Academics / Undergraduate Program / Client Project ChallengeImportant Dates for our Clients for Spring 2025
We are excited to be working with you! Here are some dates to keep in mind for the Spring 2025 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 18. On Tuesday March 18th 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 2, 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 3rd and Thursday April 10th, it will help accelerate the project.
Student Proposals Due. April 11th. 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 or May 12 or May 19th. 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 4-6. 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 4th and June 12th. Make sure you get a copy of the final reports from 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.
Introduction of Electric-Powered Campus Shuttles at Northwestern University
In switching from a diesel to electric-powered bus system, fleet sizes must satisfy demand with the additional incorporation of on-route charging stations.
Mixed Bag Optimization for Ferrara Candy Company
A candy company aimed to fill mixed bags by piece count and weight requirements, but needed a flexible marketing tool to prevent overfilled candy bags.
Redesigning the Geographical Territories for UPS Chicago
Lengthy travel times and high package volumes led UPS Chicago to improve methods of customer-hub assignment pairings.
Identifying Sentencing Biases in the Illinois Court System
With limited data on the Illinois judiciary, a comprehensive data set was required to encourage accountability among judges and eliminate potential sentencing bias.
Optimizing Scheduling of the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at Lurie Children’s Hospital
Lurie Children's Hospital aimed to improve patient processing in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit, but needed a way to account for bed utilization and waitlisted appointments.
Automated Scheduling Platform for Attea Middle School
Highly personalized student schedules led a local middle school to streamline the complex process of student scheduling.
Inventory Management for Penda Health
A health company wanted insight into their inventory management to reduce lost revenue and improve patient experience.
Bank of America Chicago Marathon Medical Volunteer Allocation Handbook
Efficient staffing of medical volunteer locations throughout the Chicago Marathon is imperative in the event of an emergency.
Feasibility Study for Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in Evanston, Illinois
The City of Evanston looked to encourage electric vehicles with charging stations, but needed an implementation strategy.
City of Evanston Bicycle Rack Distribution Analysis
Bike parking at inconvenient locations led the City of Evanston to search for a better bike rack distribution.
Evaluating Fire Resiliency in Evanston, IL
American Red Cross aimed to assist those who need disaster relief with better models to improve disaster preparedness and resiliency.