Category Archives: QUEST News

QUEST Takes Over Graduation: Commencement Speaker Spotlight

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As the end of the semester approaches, we must sadly say goodbye to our beloved Q21 and Q22 seniors. These seniors were the first generation of the two-cohort “baby boom” of QUEST, and their presence will deeply be missed after their graduation.

Q21 and Q22 were truly a remarkable class of driven, innovative students, and their achievements and talents were recognized beyond the QUEST Program. These students completed groundbreaking research, secured impressive internships and full-time jobs, and were leaders in the campus community. To say that Q21 and Q22 were overachievers would be an understatement.

This month, we interviewed QUEST seniors Rachel George, Ben Hsieh, Yash Mehta, and Tony Trinh, all who have shown incredible dedication and involvement both within and outside the program. These four seniors were chosen as commencement speakers at four separate commencements – which only further shows the impact our students have made on their communities. QUESTPress interviewed these outstanding seniors to gain their words of wisdom and experiences before they transition into proud QUEST alumni.

Rachel George

Rachel George (Q21), Commencement Speaker for the University of Maryland

Rachel George will be graduating with a dual degree in Marketing and English. She is passionate about entrepreneurship and served in the Social Entrepreneur Corps in Ecuador. Her creative talents have been utilized in QUEST Marketing, the Diamondback, and at Meta Cartel, a streetwear and art startup where she served as the Creative Director. She is also part of Omicron Delta Kappa and Phi Beta Kappa. Some of her other interests include videography, photography, graphic design, and guitar. Post-graduation, Rachel may be traveling to Latin America through the Study Abroad Office to make video documentaries on the continent’s summer disability programs. After her return, her ultimate goal is to start working at a video/multimedia agency to develop skills to apply visual narratives to social justice.

Ben Hsieh (Q22), Commencement Speaker for the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

Ben Hsieh is an Operations Management and Spanish double-major. In addition to earning the Outstanding Capstone Project award in Fall 2015, Ben has several notable achievements, such as winning first place at Maryland’s 2013 & 2014 Deloitte Case Competition. Within the QUEST program, Ben is currently Q26’s 190H TA and an Innovo Scholar. He also may be holding the record for second most hours logged in the QUEST Lab next to Alex Wilson. Some of his hobbies include playing golf, giving amazing pep talks, and making killer guacamole. He will be working at Bain & Company post-graduation as a consultant.

Yash Mehta

Yash Mehta (Q22), Commencement Speaker for the Robert H. Smith School of Business

Yash Mehta is a Marketing & Supply Chain Management double-major with a minor in Technology Entrepreneurship. He is one of the founders of the QUEST Development Series (QDeS), a brainchild of the BMGT397 mentors class. He was recently selected as Smith’s Outstanding Senior in Marketing. During his time at Maryland, Yash was a part of the Smith’s Dean’s Student Advisory Council, President of Consult-Your-Community, and a member of Omicron Delta Kappa. Some of his interests include graphic design, social entrepreneurship, traveling, and stand-up comedy. He will be working full-time at Deloitte Consulting as a Business Analyst in their Commercial Strategy and Operations practice.

Tony Trinh

Tony Trinh (Q21), Commencement Speaker for the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences

Tony Trinh is majoring in Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics with a minor in Nanoscale Science and Technology. Outside of QUEST, Tony is part of Omicron Delta Kappa and serves as both a Resident Assistant and Teaching Assistant. Tony was behind-the-scenes for many QUEST community events as part of QSO. Outside of academics, Tony enjoys swimming, sailing, fine cheeses, Wes Anderson movies, and The Beach Boys. He will be attending the Maryland School of Medicine in the fall as part of the Air Force Health professions Scholarship Program and will enter the Air Force as an enlisted General Medical Officer following graduation.

Q: What is your proudest accomplishment of your college career?

Rachel: Choosing to work with a nonprofit in Ecuador last summer instead of pursuing a standard business internship. Up until that point, I’d put a lot of pressure on myself to model my school and career decisions based off of the people around me in the business school, while at heart I knew I wanted to do work that diverges from what people typically do with marketing and business. Choosing to give up a design internship to go work with small businesses and run eye exams in Ecuador was my first big step in following what I want for myself, even though it was a little riskier. Now I’m finding that it’s easier to continue to break the mold when I have to decide between what everyone else is doing and what I am passionate about.

Ben: I think I’ve always been good about being optimistic and cheering people up; while some of my peers might point to creating their own club or leading an organization to some award, I think my biggest accomplishment was helping people find their strengths and encouraging those around me to be the best they can be.

Yash: This is a really tough question because I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of some amazing organizations and work with people who have enabled me to excel. I’d have to say some of the recognition I’ve received as a senior (Phillip Merrill Scholar, Outstanding Senior in Marketing, Commencement Speaker) has been fulfilling because it is the culmination of three years of hard work.

