The TIMEs Fall 2019

The TIMEs

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering • Cal Poly College of Engineering • Fall 2019

New IME Lab Opens

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The TIMEs

“Our programs continue to evolve with new people, new technology, and new ideas.”

H

appy Fall and backto-school season! I am excited about getting our new school year rolling and letting you know about some of the Learn

by Doing that has been going on and that we have planned for the coming year.

The stories in this newsletter give a glimpse of many of the new happenings in IME this year, but it’s impossible to capture the energy and momentum that is changing every day as our programs continue to evolve with new people, new technology, and new ideas.

With several of our faculty becoming more and more proficient in modern computer programming and data analytics tools, such as the Python and R programming languages, data visualization platforms such as Tableau and PowerBI, cloud computing using Amazon Web Services, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) connectivity for asset tracking and operations improvement, the age of “smart” industrial enterprises is upon us here in IME. Our new IE curriculum stresses industry applications of data analytics, and it is already opening up new job opportunities for our graduates. Student projects that used data for smarter equipment maintenance, customer service, assembly-line design, warehouse design, and healthcare services to improve operations in local industry began to showcase our

Message from the Chair —————————————————

Dan Waldorf students’ new skillset in the revamped senior project course this year. Our curriculum development tasks during 2019-20 are taking on the many tools and techniques surrounding “smart” manufacturing and modern automation of business processes so our students will have a hands-on understanding of these when they graduate.

Even our traditional hands-on lab activities in manufacturing methods and process improvement are getting smarter with new equipment, new software, and new instructor training.

Our cohort of new faculty, including data analytics expert Dr. Roy Jafari, operations researcher and optimizer Dr. Alessandro Hill, and supply chain/logistics veteran Dr. Mohamed Awwad, will be at the leading edge of many of our new efforts and will be teaching alongside new industry-experienced lecturers Brad Applin, Eric Paton, Jeff Zimmerman, Trevor

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Franchi, and Sara Catto. All of these, along with our outstanding experienced faculty and staff, will be supported by our new electromechanical equipment technician Bryan Lutz and a new computing technician being hired to directly support our data analytics efforts.

As hoped, students have been absorbing the energy from all of our new instructors and technology. Innovative projects involving design for 3D printing, unmanned vehicle routing, optimization of shop scheduling and layout, streamlined data server design, and improved performance of complex supply chain networks have continued our Learn by Doing tradition as our students have embraced the many changes in IME and continue to help us push the boundaries of what they can accomplish.

As you learn more about what we are up to, I hope you feel so connected to the IME Department that you think about getting more involved with us. Giving a guest class lecture, sponsoring a senior project (see IME Notebook section on Page 9), becoming a mentor for a current student, hosting a class field trip, or partnering with our faculty on bringing in new equipment or ideas are just some of the ways you can help.

We look forward to seeing you in the IME office in Building 192 on campus or hearing from you at ime@calpoly.edu or 805-7562341. n

IME.CALPOLY.EDU | 3

The TIMEs

Cloud on the Horizon IME’s Kurt Colvin wants to share the benefits of cloud technology

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f Cal Poly’s basketball coaches wanted to get really technical, they could video record every game, use recognition software to identify players and easily gather loads of data on shooting arcs, pickand-roll speeds, layup forms and more.

“You can evaluate shot percentage from so many angles: which players, where on the court, what time in the game, how close the defender is, how late in the shot clock, the player’s previous shots, etc.,” said Kurt Colvin, an IME professor. “A coach could narrowly define what makes a good shot, then teach players to recognize, then exploit ‘better’ shots.”

A former Mustang basketball player himself, Colvin knows the value of analytics in sports, as does every NBA team. He also knows how to create elaborate analytical models with cloud computing – thanks in part to special training from Amazon – and now he wants to share that knowledge with students, faculty and professionals.

“What’s possible in the cloud just blew my mind away,” Colvin said. “I still get excited every time I learn something new.”

When he set out to design and teach a new data analytics class two years ago, he found that the methods he wanted to use were a bit ambitious for existing campus technology.

“I wanted it to be a very flexible system, and that didn’t fit into how the labs were configured,” he said. “So it was that problem that made me go looking for another way to do it.”

He consulted with Darren Kraker, a software engineer with Cal Poly’s Information Technology Services, and the two

Darren Kraker, a software engineer with Cal Poly’s Information Technology Services, and IME professor Kurt Colvin share their knowledge of cloud computing.

“Now we can run hundreds of labs for a fraction of the cost of a physical one.”

