By Bobby Fitzgerald

When QUEST students visit China each winter, the story is often a familiar one; they learn about manufacturing, explore exotic cities, and forge bonds of fellowship. However, interspersed among these exploits, and often overlooked, are the people, stories, and interactions QUEST students encounter while abroad that broaden their horizons, shape their thoughts, and challenge their idea of a global society.

The QUEST2China trip did not begin on the factory floor of Carl Zeiss or among the whirring spools of yarn in a textile shop, but rather in the skyscrapers of downtown Hong Kong. There, overlooking shimmering harbor and sprawling metropolis, QUEST students met with executives and representatives from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, including QUEST alumnus Bernard Ng.  With the opportunity to investigate the vast troves of experience, knowledge and diversity present via an open discussion, the students left no stone unturned. The conversations ranged from the intricacies of Asian markets, to the challenges of running multinational corporations, to complex considerations that affect the legal and procedural realities of global wealth management.

These discussions brought to life the multifarious nature of working as a global professional, and challenged them to look past their familiar, but limited, view of the professional world as a series of domestic internships and full time offers. Interacting with those who had made it their lives work to actively seek out challenge, opportunity, and adventure in their careers created a new perspective on the future for many students.

As fascinating as these conversations and insights were to behold, the best was still yet to come. Over the course of the trip, QUEST students visited three different Universities; Hong Kong University, Macau University, and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.  At these institutions, all unique in history, culture, and student body, QUEST students had the chance to interact with their foreign peers in an intimate and informal setting, breaking off into small groups to get lunch, tour the campus, and get to know the Chinese students on a personal level.

The conversations ranged from stimulating discussions of economic development, gambling issues, and local politics, to light hearted laughs about Taylor Swift, House of Cards, and terrible University food. The students were well versed in English and US pop culture, and were hungry to learn more about the United States and the University of Maryland. This placed QUEST students in the unique position of both teacher and student; both providing and receiving an incredible stream of ideas, values, culture, and knowledge over the course of just a few hours.

QUEST2China has for good reason become a staple in the QUEST program. It provides students invaluable opportunity, knowledge, and fun over just a few short weeks. And although the conversations held and ideas exchanged with new friends and colleagues can’t be measured with key performance metrics or quality tools, they will forever be treasured, remembered, and utilized by the students on this year’s trip as they go out into a truly globalized world.

For more pictures check out the QUEST2China Tumblr

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https://blog.umd.edu/questpress/files/2014/08/Industry-Sponsored-Capstone-Projects_-Factors-Influencing-Success.pdf

Introduction
Time and time again I’ve heard students liken the internship/job search process to a class in itself. Considering the time commitment it takes to research perspective employers, arrange meetings, and prepare for interviews, it is easy to recognize the parallel– especially for a first-timer. The experience can be stressful, however, if you’re looking to master these types of skills (and get course credits at the same time), QUEST’s Developing Business Relationships and Scoping the Consulting Project course (BMGT438D) may be for you. In contrast to the average internship/job search, in Scoping students focus on exploring and developing partnerships within the QUEST community that add value to corporate sponsors, alumni, and current students. Most notably, we focus heavily on developing the Senior Consulting Practicum course projects.

What is Scoping?
Scoping begins by revisiting past capstone projects and analyzing the evolution of corporate partnerships. We develop an in-depth understanding of what areas in quality management, process improvement, and systems design make for impactful, actionable, and exciting QUEST projects. And with this understanding, we identify corporations to engage for either new or continuing partnership. This class prepares you to manage relationships that vary extensively from hot to cold, hands-on to hands-off, and well-established to brand new. Optimally, after agreeing on project sponsorship, the next part of the challenge is fusing client expectations, results from similar past projects, and observations from site visits to create what we term the “scope.” Teams generate a clear scope based on an area of opportunity that the upcoming QUEST seniors can tackle over the course of thirteen weeks.
Scoping focuses on precisely observing, bounding, and refining a business opportunity through gauging expectations of goals, benefits, and challenges over frequent prospective client interactions. Our team goal as a team is to scope out 80% of the senior consulting projects before the 490 teams take over to finalize the rest.

