been elected as a Fellow of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) in November 2005. An ASQ Fellow is an individual who has an established record of contributions, both to the quality profession and to the Society.

R. Gene Richter Scholarship Program Seeking Applicants

The R. Gene and Nancy D. Richter Foundation will provide a scholarship of up to $5,000 to individuals seeking education in the area of supply chain management-procurement for the 2006-2007 academic year. The Richter Scholarship Program was established to develop high-potential undergraduate students into tomorrow's procurement leaders.

Smeal College Supply Chain Lab Dedication

The Inauguration and Ribbon Cutting for the Supply Chain Laboratory took place on October 28. The Supply Chain Lab provides cutting-edge technology for students and faculty to study, simulate, and test the key relationships in end-to-end supply chains.

Harrison And Colleagues Win DSI Best Application Paper Research Award

The paper entitled "SCML: A Generalized Supply Chain Description Language" by Dean Chatfield, Terry Harrison and Jack Hayya won the 2005 DSI Best Application Paper Research Award at the 2005 Annual Meeting of Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) in San Francisco.

Terry Harrison Active At INFORMS

Terry Harrison has been elected to the position of Vice President of Publications of INFORMS and recently attended the 2005 INFORMS meeting in San Francisco.

SC&IS Holiday Party

The SC&IS Department ended the semester by celebrating the holidays at a department party. Tim Lowe and John Spychalski served as elves in spreading cheer and treats.

Corridor One Regional Rail Project in the News

Evelyn Thomchick and John Spychalski discussed the Corridor One regional rail project proposed to connect Carlisle, Harrisburg, and Lancaster in an op-ed in the Harrisburg Patriot News. "Building Corridor One now rather than later, while the opportunity to access existing infrastructure is available, would ensure that this need can be met. It is time to seize that opportunity." ( Outside Analysis Backs Regional Rail Concept ).

Jack Hayya Serves at the 36th Annual DSI Meeting

Jack Hayya served as Chair of the Invited Fellows Track at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI) in San Francisco in November 2005. He also was a presenter of the Invited Fellows Paper: Hayya, J.C., Bagchi, U. (Texas-Austin), He, X. James (Fairfield University), Kim, J.G. (Korea Highway Corporation), & Pan, Andrew, C. (Chung Kuo Institute of Technology, Taiwan), "Supply chain analysis: RFID & inventory control."

PhD Students Successfully Defend Dissertations

Ching-Hua Chen Ritzo and Rob Neidigh recently successfully defended their disserations. The title of Ching-Hua's thesis is Availability Management for Configure-to-Order Supply Chain Systems . She is currently working at IBM Watson Research in New York. The title of Rob's thesis is Optimizing Lot Sizing and Order Scheduling with Nonlinear Production Rates . Rob is an Assistant Professor of Management Science at Shippensburg State University.

Janine Spears Wins eBRC 2005 Dissertation Award

Janine Spears, a PhD Student in SC&IS, is one of the winners of this year's eBRC dissertation award with her proposal entitled, "User Participation in Identifying Information Security Risk: An Empirical Study."

Smeal MBA Students Place In National Black MBA Association Case Competition

Smeal MBA students Janelle C. McIntyre, Maimuna Mijindadi, and Robert Watson won third place in the Chrysler sponsored National Black MBA Association Case Competition at the organization's annual conference in San Diego.

Fall Supply Chain Career Fair Held in September

The Fall Supply Chain Career Fair held on September 19, 2005 in the Atrium of the new Business Building was a great success.

New People in SC&IS

The SC&IS Department has several new faces this fall: Timothy Lowe, Smeal Chair in SC&IS; Zan Huang, Assistant Professor of SC&IS; and Jeffrey Tew, Clinical Professor of SC&IS all join the college as faculty members. David Mitchell joined the department as a new Ph.D. student.

Dennis Lin and Colleagues Awarded IBM Shared University Research Program Grant Award

A proposal from Professor Dennis Lin (SC&IS), Professor Lyle N. Long (Aerospace Engineering & Acoustics), and Professor Arthur M. Lesk (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology) was accepted for a grant award by IBM's Shared University Research (SUR) program.

SC&IS Faculty Contribute To Regional Rail Study

Evelyn Thomchick, John Spychalski and Gary Gittings of the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems at Penn State's Smeal College of Business recently collaborated with other researchers from the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute on an independent analysis of a proposed regional rail system in South Central Pennsylvania known as CORRIDORone.

Jack Hayya Presents at IEEE Conference

Uttarayan Bagchi (University of Texas, Austin) and Jack C. Hayya presented "RFID, Inventory Costs, and Velocity Management," at the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Service and Logistics Management (ID#R290) held between August 10-12 at Beijing, China.

