Indiana State University Newsroom

When the Center for Supply Management Research was birthed, a central goal was to prepare Indiana State University students for the operations and supply chain management field through exposure to research and projects.

A year later, Jacquelyn Gary, an Indianapolis native and senior operations and supply chain management major in the Scott College of Business, can attest to that goal been reached.

"Over my four years, I have worked with a local business, Edible Bouquets by Janaki, I have given a presentation at a conference in Harvard, gone to a competition in Chicago and traveled to multiple industries for site visits," Gary said at the center's Annual Day event. "The Center for Supply Management Research has enriched the curriculum by giving me...the opportunity to develop the skills through real world projects in the curriculum."

As one of the center's early corporate partners, Brian Gosnell, general manager of production control for North American Lighting in Paris, Ill., said Indiana State graduates have come on-board better prepared for tasks and careers in the field.

"I hope the center continues to grow because it has set a great foundation for students through relationship building between students and corporate partners," he said.

Kathryn Balch, a 2014 operations and supply chain management graduate who is in the leadership development program at Caterpillar in Mississippi was the "Alumni Spotlight" for the night.

"I feel like I learn at least 10 new things every day, which keeps my job exciting and I really enjoy the work I'm doing," she said. "It's great to see what's been done in the past year with the center and I'm really excited to see where it goes moving forward."

In the last year, Kuntal Bhattacharyya, the center's director and an Indiana State assistant professor of operations and supply chain management, secured two grants that helped get the center off the ground.

"I see a lot of my graduates here who have moved on and hopefully getting successful in what they are doing, and there is nothing better than seeing my students come back and emerge in this occasion because the center can't grow without you," Bhattacharyya said. "The idea of the center was to help grow the supply chain curriculum, which is only three-and-a-half years old. The center's primary motive was to bring together three key stakeholders under a common platform - students, faculty and our business partners."

CSMR's website, http://scottcollegecsmr.com, went live last May and allows industry leaders to view student-led research, projects, faculty publications and white papers related to supply management.

Students can also register their skill sets, areas of expertise, and related project work on the center's website; employers can browse by categories to find students who fit their needs and directly contact them for future opportunities within their businesses.

The center serves as an assessment tool for the operations and supply chain management majorby tracking the skill sets businesses need and comparing them to what Indiana State offers. The center has also been active in community engagement through work with the university's Recycle Center and the Vigo County School Corp.

A year after the kickoff event, the center has experienced increased student and community partner involvement that serves to benefit the student experience.

"To see everybody sitting in this room is so impressive and says to me that we are doing the right things at Indiana State University, but more importantly, the dean didn't do it," said Brien Smith, dean of the Scott College of Business. "It was the great community partners and the students that work so hard that did this and that's really the way it should be. Leadership is all about motivating people to go to a place they've never been before and that's what's so fantastic about this initiative."

Experiential learning is an important component of the operations and supply chain management curriculum, and the center has played a key role in bringing employers into the curriculum that requires students to do an internship or take the business process improvement course that both require business involvement, said Paul Schikora, chair of the department of marketing and operations.

"The center has done a really good job of bridging that gap for us, as Dr. Bhattacharyya and the center have developed, nurtured and grown relationships with our industry partners to help us meet the challenge of finding internships and partners for our students," Schikora said. "Dr. Bhattacharyya has been very aggressive in his goals and it's paying off, as about 90 percent of this year's crop of graduates already has job offers in hand and everyone is looking for internships, and it couldn't have happened without our industry partners."

Photo:http://isuphoto.smugmug.com/Events/Events-by-Year/2015/Center-for-Supply-Management/i-mdddFFv/0/S/April%2017%2C%202015%20Center%20for%20Supply%20Management%20Research%209532-S.jpg - Dozens of people turn out to celebrate the Center for Supply Management Research at a celebration on April 10 at the Scott College of Business.

Photo: http://isuphoto.smugmug.com/Events/Events-by-Year/2015/Center-for-Supply-Management/i-HCjV5Zp/0/S/April%2017%2C%202015%20Center%20for%20Supply%20Management%20Research%209379-S.jpg - Students mingle with employers and alumni at the Center for Supply Management Research;s Annual Day on April 10 at the Scott College of Business.

Photo: http://isuphoto.smugmug.com/Events/Events-by-Year/2015/Center-for-Supply-Management/i-zCwzTT7/0/S/April%2017%2C%202015%20Center%20for%20Supply%20Management%20Research%209561-S.jpg - Kathryn Balch, a 2014 operations and supply chain management graduate who is in the leadership development program at Caterpillar in Mississippi, was the "Alumni Spotlight" for the night.

Contact: Kuntal Bhattacharyya, director of the Center for Supply Management Research and assistant professor of operations and supply chain management, Scott College of Business, Kuntal.Bhattacharyya@indstate.edu

Writer: Betsy Simon, media relations assistant director, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, 812-237-7972 or Betsy.Simon@indstate.edu