Improving Supply Chains

By Cori Anderson ‘18

Computer science and information systems professor Dr. Christos Nikolopoulos received a $50,000 research grant from Caterpillar Inc. to study supply chain resilience metrics. Nikolopoulos and a team of undergraduate and graduate students will spend the next year on the project.

The research will benefit the business world and consumers in a global business climate that has high expectations for financial returns, lean processes and unpredictable disruptions.

“The delivery of goods in a timely manner and through the most economical routing in the delivery system is of paramount importance not only from the point of view of maximizing the profit, but also for keeping the promised service time and keeping customers satisfied and loyal,” Nikolopolous said.

Students valued the opportunity to work on this state-of-the-art research project. As the only undergraduate on the project, computer science major Tom Nielsen ’17 appreciated the chance to challenge himself and focus on group work outside the classroom.

“Being part of this group will further my knowledge in the field and help me get an internship and a job,” he said. “By doing this, a person is not restricting themselves to just what they learn in a classroom, but instead this environment allows a student to really challenge themselves and prove what they have learned so far in their studies.”

The graduate students also looked forward to applying their research abilities.

“I hope to learn more in the field of complex networks and how we can apply mathematics to solve real world problems,” said graduate student Vishnu Viswanath.