Author Archives: Jessica Roffe

QUEST Takes Silicon Valley

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Silicon Valley is known for its tech innovation, engineering culture, and startup ecosystem, but to QUEST students, it’s also known as the destination for the annual spring break trip. Each year, a group of QUEST students enrolled in BMGT438G/ENES489Q travel to the Bay Area on an enriching journey full of knowledge, career insights, and fun.

But with all of the travel opportunities available at UMD, why choose QUEST2SiliconValley? Ankita Sahoo from Cohort 30 explained that she wanted to see Silicon Valley from a QUEST perspective since it would help her actively network with and learn more about the lives of QUEST alumni on the West Coast. Having been on other trips through UMD, she said, “QUEST2SiliconValley stood out since it was a lot more career-oriented and students were able to build meaningful connections with employees at companies like Uber, Google, and Tesla.” On the other hand, Michael Khizgilov from Cohort 29 said QUEST2SiliconValley was his first trip through UMD. He chose the trip since he’d never been to the West Coast and wanted to “experience firsthand how companies in Silicon Valley set themselves apart and innovate successfully.”

QUESTees exploring Google’s campus

The trip this year consisted of various site visits, brunches and dinners with alumni, and free time during which students could go sightseeing in San Francisco and Palo Alto. Visits included Uber, Compology, ABC News, Autodesk, DoorDash, Genentech, Facebook, Ideo, Ford, Google, Verizon Media Group, and Tesla. Each student was responsible for researching one of the companies and planning out the logistics for that company’s site visit. Ankita Sahoo (Q30) was in charge of planning out Genentech. She discussed plans for the visit with the Genentech point of contact beforehand, went over the types of discussions and activities to be done that day, and made sure that QUEST students could take a tour of the office. Students were also responsible for analyzing each company’s development processes and recording their findings in a final report. The class ended with a final presentation to the QUEST community to showcase how fun and insightful the trip to Silicon Valley was.

The main purpose of the trip is to let QUEST students experience what the corporate culture of the West Coast is like. It gives students a great opportunity to see Silicon Valley from the eyes of those who actually work there. It’s also a great opportunity to visit the West Coast and see what it’s like before you choose to work there full-time. Dan Selzer from Cohort 27 will be working with Amazon in Seattle starting this July and said he learned a lot since he was able to “visit companies that could potentially be [his] future employers.” He explained that the site visits “made [him] more comfortable about [his] decision to work at a tech company on the West Coast.”

All in all, QUEST students had an amazing time on the West Coast this Spring Break. Be on the lookout and sign up for Design and Innovation in Silicon Valley next Spring so you too can join in on the fun!

To view more photos from the trip, click here!

QUEST Welcomes Q33 & Q34

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After reviewing 280 applications and interviewing 150+ students this February and March, QUEST welcomed 90 new students to Cohorts 33 and 34! I got a chance to speak with a few of them:

Jack Liang (Q33)

Jack Liang is an aerospace engineering major from Silver Spring. Jack applied to QUEST to branch out of engineering and get to work with people from different majors.

“I’m going to have to learn how to work with and interact with people of different specialties and backgrounds, so why not do it now with an entire cohort of smart, ambitious, and talented people?”

Jack is looking forward to studying abroad and hopes to take BMGT489L: Japan: From Quality Past to Automated Future in his junior year with fellow QUEST students. In his free time, he loves dancing, going to boxing club and sparring with his friends. He is also involved in Theta Tau and currently serves as a Professional Greek Council Representative.

Angela Chien (Q33)

Angela Chien is an incoming member of Cohort 33 majoring in finance and management. Angela wanted to join QUEST because of the great things she heard about it from her friends.

“I like how you form really close friends within this tight-knit environment and learn transferable skills you probably wouldn’t be able to in your other traditional classes.”

Angela is particularly excited for QUEST electives like BMGT408C: Quality Web Development in Business and the study abroad opportunities with QUEST. Angela enjoys traveling and has lived in four different places. Outside of school, she likes binge-watching shows on Netflix and hanging out with her friends. She’s also involved in Sigma Psi Zeta, a sorority on campus, and the Taiwanese American Student Association.

