Masters program prepares industrial engineering graduate for working world
When Valeria Ovalle Ocampo moved to the U.S. from Colombia in 2020, she wasn’t having much luck finding a job. She was worried that she wasn’t competitive enough for the job market. That’s when she enrolled in a master’s program in MIE at UIC.
In December, she graduated and has a job lined up for January.
Ovalle Ocampo chose UIC after talking to MIE Clinical Associate Professor Quintin Williams (Dr. Q.) about the program and classes UIC offered that she couldn’t find at other schools.
“I talked to Dr. Q., and he said that the industrial engineering program at the UIC offers classes in ergonomics, safety, statistical quality control, and data science. And those were classes that I wasn’t able to take during my undergrad,” she said.
In addition to the courses she took, Ovalle Ocampo’s outstanding work earned her the Ellis R. Ott Scholarship from the American Society for Quality, awarded to students who have conducted work related to statistics or quality control.
“In Colombia, I had an internship at a manufacturing company called Mabe that produces refrigerators. I worked on the quality of products and the quality of the service,” she said. “I looked for problems in manufacturing in the warehouse and looked for solutions using industrial engineering or lean manufacturing tools.”
Building on this experience, she developed her master’s thesis entitled “Ergonomic Interventions to Prevent Low Back Pain and Boost Productivity in Refrigerator Manufacturing.”
The thesis focused on the company’s problem at a workstation called “compressor island.” On the island, workers had to grab a compressor from the floor and position it into a cart. She noted that almost all the operators were having lower back pain.
“In my thesis, I use different tools like risk assessment, ergonomics tools, and SantosHuman software, which simulates how the operator performs the task. I evaluated how they were doing the operation and found a solution for the workstation, so they were not having back pain anymore,” Ovalle Ocampo said.
Her hard work and dedication in the classroom also earned the praise of MIE faculty members.
“Valeria has proven herself to be one of the most outstanding student in the program. Her work has been stellar in my course as she is consistently scoring at the top of the class. Her deep understanding of the topics concerned and thorough preparation before class, and contribution during class discussions ensured that she got the most from her instruction. Overall, the quality of her work exceeded my expectations,” Williams said.
Armed with an array of new skills and accomplishments, Ovalle Ocampo is ready and excited to start working as a manufacturing engineer with HydraForce, who design and manufacture hydraulic cartridge valves in Lincolnshire, Illinois.
“I will be optimizing their process, looking for problems, trying to solve those problems, working with operators,” she said. “UIC prepared me for going to work. All the projects the professor makes you do help you to find that job. And I would recommend the program 100%.”