Being a teacher can be difficult, and it became even tougher in recent years when the COVID-19 pandemic was causing students to learn from home much of the time.
Engineering students Jorge Sanchez and Mercedes Pastor
Senior Industrial Engineering students Jorge Sanchez and Mercedes Pastor finished second at the 2021 Student Simulation Competition sponsored by FlexSim Healthcare. This competitive international student contest is hosted by Society of Health Systems within the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers.
“The competition was about redesigning an ambulatory endoscopy center to help mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19,” Sanchez said.
While including requirements imposed by the Centers for Disease Control on healthcare facilities, the pair were also asked to find ways to optimize the current facility using FlexSim, a simulation software. Once Sanchez and Pastor made the simulation and wrote a paper detailing their improvements, why they made those changes, and their results, they gave a presentation at the Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference.