Cohort 33 during QUEST Camp in August 2019.

Put on your best suit jacket and settle into your seats, because it’s that time of the year again: Cohort 33 is stepping through their routers and into a virtual semester of 490H this spring! Representing the culmination of four semesters of experiential learning under the guidance of the Quality Guild, the students will be applying the design thinking, process improvement, data analysis, and collaboration skills developed throughout the sequence of core QUEST courses. This semester’s clients are representing a particularly diverse range of industries from defense contractors to nonprofits. In just a few short months, students will be presenting their work with one of ten unique corporate partners. 

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Cohort 36 takes their group photo at virtual QUEST Camp.

All QUEST students can remember the mixed emotions of experiencing orientation: the anticipation of meeting your team and the excitement of finally experiencing what the program is like. This semester, although Cohort 36 completed orientation virtually, all of those familiar emotions remained. As a mentor for Cohort 36 myself, I can say that the week was a success on all ends. 

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It is Cohort 32’s time to shine as they take on the QUEST Capstone Professional Practicum (BMGT/ENES 490H) this fall! Cohort 32 will have a chance to demonstrate all the skills they have developed over the last two years in disciplines such as data analysis and design thinking, as well as the virtual teamwork skills they have developed since March.

This semester has a wide variety of clients, from nonprofit organizations to aerospace companies. There are ten projects this semester with nine corporate partners: Casey Cares Foundation, Children’s National Hospital, Leidos, Materne North America – GoGo squeeZ, Northrop Grumman, Oceaneering, Sealed Air, Thales, and Tronox.   

Casey Cares Foundation provides ongoing and uplifting programming to critically ill children and their families in seven states throughout the Mid-Atlantic, Washington DC, and parts of the Midwest. Their project involves recommending how to ramp up Casey Cares’ virtual offerings and make these programs more efficient and cost-effective.

Children’s National Hospital is another nonprofit partnering with QUEST this semester. Their project focuses on reducing patient wait times and increasing the efficiency of processes involved in in-person visits at the primary care centers. Lydia Hu (Cohort 32) said, “We’re excited to get to speak to the different clinicians and operational staff at the primary care centers to hear firsthand about their experiences in patient care delivery. It’s also eye-opening to be working with a healthcare provider right now to see the adjustments they’re making as demand for telehealth increases and vulnerable populations are at even greater risk of poor health outcomes.”

The team working with Tronox plans to identify inefficiencies in the accounts payable process and make recommendations to improve this process. Cam O’Meara (Cohort 32) said, “I’m most excited about the opportunity to use the data analysis skills I have learned in QUEST to discover how Tronox can improve its cash collection cycle. The company hasn’t looked through the data in this way before, so there is great potential to make some cool discoveries that can really benefit the company.”

The project with Sealed Air involves recycling the steam condensate from manufacturing, and they are also working with a QUEST alumnus, Joseph Dadzie (Cohort 23). The team will identify leakage points in Sealed Air’s condensate recycling process and develop a solution that will allow Sealed Air to reach a satisfactory condensate recycling rate. Mutaz Ahmed (Cohort 32) said, “The most exciting part of our project is the opportunity to learn in-depth about the processes taking place in a manufacturing plant and how, through data-driven insights, we can provide our client with important insights on their steam condensate recovery system.” 

The project with GoGo squeeZ focuses on using historical data on price and performance to create carrier profiles and to determine how well that carrier is performing. The team is working with QUEST alumnus Max Cooper (Cohort 19).

The team working with Oceaneering (OTECH) is improving its risk management program by looking at one area where the risk management program worked well and one area where it did not work well. This team is working with QUEST alumnus Jeff Gamerman (Cohort 12).

Northrop Grumman, which has sponsored 21 projects since 2009, is working with two QUEST teams this fall. One of the projects focuses on creating guidelines to be used during various business decision opportunities, and the other focuses on assessing a supply base risk matrix.

The project with Thales Defense & Security, Inc. involves improving its design process and tools by incorporating analysis of defects and process improvements. They will be working with QUEST alumnus Steve Kutchi (Cohort 1).

Finally, the project with Leidos involves an improved process that would allow them to generate rough orders of magnitude easily for quicker turnaround.

Best of luck to Cohort 32 as they continue working on their recommendations! Final presentations at our virtual QUEST Conference will take place on Thursday, December 10th – be on the lookout for more details in the coming weeks!