May 24, 1999

NC State Students' Projects to Benefit 1999 World Games

Industrial engineering students enrolled in a capstone senior design course at NC State University work with Special Olympics World Games coordinators to develop the logistics for moving supplies from a central warehouse to the numerous venues associated with the '99 World Games.

During the 1999 Special Olympics World Games, the thousands of athletes and volunteers will have a group of NC State industrial engineering students to thank for the availability of water, ice, soft drinks, snacks and other supplies. The industrial engineering senior design students - who usually charge companies $2,000 or more for each project -have volunteered to design the logistics for supplying all of the sites for the '99 Games to be held in the Triangle area.

The challenge for one team is to move hundreds of thousands of pounds of supplies from the central distribution area to strategically placed smaller distribution compounds around the Triangle area. The challenge for the other team is to move all of the supplies from the smaller compounds to each of the sporting venues in the area - more than 150 different sites.

In these two projects, the students must apply their industrial engineering principles to a real-world problem - how to move everything necessary in a highly populated area using volunteer drivers who are often unfamiliar with the roads.

"The organizers of the 1999 Special Olympics World Games called to see if we could help with the logistics of moving the supplies for the entire area - a monumental task," says Clarence Smith, assistant head of the Department of Industrial Engineering and instructor for the senior design class. "Two groups of our senior design class decided to take on the challenge.

"What makes these two projects so impressive is the sheer volume of material that has to be moved. In a very short time frame, the organizers need to be able to distribute 40 truckloads of ice; sheets and blankets for 7,000 athletes and their coaches; and more than one million bottles of water and soft drinks, just to name a couple of the items."

The two teams of students, with their project adviser, Dr. Thom Hodgson, the James T. Ryan Professor of Industrial Engineering, began work on Special Olympics projects early in the spring semester.

The first team spent hours driving the roads of Raleigh, Durham, Cary and Chapel Hill, measuring distances from the main distribution point to each of the small holding compounds.

"We've used maps and a CAD program to design the routes for drivers to deliver the supplies from the main warehouse to each compound," says Chip Townsend, a senior in industrial design and member of the first team. "A lot of the work has been driving around, finding the best route and finding alternative routes for each delivery. Each route package that we've designed includes specific instructions with landmarks, estimated drive times and mileage between the points."

Once all of the supplies have been delivered to the smaller compounds from the main warehouse, they will have to be sorted and stored or distributed to each of the sporting venues in the area. Coordinating that effort is the job of the second team of students.

"Each sporting venue will be supplied from one of the five compounds located strategically across the Triangle area," says Tanya Rushing, industrial engineering senior and member of the second team. "One example is the compound for Durham located at Hillside High School. We've visited the site, measured it and taken into consideration how many refrigeration units we'll need, what other items will be stored there, even the flow of garbage and recyclables from each venue. With all that in mind, we've designed the floor plan for each individual compound."

The students also have designed the routes for deliveries to each of 24 competition and non-competition venues from each of the supply compounds.

The design course is the capstone course for students majoring in industrial engineering at NC State University. In the class, groups of students take on projects submitted by and funded by business and industry to put their years of classroom learning into practice before graduating. The Department of Industrial Engineering was among the first in the nation to offer a senior design capstone course to its students beginning in 1973.

"Typically these senior design projects are guided by a faculty adviser and sponsored by a company - basically the company covers the expenses-but we decided that this Special Olympics project could be done at no cost to the organizers. The department and the students felt strongly about donating their time and resources, something we have rarely done in the history of our senior design course," says Smith.

"The students certainly have met the challenge," Smith continues. "Of course the real test will come on opening day of the '99 Games. The supply of ice and water for the opening ceremonies will depend on how well these students have done their homework."

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