1.C. Student-Involved Research

A Satisfactory rating requires research involving students in independent studies or within the Honors Program.

I have involved students in my research and development activities since 2003. At the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, I mentored 3 undergraduate summer students, 1 graduate summer student, and 1 multi-year cooperative education student, which resulted in 12 co-authored conference publications and/or posters (with Cowan, Crossley, DuPlain) and 2 co-authored book chapters (DuPlain).

At JMU, I have mentored 14 students on senior capstone projects, and co-advised an additional 4 students. I am working with 8 students on their senior capstone projects during the 2013-2014 academic year. I have also supervised 20 honors students and 5 MS ISAT graduate students as they have completed service learning projects, targeting the needs of clients within the community.

The work of 7 of my honors students and 4 graduate students was featured in a presentation on behalf of “Young Quality Professionals” at the World Conference for Quality and Improvement (WCQI) in 2012. Work with senior capstone students has resulted in 1 conference presentation (with Thai) and 1 refereed journal article (with Feucht, Jenkins, Boley) that is now in preparation (to be submitted to the Journal of Quality Technology this year). One of my student groups (Cross Keys Vineyards w/Heydinger, Heil & Lucchesi) is planning a journal article submission as part of their project.

Honors Course (HON 300) on Quality and Process Improvement:

Spring 2013:

  • CMC Howell Metal (New Market, VA): Identifying the Most Profitable Product Mix. Description: Students identified a way for CMC to save $3.1M annually by shifting their mix of raw materials sourced by suppliers and copper piping output.
  • CMC Howell Metal (New Market, VA): Determining the Optimal Number of Dies and Mandrels in Rotation. Description: Using Monte Carlo simulation, students identified how variations in temperature in machinery used to produce copper piping impact reliability and failure rates.
  • Harrisonburg Department of Social Services (Harrisonburg, VA): Purchase Order Process Improvement. Description: Using Monte Carlo Simulation, a student identified a time-in-system improvement of 22.3% for more rapidly delivering services to children who are monitored by social services. (Martin Driver)
  • Harrisonburg Community Services Act (CSA) Office (Harrisonburg, VA): Child Services Case Processing. Description: By examining the current process and investigating a proposed process for streamlining paperwork processing for handing childrens’ social services cases in Harrisonburg, students identified that a total time-in-system improvement of 14% could be realized if each vendor improved their processing time by only one day out of an average of 16.
  • Tony Britt Spotter Charts (Harrisonburg, VA): Analysis of Chart Production Process. Description: Using a combination of Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) and Monte Carlo Simulation, students identified that expanding the product offering to include customizations of spotter charts would not ultimately be profitable. [Co-advised by Morgan Benton]

Spring 2012:

HON 300 students working on data analysis for service to the Small Business Development Center (SBDC)

HON 300 students working on data analysis for service to the Small Business Development Center (SBDC)

  • Small Business Development Center (Harrisonburg, VA): Enhancing Community Connections. Students performed a multi-factor scenario analysis to evaluate three potential technology investments to improve facilitating connections between projects and potential clients. The analysis revealed that an unexpected and free option (creating an SBDC LinkedIn group) would satisfy all of the Critical to Quality (CTQ) requirements for both the SBDC and its customers. The option was implemented immediately. (Meghan Mooney)
  • Shenandoah Caverns (New Market, VA): Improving the Efficiency of Brochure Marketing. Using discrete event simulation, students identified a process change that would reduce a brochure’s time in system by 30% while reducing the variability by half. The client implemented the process change and control plan recommended by the students, and realized the predicted benefits. (Martin Driver, Ranna Mohajer, Francis Wilson)
  • Small Business Development Center (Harrisonburg, VA): Improving Customer Management System Time-to-Entry. By using Pareto charts and scenario analysis, the students recommended a process change that would reduce the time-to-entry from 64 days to 39 days. (Jacob Loorimim, Jordan Molnar, Luyao Peng)
  • Black Start: Designing a Process for Recovering from Catastrophic Power Failures. In support of an MS ISAT thesis, students applied the DMADV process design methodology to justify how a policy change in how black starts are handled could improve time-to-recover by a factor of 100. (Josh Good, Kyle Reid)

Senior Capstone Projects at JMU (Completed):

My senior capstone students in 2012 working with one of the lead brewers at Starr Hill

My senior capstone students in 2012 working with one of the lead brewers at Starr Hill

  • 2014 – “Improving Product and Process Quality at Cross Keys Vineyards,” Gordon Heil, Tessa Heydinger, Andrew Lucchesi; B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU
  • 2014 – “An Analysis of Foam Quality in Starr Hill and Three Brothers Products,” Michael Carr; B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU
  • 2014 – “Improving Inventory Ordering Strategies to Reduce Holding Costs for Angler’s Choice Marine,” Kevin Rakaric and Ian Loganadan; B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU
  • 2013 – “Analysis of the Relationship between Beaver Creek Reservoir Water Quality and Starr Hill Brewery Product Quality,” Elizabeth Wronko, Emily Northup, Bastiana Rodebaugh; B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU
  • 2013 – “Analysis of the Relationship between Beaver Creek Reservoir Water Quality and Starr Hill Brewery Product Quality: A Pilot Project,” Mandy Jenkins, Calla Feucht, James Boley; B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU
  • 2013 – “Determining Good and Bad Batches of Beer using Classifiers for Starr Hill Brewery,” Hugh Blanchetti, Kurt Valentiner, Adam Hall; B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU
  • 2013 – “Influential Resources, Key Themes and Emerging Trends in Technology Management,” Thao Virginia Thai; B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU
  • 2013 – “SmartClickR: Modern Audience Response System,” Jimmy Dempsey, Brad Fischer, Billy Godfrey, and Daniel To, B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU (Co-advised with Morgan Benton and Emil Salib)
  • 2012 – “Exploratory Analysis of 2010 Starr Hill Brewing Company Production Data,” Sean McMillin, Andy Duong, Nick Kerschl, Jan Smith, John Turner, Blake Jenkins; B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU
  • 2011 – “An Expert System for the Quality Systems Development Roadmap (QSDR),” Doug Jin, B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU

