Academics
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Undergraduate Program
Client Project Challenge

The process of working on projects for external clients is essential to the IEMS undergraduate curriculum. Each year we look for projects for students to work on in the fall and spring quarters.

Do you have a project you would like our students to work on?

Submit a project proposal

Important dates for our clients for the Spring 2025 projects

Opportunities to work with IEMS and NU Engineering

From Routes to Results: Tracking Strategy Implementation and Savings

Measuring long-term success of network design recommendations.

Patient Transport System Optimization

Lurie Children’s asked the team to analyze and improve its internal patient transport system across a 23-floor hospital—moving patients between inpatient units, imaging suites, operating rooms, and discharge areas.

Working with student teams to solve supply chain problems

James Hardie has worked with student teams to help analyze classic supply chain issues such as optimal stock levels to hold for material transferred between our manufacturing plants while considering mode of transportation and cost.

Automated Statement Reconciliation — Coca-Cola Consolidated

Vendor statement reconciliation is a manual and time-consuming process. Formats varied widely, creating bottlenecks in extracting the right fields, standardizing layouts, and comparing statements to the ERP records. The student team used modern AI techniques to help automate.

GP Vivienda Mortgage Process Optimization

A strategic look at loan processing.

Enhancing Operational Efficiency Through a Digital Overhaul of the Route Allocation Process

North America Central School Bus partnered with a student team from Northwestern’s Client Project Challenge to modernize how routes are allocated to drivers. The project focused on creating a transparent and auditable process that honors driver preferences and contractual constraints while significantly reducing manual effort.

Optimizing Dog Volunteering Shift Organization

How do you run a three‑hour volunteer shift with 14–20 dogs and 5–12 volunteers in a new facility full of doors and blind spots—while keeping dogs from crossing paths? The team paired a clear playbook with a mixed-integer optimization model that outputs a safe and efficient schedule that volunteers can follow.

Data Engineering and Forecasting Book Sales

The project's goal was to develop a forecast of new book sales based on industry sales databases (like BookScan) and Blackstone’s internal data. To support the forecast, the team had to help with the data engineering and building data pipelines to maintain the data.

Warehouse Picking Algorithms and Multiple Objectives

A picking algorithm can drive efficiencies in a large-scale warehouse. However, the algorithm must consider different constraints, objectives, and the impact on other operations.

Using a CPC Team as Consultants

A quote highlighting the value of CPC team.

When to replace IT assets?

A student team worked with the Coca-Cola Consolidated IT team to determine the best time to replace IT assets like laptops, desktops, and iPads.

Supply Chain Optimization: Routing and Inventory

Decisions on how frequently you ship impacts the inventory you need to store.

A Forecasting App for Class Size

Northwestern's Office of the Registrar assigns courses to classrooms. Since available classroom space is always tight, having better forecasts for each course will help.

Northwestern University Logistics Assessment

CPC team completes an assessment of the current and future state of Northwestern's Evanston campus material logistics programming.

A CPC project can be a great way for alums to connect back to NU's IEMS program

An alum from Northwestern's IEMS class of 2015 works again with a CPC team.

A Deeper Understanding of College Graduation Rates Based on High School Data

Cristo Rey St. Martin (CRSM) wanted to look at more than just ACT scores to predict the college graduations of their students. This helps with admissions to college and creating support plans for the students.

Warehouse Capacity Dashboard to Long-term Forecasting

JR286 wanted to understand warehouse capacity. They wanted a daily capacity dashboard as well as a long-term forecast to understand when they might run out of space.

Staff Scheduling and Strategic Planning at a Local Non-Profit

Staff scheduling is important to help BHGH satisfy their mission: “To nurture and guide motivated young people in extreme need to become college-educated, career-ready, community-minded men and women for others.”

Improving service level by optimizing safety stock in a space-constrained environment

USG wanted to evaluate the current safety stock strategy and identify opportunities to improve service levels in a space-constrained environment.

Simulating Turnaround Time to Get Rooms Ready for the Next Patient

An operational challenge at any hospital is to prepare a room for the next patient. The faster this can be done, the better. However, it is not just about cleaning time, system congestion can mean that it may take a long time for the cleaning crew to even get to a room.