TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Three seniors in The University of Alabama’s Institute of Industrial Engineers student chapter placed in the Region 3 Student Conference held at Auburn University on Jan. 23-25.

Lindy Rich of Northport won second place in the technical paper competition for her work titled “AIME Faculty Suite Service Area Layout and Furnishings.” Her paper discussed the facility design for UA’s Alabama Institute for Manufacturing Excellence building. Rich completed the paper as a project in her senior design class at UA. As part of the class, students design real-world processes for industries and businesses.

The UA IIE team also placed second in the team challenge competitions. IIE president Kayla Erwin of Grand Bay, IIE vice president Monica Gurtu of Birmingham, and Rich were members of this team. The team challenge competitions were a series of events that tested the groups' knowledge of industrial engineering techniques as well as general engineering principles.

“Kayla, Lindy and Monica are very talented and hard-working students, and our department has been fortunate to have them as our representatives,” Dr. Gary Moynihan, the IIE adviser and UA professor of industrial engineering, said.

Seventeen universities from across the southeast are in the IIE Region 3 division. The UA group, currently made up of about 25 members, has also earned National Student Chapter Recognition Awards for the past five years.