Morgan Hoffman (Q34)

Morgan Hoffman is a mechanical engineering major from Baltimore. Morgan applied to QUEST to get the opportunity to learn and apply business skills to help real companies.

“I’m most looking forward to meeting everyone in my cohort and being able to work and learn with students from outside the engineering school in multidisciplinary teams.”

Morgan likes hiking and spending time outside, especially as the weather gets warmer. Over the summer she is backpacking for 3 weeks in Europe with her roommate. They plan on traveling to 9 different countries. Outside of her engineering classes, Morgan is in Engineering World Health and pledging Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity.

Advaith Bantval (Q34)

Advaith Bantval is an incoming member of Cohort 34 majoring in engineering. Advaith applied to QUEST to have the opportunity to work with people of different backgrounds.

“I think there’s a huge benefit in diversity within teams, and that’s the kind of community QUEST nurtures because it adds an extra level of diversity that I wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to in my engineering classes. Through QUEST, I can interact with business and CMNS students too.”

Advaith is looking forward to the teamwork aspect of the classes and getting to work with professional partners. He’s also excited for the study abroad opportunities within QUEST and learning about business and technology in unique environments. Outside of school, Advaith likes hanging out with friends, trying new foods, and listening to music. He has played percussion all his life and enjoys international relations, policy and debate. On campus, he is involved in Theta Tau, Coffeehouse Debate, and Model Congress.

Mina Shahmirzadi (Q34)

Mina Shahmirzadi is a business major from Rockville, Maryland. Mina applied to QUEST because she wanted to find a community of like-minded and motivated students. She also wants to expand her network and interact with people outside of the business school.

“I really want to take the ‘Doing Business in Asia’ elective over one of my winter terms. It seems like a unique opportunity to learn about a new culture while bonding with my QUEST peers.”

Outside of school, Mina likes to play soccer and plays on an intramural team. She is also a member of Alpha Xi Delta, a sorority on campus, and is looking to run for a leadership position within the organization next year.

Congrats to all of our newly admitted QUESTees!

Worlds Collide Again Between QUEST & ODK

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[Left to right] Jess Roffe, Ari Riske (Q29), Doron Tadmor (Q29), Josh Cocker (Q27), and David Rosenstein (Q29) at the ODK Induction on April 7, 2019

QUEST is excited to announce that yet again our students and staff have been inducted into the University of Maryland’s Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK) Sigma Circle National Leadership Honors Society. Congratulations to staff member Jess Roffe and students Josh Cocker (Q27), Praneeth Chandu (Q29), and David Rosenstein (Q29) who were chosen to join ODK this semester! This organization connects the students, faculty, and staff who best represent and achieve in the five areas of collegiate activities: Scholarship; Athletics; Journalism, Speech, and the Mass Media; the Creative and Performing Arts; and Campus or Community Service, Social, and Religious Activities. Thus, these people help to frame and mold ODK into a society that joins leaders with local and intercollegiate interest. Because of ODK’s generosity and contribution to UMD, each member has the additional privilege of “leaving their mark” on our university through inscribing their name on the ODK McKeldin Mall Fountain.

Jess Roffe was nominated by ODK and QUEST member Jeff Zhao (Q28). I asked Jeff what compelled him to nominate Jess. “I was thinking about influential people and key champions who made my experience at college something special, and the amount of people who fit in this category is no more than the number of fingers I have on one hand. A great leader creates greater leaders, and Jess Roffe helps foster University of Maryland’s greatest leaders in the QUEST community. I wanted to recognize her for her contributions.”

Jess responded to this, explaining, “It really meant a lot that Jeff nominated me. I really feel like a Terp for life. I grew up wanting to attend UMD, went to UMD, left for one year for grad school – even though I didn’t want to leave – and then returned to UMD five years ago to work for QUEST. Being able to have my name on the fountain is really exciting for me – not only am I a Terp for life, but I am also now a Terp forever. It was so special to be nominated by a QUEST student, as well as inducted with and by QUEST students.”

Similar to Jess, David Rosenstein said, “As excited as I am to join the ODK Sigma Circle, nothing could have made the induction or tapping ceremonies more special since I was surrounded by my QUEST family. It’s humbling to be included by leaders in the ODK community, but I’m elated even more by the fact that I can surround myself with these driven, intelligent change-makers every day just by sitting in the QUEST lab.”