Smeal College Hosts IBM ISC/University Semi-Annual Symposium

On July 25-27, 2005, the Smeal College of Business hosted the IBM Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) Semi-Annual Symposium at University Park.

John J. Coyle Scholarships for 2005-2006

Dennis Fiakpoey and Darryl Bellmeyer have been awarded the John J. Coyle Scholarship for the academic year 2005-2006 from the Department of Supply Chain and Information Systems, Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University. Dennis is from West Palm Beach, FL and is a junior in the SC&IS major. Darryl is from Sellersville, Pennsylvania, and is also a junior in the SC&IS major.

Lehigh Valley Roundtable Scholarship for 2005-2006

Kendra Harmison, a senior in the SC&IS major from Orefield, Pennsylvania, has been awarded the Lehigh Valley Roundtable Scholarship for the year 2005-2006. She has also been selected to represent the Roundtable as a student assistant at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals Annual Conference in San Diego in October 2005.

Society of Logistics Engineers (SOLE) Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Award for 2005

John Patrick Saldanha received the 2005 SOLE Doctoral Dissertation Award. This award provides a $3,000 grant to a Ph.D candidate and recognition by the society through publication of an article in the SOLE Logistics Spectrum based on the completed dissertation.

BA 302, MIS 204, and MS&IS 200 Go Through Renewal Process

Three large section courses taught by SC&IS faculty are going through a renewal process in order to become better educational experiences for our students and faculty.

QMM Students Completed Six Sigma Blue Belt Course

QMM graduate students completed in May the 8 day, 8 hours per day Six Sigma Blue Belt course. The initial four days were in January during the week before Spring classes began, and the final four days were in May after classes finished. Seven graduates achieved the level of blue belt (equivalent to black belt body of knowledge). These are the first PSU graduates that have also achieved this business certification. SC&IS designed the seminar; SC&IS and the College of Engineering co-taught the seminar. (May 2005)

Pashek Scholarship Recipients Selected

Amanda Jones and Darryl Bellmeyer have been awarded the Robert D. Pashek Scholarship in Logistics and Transportation. Amanda is from Larksville, Pennsylvania and is a junior in the SC&IS major. Darryl is from Sellersville, Pennsylvania and is also a junior in the SC&IS major.

Jack Hayya Presents At POMS Conference

Jack C. Hayya presented the paper, "Lumpy demand as a Markov process," [co-authored by Terry P. Harrison, Dean C. Chatfield (VPI), and Jeon G. Kim (Korea Highway Corporation)] at the Production & Operations Management Society (POMS) conference, Chicago, IL, April 29 to May 2, 2005. He also served with Jack Kanet and Mike Gorman ,both of the University of Dayton, as a facilitator of the Emerging Scholars Program at the POMS Conference.

Annual SC&IS Spring Picnic

The SC&IS Department held its annual picnic at Sunset Park on April 19, 2005.

Zan Huang To Join The Smeal SC&IS Department

Zan Huang will join the SC&IS Department as an Assistant Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems in fall 2005.

Evelyn Thomchick Returns From Sabbatical

During Evelyn Thomchick's recent sabbatical, she was a visiting scholar at the Norwegian Institute of Transport Economics in Oslo, Norway, in fall 2004.

Undergraduate Honored For Supply Chain Potential

Tania Santiago, a supply chain and information systems major at Penn State's Smeal College of Business and a student in the University's Schreyer Honors College, recently was honored by the R. Gene and Nancy D. Richter Foundation as a high-potential future leader in the procurement field.

Three Honored For Teaching & Advising Excellence

Karl Muller, Rose Mary Witham, and Kaan Kuzu have received 2004-2005 Dillwyn P. Paiste, III and Fred Brand, Jr. Awards from Penn State's Smeal College of Business. The awards, which recognize excellence in teaching and advising at the college, were presented April 5 during a ceremony at the Nittany Lion Inn.

Timothy Lowe Named Smeal Chair Of Supply Chain & Information Systems

Timothy J. Lowe will join the SC&IS Department in fall 2005 as the Smeal Chair. Lowe is currently the C. Maxwell Stanley Professor of International Operations Management at the Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa.

Jack Hayya Gives Presentation At University Of Pittsburgh

Jack Hayya presented on the following topics: bullwhip effect, order crossover, and forecasting lumpy demand at the University of Pittsburgh's College of Business on April 13, 2005.

Ching-Hua Chen-Ritzo Takes First Place At The Penn State Graduate Exhibition

Ching-Hua Chen-Ritzo's presentation titled "Optimization of Configure-To-Order (CTO) Supply Chains via Large Scale Stochastic Programming" won first prize at the Penn State Graduate Exhibition on March 20, 2005.