— Darren Kraker, software engineer

discussed teaching the class together exclusively using cloud resources instead of IME labs.

Those who compute with the cloud store and access data and programs over the Internet instead of computer hard drives. Cloud services, offered for rent through companies like Amazon and Microsoft, can handle massive amounts

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of data. The alternative would be to use a large data center, which constantly needs upgrading, or your own gear, with external hard drives.

“I used to buy all those drives from Best Buy for all my back-ups,” Kraker said. “Now I just put it all in the cloud.”

The cloud was a perfect fit for Colvin’s class.

“We had a whole lot of software to do the analysis that we had to install,” Colvin said. “But instead of installing it on the students’ laptops, we installed it on an image in the cloud. And all they did was connect to it.”

The cost to rent the cloud technology for everyone was just $300.

“Now we can run hundreds of labs for a fraction of the cost of a physical one,” Kraker said.

With the success of the IME class, the duo decided to expand, teaching versions of the class to industry, business fellowship students and graduate business analytics students. Then they took training and certification from Amazon to become

“Cloud Academy” certified instructors.

Now they plan to offer a Cloud Professional Certificate through an online Cal Poly Extended Education course.

The cloud can be used for data collection and analysis in many ways. Kraker has used it to help a psychology professor gather and analyze data on brain mapping – creating images of specific brain functions – and to help biology faculty track millions of bird migration observations.

Colvin, a pilot who also teaches a flight test course for the Aerospace Engineering Department, said each of his flights records data that could be analyzed on the cloud.

“After every flight, we come back with a data file and columns of data that is just ripe for analysis,” he said.

Today, cloud computing is standard practice in professional basketball. The Golden State Warriors, for example, use Google Cloud; the Los Angeles Clippers use Amazon Web Services.

The notion of cloud computing might sound more like computer science than industrial and manufacturing engineering, but Colvin said companies like Amazon have already done the programming.

Users like Colvin just tell it what they want it to do.

“We’re not developing the technology; we’re just learning how to use it.” n IME.CALPOLY.EDU | 5

The TIMEs

New IME VIDEO LINK

For a short video on the new IME lab, see: https://engineering.calpoly.edu/go-flow

IME student Jack Rocca performs a task on the assembly line in the new lab.

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Lab Opens Student-built lab teaches students the basics of workflow measurement

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Lab developer Todd Altshuler, right, demonstrates the use of a barcode scanner in the new lab.

omplete with work stations, barcode sensors and a conveyer belt, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering students Todd Altshuler and Brandon White, working with professors Ginni Callow and Karen Bangs, designed and built a small assembly line lab that will help teach Cal Poly engineering students some of the basics of workflow measurement.

Students in IME 223 — “Principles of Work Simplification and Motion Analysis” — will apply process improvement concepts in a series of three hands-on labs, including process charting/precedence diagrams, learning curve, work sampling, and line balancing.

In addition, students will be introduced to data analytics by collecting data through barcode sensors and analyzing the data to drive and quantify improvements on the assembly line.

“This lab is very interactive,” said Callow. “In the students’ first session, they learned the concepts of work sampling, learning curve as well as line balancing. They were able to From left, professors Ginni Callow and Karen Bangs and students Todd Altshuler and Brandon White developed an apply what they’re learning in assembly line for the new Hands-on Volume Assembly Lab, which teaches students the basics of workflow management. class with this interactive lab.”

Located in Building 192, Room 219, the new Hands-on Volume Assembly Lab’s pilot cost of $4,400 was funded by a gift from IME staff member Stephanie Allen and the Conner Family Endowment Fund she created within the department. n

IME student Tiffany Parobek, right, works on the assembly line in the new lab.

At left, students use barcode scanners to record when they complete a task on the assembly line.

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The TIMEs

Upgraded New equipment, scholarships will better prepare IME students for industry

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alter Trygstad likes to make things.

But, as the manufacturing engineering major stands in a room packed with students and machine tools, there’s also a very practical reason he’s a regular in the Material Removal Lab: He wants to be Day One ready when he graduates.

“You’re able to directly apply the skills you learned here to the job floor,” he said.

A fleet of newly purchased Haas CNC machines will help Cal Poly engineering students obtain those skills, allowing them to learn how mechanical parts are designed, manufactured, and inspected – better preparing them for their future careers – said Trian Georgeou, a lecturer in the Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering department. Meanwhile, a new $40,000 working scholarship will fund student lab technicians, like Trygstad, complimenting Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing approach with an Earn-by-Doing incentive.