Tony: Tough question. I’d have to say my proudest accomplishment has nothing to do with anything academic. My first year as a Resident Assistant in Hagerstown Hall I had a resident that was going through some heavy stuff. Helping her through it all was something I’d been trained to do but there’s a big difference between reading a training manual and actually dealing with a situation. Just being there for her when she needed me and being a pillar of support in her time of need is something I’d say I’m pretty proud of.

Q: What words of advice do you have for current and future QUEST students?

Rachel: Similar to what I said in your previous question: don’t be afraid to break the mold for your passions. I think it’s safe to say that QUEST students are all very ambitious people who want to be successful, and it’s easy to define “successful” by what other people tell you it means. The standard definition doesn’t matter when it comes what you are passionate about and want to pursue. Graduating without a job isn’t a failure if your other choice was taking a job you knew would make you unhappy. Focus on what issues drive you, and don’t be afraid when those issues mean you make a riskier or unusual career choice, personal choice, or life choice.

Ben: Study what you’re interested in. I think a lot of good students get boxed into “doing what is right.” Especially in the business school, a lot of students double major simply because everyone else is doing it; I was planning on doing the same but decided one day that I would be upset if I were to not continue taking Spanish classes, so I decided to double major. This “mantra” of mine is especially for true for QUEST students because they will be super employable with just one major and QUEST, which leaves them free to explore fun and interesting minors and electives.

Yash: My advice to QUEST students is very simple: find great friends and reflect often. QUEST surrounds you with some of the brightest people who often make amazing friends. Find friends that you can grow with and ones that will help build you into the best version of you. And remember, as is with most things, the quality of your friends is far more important than the quantity of your friends. The second piece of advice is to reflect often. QUEST students are all stars and it’s easy to get caught up in “stuff” but find time to regularly reflect on your life. It allows you to be more grateful and to keep perspective about what is most important to you.

Tony: Don’t be afraid to do things that are outside of the ordinary. As a pre-med freshman, I pretty much had applied for QUEST on a whim, but it interested me and even though it was way off the path for the traditional pre-med student I ended up making it one of my central activities in college. Way too often, we rely on things that are easy or that are normal but normal isn’t fun, weird is fun. For future QUEST students, if a project interests you but you have no clue what you might be able to offer to the team, who cares, sign up for it and make the project yours. Even if you don’t have a lot of experience, it doesn’t mean you have nothing to offer.

Q: What is your favorite QUEST class/elective? 

Rachel: QUEST2Asia (which was QUEST2China when I went) was pretty amazing. It was my first time in Asia and my first time traveling alone, and I loved it. Definitely a growing experience. The course project was a fun sprint project, and we had lots of time to go out and explore the cities around us.

Ben: I thoroughly enjoyed traveling to Hong Kong, Macau, and south China with QUEST but I think it would be sacrilegious to say anything but 190H. I loved going through the course as a student and reliving it as both a mentor and TA, it truly is a testament to how innovative and advanced QUEST is in terms of the educational experience.

Yash: Without a doubt it has to be the QUEST Mentor’s Class. Ever since my 190H experience, I knew I wanted to try and be a mentor and it turned out to be everything I was expecting and more! Team “Straight Outta QUEST” was phenomenal and together we learned from each other. It really teaches you a lot about team dynamics, conflict management, and what it takes to be a good mentor/mentee.

Tony: QUEST2China!

Q: What is your favorite QUEST memory?

Rachel: Probably our 490H QUEST conference (either that or QUEST camp). The overall energy of the conference was great, and my team got to open the conference to a packed room, including President Loh. The presentations all went so well and you could tell everyone was really proud of their work (despite being super nervous before presentations started), so it was a great way to conclude our QUEST journey.

Ben: While it’s hard to pick just one, I’m especially fond of QUEST camp — Alex Wilson and I were having a competition to see who could remember everyone in our cohort’s name first… I’m not sure who won that one but we both came out as winners for having been a part of Q22.

Yash:  My favorite QUEST memory has to be my cohort’s 490H Conference. It was a wonderful experience that I got to share with my cohort and my family. In many ways it was the “finishing touch” on not only 490H but my entire QUEST experience. I was also fortunate enough to have an amazing 490H team/project so we were proud to show what we were able to accomplish together.

Tony: QUEST2China. I never thought I’d study abroad but somehow found myself in Hong Kong with some people I had only met one semester prior. From the experience I really started to love the program. It catalyzed my future involvement with student leadership and helped me make some of my closest friends in the program.

Q: What is the single most invaluable thing you have gained from QUEST?