Josh Cocker also said that he “feels extremely honored to have been inducted, especially alongside such a talented cohort of students like this one. It also came at a nice time with graduation right around the corner because it capped up some of the really amazing experiences I’ve had at University of Maryland with groups like QUEST and Engineering Without Borders.”

Lastly, Praneeth Chandu also said it was an “honor to be selected among many amazing individuals that are working hard to make a difference at UMD. It was exciting to be inducted into this organization before I finished my time on campus.”

Again, let’s congratulate Jess, David, Josh, and Praneeth on this honorable and momentous achievement! QUEST is very proud of you and looks forward to watching the continuous changes you bring to UMD and our society as a whole.  QUEST has a long-standing presence within ODK, and we cannot wait to see which QUEST members will join ODK in future semesters!

QUEST Students Selected for NewDay USA Leadership Awards

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On March 1, 2019, finalists were chosen for the NewDay USA Student Leadership Awards offered by the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets in collaboration with NewDay USA. Among the finalists were five QUEST students, two of whom won the first prize in their award category. The awards honor student leaders who make positive contributions to society and distinguish students in one of three categories: Innovation, Enterprise, or Resilience.

From left to right: Michael Khizgilov, Adam Hostetter, Dr. Christina Elson of the Snider Center, David Rosenstein, Eitan Isser, and Jacqueline Deprey

Adam Hostetter (Q29) is a Finance and Operations Management & Business Analytics double major with a minor in Actuarial Mathematics. Adam was awarded the first place Enterprise award for championing collaboration and positive outcomes in teams. He spent his sophomore year working as the student Co-Director at the Snider Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE). He was focused on helping the young program build a strong community and implement program initiatives that would foster co-learning and academic rigor. While brainstorming about his ideas for SURE, Adam drew inspiration from the people in QUEST and its strong sense of community. Adam’s advice to younger cohorts is “never neglect the relationship you have built and keep your communities strong. Sometimes you don’t realize the small things people can do to reshape you or even how much you are impacting and influencing others.”

David Rosenstein (Q29) is a Marketing and Management double major who was also awarded the Enterprise award. David is very involved on campus and can often be seen around Van Munching Hall or in the QUEST Lab. Right now, he is leading a cross-functional team of the Maryland Marketing Association. He is also a campus tour guide, a Smith Ambassador, and involved in Jewish life at UMD. According to David, “QUEST was really pivotal in a lot of ways. It introduced me to a lot of really dynamic people.” He found a key takeaway of QUEST is learning what a perfect team member looks like and how to adapt to different work environments and team dynamics. His advice to younger classes, “For me, what’s been really pivotal in helping to define my leadership style is viewing every leadership role as an opportunity to be a better team member. Whether you’re a team member or the president, it’s important to be egalitarian and be relatable and accessible to everyone on your team.”

Jacqueline Deprey (Q30) is a Computer Science and Operations Management & Business Analytics double major. She was awarded the Enterprise award for her work in the Gemstone Honors program as a financial liaison for a research team. She established relationships with UMD alumni to raise money for a research project which aims to create an augmented reality assistive device to help children with learning disabilities. Not only did she raise enough funding for her project in less than 24 hours, but she set the honors program record for the largest contributed sum in that timeframe. According to Jacqueline, “QUEST taught me the importance of empathizing with the customer and hearing their insights to drive the ideating process.” Her advice to younger cohorts looking to maximize their experience in QUEST is, “soak it all in! QUEST throws a lot at you in a short period of time, but try to absorb everything you can from not only the Quality Guild but also your classmates since you never know what may be applicable to your own life down the line!”

Michael Khizgilov (Q29) is a Finance major who was awarded the first place Resilience award for embodying integrity and a growth mindset. Michael is heavily involved in finance recruiting and mentors freshman and sophomores through the process. He has overcome a number of personal challenges and enjoys having the opportunity to give back to his community and the younger students at UMD by helping them overcome their own challenges. Michael says his experiences have helped him learn how to apply his skills, education, and resilience to various situations outside of the classroom. Through QUEST, he has met a number of other driven individuals and loves the opportunity to work on a team to complete relevant and interesting projects. His advice to underclassmen, “Don’t be afraid of change. College is a very big opportunity to learn and grow personally so take advantage of it and figure out what drives you.”