Senior Capstone Projects at JMU (In Progress):

Both of my current projects are co-advised by M. Benton.

  • 2015 – “Gerbil Rave: Participatory Interactive Zome Art,” Cassidy Moellers, Robert Spinoza, Dylan Chance; B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU (HONORS)
  • 2015 – “Mobile Activity Recognition System (MARS),” Eric Walisko, Ben Thompson; B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology at JMU

National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program at National Radio Astronomy Observatory:

One of my first summer students, Michael Lacasse, now works for the Discovery Channel Telescope in Arizona

One of my first summer students, Michael Lacasse, now works for the Discovery Channel Telescope in Arizona. I ran into him at the SPIE conference in Montreal in 2014 presenting his work!

  • 2008 – “Data Preservation and Access for the NRAO 140ft and 12m Telescopes,” Brian Sacash, B.S. Physics
  • 2008 – “Applying Semantic Web Technologies and Ontologies to the NRAO Data Vault,” Bryan Murphy, B.S. Computer Science
  • 2003 – “Enhancing the Portability of GBT Data,” Andy Cowan, B.S. Computer Science
  • 2002 – “New Instrumentation Diagnostics with LabVIEW,” Michael Lacasse, B.S. Electrical Engineering

Cooperative Education Program at National Radio Astronomy Observatory:

  • 2006 – “NRAO VLA Archive Survey,” Jared Crossley, B.S. Computer Science & Astronomy
  • 2005 – “Frequency of Execution Metrics for GBT Observing,” Soumya Ghosh, M.S. Computer Engineering
  • 2004 – “Data Quality Diagnostics for the GBT,” Ron DuPlain, B.S. Computer Engineering

Publications and Proceedings Resulting from Research with Students:

  • Simmons, R. A. & Radziwill, N. M., 2012: Quality Showcase – Celebrating the Work of Young Quality Professionals. ASQ World Conference for Quality and Improvement (WCQI), Anaheim, CA, May 23.
  • Radziwill, N. M., Doggett, M., & Thai T.V., 2012: Critical References and Texts in Technology Management. ATMAE Annual Meeting, Nashville TN, November 17.
  • Radziwill, N. M. & DuPlain, R., 2010: Using Value-Based Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Measures to Inform Subsystem Trade-offs. SPIE Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy IV, San Diego CA, June 26 – July 1.
  • DuPlain, R., Balser, D. & Radziwill, N. M., 2010: Build Great Web Search Applications Quickly with Solr and Blacklight. SPIE Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy, San Diego CA, June 26 – July 1.
  • Crossley, J., DuPlain, R. F., & N.M. Radziwill, 2009: Combining Google Sky and the Search Functionality of the Virtual Observatory (VO). Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Long Beach, California, Nov. 2-5. [Poster]
  • Crossley, J.H., DuPlain, R. F. & Radziwill, N. M., 2009: Web Service Automates Access to Multiple Astronomical Data Sources. SPIE Newsroom, March 11, 2009; Retrieved from http://spie.org/x34139.xml?highlight=x2418&ArticleID=x34139.
  • Radziwill, N. M. and R.F. DuPlain, 2009: Quality and Continuous Improvement in Knowledge Management. Chapter in Knowledge Management Strategies for Business Development, IGI Global.
  • Radziwill, N. M., and R.F. DuPlain, 2008: A Model for Business Innovation in the Web 2.0 World. Invited Chapter in Web 2.0 Business Models, Springer.
  • Crossley, J. H., Sjouwerman, L. O., Fomalont, E. B., and N. M. Radziwill, 2008: NRAO VLA Archive Survey. SPIE, Marseille France, Jun 23-28. [Poster]
  • DuPlain, R., Radziwill, N.M., & Shelton, A., 2007: A Rule-Based Data Quality Startup Using PyCLIPS. ADASS XVII, London UK, September 2007.
  • Crossley, J. H., Sjouwerman, L. O., Fomalont, E. B., & Radziwill, N. M. 2007: NRAO VLA Archive Survey. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 39, 961. [Poster]
  • DuPlain, R. F. and N.M. Radziwill, 2006: Autonomous Quality Assurance and Troubleshooting. SPIE, Orlando FL, May 25-31.
  • Radziwill, N.M. and R. DuPlain, 2005: A Framework for Telescope Data Quality Management. Proc. SPIE, Madrid, Spain, October 2-5, 2005.
  • Cowan, A. W., N. Radziwill, D. Fleming and E. Sessoms, 2004: Enhancing the Portability of GBT Data, AAS 203rd Meeting, Seattle, WA, January 2004.