Matthew Myers of Milford, N.H., and Teammates Win Material Handling Design Competition

2012 Aug 31

Matthew Myers, a resident of Milford, N.H., was part of the winning team that took first place in the national 2011–2012 College Industry Council on Material Handling Education student design competition.

This was the first year the RIT team took top honors at the national event. Myers is a fourth-year industrial and systems engineering student in Rochester Institute of Technology's Kate Gleason College of Engineering. Other team members are Austin Chacosky of West Chester, Pa.; Bridget Eggers of High Falls, N.Y.; and Leila Rozenman of Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

"We had the right group of people for this. Austin was a wizard at data mining and Leila did an incredible job on her financial justifications. Bridget made a really efficient and ascetically pleasing layout for the facility, and we each did a little of everything," Myers says.

Participating universities used a real-world case study developed by the College Industry Council and its partner organization, the Material Handling Industry of America. At RIT, the case was incorporated into an engineering class, Systems and Facilities Planning. The model designed had to include not only equipment placement in the physical space, but the material handling, supply chain management and logistical coordination needed for a fully-functioning steel tool plant and distribution center, he says. The engineering class had five weeks to complete the project, and the best plan from the class was submitted for the competition.

The $2,000 first place award will be split among the team

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