Seniors Present Plans to
Corporate Sponsors at
9th Annual QUEST Practicum
The
Quality Enhancement Systems and
Teams (QUEST) Program held its
9th Annual QUEST Practicum
Presentations on Friday,
December 5, at the Robert H.
Smith School of Business. Inside
Van Munching Hall, clusters of
purple and white balloons with a
silver star on top decorated the
lobby, while outside, the
Washington, D.C., area enjoyed
its first snowfall of the
season.
The snow did not deter David
Mitchell and Mike Gager of
LogicTree nor Gene MacFarlane of
Global eXchange Services from
attending the gala. They
represent two of QUEST's seven
corporate sponsors, which also
include Honeywell, SAS
Institute, Baltimore Gas &
Electric, Systems Flow, and PHH
Arval.
Dean Howard Frank was also in
attendance. In his opening
remarks, he lauded QUEST as "the
finest program of its kind
anywhere."
Undergraduates
from the Robert H. Smith School
of Business, the A. James Clark
School of Engineering, and the
College of Computer,
Mathematical, and Physical
Sciences apply to QUEST in the
second semester of their
freshman or sophomore year. This
year's application will be
available in January at
www.rhsmith.umd.edu/quest
and due by February 26, 2004.
The multidisciplinary
curriculum, which includes Total
Quality Management and Six
Sigma, is the only one of its
kind in the country. The program
culminates with The Total
Quality Practicum, a course that
gives QUEST students real-life
consulting experience working
with corporate clients.
This year's
projects include:
- Implementing
quality
assurance
surveillance
plans for
compliance with
performance-based
contracts at
Systems Flow,
Inc.
-
Standardizing
software testing
for LogicTree.
- Gathering
and interpreting
the business
requirements for
a new sales
force automation
system for
Global eXchange
Services.
- Evaluating
the information
needs of schools
in the
Washington,
D.C.,
metropolitan
area to improve
product
development for
SAS.
- Migrating
business
processes from
paper to digital
imaging to
improve
productivity at
PHH Arval.
- Developing a
spreadsheet
model to
estimate the
future costs of
international
operations for
Systems Flow,
Inc.
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For information about become
involved with
QUEST
at the corporate level, please
contact
Amy Riesner, Program
Director, at 301-405-0292.