Eitan Isser (Q32) is a Marketing and Operations Management & Business Analytics double major who was given the Resilience award. On campus, Eitan is a project manager in the consulting track for TAMID, a business club that specializes in consulting for Israeli startups. He also hosts weekly group seminars and study groups on various topics in Jewish studies for Maryland Hillel. Balancing these activities alongside his schoolwork and growth-oriented mindset has helped him develop a stronger sense of resilience. Eitan credits QUEST with giving him access to a network of talented students and experiences that have helped lead him to opportunities such as the NewDay USA award. According to Eitan, “My biggest advice to fellow QUEST members is to really make time on a daily basis to introspect and recognize the immense talent and skill that you have to provide for the world. It really works!”

Congratulations to all the recipients of the New Day USA Student Leadership Awards! We wish them the best in their future careers and look forward to seeing their accomplishments throughout the coming years.

QUEST Welcomes Program Coordinator Rachel DiDonna

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QUEST is happy to welcome a new team member, Rachel DiDonna, to the Quality Guild! A UMD alumna, Rachel graduated from the University of Maryland in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in History and a minor in Secondary Education. While at Maryland, Rachel was a Vice President for Sigma Alpha Iota, an ambassador for the Honors College, and a member of Sigma Kappa Sorority. After graduating from the University of Maryland, Rachel worked nationally for Sigma Kappa as a traveling staff member. Traveling to different colleges throughout the United States for two years influenced Rachel to want to continue to work in higher education. Therefore, she decided to earn her Master’s in Higher Education at Boston College. Afterwards, Rachel went to Arizona where she worked with Arizona State’s Honors College.

 “When I was looking for new experiences and was ready to move back to the east coast, I began to identify a few institutions that would be a good fit for me. After seeing the job posting for QUEST, I liked the idea of the multidisciplinary nature of engineering students, business students, and science students coming together to participate in different course work relating to design and team work. Also, I really liked the idea of the mentors program. As I continued to research the program, I began to feel drawn by nature of the program and its highly motivated individuals.”

Within QUEST, Rachel’s job is to work with internal program operations. She will oversee recruitment, selection, orientation, general QUEST administration, and the QUEST conference. In addition, Rachel will advise three student organizations: QUEST Creative, QUEST Social, and QUEST Recruiting.

We are so excited to warmly welcome Rachel to QUEST! If any QUEST student or alumnus/a finds himself/herself in the QUEST lab, please feel free to drop by Rachel’s office (1407D VMH) and introduce yourself to her! We wish you all the best, Rachel! Welcome to QUEST! 

QUEST Duo Succeeds in Lockheed Martin Case Competition

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A. James Clark School of Engineering students Melissa Maurer (Q29) and Olivia Wolcott (Q30) took on Lockheed Martin’s Ethics in Engineering case competition in February and came out of the experience with a ton of new insight and third place! Out of the 14 teams that participated, Melissa and Olivia were 1 of 4 teams selected to move to the final round after going through three rounds of judging. I had the opportunity to chat with them about their success and takeaways from the experience.

The Lockheed Martin Ethics in Engineering case competition is a process that began in December. In January, teams received their case and had three weeks to analyze its contents. At the end of this three-week period, teams began the four-round process. Olivia and Melissa had to deliver a 90-second elevator pitch, a 10-minute presentation on the ethical engineering and business issues of the case, a 25-minute slide presentation incorporating their solution, and lastly, a 25-minute presentation with intermittent Q&A from the judges. Despite having never done an ethics competition or taken an ethics course before, both ladies were eager to take on the challenge.

Melissa Maurer (left) and Olivia Wolcott (right) at the competition

They found that one key takeaway from the experience was how to utilize all the resources available to them. They added that the main reason why the competition was manageable was because they were able to spend so much time working on it. With that being said, Melissa and Olivia were able to learn a great deal from Dr. Armstrong, their mentor, and two QUEST students who participated in the competition last year, Brooke Nesselt and Conrad Hong.  Both mentioned that they truly appreciated all of the help they received – specifically Dr. Armstrong, who would free up her schedule at any time to help in whatever way she could.

