Before the QUEST Conference on December 8th, the air was thick with both nerves and energy for the students in Cohort 36. In the night ahead, they would show friends, family, corporate partners, alumni, faculty, and staff all of the hard work they had put in with their clients this semester.

Tamar Kellner (Cohort 36) and her team were especially antsy since they had won Best Capstone. They were going to get to present their findings to everyone who attended the conference. I had a chance to speak with Kellner about the focus of her project. She shared, “This semester my team worked with McCormick & Company to analyze how humidity is impacting production efficiency in their Hunt Valley Plant. We developed regression models to quantify the monetary losses incurred due to humidity and pinpoint the ideal plant conditions to prevent these losses.” This is a very technical topic so one of the things that her team really focused on was making sure that their message was accessible to every member of the audience. It was very difficult and her team spent days refining how they would explain it. “We focused on telling the story of our problem in a relatable way that could resonate with almost anyone in the audience. We’ve all used spices while cooking at some point, so we wanted to capitalize on that,” she said.

Kellner and her team at the QUEST Conference

Her team knocked it out of the park when they got a chance to present. She attributed it to all the time they had spent preparing for the conference. When it came time to walk up and present, they were all confident, knowing that they had each other’s backs with full confidence.

There is also a second award that is given at the end of the conference, the Best Poster. The conference starts with a poster session where teams do five minute informal presentations about their projects to smaller groups who walk by. All the students in Cohort 36 were able to vote on the Best Poster, which was crowned at the end of the night to the Thales team.

Best Poster team at the QUEST Conference

I was able to speak with the team about their poster and where they got the inspiration for it. Tiffanie Choi (Cohort 36) told me that originally the team’s poster design looked nothing like the poster seen above. Originally, it looked like a blueprint which sketched out each different step in the process. However, the team knew that they could soar to new heights. Alex Hou (Cohort 36) said, “We wanted to go from blueprint to a tech-y futuristic theme. We were inspired by Tony Stark, HUD displays, and Thales’ website.” When all of the changes were put in place, they had risen above the rest and earned the Best Poster.

Ryan Goodman presenting at the QUEST conference

These are just two examples of teams from the conference, but every single team worked very hard and had their own story to tell about how their project came together. Ryan Goodman (Cohort 36) summarized it well when he said, “The QUEST Conference was truly a highlight of my college experience: four semesters of hard work culminating in one special night. For my capstone project, I had the opportunity to work with Tronox, a chemical production company, specifically with their Hamilton, Mississippi plant. Fortunately, the countless hours spent working on my project didn’t really feel like work, since I had the best teammates by my side! Throughout the project, my team had two main goals in mind. Whether we were practicing our presentation, refining our slide-deck and poster, or drilling down on specific details of our deliverables, we wanted to give our best effort, and we wanted to have fun with it. Ultimately, I was thrilled with what we were able to accomplish and how we were able to convey our story. The conference was the perfect send-off to Cohort 36’s journey in QUEST.”

Congratulations to everyone in Cohort 36! We are so proud of all of your hard work and the tangible impacts you made for your clients this semester. Thank you to all of our clients for all of your support of our students as well!