News & Awards Archive

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.

The Smeal College 2005 Senior Marine Corps' Logistics Fellows are Colonel Vincent Coglianese and Major Troy Landry.

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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