Rachel: The mindset. QUEST, more than any other program, has taught me to be one of the people pushing boundaries, rather than someone who just watches the people pushing the boundaries and wishes she could be like them. It’s a wake-up call to be in an environment that attracts people who think so innovatively and actually execute on their ideas; it makes you realize that, while creating something successful from scratch is very tough, it is also very possible. A QUEST student created the Startup Shell, the largest student-run startup incubator of its kind, and Bitcamp, one of the first hugely successful national university hackathons. QUEST students are securing patents, building businesses, and speaking at large conferences. It’s a community that’s both grounding and motivating.

Ben: I’m a nerd, but my best friends are all from QUEST. Some of them I probably would not know if not for QUEST, but all of them have been an invaluable resource to me throughout my college career and will probably be in my wedding party.

Yash: This answer will be a bit cliche but it has to be the friends I’ve made. The closest friends I have are from QUEST and being in the program together has just given us one more reason to bond. Our cohort is also close and we’ve shared some really funny and memorable times together. The lessons, memories, jokes, and support these friends have given me are truly invaluable.

Tony: I’ve gained so many things from QUEST I think it’s unfair to just pick one so I’ll cheat and pick two. On a personal level, the most invaluable thing I’ve gained is the network of students, staff and corporate clients who have really pretty much shaped my college experience and on a professional level, it was an ability to work with individuals from diverse backgrounds for a common goal. As a physician in the future, I will have to do this very often and learning how to butt heads with others while still producing solid work is something that I definitely fine-tuned during my time in QUEST.

Introducing Alumni Advantage, QUEST’s New Mentorship Program

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By: Chineme Obiefune (Q25) and Jacob Wilkowsky (Q19)

We’ve all watched the speech. The one with the uber-successful CEO, competitive athlete, or nobel laureate, where they share their life achievements and how they reached the mountaintop. Maybe you watched Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement address or saw a Tony Robbins Ted Talk. Phrases like “grit,” “failure,” “mastery,” and “happiness” repeatedly pop up. However, in this article, we focus on a buzzword sure to make an appearance as you surf Youtube’s catalogue of inspirational talks– mentorship.

QUEST embraces the consensus that strong mentorship is critical to a budding career. As such, the program launched the Alumni Advantage program, a revamped alumni mentoring program aimed at matching motivated students seeking career, industry, or graduate study guidance with an alumnus who has similar interests or experience in the area that the student wants help with. Alumni Advantage is a no strings attached program – students may only have a couple of questions or seek a long-term “mentor”/”mentee” relationship; it’s their choice.

With all of the benefits that mentorship has to offer, one drawback is often overlooked. Students don’t always have the time and energy to keep up a long-term relationship with a mentor in their industry. Classes, work, assignments, and other responsibilities can get in the way of developing a deep, long-term connection with their mentor. Thus, the Alumni Advantage program allows them to connect with an alumnus for a brief chat or a long-term conversation, depending on what they want.

We reached out to the QUEST community to hear more from students and alumni about how they view the Alumni Advantage program so far.

Isabelle Lock – Neurobiology and Physiology – Cohort 25

Where did you hear about the Alumni Advantage program?

I found out about the program from the TWIQ (This Week In QUEST Newsletter Update).

What do you hope to gain from the program?

I thought it would be beneficial to get the perspective of a former QUEST student who’s now in the real world.

How has your mentor been able to help you?

I was looking to deviate away from medical school, and he was able to give me some perspective from that industry. He had a lot of friends looking at medical school in undergrad and helped me see that just because I’m a biology major, I don’t have to necessarily go down a research route.

Chyanne Nader – Civil Engineering – Cohort 26

What is mentorship to you?

Mentorship is having someone to look up to and someone who can guide you when you are confused. It’s having someone in your field who can help you out.

What type of relationship would you want to have with a mentor?

A relationship where you don’t have to talk to them everyday and maybe check in with them once or twice a month.

What are some differences you experienced between the short-term and long-term forms of mentoring?

In the short-term, my mentor Veronica was big on skyping. In the long-term, you’re more likely to be sending emails back and forth. Therefore, a pro of the short-term is that the alumni really wants to get to know you in a quick amount of time. When you meet up, it’s more personal. It also takes a long time to get to know someone which often isn’t necessary for your needs.

After getting the perspective of students participating in the program, we reached out to Aditya Yerramilli, the Alumni Advantage lead on the QUEST Alumni Board to hear his thoughts on the program.

Aditya Yerramilli – Forensic Program Manager at Google – Cohort 15

How do you believe this iteration of the QUEST Mentorship Program differentiates itself from prior versions?

