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Important Dates for our Clients for Spring 2026

We are excited to be working with you! Here are some dates to keep in mind for the Spring 2026 Projects:

Data Preparation. Have this done by early March. The sooner you can pull the data together, the better. We are happy to talk to you about this. A good data set helps you get a much better deliverable.

NDAs Due. If you want to do an NDA, please have it before Tuesday, March 17. On Tuesday March 17th from 2 to 2:30 CT we have a student-only session teaching them about NDAs in general. If you want the students to sign an NDA, you should have it by this day. This will help the students get it signed by the kickoff. Note: The NDA is optional. If you don’t want or need an NDA, no reason to put one in place.

Kickoff!!! Wednesday, April 1, 3:30 – 5:30 CT (with a happy hour to follow). We’d love to see you in person if you can be on campus. From 3:30 – 4:00, you will meet with the faculty instructors. At 4:00, you will meet with your student teams. Use this time to get into the details of your project. Spend as much time as you need. After you meet with the students, if you have time, some faculty will be around for a happy hour and to learn more about NU. This will be in the Tech Building, Cohen Commons (4th Floor).

Site Visit. The students get a lot of value from a site visit (if possible). If you could schedule this sometime between Thursday, Apr 2nd and Thursday April 9th, it will help accelerate the project.

Student Proposals Due. April 10th. You already have a working draft of the project. We also ask the students to submit a proposal of what they will do by the end of the 2nd week. We would like you to carve out time during the kick-off through the next week to help the students finalize their proposal.

Weekly Meetings. Be sure to stick to a weekly meeting schedule with the students to keep the project on track.

Final Push. Week of May 11th or May 18th. Schedule a detailed meeting with the student team to go over final deliverables and create a plan to wrap-up. Past projects have seen success in working with the students near the end to figure out how to successfully wrap up.

Scheduling the Final Presentation with you and your Executives. We suggest you try June 3-5. These dates are during the last week of classes. If you wait until the next week, Finals Week, you may find it harder to schedule this meeting. And, after Finals week, it will be is even harder.

Final Presentations and Report for the Class. Internally, the students will give a short version of the final presentation to the instructors and turn in a final report. This will be between June 3rd and June 11th. Make sure you get a copy of the final reports from the students.

Data Engineering and Forecasting Book Sales

The project's goal was to develop a forecast of new book sales based on industry sales databases (like BookScan) and Blackstone’s internal data. To support the forecast, the team had to help with the data engineering and building data pipelines to maintain the data.

Warehouse Picking Algorithms and Multiple Objectives

A picking algorithm can drive efficiencies in a large-scale warehouse. However, the algorithm must consider different constraints, objectives, and the impact on other operations.

When to replace IT assets?

A student team worked with the Coca-Cola Consolidated IT team to determine the best time to replace IT assets like laptops, desktops, and iPads.

Using a CPC Team as Consultants

A quote highlighting the value of CPC team.

Supply Chain Optimization: Routing and Inventory

Decisions on how frequently you ship impacts the inventory you need to store.

A Forecasting App for Class Size

Northwestern's Office of the Registrar assigns courses to classrooms. Since available classroom space is always tight, having better forecasts for each course will help.

Northwestern University Logistics Assessment

CPC team completes an assessment of the current and future state of Northwestern's Evanston campus material logistics programming.

A CPC project can be a great way for alums to connect back to NU's IEMS program

An alum from Northwestern's IEMS class of 2015 works again with a CPC team.

A Deeper Understanding of College Graduation Rates Based on High School Data

Cristo Rey St. Martin (CRSM) wanted to look at more than just ACT scores to predict the college graduations of their students. This helps with admissions to college and creating support plans for the students.

Warehouse Capacity Dashboard to Long-term Forecasting

JR286 wanted to understand warehouse capacity. They wanted a daily capacity dashboard as well as a long-term forecast to understand when they might run out of space.

Staff Scheduling and Strategic Planning at a Local Non-Profit

Staff scheduling is important to help BHGH satisfy their mission: “To nurture and guide motivated young people in extreme need to become college-educated, career-ready, community-minded men and women for others.”

Improving service level by optimizing safety stock in a space-constrained environment

USG wanted to evaluate the current safety stock strategy and identify opportunities to improve service levels in a space-constrained environment.

Simulating Turnaround Time to Get Rooms Ready for the Next Patient

An operational challenge at any hospital is to prepare a room for the next patient. The faster this can be done, the better. However, it is not just about cleaning time, system congestion can mean that it may take a long time for the cleaning crew to even get to a room.