As always, the end of a semester marks the time to celebrate the achievements of our graduating cohort. On May 7th, the QUEST community gathered at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center for Cohort 41’s QUEST Conference. To kick off the event, Phil Tulkoff, the retired CEO and President of Tulkoff Food Products–a Baltimore-based company and a long-time QUEST project champion–shared a few opening remarks. Reflecting on their 15 years of collaboration with QUEST, Tulkoff emphasized that QUEST students consistently bring “fresh eyes, new thinking, and a level of energy that pushes [his] team to think differently.” These words are especially true for this cohort–four of whom I had the privilege of speaking with about their project and their biggest takeaways from QUEST.

I first spoke with Rashmi Kanipakala and Isabelle Leo from the QUEST Tulkoff team who worked on optimizing Tulkoff’s production process, streamlining decision-making, increasing employees’ efficiency when creating a schedule, and minimizing the dependency of employees on individual expertise. To address these issues, their team decided to create a user-friendly scheduling tool using the heuristic algorithm approach. They opted for the heuristic algorithm due to its accuracy, speed, and scalability. In addition to developing a heuristic scheduling tool, they also developed a user manual to ensure all employees could effectively utilize it, resulting in 50% less time spent on creating schedules and saving Tulkoff Food Products $30,000. When asked about what advice they would give incoming QUEST students, Leo shared that she would encourage QUEST students “to utilize the QUEST network because there are so many people, like faculty advisors, that want to help QUESTees, which is something that you do not really find outside of QUEST.” Kanipakala added that she would advise future QUEST students to “take your time, keep in mind the scale of what you are doing, and connect with other people in your cohort. Although it will be hard, it can also be incredibly rewarding.” Congratulations to the QUEST Tulkoff team for creating a new and innovative approach that saves valuable time for Tulkoff employees.

I also had the chance to talk with QUESTPress lead, Elizabeth Ipe, of the QUESTaverse team, about her experience working with Meta. Ipe and her team were tasked to develop an interactive and fun way for Meta users to review their terms and conditions in the Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality spaces. They created two prototypes: MIRA and the Cube. MIRA is an AI agent that uses a conservational methodology to explain the terms and conditions to users and can be used with the Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer glasses. The Cube is an interactive and immersive game that allows the users to view the terms and conditions through their Meta Quest 3S VR headset. Initially, the team was planning on giving Meta simple mock-ups on how to make the terms and conditions more interesting, but as time went on, the team “wanted to deliver more to them [and] started making them prototypes.” Ipe helped to design the Cube, which required her to learn for the first time how to use Unity and C#. “It was hard, but I did it,” Ipe explained. “Working on the Cube reminded me that there is so much more for me to learn and work on. Even though it may be challenging, I know I can do it.” Congratulations to Elizabeth and the members of QUESTaverse for developing these novel and creative prototypes for Meta!

Next, I would like to introduce the award-winning teams: woM.E.N.N. Consulting and ReQUESTing Backup. I talked to Esha Singhai and Melanie Hwan of woM.E.N.N. Consulting who won Best Poster. They helped to address staffing inefficiencies within Alpine Rewards, a consulting firm that serves the Life Sciences and Technology sectors. They developed an Excel dashboard and scorecard, key performance indicators, and a bi-weekly outlook poll, which helped to organize the staffing more efficiently, but also allowed for continuous feedback from employees for future improvement. Singhai revealed that one of the biggest challenges for the company was the lack of quantitative data. “We had to take a lot more qualitative insights. It was initially difficult for us to figure out how to do that because most QUEST Capstone projects are data heavy,” Singhai shared. “Eventually, we figured out that balance and how to leverage qualitative data for our project.” Despite the challenges, the team’s hard work prevailed as they won Best Poster! When asked about what advice they would give future BMGT/ENES 490H students, Hwan advised students to “stay as organized as possible. There are a lot of deadlines that come up pretty quickly, whether that is class assignments or working with clients. It goes by really, really fast. Making sure we knew who was doing what and that the work was divided up very clearly really helped us with our project.” Congratulations to woM.E.N.N. Consulting for winning Best Poster!

Last, but certainly not least, I talked to the winners of the Most Outstanding Capstone award: Faith LeBrun, Tony Liberatore, Jimmy Miller, and Noah Wigglesworth of ReQUESTing Backup. They worked with the Strategic Manufacturing unit of BAE Systems’ Combat Mission Systems division, which specializes in the production of military combat vehicles. Their goal was to create an implementation plan that would increase the adoption of BAE’s digital manufacturing system, Oracle Manufacturing Execution System (MES), across all sites. In order to accomplish this task, the team visited one of BAE’s sites in York, Pennsylvania where they toured the shop floor and met tank operators–all while being surrounded by completed military-grade tanks. Miller explained how this site visit helped him put the project into perspective. “You realize at the end of the day, we are four college kids, and this is a company that is producing tanks for the government, but we are able to help them out. I always think that it is really cool to see the size of the impacts that QUEST students are able to make and the companies we are able to work with,” Miller shared. While at the site, Wigglesworth recalled an incident where they saw an operator attempting to work on his vehicle, but growing frustrated with the new system. “These operators do not really understand these changes, and this is a recurring trend we found,” Wigglesworth explained. The team used this as a motivator to help BAE Systems’ and their operators. Their solution: the implementation of an MES task force. This task force would follow a 4-step process from training operators to phasing out the older system, which the team also detailed in their recommendation. When asked about what led to their success, LeBrun revealed that “we all had the same commitment to succeed and to be the best. We were willing to go the extra mile, willing to work the extra long hours, to understand the problem and figure out how to solve it.” Their hard work clearly paid off, with recommendations that can save BAE Systems’ almost 5 million dollars a year. Congrats ReQUESTing Backup for winning Most Outstanding Capstone!

Although this moment may feel like the end, it is truly a milestone in a much larger journey. Congratulations Cohort 41 for completing the QUEST Honors Program! We are so proud of everything you have accomplished—and even more excited to see what you will achieve in the future. As you take your next steps, we hope you carry with you the wise words of Phil Tulkoff: “Keep asking great questions, stay curious, and remember that collaboration is a superpower.”