We designed this mentoring program to be leaner and quicker, get students connected fast, and help address their questions immediately. It is not meant to be an overly formal program, but rather something that students can touch and go with as they need to.
The latest iteration of the Alumni Advantage program was launched March 1st and currently includes 35 total mentees and alumni (5 – CMNS, 12 – Clark, 18 – Smith). Based on our investigation the reviews are certainly positive.

Thanks to all of the students, alumni, and faculty who aided us in the writing of this article. QUEST certainly has a lot to look forward to, and we cannot wait to see how the Alumni Advantage program benefits the community!

If you’re an alumnus interested in getting involved, please sign up here! If you’re a student interested in getting involved, please sign up here!

QUEST Goes Global in 490H

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Immediately upon joining QUEST, one hears about the challenge of 490H. One hears that it’s demanding, realistic, and enriching- the pinnacle of the QUEST program. This spring, eight students from Cohort 23 have ventured even further outside of their comfort zone for their 490H projects. For the first time ever, the QUEST Program has teamed up University of Maryland students with students in Australia and Sweden.

“Providing an opportunity for students to work on projects with geographically dispersed teams has been a goal for the program for the past 5 years,” explained Kylie King, QUEST’s Program Director. “When asking our alumni how QUEST could be better-structured to prepare students for the real world, this emerged as a significant opportunity for improvement. Funding from the Office of International Affairs helped make this possible.”

Students working on the global projects have not only welcomed the challenge but say it’s right-in-line with what they signed up for when they decided to join QUEST two years ago.

“I think one of the biggest goals of the 490H consulting projects is to give us a relevant ‘real-world’ experience while we are still in college,” said Andrew Dicken, who, with Shmuel Gold is paired with a team from Sweden. “Working with international teammates is a very realistic challenge that many professionals deal with on a daily basis in 2016.”

These students were not only up for the challenge, but some even searched for it and welcomed it with open arms.

Joseph Dadzie, who with Alex Huang is paired with an Australian team and client, says he ranked all of the global projects as his top choices. Currently studying chemical engineering, he’s interested in working internationally in the future. “I’m involved with a lot of global programs at school, and I studied abroad,” Dadzie said. “Gaining a better global perspective is something I value.”

While the time differences and geographic positionings are two of the most prominent challenges these students face, through today’s technology, these students have been able to adapt and adjust. Being able to critically think through their group’s challenges and come up with innovative solutions echoes not only what real-world international professionals do, but what QUEST students have done since day one.

“[A] challenge that we have faced is that our Swedish teammates were not able to physically visit our client’s warehouse with us,” said Dicken. “Therefore, it is somewhat difficult for them to get a full picture of the challenges that our client is facing and their current solutions. We have tried to overcome these challenges by skyping with them while walking around the facility as well as answering any questions that they have about the layout as they come up.”

“There’s about a 15 to 16 hour time difference, so we have to schedule meetings in the late evening here, which is early morning for Australia,” said Dadzie, whose team has realized how valuable the time they can meet actually is. In order to make meetings more productive, his team has had to take a slightly more individual approach where they perform their individual tasks for the week on their own prior to meeting up, so that their team members can spend time on Skype monitoring progress and delegating work.

“The biggest challenge was finding a balance where we all remember that we are one team together, despite the distance,” said Shmuel Gold. “Along those lines, we also struggled with how to properly divide the work without separating into two teams entirely.”

Embracing the challenges and benefits of this unique experience, QUEST students are not the only ones getting this taste of international business. Their clients have also realized the prominence of global projects in the world today and have eagerly welcomed this opportunity.

“Our clients have fully embraced this challenge,” said Dicken. “They are very enthusiastic about working with us. They think that it is very appropriate that they have an international team consulting for them because Intralox is an international company, and we are facing many of the same challenges that they face on a daily basis.”

Hao Tian, one of the project champions from Intralox, stated that “the students have been very impressive so far. They recently handed in a statement of work with well-organized objectives and a great understanding of our current process and operations [at Intralox]. They came up with a very good approach for moving forward.”

Tian said that Intralox was interested in a global project because it provides the company with “a great opportunity to have a chance to work with students and gain new insights and opinions.”

Kylie King is the faculty advisor for the Intralox team. “Advising the Intralox team has been a wonderful experience so far. It was fun to tour the warehouse with the Swedish students joining us over Skype. The combination of the student skills and experiences has already resulted in some interesting findings. I can’t wait to see where this team takes their project.”

The students too have not only fully embraced this challenge, but also the opportunity itself to learn about new cultures. While Dadzie admits that other QUEST teams have had a lot more time to get to know each other, being that they’ve taken 190H and 390H together, his team has already gotten close enough to crack jokes in meetings and chat about differences in sports, culture, and slang.

“You realize how big the world really is,” said Dadzie, who eagerly looks forward to the opportunity to present his final presentation with his full team at the QUEST Conference this May.

