Chen Zhou, associate professor and associate chair for Undergraduate Studies, advised both student teams, This year’s team, comprising Colby Allen, Philip Pecher, Tim Wilson, and Yigong Zhang, was awarded second place in the competition, winning a cash prize of $1000 in addition to a $500 prize for the Stewart School.

“To really appreciate this,” states Leon McGinnis, Eugene C. Gwaltney Chair in Manufacturing Systems, “you need to know that usually the award-winning teams come from programs that have a full course devoted to facility logistics--analyzing and designing facilities that feature material handling as a primary element--and it is a major investment of time for the student competitors.”

The students for the 2009-2010 competition tackled the problem of developing plans for the construction and equipping of a new distribution center for ToolFair Distributors that will commence shipment to customers no later than June 2011. CICMHE sponsors the annual material handling student design competition for teams of students interested in the analysis and design of material handling systems. Since the first design competition was offered during the 1994-1995 academic year, student design teams have developed material handling system designs for a variety of manufacturing and warehousing operations. Design problems are typically drawn from the case files of designers and manufacturers of material handling equipment and their end users.