Though the government contracting case they were given allowed them to step a bit out of their comfort zone, both Melissa and Olivia found that taking on such a problem with low-stakes was really enjoyable and provided them with real-world exposure to what a problem like that would entail in a professional setting.

Overall, they emphasized that it ultimately was okay going into something not knowing a lot, but learning it all as you go. Going out of your comfort zone, taking the risk, and asking for help were three crucial skills that they prioritized throughout the process.

“The more effort you give beyond what is required, the more you can set yourself apart.”

Olivia and Melissa are interested in pursuing other case competitions in the future and the QUEST community looks forward to celebrating all of the amazing things they do next. Congratulations to you both!

Q30’s Europe Takeover

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The chance to pick up, move to another country, and return a few months later without any consequences does not present itself often. Through study abroad comes the opportunity to experience many new cultures and see the world while continuing your education.

As we know through our enhanced social media feeds this semester, many members from Q30 have embarked on this journey this semester. I checked in with some of them to learn about their most recent travels, favorite moments thus far, and how their semester has been overall! Needless to say, from awesome pictures taken beneath the Eiffel Tower or on a gondola in Venice to the ultimate foodie snaps of paella and gelato, ten Q30 members are living their best lives across Europe!

Nikhil and Barret (first two on the left)
Jake in Paris

Tamara Lee, Josh Lurie, Lauren Kim, Alexandra Bergman, Barret Rus, Nick Zahneis, Juhi Rajgopal, Nikhil Modi, Jacob Wurman, and Rachel Rosenthal are spread across Rome, London, Vienna, Madrid, Barcelona, and Manchester. They have trekked across Europe, hitting new cities each weekend and even crossing paths a few times. Tamara recalled a weekend in Lisbon, Portugal:

“I was on top of the Castelo de Sao Jorge a few weekends ago. This random girl came up to me and here is how the dialogue went:
– Random girl: “Hey can you take a Boomerang of me and my friends?”

Juhi and Tamara in Portugal

– Me: “Yeah, sure of course.” Looking down at her phone in my hands.
– Random girl: “Wait… Tamara?!?!”
– Me: “Wait…. Juhi?!?!?”

– And that is how I ran into my fellow Q30 peer. Here is a picture to prove it.”

Being abroad, the students have gotten to take really cool classes, both in the scope of their majors and beyond. Barret is taking a “bunch of out of the box classes like tourism, food/water crises, and open innovation.” Alex is learning Spanish as well as taking classes about international economics and art.

Alex Bergman

With hopping to a new city every weekend, our QUEST students have definitely found their favorites! Jake absolutely loved Venice and said, “There’s really no place like it. The entire island is alleyways filled with all sorts of small shops, and then you also have the canals to get around. [He] went during Carnival and got to see some festivities that go along with that. It’s a unique and beautiful place.” Barret’s favorite place is Bratislava in Slovakia. He told me that “some friends and [him] walked there from Vienna, and it turned out to be super under the radar city with great sights and food.” Alex loved visiting Girona, a city about two hours north of Barcelona. Fun fact – part of Game of Thrones was filmed there!!

While everyone has had a different favorite city, the general consensus after chatting with lots of Q30 is that the food anywhere and everywhere abroad is amazing. Lauren, who is studying in London visited Nikhil and Barret, both of whom are studying in Vienna, and recalls eating Viennese schnitzel all together — perhaps the largest meal of her life. Alex’s favorite part about being abroad is the “tapas, paella, and sangria.”

Lauren Kim in Paris

Being abroad has been an awesome adventure for everyone so far! They’ve become experts on booking the best Airbnbs and last minute trips to places like Eidenberg. They’ve grown to be more curious and willing to try new things while embarking on spontaneous adventures like running across London to a famous flower shop. They’ve even found a place for their QUEST minds time and time again whether it be discussing six sigma in an international business course or problem solving traveling unfamiliar cities when their phone service cuts out.

While Q30 members abroad are planning their upcoming weekend trips, they are wishing Q29 good luck as they push through 490H! Jake says, “Good luck on your projects! I wish I could be there to watch your presentations. Instead I’ll be hiking in Cinque Terre” and for spring break, Alex says, “Hang in there my dudes, you got this. I’ll have some sangria waiting for the Q29ers joining me in Barcelona for spring break!”