King explained, “In addition to welcoming the international students to our final presentations here at Maryland, we plan to send the students working on projects in Sweden and Australia to present their final results at their client sites. I think this will be a rewarding experience for our students and will help showcase the quality of QUEST across the globe.”

If you’d like to check out the final presentations here at Maryland, be sure to save the date for the QUEST Conference on Thursday, May 5th, 2016 from 5-9PM at the Riggs Alumni Center!

Shmuel Gold and Andrew Dicken from Team Intralox skyping with their teammates in Sweden

Shmuel Gold and Andrew Dicken from Team Intralox skyping with their teammates in Sweden

Got Skills?

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If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my – admittedly short – time in QUEST, it’s that everyone loves to lend a hand. Don’t know what electives to take next semester? Can’t figure out why your latest presentation isn’t clicking? Odds are, if you sit in the QUEST Lab long enough, someone will be able to help you out. As Yash Mehta put it, “Each QUEST student has some sort of expertise,” and it’s this community of scholars and innovators that form the backbone of the new QUEST Development Series (QDeS) workshops.

The project of 190H mentor team Yash Mehta (Q22), Chris Yeager (Q22), and David Dorsey (Q23), the QUEST Development Series stems from the need for skills that don’t fit neatly into course curriculum, but are valuable nonetheless. Comprised of workshops run by students (or alumni), the Development Series hopes to give QUEST students a chance to pick up hard skills in a hands-on, low pressure environment.

“Don’t expect to come out there and listen to someone talk for an hour,” Yash said, and Chris added, “It’s definitely a different format… very much not lecture-based; it’s meant to be engaging.”

While no one is under the illusion that these workshops will make experts out of the attendees, they will give students a chance to get their feet wet, become passionate about exploring something new, and pick up new tips and techniques. The student-to-student format also allows for students to give back to the QUEST community and pass on the skills they’ve learned.

The inaugural workshop took place on February 15th. Taught by Steven Gresh (Q22), it focused on Computer Aided Design (CAD) – a program all engineering majors, some more happily than others, are at least passingly familiar with. While the bulk of the attendees, as a result of the topic, were engineers, a scattering of other majors ventured out. Sarina Haryanto, a supply chain management major from Q26, was “glad I went so I know what it’s like ‘behind the scenes’ of 3D printing.”

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Steven Gresh (Q22) teaches the first QUEST Development Series workshop

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The CAD workshop gave students a chance to test and grow their skills.

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Student-to-student learning isn’t limited to just the leader of the workshop; attendees work together to compete their task.

However, if you can’t be swayed by 3D printing, never fear – the Development Series plans to offer workshops on far more than just technical design skills. The next workshop, to be taught by Praneet Puppala (Q22) and planned for March 24th from 6:30-8:00 PM, will cover personal finance – a skill you can never have too much of. The last workshop of the semester will also focus on a topic you can never be too good at: presentation design. The date isn’t finalized yet, but QUESTees should keep an eye on the TWIQ and Facebook group for dates and registration links.

So what’s the future of the QUEST Development Series?  “Well, we’re going to host these three workshops, and if they’re successful we’re hopefully going to start another QUEST student group [to manage it],” Chris said.

The QUEST Development Series truly is a product of the QUEST community. Driven by the desire to constantly be improving, it provides a more structured opportunity for students to learn from their peer’s expertise outside of the classroom. However, more than anything, it’s just a fun chance to learn – and an opportunity this author, at least, hopes will continue.

Interested in getting involved with the QUEST Development Series? Feel free to reach out to any of the QDes team members. Emails below.

Quest Development Series – QuestDevSeries@gmail.com

Yash Mehta – ymehta@terpmail.umd.edu

Chris Yeager – yeager@terpmail.umd.edu

David Dorsey – david.dorc@gmail.com

PwC Case Competition Recap

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This year, in the spirit of QUEST, a new case competition has emerged. This past November, QUEST students had the chance to participate in a data analytics case competition, sponsored by PwC. Fitted within an unforgiving 24-hour time period, participants worked on PwC’s “Big Data challenge.” The case entailed consulting for an expanding company as they tried to figure out what different data types they should consider when making their next big transition. Working right through the Mount St. Mary/Terps basketball matchup of the night, QUEST students took to the challenge, starting at 3PM on Friday, November 13th and presenting at 1PM the next day.

A team comprised of current 190H students meeting with their PwC mentor during the kickoff event on Friday.

A team comprised of current 190H students meeting with their PwC mentor during the kickoff event on Friday.

“I thought the competition was a great way to showcase what QUEST students could do in just a short amount of time,” said Michael George of Cohort 23. “I had a chance to look at the presentations that the other teams put together, and I was really amazed at how much we were able to do in under 12 hours. The case competition was just another way to display the human capital that this program has.”

