MEEM Newsletter Archives | UofL Online Programs

Fall ’20 Newsletter: Online Engineering Management Program

By admin | November 30, 2020

Six Sigma Certification Now Available!

Letter from Dr. Elizabeth Gentry, MEEM Program Director

As we near the end of 2020, I know a lot of us are looking forward to 2021! I hope you are doing well! In the engineering management program, we are excited about the six sigma black belt certification program. The first group of students will be taking EM 684 and EM 686, Process Improvement Applications I and II, this spring and then test for their six sigma black belt in partnership with the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE).

Best wishes,
Dr. Elizabeth Gentry
Director, Engineering Management Program

“I want to get my Six Sigma Black Belt beuse it is an applicable certification that is highly recognized in the field which I work. Iuse Six Sigma tools at work every single day and this certification will only expand my expertise.”

– Rae Mills
Current EM Student
Quality Improvement Consultant, St. Elizabeth Healthcare

Student Spotlight

Hope Ferdinando – 2020 Louisville Chapter ASQ Leadership Award

I am currently a Staff Advanced Quality Engineer with Stryker Corporation in their spine division which designs and manufactures various implants and surgical instrumentation for spinal surgeries. My primary function is to provide QA support on new product development projects and complaint investigations on existing products.

So far, I have taken 6 EM courses which all have helped me tremendously at work especially when investigating product quality issues. The EM program at UofL goes beyond explaining the body of knowledge. The EM courses teach you about various tools & techniques and how to apply them in real world applications. At the end of each course, I feel that I am equipped with new powerful tools to help me perform better at work and grow in my career. I have used these tools to investigate supplier quality issues with surgical instruments that could result in a product recall. This requires me to gather information and analyze the data immediately.

The most invaluable tool was Minitab which I learned how to use from the engineering statistics and quality management courses. My teammates and upper management were so impressed with the data analysis from Minitab. I received so many compliments on the data visualization. They were amazed to see complex data being displayed in an easy to understand format. I have also used tools from the decision & risk analysis class which has helped me to reduce the scope of the investigation by assessing the risks to the impacted product lots. In many cases I have been able to avoid recalls and only perform field corrections or limit the recalls to specific lot/serial numbers.

The biggest win for me is that I can share what I have learned from the EM program and mentor the junior quality engineers on my team. We are now better at approaching investigations now that we are equipped with tools to drill down deep to the root causes which then helps us to come up with corrective action to address these quality issues.

Ready to get started?

Spring Term 1 starts January 11
Spring Term 2 starts March 2

Career Coaching

The JB Speed School of Engineering at the University of Louisville offers a one stop shop for all students in terms of their professional plans. Our staff can provide career coaching in terms of resume and cover letter preparation, practice interviews (in person or over the phone), LinkedIn profile reviews, graduate school applications, and salary negotiation.

Students that are taking online courses are also eligible for these services. In addition, we can provide information on relocating, new graduate salary statistics for UofL engineering students (mostly local offers), and job search strategies.

If you have any interest in utilizing these services, please reach out to Mary Andrade.

Mary Andrade
Engineering Career Services
Associate Director mary.andrade@louisville.edu
502-852-3196

Know someone who’d excel at the online Engineering Management program?

We’re always looking for new engineers who we can help take their career to the next level. Refer a friend by emailing elizabeth.gentry@louisville.edu and receive a small prize.

Read about other faculty and students in previous editions of the MEEM newsletter.

Summer ’20 Newsletter: Online Engineering Management Program

By admin | July 29, 2020

Learn more and apply today for UofL’s online Master’s in Engineering Management.

Six Sigma Certification Now Available!

Letter from Dr. Elizabeth Gentry, MEEM Program Director

2020 has not been the year that we were all expecting!

I hope you all are doing well! During the past few months, I have listened and been a part of discussions on how we can use the tools that are learned in engineering management to process improve and help with the issues that Covid-19 has presented.

One of the tools that can help is six sigma. Six sigma helps processes by focusing on what matters most to the customer to help improve quality and reduce waste. I am excited to announce that we will be offering six sigma black belt certification courses as part of the EM program.

The certification includes four courses:

EM 613 – Operations Management
EM 661 – Engineering Statistics II
EM 684 – Process Improve App. I
EM 685 – Process Improve App. II

During EM 685, the student will complete a black belt project and take a test through the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. This is going to be a great addition to the program! EM 684 and EM 685 will be offered for the first time in spring 2021.

