SSE Engineering Management Students win Best Poster Award at 2008 USMA Capstone Conference

HOBOKEN , N.J. ― SSE Engineering Management students had a victory at the recent 2008 USMA Capstone Conference at West Point where they won the Best Poster Award for their work re-engineering New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Emergency Department registration. The five-member team from Stevens, also known as “Better Managed Solutions, Inc.” includes two students who are completing the Four Plus One program to obtain an ME in Systems Engineering and three undergraduate Engineering Management students. Originally conceived as a Senior Design Project, the initiative quickly gained a professional scope; the students made connections inside the hospital including a Six Sigma Blackbelt internal consultant and the Chief of Emergency Medicine, who welcomed them to participate in senior management meetings after they were fast-tracked through the hospital’s volunteer access protocol. “We were treated like consultants,” says Adam Hecht, ME Systems Engineering ’08. “They are in the process of implementing bedside registration, which was one of our recommendations, and we are meeting with the hospital staff again to discuss our findings.” Word has spread about the study conducted by the team, and area hospitals are contacting the group about their findings.

At the 2008 USMA Capstone Conference, hosted by the USMA Department of Systems Engineering, the team presented their work among a strong group of Systems Engineering programs including US Air Force Academy, University of Virginia , and West Point students. Many of the research projects presented at the conference were completed with dedicated school staff, and significant budgets, as well as having a military focus. According to BE Engineering Management ’08 student James Norberg, “It was like being a magic act at a singing contest, bringing in a civilian project to be evaluated.” Apparently the magic worked, with their winning poster describing an application of business process re-engineering to make drastic improvements to NY Presbyterian Hospital’s current Emergency Department registration. After assessing the current process, performing a time study, comparing performance statistics against other local hospitals, and making use of simulation software to complete the final analysis, the team was able to make recommendations to simplify patient flow and make both the hospital staff and the patient experience better.

The School of Systems and Enterprises extends congratulations to Kathryn Abuan, Drew Cottrell, James Norberg, Adam Hecht, and Chris Babula, and faculty advisor Eirik Hole for excellent work promoting the value of Systems Engineering.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,040 undergraduate and 3,085 graduate students, and a worldwide online enrollment of 2,250, with a full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty of 140 and more than 200 full-time special faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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