Two groups of Cal Poly Pomona industrial and manufacturing engineering students have won awards in separate competitions for technical and research papers they wrote.

One group took both the first and second place awards in the 2014 Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Western Regional Conference and Technical Paper Competition. Held at Cal Poly Pomona and hosted by the local student chapter, the event was attended by 148 students and professionals from eight universities.

The first-place winner was a paper titled "Process Improvement at Davis Wire Corporation", authored by Paul Nava, Alyssa Mendivil, and Alfredo Munoz, who were advised by Professor Kamran Abedini. Nava also presented the paper at the International Technical Paper Competition in Montreal, Canada, in May. Leslie Chavira won second place for her paper, "Sealing Process Optimization."

The second group, which consisted of students Jesus Gonzalez, Ernesto Sandoval, Young Kim, and Santiago Galvis, participated in the student paper competition at the Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference 2014 in Orlando, Fla. Gonzalez presented their paper that included a solution for an emergency room design and took second place. IME professors Shokoufeh Mirzaei, Saeideh Fallah-Fini and Abedini collaborated to supervise and direct the effort.