“It was a good opportunity to work on and develop real world, relevant skills, and it was very helpful to receive feedback from mentors at PwC,” said Ben Hsieh of Cohort 22.

The competition finished with various sorts of prizes being awarded, such as the best team name, awarded to the “Databaes,” a play on “big data” and “BAE.” The grand prize of $250 in Amazon gift cards went to Team BYESS, comprised of Ben Hsieh (Q22), Yash Mehta (Q22), Eleanna Makris (Q25), Sanjay Tohan (Q25), and Sam Lewando (Q25) (in case it’s not clear, the pronounciation is (Bee-Yes), and the letters are an acronym for the beginning letters of each member’s name). $50 Chipotle gift cards were also awarded to the second place team, a group of 190H students who represented Cohort 25 well that day.

Winning team BYESS

Winning team BYESS

Second place team with their Chipotle gift cards!

Second place team with their Chipotle gift cards!

All participants left with a $10 gift card just for competing. Although some won bigger than others, at the end of the day, we were all very grateful for the opportunity and time that PwC spent.

“Thanks to QUEST Alumnus Joel Liebman (Q14) and his team at PwC for organizing the case competition. Our students really enjoyed working with and learning from their PwC mentors and judges. It was amazing to see the recommendations they came up with in just under 24 hours,” said Jessica Macklin, QUEST’s Program Coordinator.

PwC judges announcing the winners!

PwC judges announcing the winners!

QUEST Alumnus Finds Success with Campus Maps App

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For many freshmen here at UMD, navigating through the intimidating terrain that is UMD’s campus on the first day of school may not be possible without a few resources. Besides the stands that are set up around campus during those first few days, many (including myself last year) heavily rely on the Campus Maps app, an app that provides all of the key locations and buildings around UMD. In fact, the founder of that app is a QUEST alumnus. Vikram Bhandari of Cohort 18 developed the app during the summer between his sophomore and junior years, seeking a solution to a problem many new students face during the first weeks of school.

He says that at the start, the app was shared amongst his friends, and after they suggested he market it to the app store, he then saw the potential for it to become something bigger. “Growth [was not] immediate”, Vikram states. “Year 1 [had] about 2,000 users. It wasn’t until a few years in, that adoption really started to skyrocket.” In the past couple of years, the app has even become popular amongst campuses outside UMD. At this time last year, there were around 20 schools using it, but Vikram projects it to be around 500 by the end of this year. However, this all wouldn’t have happened without his overcoming of obstacles along the way. “I had never made a product prior to Campus Maps, so there was a lot of learning to do. Rather than viewing my inexperience or inability to do something as a blocker, I saw each obstacle as an opportunity to learn and add another tool to my skill set.”

Today, Vikram runs the app full time, and he has eyes set to expand the app rapidly. He says that as an undergraduate student at UMD, “being part of QUEST [was] one of [his] highest rated college memories.” The education he received both inside and outside of the classroom made his experience as a QUEST student.

“Success is not always immediately obvious. It’s important to pursue a passion that you are willing to invest in. Making decisions for the long haul is where you start to really pull ahead of the competition,” Vikram adds.

If you’re interested in seeing the app Vikram developed and trying it out, click here.

QUEST Corporate Hosts First Annual Corporate Partners Networking Reception

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Last month, QUEST Corporate hosted its first annual Corporate Partners Networking Reception for QUEST students in the Stamp Student Union on September 16th. The reception aimed to give QUEST students an exclusive view of recruiters prior to the fall recruitment rush.

QUEST Corporate Networking ReceptionThe event was a huge success with over 100 students in attendance as well as representatives from twelve companies including Accenture, APT, BD, Bloomberg, Booz Allen Hamilton, Constellation, Dante, Deloitte, Google, PwC, Thales, and Under Armour. Many of the representatives from the companies were QUEST alumni who were excited to be able to network and interact with current students. Many acknowledged that they wish they had had a similar event during their time in the program.

Danny Laurence, a Q19 alumni representing Dante, stated:

“A lot of the sponsors I talked to were not only impressed with the quality of QUEST students, but also the way in which the event was conducted – it’s rare to have access to students who genuinely want to engage in networking. I think that from a student/alumnus perspective, events like these are immensely important: this is where students can hone their soft-skills and give back to the corporate sponsors that help make the program a continuing success.”

Pictured (left to right): Bobby Fitzgerald, Andrea Kyeremeh, Hargun Kalsi, Victoria Zhao, Ilan Gold, Liya Ai, Naomi Lieberman, & David Howarth

Pictured (left to right): QUEST Corporate Committee Members- Bobby Fitzgerald (Q21), Andrea Kyeremeh (Q22), Hargun Kalsi (Q23), Victoria Zhao (Q24), Ilan Gold (Q22), Liya Ai (Q22), Naomi Lieberman (Q22), & David Howarth (Q21)

For QUEST students, the event also provided a unique opportunity to bond with students from other cohorts.