Her QUEST since QUEST: Alumna Spotlight on Amanda Nachman

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With the variety of interests and majors represented in QUEST, alumni career paths go in an endless number of directions. After graduation, QUESTees have a wide range of possibilities. However, it can be daunting to find a career that’s truly right for them. Amanda Nachman (Q12) helps young professionals across the country achieve a career that aligns with their passions through her podcast: Find Your Passion Career.

Amanda is the Publisher of College Magazine, a publication she founded at UMD during her senior year. She was inspired to pursue her idea after working on a QUEST project with ExxonMobil. Helping them create brand loyalty among the 18 to 24 year old market for their On the Run convenience stores taught her about the importance of this age group as a target market. “I knew that students would benefit from a guide on how to be successful in college,” she says. “Getting the opportunity to work with a brand like ExxonMobil with QUEST made me realize that on the other side of it, advertisers would be very interested in reaching the 18 to 24 year old market.”

After this experience, she founded College Magazine with support from the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. She developed a minimal viable product and printed 5,000 copies of her first magazine. She printed this amount based on the number of advertisements she was able to sell and distributed the magazine across UMD’s campus. Since then, College Magazine has expanded to reach 9 million readers nationwide.

Amanda recently started a podcast, Find Your Passion Career, where she interviews career experts and professionals who are working in their passion career. Over the years, she has worked with hundreds of students through College Magazine. Through communicating with students about their goals after college, Amanda found that there is a lot of fear and pressure surrounding the career journey. The goal of her podcast is to help emerging professionals strategize a path toward a career they enjoy. Amanda says, “You work 40 hours a week, shouldn’t you be doing something that you love?”

For Amanda, the transition into creating podcasts and giving talks has been another step in her own passion career. “I love making this magazine, but I also want to be connecting with students and young professionals directly. Find Your Passion Career became that new outlet where I could connect with them through the podcast and through speaking events,” she says.

Amanda says the first step QUEST students should take when considering their passion career is to identify their interests and passions. “Ask yourself: when’s the last time you took a half-hour to yourself without your phone to ask yourself what it is that you love? What makes you light up inside? What drives you? What’s something you could do for hours on end? Write it down.”

Then Amanda says students should match their skills and preferences to their interests. “Think about your strengths. Think about your values, the principles you live your life by, the kind of work-life experience you want to have, the lifestyle you want to lead, and then start researching what’s out there that connects to your passion.” Finally, students should utilize their network, reaching out to professors and advisors. “Taking that time to explore those opportunities is going to really open up the possibilities of what you can be doing after graduation,” Amanda says.

Students can benefit from listening to Amanda’s podcast by learning from the experiences of the people she interviews. In the stories of how they arrived at their passion careers, none of them had a linear path, but they each pivoted and followed their passions. “The reason I created this podcast is I hope that it’s inspiring and it’s easy to listen to just one of the stories,” Amanda says. “Listen to one of these individuals who have lived their passion career and hear from them what it took. Know that you can do it too. A lot of times it’s just listening to yourself and your heart.”
You can listen to Find Your Passion Career on iTunes and Spotify!

QUEST Lends a Hand to the Purple Line

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By: Anusha Dixit (Q31)

The disruption of Campus Drive starting this past fall was hard to miss – from the switch to one-way traffic to roundabout sidewalk routes for pedestrians. This currently omnipresent disruption is the result of the Purple Line, set to open in fall 2022 and connect both the campus and surrounding areas to the rest of Prince George’s County and Montgomery County. It will streamline commuting between the two counties and impact on-campus transportation patterns significantly.

At first glance, it’s hard to tell how this has anything to do with QUEST. What does a new light rail line, opening in three years, have to do with students currently in the program?

Enter 490H. This semester, Cohort 29 students are taking the QUEST Capstone Professional Practicum course, BMGT/ENES 490H, applying and enhancing all the skills they have learned in their time in QUEST to provide recommendations to corporate clients. The results of these projects all have significant stakes in the real world, impacting organizational structure and future plans at an essential level.

