Following MBTA Research, Pair of MET Graduates Author Simheuristics Paper with Professor Maleyeff
One of Metropolitan College’s most distinctive characteristics is the close relationships students can form with their instructors, who are invested in helping their charges develop in their professional and academic careers. Sometimes, those relationships even lead to scholarly collaboration.
Ruthairut Wootisarn (MET’24), an MS in Supply Chain Management graduate, and Jingran Xu (MET’23), an MS in Applied Business Analytics graduate, recently coauthored an article in the Computers & Industrial Engineering journal with Associate Professor of the Practice John Maleyeff.
Based on research they performed in the MET Decision Sciences Research Lab (DSLab) in recent years, the article, entitled “Simheuristics with metamodel initialization for determining repair system inventory policies,” spun out of a project done as part of the Capstone Project for Supply Chain Management (MET AD 804) that concerned how the MBTA manages parts inventories used to repair their facilities. The work has previously been the subject of several conference presentations by DSLab researchers at DSI and INFORMS annual meetings.
For Wootisarn and Xu, the project represented an opportunity to bring their studies into the real world. As Wootisarn sees it, her degree program set her foundation, while her involvement in the DSLab offered exposure to academic research, and her capstone project gave what she’d learned grounding.
“The coursework gave me an analytical foundation, while projects like the capstone allowed me to apply those tools to real-world problems,” she says. “In my capstone project, I worked with an industry partner on an inventory management challenge, which helped me connect theoretical concepts to practical operational decisions.
As Wootisarn sees it, the diversity of her educational experience bore fruit.
“Working in a ‘learning-by-doing’ environment, I collaborated with MET students from different programs and professional backgrounds,” Wootisarn says. “Sharing perspectives and expertise within this interdisciplinary team was a key factor in the success of our work.
She credits Associate Professor of the Practice Maleyeff for helping her develop the tools requisite to research of this sort. “I learned how to systematically approach research questions and solve complex optimization problems using simulation models grounded in what we learned in class,” she says. “This experience strengthened my analytical thinking, research skills, and problem-solving abilities.”
Now, the pair of MET alums have set their sights on new academic goals. Jingran Xu is currently a third-year PhD student at University of Connecticut, and Ruthairut Wootisarn is in her second year as a PhD student at University of Cincinnati. “[This] experience played an important role in shaping my decision to continue on an academic path,” she says.
To learn more about the DSLab, visit their website. Read the paper here.