QUEST Corporate is the newest student-led committee in the QUEST program. Q22 students Ilan Gold and Andrea Kyeremeh saw an unmet need to provide more professional development opportunities and events for QUEST students and came up with the idea for QUEST Corporate last spring.

Ilan said, “I decided to form QUEST Corporate after experiencing the ‘back-end’ of QUEST, through the Scoping course [BMGT491]. Like many other students, I felt that QUEST could be doing more to provide professional development opportunities to our students, so I decided to take my knowledge of QUEST’s corporate outreach process and apply it to building new corporate partnerships.”

According to Andrea, the committee “seeks to increase the visibility between students and QUEST corporate sponsors.”

The committee spent the entire summer planning for the networking reception and is currently working to plan more events for the rest of the year.

 

Jessica Macklin Presents at ASEE Conference in Seattle

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This summer, QUEST’s Program Coordinator, Jessica Macklin, had the opportunity to spread knowledge and excitement for the QUEST program across the country while presenting at the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) conference in Seattle, Washington.

ASEE is a nonprofit organization of individuals and institutions committed to furthering education in engineering and engineering technology. ASEE develops policies and programs that enhance professional opportunities for engineering faculty members, and promotes activities that support increased student enrollments in engineering at universities, as well as acts as a channel of open communication and networking among corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions.

This year’s conference, held June 14th-17th, featured over 400 technical sessions, with peer-reviewed papers spanning all disciplines of engineering education. Jessica presented on a paper detailing the evolution of the QUEST program, authored by Program Director Kylie King and herself, titled “Twenty Years of Multidisciplinary Capstone Projects: Design, Implementation and Assessment.” They were aided in their discussion of capstone projects by quotes from QUEST alumni, Debbie Feinberg (Q1) and Ori Zohar (Q12).

Much as technology and the practice of engineering has evolved over the past 20 years, QUEST capstone projects have constantly been changing to reflect these engineering evolutions and to provide students with the skills and experiences relevant to the real world environment they are about to enter. Capstone projects have shifted with the times, from conducting market analysis for a printing company, to creating a recycling solutions for a construction company, to rethinking a telecommunications company’s cybersecurity training.

With these relevant and challenging capstone projects, it’s only natural that both the students and corporate partners would continue to reap the benefits of the program over time. In a recent survey, over 80% of QUEST students evaluated themselves as “Proficient” or “Advanced” on every course learning outcome. In the past 3 years, over 50% of all projects have had a lasting impact for the sponsoring organization, and over 90% of teams have exceeded client expectations. Nearly 60% of QUEST students who work full-time after graduation have taken a job with a sponsoring organization.

Jessica used these fantastic findings to share suggestions about engineering education with the other conference goers, stressing the importance of learning outcomes, having a variety of stakeholders in the process, and utilizing multidisciplinary teams. She and Kylie hope their research and the success of the QUEST program will help to inspire other schools and colleges to develop similar programs and initiatives, and one day emulate such incredible results.

To read the full paper, click here!

Meet QUEST’s New Graduate Assistant, Emily Kelly!

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Hi everyone! My name is Emily Kelly and I am the new Graduate Assistant for QUEST. I’m so excited to be working with the students in this program and the entire QUEST community. I grew up in Naperville, IL, a suburb about 45 minutes away from Chicago. I attended the University of Iowa for my undergrad and majored in Psychology with my main interest being in Educational Psychology. I just graduated in May 2015 so this has been a year full of changes for me!

This fall I will begin the Higher Education M.A. program in the College of Education here at UMD. I moved to D.C. a little less than a week ago and am very excited to start this new chapter of my life. This is my first time being out east and I love it so far, I am looking forward to being a Terp and seeing all that UMD has to offer.

I am extremely eager to meet both the QUEST students and alumni. The whole mission of this program really interests me and I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a driven and intelligent group of people that have such varied interests.

Some fun facts about me: my favorite food is anything with buffalo chicken, but I also put buffalo sauce on just about any food. I studied abroad in Valladolid, Spain for a summer and spent three weeks in Pondicherry, India this past winter working in a school for kids with special needs and their mothers. I am a Harry Potter fanatic; I have read all of the books twice and even took a Harry Potter honors seminar during my undergrad (best class ever). My favorite shows are Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder.  I once was randomly stopped on the street and interviewed about shark attacks in America (that was my first and hopefully last TV appearance). The Chicago Blackhawks are my favorite sports team.

