Doctoral student wins Graduate Engineering Research Showcase award

Eliana Pena Tibaduiza, doctoral student in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE), was recently awarded the Fall 2023 Graduate Engineering Research Showcase ISE department award.

Hosted Oct. 12, in the the Brown-Kopel Center, nearly 200 graduate students participated in the showcase, presented annually by the college’s Council of Engineering Graduate Students. The students competed for a combined $8,250 in prizes.

Tibaduiza’s research topic focused on forward-reserve problems in order-picking warehouses. This problem sought to design a small warehouse inside the warehouse, called the forward area, to decrease the picking time. 

The scope of her research was to answer how much space should be allocated to each product and where should the products be placed in the forward area? She chose this topic because warehousing is essential in most logistics systems. 

“Improving order picking in small-parts warehouses is crucial, especially with the rise of e-commerce, which has led to a paradigm shift toward individually picked items rather than larger handling units,” she said. “The forward pick area plays a key role in enhancing the picking operation’s efficiency since this activity comprises about half of a warehouse’s operating cost.”

Tibaduiza is proud to have received the award and encourages more students to participate in the showcase. 

“I am pleased to represent the department at the showcase,” she said. “I expect more INSY students to participate next year and present the research we do in the department.”