Best wishes,
Dr. Elizabeth Gentry
Director, Engineering Management Program

Student Spotlight

Madeline Baldwin

What was your favorite EM class?
My favorite EM class has been Operations Management (so far!)

How are you using EM in your work?
Elements of all the courses I have taken so far have cropped up in my work or meetings. I am more confident in my contributions knowing that I have a solid background in these topics.

What made you choose the UofL EM program?
I chose the UofL EM program because it is a great program with eight week courses. This has allowed me to have a great work life balance as I am pursuing the degree part-time. It also gives me the flexibility to travel in between courses.

What are you most looking forward to the rest of this year?
Academically: I am crossing the 3/4 point in the EM program.
Professionally: I am excited about starting a new job at my company.
Personally: I was looking forward to hiking the Swiss Alps this fall, but we are pushing that to 2021.

Ready to get started?

Fall Term 1 starts August 17
Fall Term 2 starts October 8
Spring Term 1 starts January 6

Know someone who’d excel at the online Engineering Management program?

We’re always looking for new engineers who we can help take their career to the next level. Refer a friend by emailing elizabeth.gentry@louisville.edu and receive a small prize.

Career Coaching

If you have any interest in utilizing these services, please reach out to Mary Andrade.

Mary Andrade
Engineering Career Services
Associate Director mary.andrade@louisville.edu
502-852-3196

Read about other faculty and students in previous editions of the MEEM newsletter.

Winter ’20 Newsletter: Online Engineering Management Program

By Ashley Jefferson | February 12, 2020

Learn more and apply today for UofL’s online Master’s in Engineering Management.

Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Sandra Miller
Lecturer, Engineering Management

What classes do you teach?
I teach Human Resource Management, EM 624.

What do you like most about teaching in the engineering management program?
Working with the bright and interesting people in the program is a joy. But, if I had to pick my favorite part of teaching this course, it would be surprising people who thought they knew about Human Resource Management. Students often comment that they have a fuller appreciation for the complexity, breadth, and potential impact of effective human resource management.

What is your favorite topic to teach?
My favorite topic to teach has always been Leadership/Management and this class aligns with that perfectly. I tell the students that “Human Resource Managers don’t manage human resources, line managers do”. The class is structured to teach people how to be better managers and how to be better consumers of the products, processes, and services they get from the HR department.

Where would you like to travel to next?
If money, time, and space were no issue, then my next vacation would be in July to see the annual migrations in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. Of course, in reality, it will likely be to visit my daughter in Chattanooga, TN – a close second.

What is your favorite TV show?
I am kind of a news junkie, so my favorite TV show is the PBS News Hour.

Student Spotlight
Christopher Uko
Student, Engineering Management

What was your favorite EM class?
Decision and Risk Analysis was my favorite class in the EM program. I enjoyed utilizing quantitative and qualitative concepts to assess, develop, evaluate, decide, plan, and implement organizational improvements of a process. The Decision and Risk Analysis course at the University of Louisville prepared me for restructuring systems by identifying value, alleviating bottlenecks, ensuring reliability, and sustainability.

How are you using EM in your work?
Applying 5S lean principles and methodologies from the EM program, allows me to organize, coordinate, and control processes during product development. Also maximizing inventory capacity, regulating waste, and optimizing manufacturing productivity within the laboratory environment.

What made you choose the UofL EM program?
The UofL EM program offers a unique experience and culture for its students, that encourages learning, conceptualizing information, and applying book-based knowledge in a real-world scenario via distance learning.

What are you most looking forward to in 2020?
Looking forward to graduating from the University of Louisville and attaining a Master of Engineering Degree in Engineering Management in May 2020.

Spring Term 2 starts February 25
Summer Term starts May 11
Fall Term 1 starts August 17
Fall Term 2 starts October 8

Career Coaching

If you have any interest in utilizing these services, please reach out to Mary Andrade.

Mary Andrade
Engineering Career Services
Associate Director mary.andrade@louisville.edu
502-852-3196

Know someone who’d excel at the online Engineering Management program?

We’re always looking for new engineers who we can help take their career to the next level. Refer a friend by emailing elizabeth.gentry@louisville.edu and receive a small prize.