The addition of the Haas CNC mills, Georgeou said, marks the completion of the first of a three-phase upgrade to the IME Material Removal labs. This summer, Georgeou worked on part two – adding an Omax Protomax waterjet cutter, Industrial CO2 laser cutter and a Morgan Press injection molding machine into the freshman machining lab curriculum. And now he’s seeking donations to replace 12 outdated manual lathes with new state-of-the-art CNC Haas lathes. That $200,000 project, he said, represents the third and final phase in the IME’s effort to keep the manufacturing lab current with Industry 4.0.

The six new CNC mills replaced older, open-frame manual mills that were 25 years behind today’s current CNC machining technology, Georgeou said. The older mills also posed safety concerns due to the open frame construction, he added.

“It is our job as manufacturing engineering educators to stay abreast with advanced manufacturing topics,” he said. “If we don’t keep up to date with advanced manufacturing topics, it could be a threat to our nation’s security, not only in defense but commercial goods and services as well.”

The Ventura County-based Haas Automation sold the College of Engineering the six machines at “heavily discounted” prices, said Scott Coventry, district manager at Haas Automation. CNC – short for “computer numerical control” – is a manufacturing process in which computer software is used to program and create toolpaths that dictates the movement of the cutting tools and machinery. With CNC machining, three-dimensional cutting tasks can be accomplished using a language known as G & M code.

Learning on these machines will better prepare students for work in industry after graduation, Coventry said.

“Once you learn these machines, you can go anywhere around the world and work.”

Georgeou worked with Coventry to bring in the new machines and the mechanical and manufacturing engineering’s industrial advisory board to create new curriculum that would take advantage of them. Roughly 700 freshman a year go through the IME Material Removal lab.

While machines also exist in the Aero Hangar and Mustang ‘60 shops, those are primarily used for club and senior projects, whereas these will be used to teach students critical design for manufacturability skills.

“A lot of them have never touched a machine before,” said Brian Hillenbrand, a manufacturing engineering student.

Hillenbrand was one of several students hired as “Earn by Doing” CNC lab techs with the $40,000 in grant money provided

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to Cal Poly manufacturing and mechanical engineering students by the Gene Haas Foundation. The student lab techs were trained to use the new machines and will now help other students with their machining lab projects.

Hillenbrand said working as a teacher helps him learn even more about machining –- while providing extra incentive with the Earn by Doing money.

“It’s very rewarding to teach,” he said.

“But when you have the incentive of getting paid, you put in a little more.”

Haas Automation and the Gene Haas Foundation have been frequent university supporters. Gene Haas, who founded the company, might be better known for founding both Formula One and NASCAR race teams. But he’s also still involved in manufacturing and philanthropy related to the field.

And he knows that in order to remain competitive globally, U.S. students have to work with current technology.

“If you want to win a race, you don’t drive a 1950s pickup – you drive a current Ferrari,” Coventry said. “And these machines are race cars.”

For students, the machines help further Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing approach.

Kristin Stinson, a mechanical engineering student, said she appreciates being able to actually create something designed in her mind and on paper.

“It’s cool that it doesn’t take that long to make something that is able to be used immediately,” she said. n

IME Notebook

Awards for Best Projects this year were given to teams representing Cisco Systems, Wasco Inc., Hardy Diagnostics, Scientific Drilling, and Patio Pacific.

For more on IME senior projects, contact Tali Freed at tfreed@calpoly.edu.

First Ever Advising Week Turnout is High

Martin Koch posed for a selfie with Dean Amy Fleischer at his retirement party in the Bonderson Projects Center.

Martin Koch Retires After 37 Years with IME

After serving the department for 37 years as a technician and lecturer, Martin Koch retired last spring.

Koch supervised the IME labs, keeping them on the cutting edge of technology. With extensive knowledge of manufacturing processes and equipment, he offered valuable support to students and faculty. As an instructor, he not only taught the proper use of machines, he also prioritized safety.

When buildings 192 and 41-A were built, Koch’s help was crucial during the IME Department’s move. During the design and construction of the new buildings, he worked with architects and designers on the installation of air, water, power and ventilation in support of lab and faculty facilities; he worked with contractors and construction workers on solving problems with Cal Poly facilities; and he worked with vendors on purchasing new equipment, furniture, computers and hardware for every lab, including departments outside IME.

Changes Improve IME Senior Projects

Members of the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) were impressed recently with efforts

to improve the quality of senior projects in the IME Department.

After gaining input from faculty and IAB in the past, a plan was set to improve the quality of senior project outcomes, as reflected by students reports, presentations, industrypreparedness and self efficacy.

