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Steven Noble
Editor, Internal Publications
p. 403.440.5692
e-mail: snoble@mtroyal.ca

Fred Cheney
Media Relations Officer
p. 403.440.5195
e-mail: fcheney@mtroyal.ca

 

Undergraduate research at Mount Royal University took the spotlight at a recent international conference in Florida, where three Bissett School of Business students and their professor presented a research project.

“We never thought this would happen,” says Kalinga Jagoda, PhD, Bissett assistant professor and co-author of the papers presented by students. “It’s been an amazing and successful experience.”

Rob and Adam Lonseth, (left) joined Assistant Professor Kalinga Jagoda and fellow student Skylar Anderson at the annual POMS Conference this past summer in Orlando.

The Bissett students, Skylar Anderson, Adam Lonseth and Robert Lonseth, are in their final year of the Bachelor of Business Administration — General Management program. Rob and Adam are currently attending an international exchange program at the Eller College Management Program at the University of Arizona.

The students received funding from the Bissett School of Business and Mount Royal’s Academic Vice-President’s office as well as the Office of Research to attend the annual Production and Operations Management Society conference in Orlando, Fla. this May.

They were the only undergraduate students presenting papers.

“Academics attending the conference were impressed with the fact that research is being undertaken by undergraduates at Mount Royal,” Jagoda says.

Still, all three students confess to being a little intimidated. “I was extremely nervous to present to industry professionals and students pursuing their PhD’s and master’s degrees,” says Anderson.

“A highlight from the presentations was being able to talk afterwards to the attendees about their research and mine as well.”

“The presentations went well, particularly the one on productivity improvement in the Canadian manufacturing industry, which we presented to one of the top researchers in operations management from Oxford,” says Adam.

“We wanted to focus both papers on the Canadian market in order to bring a little diversity to the conference,” says Rob. “We believe that is one of the largest contributing factors to our success.”

The second paper was a case study on a technology transfer that failed and was diagnosed using a stage-gate model created by Jagoda.

Anderson’s paper explored global outsourcing from the Canadian retail industry’s viewpoint and included a case study of a Canadian firm which outsources operations in several countries.

“It’s my understanding that this is the first time our students went to an international conference and presented papers on their own,” says Bissett Dean Wendelin Fraser. “The students were very appreciative of the opportunity.”

Adam and Rob also give Jagoda much of the credit for being accepted to the conference.

“Both Adam and I could not have done this without all the help of Dr. Jagoda,” says Rob. “We have been so blessed to work with him at this conference and continue to work with him.”

Rob and Jagoda have since presented two other papers — Innovation and Commercialization in Renewable Technologies: An Opportunity for Small to Medium Enterprises at the Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship in Toronto, and Solar Thermal Water Heating: An Application for Alberta at the International Association of Science and Technology in Banff.

They are working on a third paper to be presented in India by one of Jagoda’s colleagues.

Anderson has been invited to submit papers for supply chain journals and also to continue his education at graduate schools in the United States. He would like to eventually complete a master’s degree in operations and supply chain management.

“We’d like to thank Mount Royal for helping fund our trip,” Adam says.

“Without their sponsorship, we wouldn’t have been able to go.”

“The students were good ambassadors for Mount Royal,” Jagoda says.

“The most important thing for me is that they haven’t stopped — they are still doing several projects with me and we plan to present several papers next year.”

— Rhonda Greenaway, Nov. 13, 2009