Association for Operations Management (APICS) Means Opportunity for INTM Students

The 2014 APICS Chicago Case Competition team members with INTM Program Director and Industry Professor, Mazin Safar (middle): INTM students Shengying Xu, Leila Mohajer, Anushka Soosaiadaikalam, Ravindra Talwadker, Boqiang Liao, and Shikar Mehta.

Five students from the Industrial Technology and Management (INTM) Program took first place in the 2014 Chicago Case Competition hosted by APICS in October. This was the sixth year that IIT participated, and the fifth first-place win for an IIT student team. Four teams from different universities competed. As winners, the IIT team will proceed to the regional APICS Great Lakes Case Competition in February 2015 where they will compete with more than 20 universities from the Midwest.

In the APICS Chicago Competition, the students are given a case study about a real business problem, and must create presentations to illustrate their proposed solutions. Industry professionals serve as judges, evaluating each team’s work based on creativity, presentation quality, demonstrated knowledge of the problem, and teamwork. Mazin Safar, IIT APICS Student Chapter Advisor and INTM Program Director, attended the competition and congratulated the team for once again successfully representing IIT among the other top institutions in the Chicagoland area.

INTM supports the activities of the IIT APICS Student Chapter including monthly meetings, guest speakers, company tours, and opportunities to participate in professional development seminars. Eleven IIT Chapter members recently attended the APICS National Conference in New Orleans. INTM student Raymond Burks who joined the Chapter this year said he was “pleasantly surprised by the number of products and services that were represented, and the professional networking opportunities that the three-day event offered.”