As an energy consultant with Navigant Consulting, I use my IEOR degree almost every day. A recent project involved risk analysis of deferring transmission and distribution network upgrades with a utility's targeted demand-side management program. I ran Monte Carlo simulations to determine the likely range of capacity deficit or excess in congested networks after deploying energy efficiency measures. This helped the utility determine how long they can defer making costly network capacity upgrades. Currently, I am modeling California's wholesale water system to determine the energy required to make water deliveries. Whether I'm performing statistical significance testing, modeling, or optimizing, my IEOR degree has helped me excel in my work.
I graduated from UC Berkeley with a BS in IEOR in 2008. After deciding to continue studying the field, I pursued a MS at Stanford University and graduated in June 2009. My coursework at Berkeley sparked my interest in Decision and Risk Analysis, the field I concentrated in while at Stanford. While in school, I had the opportunity to complete two internships which required me to use skills gained from my IEOR classes at Finelite, I determined process enhancements in order to increase productivity and reduce material waste. At PG&E, I used statistics to study the accuracy of electricity load forecasts in the face of changing energy scheduling requirements. In September 2009, I will put to use the quantitative and analytical skills I gained while in school when I join ZS Associates as an Operations Research Analyst.
I recently started work at PG&E in the Energy Procurement department. It is a rotation program where I've the opportunity to work in different functions of the procurement process. My first rotation is working in integrated resource planning where I am working on several different projects regarding the reliability, cost and emission factors with renewable resources in light of AB-32 also known Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. Much of the analysis that I run uses methodology learned from core IEOR courses. For example, we are frequently using statistical analysis in forecasting to describe the demand of electricity for a given day. Simulation is also a method that is used frequently in our energy planning analysis gives fundamental understanding of such tools. I have also regularly used the fundamentals from decision analysis. What I realized in a short amount of time here is how much of the IEOR curriculum is used for deep-level business decision-making. Go Bears!
I am starting my 6th week of teaching Geometry to mostly juniors and seniors at Crownpoint High School. Before my 6 weeks here in New Mexico, I was in Phoenix for Teach For America's institute which is an intensive training program crams the basics of teaching and the TFA program in only 5 weeks! Institute has been, by far, one of the most intense experiences of my life. I don't think I have ever experienced such a lack of sleep for such a long time period. Although, I do miss the ninth graders I had the honor of teaching there, I am very happy that I am in New Mexico. Getting to know the Navajo community has been my favorite part - I (mostly) enjoy actually teaching and executing my lesson plans, but the planning part is what gets to me. I wasn't given much of a curriculum and have no idea what I am supposed to teach and when, so I spend most of my time after school figuring all of that out. Lesson planning is definitely the hardest thing I have had to deal with so far. The second hardest is absences and newly enrolled students. Students are constantly absent/arrive to class late and I am getting new students every week! As a result, half my class is completely lost and the other half is bored because I am reviewing the same material. All in all, I could not think of a better purpose for me than to be teaching at Crownpoint High School. The school needs a lot of help and the students deserve it. Students have said things to me like: "It's weird to have a teacher that cares so much." "All the new teachers talk so much more than the old ones. They just sat at their computers." "It's awesome that you don't just use the book to teach us." Although, the veteran teachers there have reason behind how they teach, I do think it will progress the school to have teachers who come in with a different style of teaching. I think I have been discovering my personal teaching style, but I still try something new everyday to test out the waters. This is definitely quite an adventure with many hardships, but I feel so fortunate to be on it.
After graduating with an B.S. in IEOR in May 2007, I began working with Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) in Everett, Washington as an Industrial Engineer under the 767 & 747 Airplane Programs. I have been at Boeing for two years, working with the Seal, Functional Test and Paint organization in scheduling, resource and capacity management and forecasting/budgets. Other areas that IE's in BCA are involved in are Lean +, Boeing Production System, Six Sigma, Value Stream Mapping as well as manufacturing concepts such as just-in-time, kanban, kaizen, 5S, etc.
I'm a 1964 UC-Berkeley engineering grad with an IEOR major, and since graduation my professional life has followed a path that I never could have predicted but that in retrospect seems to make sense (sort of). While at Berkeley, I worked as a systems engineer at Lockheed/Sunnyvale on a work-study program, After graduation, I went to law school and then worked as a patent attorney and intellectual property strategist at several large law firms, ultimately ending up handling the IP aspects of over $50B worth of corporate M&A (mergers and acquisitions) transactions. In 2004, after thirty-five years as a lawyer, I tore up my bar card and started my own "IP investment banking" firm, which advises technology companies and institutional investors in acquiring, divesting and investing in IP assets having strategic value, and in sourcing and executing corporate transactions in which IP plays a significant role. The theme that runs through it all is a structured approach to solving business problems (e.g., decision and risk analysis) which I learned at Berkeley .
