{"66139":{"#nid":"66139","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Spring 2011:  Comcast Senior Design Team Takes First Place","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOut of the\n24 Senior Design teams who tackled solving real-world problems for a variety of\ncompanies this semester, three teams rose to the top to find themselves in the\nmuch sought after and hard won position of being finalist in the end-of-\nsemester Senior Design Competition. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe three finalist teams, listed in alphabetical order\nby organization, include:\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EComcast \u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EGwinnett County Public Schools \u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EUnited Parcel Service \u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe team who\nworked on a project sponsored by Comcast garnered first place in the\ncompetition.\u0026nbsp; Guided by faculty advisor, \u003Cstrong\u003EDr. Alexander Shaprio\u003C\/strong\u003E, seven students \u003Cstrong\u003EIan Balmaseda, Thien Huynh, Daniel\nKohlsdorf, Sagar Patel, Alejandro Santelises, Holly Thomasson, and Michelle\nWang\u003C\/strong\u003E made up the Comcast team. Their\nproject,\nentitled \u003Cem\u003EImproving Comcast\u2019s Outage\nDetection System\u003C\/em\u003E, focused on reducing the number of unnecessary trucks and\nservice calls that Comcast incurs because of inaccurate outage detection.\u0026nbsp; A cost model was developed and consequently\nvarious algorithms were created aimed at increasing the probability of\ndetecting a genuine outage, thus lowering the unnecessary costs associated with\neach outage. Additionally, incoming call frequency was analyzed to detect unusual\nspikes in customer call patterns. A conservative estimated value added based on\npart of the deliverables will save Comcast approximately $1.4 million annually.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe two other teams (Gwinnett County Public Schools\nand United Parcel Service) were honored as runners-up in the competition.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EGwinnett County Public Schools is the second largest\ntransporter of students in the nation and is facing considerable budget cuts.\u0026nbsp; Working on a project titled, \u003Cem\u003EGwinnett County Public Schools Bus Logistics\u003C\/em\u003E,\nthe team members included \u003Cstrong\u003EMorgan Doty,\nBryce Dykes, Kathleen Hendrix, Ralph Long, Dana Lupuloff, Douglas Meagh,\nJeffrey Phillips, Michael Vallecoccia\u003C\/strong\u003E, along with advisor \u003Cstrong\u003EDr. Julie Swann\u003C\/strong\u003E. By developing\nassignment and scheduling heuristics implemented by a user friendly application\nand informed by a regression and forecast, the team was able to significantly\nreduce the total number of buses needed for daily transportation. The overall\nreduction of over 100 buses resulted in an initial savings of $2.9 million and\nrecurring savings of $2.6 million each year.\u0026nbsp;\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EThe team\nwho worked with United Parcel Service (UPS) to \u003Cem\u003EOptimize the Smalls Cut-off\u003C\/em\u003E included \u003Cstrong\u003EStephen Cai, Allison Chan, Amy Chan, Se W. Chang, Christine Chuang,\nDavid Dongkuen Kim, and Derek von Zweck\u003C\/strong\u003E along with advisor \u003Cstrong\u003EDr. Anton Kleywegt\u003C\/strong\u003E. \u0026nbsp;The objective of the project was to analyze\nthe effects of separating packages into small and large packages, and to\nrecommend cut-off dimensions that minimize total cost.\u0026nbsp; A 3D bin packing algorithm was developed to\nsimulate the loading of packages into trailers. A mixed integer program was\nused to calculate the optimum number of trailers needed on each route, on each\nday.\u0026nbsp; By selecting the smalls cut-off\nthat optimizes the trade-off between handling costs and\ntransportation costs, UPS would realize cost savings of $17,000 daily at a\nterminal\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI am impressed by the amount of high-quality work our\nstudents did to create real, significant value for such a wide range of\ncompanies and organizations this semester,\u0022 said Dr. Joel Sokol, Senior\nDesign Coordinator.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAll senior students in\nISyE culminate their undergraduate educational experience with the Senior\nDesign course in order to provide firsthand experience at solving real world\nproblems in a team environment. Students typically work in teams of five to\nseven individuals with 15-25 Senior Design groups running each semester. Each\ngroup is advised by an ISyE faculty member, and the faculty coordinator manages\nthe overall course. Companies interested in submitting a project for consideration\ncan either contact \u003Cstrong\u003EDr.\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003ESokol,\n\u003C\/strong\u003Eat 404 894-6484 or can post a project through the ISyE webpage at \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/seniordesign\/\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/seniordesign\/\u003C\/a\u003E.\nSenior design teams look for projects before the start of the fall and spring\nsemesters.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOut of the\n24 Senior Design teams who tackled solving real-world problems for a variety of\ncompanies this semester, three teams rose to the top to find themselves in the\nmuch sought after and hard won position of being finalist in the end-of-\nsemester Senior Design Competition. The three finalist teams, listed in alphabetical order\nby organization, include: Comcast, Gwinnett County Public Schools, and United Parcel Service. The team who\nworked on a project sponsored by Comcast garnered first place in the\ncompetition\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27279","created_gmt":"2011-05-11 15:31:38","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:08:45","author":"Barbara Christopher","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-05-11T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2011-05-11T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"66155":{"id":"66155","type":"image","title":"Comcast Team","body":null,"created":"1449176916","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:08:36","changed":"1475894587","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:07","alt":"Comcast Team","file":{"fid":"192481","name":"comcast_firstpl_copy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/comcast_firstpl_copy_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/comcast_firstpl_copy_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":5607603,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/comcast_firstpl_copy_0.jpg?itok=Ova_1Qlm"}},"66156":{"id":"66156","type":"image","title":"Gwinnett County Public Schools Team","body":null,"created":"1449176931","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:08:51","changed":"1475894587","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:07","alt":"Gwinnett County Public Schools Team","file":{"fid":"192482","name":"gwinnett.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gwinnett_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gwinnett_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":5232515,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/gwinnett_0.jpg?itok=HO23YbbU"}},"66157":{"id":"66157","type":"image","title":"UPS Team","body":null,"created":"1449176931","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:08:51","changed":"1475894587","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:07","alt":"UPS Team","file":{"fid":"192483","name":"ups_sp2011.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ups_sp2011_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ups_sp2011_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":5588357,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ups_sp2011_0.jpg?itok=JzaC1luI"}}},"media_ids":["66155","66156","66157"],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"594","name":"college of engineering"},{"id":"2893","name":"Comcast"},{"id":"13131","name":"Gwinnett County Public Schools"},{"id":"426","name":"isye"},{"id":"167319","name":"senior design"},{"id":"2381","name":"UPS"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:barbara.christopher@isye.gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBarbara\nChristopher\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIndustrial and Systems Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cstrong\u003E404.385.3102\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}