MEM MATTERS
News of Note
September 2019
Welcome to Our New MEM Students!
MEM welcomed new students at September 13 orientation

2019 Orientation Group
The Fall 2019 class of incoming MEM students met September 13th for orientation, including a tour of Northwestern's campus and the McCormick Education Center. They also met some of the MEM staff and faculty, and participated in group activities giving them a preview of their upcoming classes. Welcome to our new students!
 
See below for a look at the makeup of Northwestern's MEM student body as of Fall 2019. 
 
student body info 2019
MEM / PriSim Football Tailgate Kicked Off The Fall Quarter 
More than 100 guests enjoyed tailgate party and NU football game


tailgate 2019 group 
 
The annual football tailgate party sponsored by PriSim Business War Games was held September 21st, with over 100 students, alumni, and faculty attending. Long-time football fans mingled with others new to the sport over food and drinks before heading to Ryan Field to watch Northwestern take on Michigan State. Unfortunately, the Wildcats fell 31-10 to the Spartans, but the group had a great time kicking off the fall before heading back to classes a few days later. 
 
A special thanks to Professors Jeff Lefebvre, Dave Semb, and Max Hernández and PriSim Business War Games for sponsoring this annual MEM tradition!    
 
MEM and IEEE Co-Sponsoring MxD Presentation and Tour
Tour the manufacturing hub that's driving the digital future of manufacturing

MxD logo banner 
 
MEM is proud to partner with other engineering and professional organizations combining business and technology. Co-partners IEEE and MEM are excited to host a presentation and tour of the MxD Innovation Center located on Goose Island in Chicago on October 10. MxD (which stands for manufacturing times digital) is a national institute that aims to drive the digital future of manufacturing, pioneering new technologies that make America's industrial base more resilient and agile.   
 
At this event, attendees will hear from Chandra Brown, CEO of MxD, and then tour the innovation center, which collaborates with industrial, academic, non-profit, and government partners to  advance digital manufacturing in ways that a single organization could not do alone. Food and refreshments will be served, and there is a $10 registration fee.
 
MxD has a free parking lot and is accessible via public transportation. To ensure your participation, early registration is strongly recommended due to the limited availability of seats. The deadline is October 7th, or when all spaces are reserved. 
 
Thursday, October 10
5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
1415 N Cherry Ave, Chicago  
My MEM Experience Helped Save Companies Millions
Vignesh Ramasamy talks about his process improvement award at NextEra

vignesh ramasamy blog 
 
Vignesh Ramasamy (MEM '16) recently received the James L. Broadhead award from NextEra for his work on improving processes, and credits his MEM experience for preparing him with both the technical and management/financial skills needed to build advanced wind farm optimization tools. Read more about NextEra and Vignesh at his blog post: My MEM Experience Helped My Team Save Companies Millions of Dollars.  
Students Report Back on Summer Internship Experiences  
Summer internships prove valuable for students and companies   



As current MEM student Rohit Salgaonkar looks back on his internship at Abbvie, a research-driven biopharmaceutical company, the wide-reaching impact of operations stands out for him. Rohit spent the summer as an Operations Excellence Intern in the Commercial Analytics & Operations function, working on process improvement projects related to cycle time in the purchasing process. Read more about how operations are pivotal to an organization's success, and how Rohit applied operations concepts from MEM courses, in his blog post Seeing the Impact of Improved Operations.

In addition, we had two MEM students find internships in product management and each shared lessons from their experience.  As a product management intern at Dell Technologies, Azharuddin Mohammed spent his summer assessing the current Dell Commercial notebook line of business and performing competitive research to come up with recommendations to improve the current Dell portfolio against its competitors.  Neha Golani had a similar experience in her product internship at Aruba-Global Services Organization, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). In her role, Golani was able to set product roadmaps, gather customer requirements, determine key metrics and work with cross-functional teams to help move the company forward.  Read more about their experiences in their MEM blog "Being the Voice of the Customer".
MEM Student and Alumni Spotlights
Monthly feature recognizing our amazing students and alumni
 
Current MEM student and Manufacturing Engineer Jason Lee is originally from Taipei, Taiwan and completed his undergraduate work at the University of Illinois at Chicgao. He chose Northwestern's MEM program over a potential MBA with the help of advice from a colleague, who is an MEM alumni.  
 
Jason reflects on his journey so far and shares the ways in which he connects course concepts to his work, in this month's Student Spotlight article
 
 
jason lee
Jason Lee  
MEM Student
Manufacturing Engineer 
 
Edward Ted Newman  
Edward "Ted" Newman 
Head of Infrastructure Solutions Centre of Excellence
Royal Bank of Scotland 
 
 
Edward "Ted" Newman (MEM '03) works in Edinburgh, Scotland as the Head of Infrastructure Solutions Centre of Excellence for the Royal Bank of Scotland. He relocated there from Naperville, IL to lead the bank's engineering of self-service IT capabilities, leveraging what he learned about Product Management during his MEM days.  
 
He shares the career benefits of his Northwestern MEM experience, and his advice for current and future students in September's Alumni Spotlight article.  
 
In This Issue
MEM orable Notes
Let's Stay Connected
 
 
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