During the summer and fall of 2018, hundreds of faculty hours were dedicated to the development of structured and rigorous course content, with significant assistance from the senior project instructors.

Beginning in the fall of the 2018-19 school year, the department began offering a 3-quarter series (increased from two) with the same project advisor for all three quarters. The new plan also called for frequent meetings with senior project sponsors.

Meanwhile, topic assignments to teams were to be based on student input and instructor assessment of student qualifications for projects, and senior project content was to be agreed upon and taught in a consistent manner by all instructors.

After the first year of changes, members of the IAB concluded that student teams were more cohesive, their presentation skills were impressive, and they saw more passion and intensity for the projects as well as more direct involvement with industry sponsors.

Last spring, roughly 80 students attended the inaugural Advising Week, where they sought advice on careers, graduate school, senior projects, their fall schedule and more.

Advising Week was created to connect students and faculty in a less intimidating way and to encourage students to seek advice and support from IME faculty and staff. A survey from the Fall of 2018 indicated students don’t know who their advisor is and find it intimidating to visit their advisor.

The week begins with an email from the department chair, highlighting opportunities available at upcoming advising sessions. Emails also help students identify their advisors and offer tips on careers, lifestyle, school and more.

The two advising sessions invited students to discuss anything, and a minimum number of three faculty members, along with the chair, were on hand to participate in each session.

Surveys sent afterward were positive, with students requesting even more.

IME Completes First Fully Online Course

This summer, 34 students took part in IME’s first fully online course, Financial Decision Making for Engineers.

The course, taught by Liz Schlemer, covered five topics: investment analysis; reporting and managing profits; cost of products; decisions within the environmental, social, political and economic context; and personal financial decisions.

“I have been offering a similar

Mohamed A. Awwad

New to IME

New faculty member Mohamed A. Awwad brings the department research experience in logistic systems, e-commerce, supply chain, manufacturing and the military.

Awwad joins Cal Poly this fall from the University of Buffalo, where he was an assistant professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department.

He has also taught at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and University of Central Florida, in Orlando.

Awwad has numerous degrees, beginning with his bachelor’s in mechanical design and production engineering from Cairo University. After earning his Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the University of Central Florida, he began to pursue an M.B.A. from the University of Buffalo.

He is interested in designing and analyzing unconventional logistics systems, such as dense storage systems, airborne fulfilment centers, underground freight transportation and last-mile delivery systems using unmanned aerial vehicles. Teaching interests focus on undergraduate- and graduate-level statistics and probability, logistics and supply chain, operations management and production systems and quality control.

Continued on Page 10

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College of Engineering Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering Dept.

1 Grand Avenue • San Luis Obispo, CA • 93407

Notebook from Page 9

course in a flipped mode and because there is no lab section, it was easier to convert to online,” Schlemer said.

While developing the content was challenging – as was cramming it into a 5-week session – Schlemer called the course a success.

ViaSat Donation Will Help Faculty Research

A $20,000 donation from ViaSat will help two faculty members research new methods and trends, which they will share with other faculty, students and the industrial engineering community.

ViaSat is a global communications company based in Carlsbad, California, that employs roughly 30 IME graduates.

IME faculty Roy Jafari, left, and Alessandro Hill will research new methods and trends in industrial engineering thanks to a donation from ViaSat.

The grant will fund two faculty assignments: Roy Jafari will dedicate assigned development time to study decision analytics and the large-scale biases that crop up in data mining algorithms

that are optimized for efficiency rather than accuracy. Jafari will investigate these biases and quantitatively assess their impact in a series of well-known case studies. The results will be brought into his new IME 372

Data Analytics Applications for Industrial Engineers class.

Alessandro Hill will conduct a deeper study into network modeling for the purpose of optimizing industrial systems.

Hill will look at vehicle routing algorithms and other network models for service providers that consider constrained information sharing between providers and/or customers. His work is to mathematically model the networks and then apply optimization algorithms to improve overall business success in terms of profitability, customer satisfaction, missed customers and level of service. He traveled to Singapore to present some of his research over the summer and will incorporate the results of his work into his courses, including IME 301 Operations Research and IME 420 Simulation. n

SUSTAIN THE FUTURE

MAKE A GIFT TO SUPPORT INDUSTRIAL AND MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING LABS, PROJECTS AND CLUBS 4

Click HERE to make a gift now, or contact Amy Blosser Spikes, assistant dean of advancement, at spikes@calpoly.edu or (805) 756-2163