I am looking forward to meeting everyone in the upcoming weeks! Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Sincerely,

Emily

New QUEST Graduate Assistant Emily Kelly on the field at Kinnick Stadium

New QUEST Graduate Assistant Emily Kelly on the field at Kinnick Stadium

 

HAAT Consulting Receives Outstanding Capstone Award

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For the first time this semester, a cohort of junior QUEST students took the capstone 490H class. Team HAAT Consulting, working for CFR Engineering, was the first team to win the newly titled Outstanding Capstone Award. QUESTPress sat down with the team to discuss their project, inspirations, and advice for future 490H students.

The team was composed of Tommy Johnson (Electrical Engineering), Halley Weitzman (Computer Science), Aaron Sirken (Mechanical Engineering), and Avi Silvermetz (Finance), all from Cohort 21.

CFR Engineering is a small, 30 employee engineering firm located in Germantown, Maryland. They mainly provide electrical, mechanical, and plumbing/fire protection engineering solutions and services to their clients. CFR realized that much of their data was scattered and disorganized, and as such tasked HAAT consulting with constructing a query-able database for their bid and proposal data. They hoped to better be able to identify past bid and proposal data to assist in creating new bids for current and future projects.

What was your team’s final solution? 

Avi: Our team created an Access database for CFR engineering that allows them to easily and efficiently query past projects in their database and quickly get the information they need from the data. We also created a multiple linear regression model to help them predict their future bid and proposal costs, and we provided them with a framework for expanding upon our work and taking our recommendations to the next level using machine learning.

How did you come to settle on this final solution? 

Aaron: For the longest time, we were hung up on the idea of creating a custom database for CFR. We wanted our solution to be unique and have a number of custom features that we thought would add significant value to our client. However, as we worked through the project, our clients kept stressing how they wanted the deliverable to be simple and easy to use. We were running into a number of roadblocks designing a custom database, particularly the fact that we didn’t believe it would be sustainable for CFR. We knew that we needed to find a better balance of our wants with the client’s needs. Eventually, Avi suggested we look at Microsoft Access.

Avi: We knew that CFR had a license to use Access and that some of their employees on the business development team had experience using it. So that already reduced a few of the roadblocks to creating the database. It also interfaced easily with Excel spreadsheets, and eventually, we realized that Access was what was best for our client.

How did you design the linear regression model? 

Halley: We initially wanted to use machine learning to estimate project costs. However, we realized that was too ambitious of a goal for the scope of our project and time remaining in the semester. The linear regression model was our next attempt to help CFR predict their project costs.

One of the challenges in building the model was the vast amount of data. We had to eliminate a lot of it to make the model better and find the correct predictors of project cost. Dr. Armstrong, our faculty advisor, was a huge help in formulating the model, even meeting with us on weekends to lend her advice and assistance. One cool thing about the model is that it performs better on data it hasn’t seen before, which we believe will help it to accurately predict project costs for CFR.

How did you come up with your +1 or next steps? 

Tommy: We were sitting in the QUEST lab a couple of weeks ago working on our poster and looking at past posters, and Dr. Bailey walked in the room. We began talking with him about our client and project, and he immediately understood our project better than even we did. He started writing on the white board and walking us through every aspect of our project and the work we did, really helping to identify what we needed to put on our poster and how to talk about our project.

He then told us that 490H projects are 80% scoped out and 20% up to the team to have creative flexibility with. He said that while we had achieved the 80%, this was our opportunity to add value to CFR with our 20% recommendations. He walked us through how our work could be expanded upon and improved, using our original idea of machine learning, to turn a 10-million dollar business into a 10-billion dollar business. He was the inspiration behind our final recommendations, and he really helped us reexamine our project and scope and break out of a bit of a lull we were in at the time.

What advice would you give future 490H students?

Tommy: Deliver what the client wants, but don’t be afraid to take advantage of the 20%. It is important to always keep the clients’ needs in mind and build for them, but this is also a learning opportunity and your chance to leave an impact on the real world, and that’s where the 20% comes in.

Avi: Although this project was a great learning experience and huge success, I still wish I had pushed my boundaries a little bit more and tried something new. I did a lot of things for this project I already had experience in, and I wish I had tested new skills during my 490H project.

Aaron: Our team got along really well. Our meetings and discussions were all really lighthearted and fun, and we didn’t get frustrated or argue. I would encourage teams to try to keep things as lighthearted as possible while still getting your work done.

Halley: Focus on the client and the solutions the client wants. We lost a lot of time trying to build solutions they couldn’t use. Start EARLY. Front load as much of the work as possible. And don’t be afraid to distribute and delegate work. Not everyone needs to be present to do everything, and you will accomplish tasks more efficiently by trusting your teammates and delegating tasks.

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