Why I Got Involved and What I Gained
As a Junior of Cohort 19, I enrolled in Scoping in order to immerse myself in every stage of my upcoming Senior Consulting Practicum. However, what I experienced was much more than I expected. Students in Scoping gain a unique and unparalleled opportunity to learn about the many facets of the QUEST program, including: its rich history, initiatives, events, program leadership, and community. I did not foresee the awesome experience of collaborating with students from multiple cohorts. For instance, seniors taking part in the course have been an invaluable resource, having already completed their 490 projects. The sophomores also provide a fresh perspective on topics covered in the latest installment of our constantly improving 190 course. Matt Henricks, a Sophomore of Cohort 20, summarized that throughout this semester;

“The scoping class provided a great outlet to practice my analysis skills and understanding of the voice of the customer in real business situations. Not only did I gain a great understanding of how many diverse businesses function, but also, working between cohorts, attained much better understanding of our (QUEST’s) own voice.”

All 12 of us currently enrolled in Scoping agree, the opportunity to work with corporate partners and alumni in a variety of environments exemplifies QUEST’s value of reality-based learning. Performing over 10 corporate partner site visits, including trips to Tulkoff Foods, Volvo, McCormick, Spectrum Foods, Transurban, and Unilever, my understanding of manufacturing procedures and supply chain management grew significantly. We had opportunities to see real-world applications of QUEST-taught concepts and tools at Thales Communications, PwC, UnderArmour, and BD, as QUEST alumni provide facility tours. For those of you that aspire to become consultants, this course provides invaluable experience. Standing in a Washington, D.C conference room in front of potential clients, you have the opportunity to deliver a team pitch, “selling” what QUEST can do for them. These experiences are as real-world as they get, and they teach you a ton.

Conclusion
One final reason why I recommend giving some added thought to taking this course is the ability to preserve the invigorating QUEST mentality that we learn from Dr. Bailey and Dr. Suarez. In between QUEST’s Innovation and Systems classes, many of us break off from the QUEST curriculum. Scoping class is a natural extension of the concepts and tools you learn in these courses. You are also able to work on a QUEST team closely led by program faculty, especially our dedicated professor Kylie Goodell. In conclusion, if you are not already one of those students that eats, sleeps, and breathes QUEST, then this course is the perfect prescription to hop on the bandwagon.

Article by Nicole Blahut (Q20) and Daniel-Jason Minzie (Q20)

Every year, BMGT190H students are expected to design and build a computer in their teams with a $500 budget constraint and the typical QUEST student in mind as a customer. With the exception of a few students, most had never built a computer before, but teams were still excited and ready to begin the challenge.

Initial disappointment came when students learned that, unlike in previous years, no team would win and have their design built in the QUEST lab. Instead, teams would collaborate with other teams to reach a decision. While an unpopular decision at first, it proved to be successful when two super computers were chosen and built. This method of negotiation and collaboration ensured that the best of every aspect of the computer was picked. During this process, after presentations, team members had to convince other students why the final computer should have their part over the other parts. This required that students know a lot about each part. It also took emphasis away from the flashy presentations and directed focus to selecting quality parts themselves.

The two computers that now reside in the QUEST lab are anything but ordinary. Both equipped with Solid State Drives, they are built for speed. The defining feature for both of them, however, is in the monitors. Venti Vidi Vici, a play on the popular phrase replacing ‘veni’ with the Italian word for ‘20’, has a touch screen monitor. And Q20 Twins, as the name implies, features dual monitors. Cohort 20 certainly made it their mission to stand out in the lab. As a technology enthusiast, Cohort 20 student Kenny Lopez took it upon himself to install the new Windows 8 operating system onto the two computers. With the software made for touch capabilities, this was a great choice for the touch screen computer.

Kenny Lopez (Q20) poses with the QUEST lab’s newest computers.

Students took a lot away from this project. Here are just a few testimonials from Cohort 20 on the computer design challenge:

“I never expected I would ever be able to design a computer.” -Ethan Schindel

“I found it great working on a team and witnessing different types of people coming together with different ideas to make the most amazing computer QUEST has ever seen!” –Mickey Alemayehu

“I enjoyed the chance to collaborate and negotiate with other teams to create a product that was not only unique, but representative of the entire cohort.” –Michael Shindledecker

“I learned a lot about the parts of a computer, which I never expected to learn since I am an OM major.” –Rachel Brown

And finally a quote from Winston Liu that encompasses how EVERYONE felt after the design challenge:
“I LOVE QUEST.”