Cohort 29 students Puneeth Bikkumanla, Michael Khizgilov, Sasha Miller, Mary Smith, and Kelli Webber, collectively Team [Kim]ley Possible, are working with Kimley-Horn, a planning and design engineering consulting firm, for their capstone. The project involves providing Kimley-Horn recommendations for alternative transportation options over the next 20 years at the University of Maryland. This involves taking into consideration planned changes in transportation, such as the Purple Line, as well as developing technologies that will likely become significantly more important in the next few decades, such as self-driving cars and foreseeing how these additions will affect any predictions made.

I spoke with Sasha Miller about her team’s work thus far in the semester. Already, the application of skills learned in previous QUEST classes is tangible. “The whole project involves analyzing large amounts of data and creating predictive models based on the information that we gather, which are concepts covered in both 390H and in the data analysis class, 438A,” she said. On working with the client, she reports: “Working with Kimley-Horn is great! Our project champion Mike Shindledecker is a QUEST alumnus so he is very excited and eager to work with our team.”

One of the great challenges of 490H projects is ensuring the clients’ needs are met and this team is going above and beyond to ensure this happens. One of their primary challenges is accounting for all of the different user groups on campus (i.e. staff, commuters, cyclists) in their models. “Our team really wants to give predictions and recommendations that will better the campus not only for students, but everyone on campus, which is an ambitious goal, but something we really hope to achieve,” says Sasha. This project holds a uniquely relatable component for the team, affecting the Maryland community at large and requiring the team to consider the student perspective at close range. One of the most interesting aspects of the project is its relevance to the Maryland community and the opportunity it provides to better the campus for students.

Cohort 29 will be presenting their 490H projects at the QUEST Conference on May 9, 2019. Make sure to come out and see the thrilling final recommendations from [Kim]ley Possible and the rest of Cohort 29!

A QUEST to Japan

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Over winter break, QUEST students and faculty learned about quality in a slightly different context. A group of about 25, myself included, embarked on a journey to Japan – a land of tradition, culture, history, and well of course, quality. We were able to visit Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, and Nara. Although no summary could possibly do the experience justice, here is a brief recap of the trip.

We first arrived in Tokyo shortly after New Years, which is an even more so colorfully celebrated holiday in Japan than here. Even a few days after, many people were still walking around in celebratory kimonos, and we learned that based on the Japanese calendar, they are celebrating the year of the wild boar.

Tokyo itself was unlike anything I had ever imagined – the city is like New York City on steroids, yet is still able to maintain perfect organization and order. Subway systems are easier to get around on than our own UMD buses. Everything was clear, even to us foreigners. I was astonished at the fact that we had virtually zero issue getting around. For this reason, we were able to go all over the city to explore. Some of the parts we roamed around were Harajuku, Toyosu, Odaiba, Akihabara, Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Ginza, just to name a few. From the world-famous Tsukiji Fish Market to Tokyo Disney, students were able to immerse themselves in as much of Tokyo as they wanted to.

More importantly, we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to learn about various Japanese businesses in Tokyo, including Kabuku, a 3D printing startup, JETRO, an organization that promotes and facilitates foreign investment in Japan, and Kawasaki Robostage, a robot/AI company.

After Tokyo and on our way to Kyoto, we stopped in Nagoya to visit a Toyota car manufacturing facility a little outside of Nagoya city, where we got to see lean manufacturing firsthand. We then arrived in Kyoto and experienced a much more traditional side of Japan, as we attended a tea ceremony, visited temples, and learned more about the history and symbolism of Japanese culture. Kyoto, as the former capital of Japan, represents all that Japan used to be and is a visible contrast to cutting-edge Tokyo. In addition to being exposed to the more conservative side of Japanese culture, we also were able to try more traditional food styles, view the varying architectural styles, and closed out with a karaoke night. We visited other Japanese businesses in Kyoto like Flosfia, a semiconductor startup, the Four Seasons Hotel Kyoto, and ATR robotics, where I actually got to hold a conversation with an autonomous robot.

Lastly, we visited Nara, an old Japanese city that is home to an ancient Buddha and filled with deer roaming around. There were definitely more deer than people, and overall it was a great last-day treat before we had to pack up and head back to Tokyo to the airport.

I must say that this trip was by far one of the most influential and enjoyable experiences of my life. I could talk about it for hours. If you ever have the opportunity to go with QUEST to Japan or just to Japan in general, do it. No regrets!