Smeal SC&IS Students Awarded Scholarships From The Traffic Club Of Pittsburgh

Lindsay Seidel and David Manwiller, students in the Smeal SC&IS Department, are the recipients of $2,500 scholarships from the Traffic Club of Pittsburgh. Lindsay and David will receive the awards during the 103rd Annual Traffic Club Black Tie Dinner on March 17, 2005, in Pittsburgh.

MBA Students Participate In IBM Integrated Supply Chain Immersion Course

Twenty-eight MBA students from Penn State and Howard Universities participated in IBM's second integrated supply chain immersion course at IBM in East Fishkill, NY, between February 29 and March 2, 2005. The future supply chain leaders met with eight IBM supply chain vice presidents and other content experts for an in-depth study of a major corporation's supply chain from beginning to end. Dr. Terry Harrison, Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems, served as Penn State's faculty coordinator for this immersion experience. Read the full story. http://www.smeal.psu.edu/depts/scis/awards/iscic05.pdf (.pdf 62Kb) *Acrobat

Jack Hayya Chairs International Symposium Session

Jack Hayya chaired the session on Inventory Management Models and Methods at the International Symposium on Stochastic Models in Reliability, Safety, Security and Logistics, February 15 - 17, 2005, at the Sami Shamoon College of Engineering, Beer-Sheva, Israel. In that session, he presented the paper "Supply Chain Management: Forecasting Lumpy Demand," co-authored by Dean Chatfield (VPI), Terry Harrison, and Jeon Kim (Korea Highway Corporation). A five-page synopsis of the paper appears in the proceedings.

Smeal MBAs Win Logistics Case Competition

For the second time in three years, MBA students from Penn State's Smeal College of Business took top honors at the International Graduate Logistics Case Competition in Chicago.

Lin Named Distinguished Professor

Dennis K.J. Lin, professor of supply chain management and statistics at Penn State 's Smeal College of Business, has been named a University Distinguished Professor in honor of his impressive record of research, teaching, and service.

Jeff Tew Joins The SC&IS Department In Fall 2005

Jeff Tew will be joining us in Fall of 2005 as Clinical Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems. Jeff has been with General Motors Corporation in Detroit since 1998 and is currently the GM Technical Fellow and Group Manager. Previously, at GM, he held the position of Manager of the Supply Chain Research Group. Before going into industry, Jeff was Professor of Industrial Engineering at Virginia Tech University. He holds a PhD in Operations Research, M.S. in Applied Statistics, and B.S in Mathematics from Purdue University.

Smeal College And SC&IS Rankings In U.S. News & World Report

SC& IS ranked 5th overall—Smeal College of Business ranked tied for 20th overall and 12th among public universities in the 2005 edition of U.S. News & World Report's "Best Undergraduate Business Programs"

The First PSU Six Sigma Black Belt Training Seminar Held

The Six Sigma Black Belt training seminar was established jointly by the College of Engineering and the Smeal College of Business in support of the QMM program. The seminar consists of two 4-day classroom sessions of 6.5 hours duration per day and is open to current QMM students and alumni. The second session of this two-part program is scheduled for May 2005 concluding with a comprehensive certification exam that includes major management and statistical knowledge elements. This seminar prepares the student with the "body of knowledge" necessary to achieve a professional certification level of "Black Belt" based on criteria established by the American Society for Quality (ASQ). ASQ is considered by many Fortune 500 companies as the de-facto Six Sigma standard within business. The seminar educators are Dr. Jeya Chandra (College of Engineering, IE) and Frank Chelko (Smeal College of Business, SC& IS).

Terry Harrison and Ching-Hua Chen-Ritzo Present at ICS's Poster Session

Terry Harrison and Ching-Hua Chen-Ritzo presented a poster entitled "Optimization of Configure-To-Order (CTO) Supply Chains via Large Scale Stochastic Programming" at The Institute for Computational Science's (ISC) Computation Day. (February 2005)

Akhil Kumar Joins Editorial Board of Information Systems Research (ISR)

Akhil Kumar was invited to become an associate editor of the INFORMS journal of Information Systems Research. ISR has a strong reputation for high quality research publications and has remained an attractive publication outlet for highly regarded information systems research topics and methods. ISR has maintained a leadership position within the academic community and recently was included on Business Week's list of prominent academic journals. (January 2005)

Transportation Engineering and Safety Conference held at Penn Stater

The 2004 Transportation Engineering and Safety Conference was held December 8 through 10 at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. Experts in the transportation field spoke on a variety of current issues to advance the education and knowledge of conference participants and to foster discussion and interaction between presenters and the audience. Seven preconference workshops provided more in-depth coverage of selected topics. The conference aims to provide important information for transportation professionals throughout Pennsylvania, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the nation. More information on the program can be found at http://www.pti.psu.edu/MAUTC/TESC_2004/2004_TESC.html.

