UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Camila Pizano, a doctoral student in industrial and manufacturing engineering (IME), took first place in the department’s graduate research poster contest Feb. 13.
The competition invited doctoral students to showcase their research for prospective graduate students who were on the University Park campus for the College of Engineering’s Graduate Visitation Weekend.
Pizano won $250 for her poster on “Assembly Management Tools — Complex Customized Assemblies.”
Paronkasom Indradat claimed the second-place prize of $150 for his poster on “Coordination Strategies in Blood Supply Chains,” and Ji Eun Kim earned an honorable mention for her research on “The Effects of Group Size and Task Complexity on Deadline Reactivity.”
The posters were judged by the visiting prospective graduate students and students from the Industrial Engineering Graduate Association on the quality of the poster, the verbal presentation given by the student researcher and the intellectual contribution of the research as a whole.
Eleven prospective IME students participated in the Graduate Visitation Weekend and had the opportunity to learn about the program, meet with faculty, and tour the Leonhard Building facilities and research labs.
“We were excited to host outstanding prospective Ph.D. students at this year’s event,” said David Nembhard, associate professor and graduate programs coordinator. “The caliber of the visiting students was truly impressive and it was important for us to provide them with a complimentary view of what our department and program has to offer.”
Nembhard added, “The students were excited to tour our world-class facilities and to learn about some of the research that our current doctoral students are undertaking. It was gratifying to see the efforts and hospitality offered by our faculty, staff and students to help our visitors envision themselves joining the Penn State family.”