Student Success at Smeal and Beyond

Student achievement is core to the Smeal College of Business and integral to the Center for Supply Chain Research® (CSCR®). Empowered by the faculty, resources, and hands-on learning opportunities made available through the center, recent graduate Lois Jung embodies Smeal student success. 

Her CSCR resume is extensive given her involvement with multiple research projects, award recognition, and internship experiences. Through each and every academic accolade, she remains humble, ambitious, and ready for the future.

“My journey at Smeal taught me fundamental business knowledge,” shared the Smeal alum, who got her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering with Smeal Business Fundamental Certificates. “The professor’s office hours were always a big help to understand content and the supply chain career fair allowed me to network with alumni in the supply chain industry which will help me tremendously in the business world.” 

During her time at Penn State, Jung participated in immersive research projects including “freight rate forecasting for network optimization,” with sponsor company Odyssey (3PL) as well as “digital acquisition system market research,” with the sponsor company LMI (consulting).  

Lois Jung, SC&IS alum

Her first project with Odyssey focused on identifying leading external indicators which can improve their freight rate prediction algorithm from Odyssey’s internal shipment data. Jung’s skills were put to use as she analyzed and normalized the internal data and searched for the possible external factors which may affect the freight rate whether it be GDP, weather, housing price, unemployment rate or Covid-19.

“I coded to find the correlations between the internal and the external factors by leveraging the software Tableau and R and as an outcome; most of the external factors did not show high correlations, but the prediction rate slightly increased when the external factors were added,” Jung explained. “I learned that the freight rate is a complex problem that can fluctuate for various reasons, thus more in-depth research is required. Also, it is highly important to use reliable data and cleanse it right to address the accurate result.”

During her second project with LMI, Jung stepped into a role of conducting market research on an integrated digital supply chain that can be implemented in the U.S. Department of Defense’s acquisition system. She first searched for the possible suppliers and conducted a comparison analysis that organized and rated the pros and cons of each supplier’s software. 

“Each category was weighted depending on the client’s preference and importance and then with the total score of each supplier, the top 4 suppliers were selected through team discussion,” she said. “I learned that it is important to concrete the structured time frame when working on broad and ambiguous projects because limited available information on the internet and lack of responsiveness can cause a delay.”

These research projects helped Jung to stand out as a supply chain student and prove her abilities as a future leader. As a result, outside organizations took notice and Jung became the recipient of two prestigious awards.

The first was the MIT 2022 Supply Chain Excellence Award. With this award, Jung earned a tuition fellowship of $25,000 towards the MIT Supply Chain Management (SCM) Master’s Degree Program, an honor that is given out to outstanding graduating supply chain seniors. She was also awarded the Best Engineering Design Award, sponsored by People’s Choice of Delphi Technologies, that took place through an engineering design capstone class involving 260 other teams.

“I collaborated with three other teammates to design a windshield screen that implemented a transparent OLED screen and flexible display technologies; these features are applied to improve the safety and functionality of the car,” Jung recalled. 

Jung is a shining example of what a student at Smeal can accomplish by capitalizing on opportunities within CSCR and leaning on the college’s resources. When asked about her future plans, Jung is eager to hit the ground running.

“I would like to work in the supply chain industry for 2-3 years and then go to graduate school,” Jung said. “I would like to gain experience in procurement and product development processes of the supply chain and work to develop tools that connect different branches of the supply chain through digitalized procurement.”

Jung advises incoming students to explore networking and mentorship opportunities to ensure a successful future at Smeal and in the field of supply chain. 

“I would like to advise any student to get diverse experiences through either research, internship, or club activities. The more you experience, the better it is to understand what you like and dislike, and it will be a big help for you to find out what you actually want to do for a career,” she said. “Do not be afraid to try out something new, but try it! Building a network is everything.” 

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