A paper by senior undergraduate students from the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Khalifa University has won first place in the American Society for Quality (ASQ) Europe, Middle East, And Africa Region (EMEA) Students Competition 2020!
The ASQ EMEA Students Competition highlights the region’s undergraduate and graduate students’ efforts and contribution to improve local service quality, which in return improves quality of life for all.
A total of five teams made it to the final rounds. The KU team was represented by Maha Al Dhaheri, Mariam Ramadan, Afra Al Mheiri, and Maryam Al Shehhi, and was supervised by Dr. Mecit Can Emre Simsekler, Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Dr. Saed Amer, Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Their paper, titled “Reducing Patient Discharge Time using Applied Statistical Techniques,” summarized their senior design project, which leveraged quality tools and methods to improve the patient discharge process for an inpatient clinic of a local hospital in Abu Dhabi.
“We leveraged each team member’s unique and diverse strengths, knowledge and skills to develop our project,” explained team member Mariam Ramadan. “Winning this competition has blessed us with an opportunity to raise Khalifa University’s name on an international level. We were also able to showcase the ISYE department’s talents and capabilities. This achievement fueled us to keep moving forward and achieve more. Moreover, witnessing our diligence and hard work’s recognition on a global scale is truly rewarding and heart-warming.”
The competition is meant to highlight the region’s undergraduate and graduate students’ efforts and contributions to improve local service quality. The final round of Jury presentations of the ASQ EMEA student competition took place virtually on Thursday, 15 October 2020. Finalist teams showcased well-planned and executed projects in different fields, including healthcare, education, transport and utilities among others.
The ASQ is a global organization with members in more than 130 countries. The ASQ brings together the people, ideas and tools that make the world work better. The ASQ EMEA Region Center represents the Europe, Middle East and Africa to empower people, communities, and organizations of the region to achieve excellence through quality.
On the importance of participating in international competitions like this one, Mariam said: “The competition was a great experience. We had the privilege of sharing our project with people from different countries and acquiring different expertise. The competition opened our eyes to the importance of quality in a wide range of sectors. It taught us to believe in our ourselves and our work’s worth.”
Erica Solomon
Senior Publication Specialist
3 November 2020