Read about other faculty and students in previous editions of the MEEM newsletter.

Summer ’19 Newsletter: Online Engineering Management Program

By Ashley Jefferson | July 24, 2019

Faculty Spotlight
Dr. Elizabeth Gentry
Director, Engineering Management Program

What classes do you teach?
I teach Operations Management, Decision and Risk Analysis, Financial
Management, Statistics II, and Effective Communication.

What do you like most about teaching in the engineering management program?
My favorite part about teaching in the EM program is getting to know my students. It is great to hear about how they used a concept that they learned in one of my classes and it is helping them at their work. Even though the program is completely online, the students talk to their classmates and me about their jobs and even their personal life. I had two students this summer who were planning their wedding and using some tools learned in class!

What is your favorite topic to teach?
I am very passionate about six sigma! It is a great process improvement methodology that uses a lot of data analysis. I cover it in my statisics II and operations management classes. I also teach a green belt and black belt class in six sigma for the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers.

Where would you like to travel to next?
I always am up for going to Disney World! I am going there in November to run a half marathon. A place that I have never been and would love to go to is Germany. It is a dream of mine to see the Neuschwanstein Castle. Also, a friend of mine plays basketball there.

What is your favorite TV show?
It is hard to choose my favorite tv show! I love watching college basketball and most sports. On Netflix, though, I love watching Friends and Grey’s Anatomy.

Interested in
joining the online EM program?

Fall Term 1 starts
August 19
Fall Term 2 starts
October 14
Spring Term 1 starts January
6

Click here to get started!

Student Spotlight
Meredith Cooksey ’18

What
was your favorite EM class?
My favorite EM class was Operations Management,
but I really enjoyed all of the classes. Operations Management gave an
introduction to many of the topics covered in the various other classes. Not
only was the class interesting, but the book that was read, “The
Goal”, allowed me to understand bottle necking of processes which I see
everyday in my role. I value using root causes with methods from the book to
really solve the problem at hand rather than band-aiding the many issues
stemming from the real issues.

How are you using EM in
your work?
I think one of the most valuable parts of the EM program was seeing how the
concepts I learned were immediately applicable to what I was working on in my
job. Plus, many of the discussion boards focused around how topics could be
applied to work. This not only allowed me to think, but also to hear from
peers how they applied the concepts. I am using the skills I learned in Project
Management the most in my role now because of a big project for optimization of
downtime I am current working on. I am implementing RACI (Roles and
Responsibilities), GANTT charts, and financial project planning to complete the
project successfully on time and under budget.

What made you choose the
UofL EM program?
The decision was easy in many ways for me. Not only did I already love the
university from years of cheering on the Cards and attending undergrad, but it
also had great flexibility and compatibility with my career goals. The
professors are all incredibly knowledgeable, accessible, and helpful. In
addition, the convenience of online learning allowed me to learn while working
full-time, but also at a pace that gave me time to fully understand the topics
and concepts.

What are you most looking
forward to this summer?
This summer, I am looking forward to some fun trips exploring cities with
friends and family which I have planned. Before the end of summer I’ll have
gone to Milwaukee, Denver, Toronto, and Cleveland. But the rest of the weekends
you’ll find me relaxing on Lake Cumberland, which is something I look forward
to year-round to get away from the stress of work and the city life.

Click here to join our LinkedIn Group!

Career Coaching
The JB Speed School of Engineering at the University of Louisville offers a one stop shop for all students in terms of their professional plans. Our staff can provide career coaching in terms of resume and cover letter preparation, practice interviews (in person or over the phone), LinkedIn profile reviews, graduate school applications, and salary negotiation.

**Mary Andrade**
Engineering Career Services Associate Director
mary.andrade@louisville.edu
502-852-3196

Know
someone who’d excel at the online Engineering Management program?

We’re always looking for new engineers who we can help take their career to the
next level. Refer a friend by emailing elizabeth.gentry@louisville.edu and receive a small prize.

Six Sigma Certification Now Available!

Student Spotlight

Hope Ferdinando – 2020 Louisville Chapter ASQ Leadership Award

Ready to get started?

Six Sigma Certification Now Available!

Student Spotlight

Madeline Baldwin

Ready to get started?

Click here to get started!

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