Jack Hayya Presents Paper at The Decision Sciences Conference

Jack Hayya presented the paper, "A regression approach to inventory control with Erlang lead time and deterministic demand," at the Decision Sciences Conference (DSI) held in Boston on November 20-23, 2004. The paper was co-authored by J. Kim, D. Sun (Notre Dame), and X. He (Fairfield).

Dennis Lin's Visit to the Southwest

Dennis Lin recently traveled to the southwest to participate in conferences and meetings. On November 15th he attended the Arizona Chapter's meeting of the Institute of Industrial Engineering. Dennis gave a departmental seminar at Arizona State University's Department of Industrial Engineering on November 17th. Lastly, he visited and gave a seminar at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on November 19, 2004.

Dennis Lin presents at the Institute for Computational Science's Fall Seminar Series

On November 1, 2004, Dennis Lin presented "Statistical Data Mining: A Global View and Some Research Potentials" at the Fall Seminar Series hosted by the Institute for Computational Science.

CSCR Research Team Investigates Radio Frequency Identification For SAP

Responding to a request from SAP, a team from the Center for Supply Chain Research (CSCR) at Penn State's Smeal College of Business recently completed an examination of radio frequency identification (RFID) and the ongoing impact of the technology on warehousing.

Coyle Honored With Society Of Logistics Award

In recognition of his work developing logistics education, John Coyle, professor emeritus of supply chain and information systems at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, has been honored with the Eccles Medal from The International Society of Logistics (SOLE). (October 2004)

Professor Terry Harrison and doctoral student Ching-Hua Chen Ritzo participate in recent INFORMS meeting

During the 2004 INFORMS meeting held in Denver, CO, Terry Harrison and Ching-Hua Chen Ritzo led a panel titled "Stochastic Available-To-Promise for Configure-To-Order Products with Flexible Supply." (October 2004)

New Faculty and PhD Students in SC&IS

Henry Bi and David Huff joined the SC&IS faculty in Fall 2004. The new SC&IS PhD students are Kaan Kuzu, Jiayi Li, Valery Pavlov, and Tom Robbins.

Smeal College 2004 Marine Corps Fellows

Colonel John M. Burt and Major Mark W. Shellabarger are Senior Marine Corps' Logistics Fellows at the Smeal College of Business.

Dennis Lin presents during recent trip to Taiwan

During a recent trip to Taiwan, Dennis Lin gave a seminar at National Central University (Chungli, Taiwan) on "BIG (Business, Industrial and Government) Statistics" and also attended "The 2004 International Conference on Knowledge-Based Economy and Global Management" (hosted by Southern Taiwan University of Technology, Tainan, Taiwan) where he presented "Modern Business Intelligence" and chaired a session on "Supply Chain Management."

Dennis Lin visited IBM's Watson Research Center

On September 24, Dennis Lin visited IBM's Watson Research Center and gave a seminar titled "BIG Statistics."

Dennis Lin Leads Seminar at Columbia University

On September 27, Dennis Lin gave a seminar at Columbia University titled "Statistical Data Mining: A Global View and Some Potential Research Opportunities."

Smeal College Faculty Suggest Improvements To Online Reputation Measurement

The feedback systems used by online retailers to gauge the reputations of sellers provide fewer incentives to trust or be trustworthy according to research co-authored by Gary Bolton and Elena Katok of Penn State's Smeal College of Business, along with Axel Ockenfels of the University of Cologne. (August 2004)

Senior Supply Chain Leaders Attend Forum

Smeal's Center for Supply Chain Research investigated customization and flexibility in supply chains during its Leaders Forum held Sept. 8-10 at University Park. With keynote presentations, panel discussions, and breakout sessions, CSCR 's Leaders Forums provide a venue for senior-level supply chain managers and executives to share emerging practices and explore innovations in the field.

Carl King, BS QBA '93, Joins Dominion Digital as a Senior Consultant

Carl King, a 1993 Smeal BS Quantitative Business Analysis graduate was recently hired by Dominion Digital as a senior consultant.

Daniel Yunes, a Junior in SC&IS, Awarded Scholarship by Pembroke Consulting

Daniel Yunes, a junior in the SC&IS department was awarded a five thousand dollar prize for his essay based on the role of technology in the wholesaler/distributor market. Danny used Wal-Mart and Dell as the basis for his paper. In addition to the cash prize, Danny's essay will be published in the supply chain magazine "Modern Distribution Management." Pembroke's press release can be found at http://www.pembrokeconsulting.com/News/09-27-2004.htm

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