Industrial engineering graduates featured in Emmy Award-winning video

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A. Sue Weisler

Sarah Bonzo ’06 (industrial engineering), left, was one of the featured engineers in an Emmy Award-winning video about the career opportunities in the industrial engineering profession. Here she discusses process plans with RIT engineering student Allison Smith in the Specimen Management Lab at Rochester General Hospital as part of a Lean Six Sigma Practitioner Program.

Customers can thank industrial engineers for having more almonds in Hershey chocolate bars.

Knowing how to improve the supply chain, increase productivity and upgrade the amount and quality of materials are only some of the skills industrial engineers bring to the workplace. A video about these skills and the diverse career opportunities for industrial engineers recently won a New York Emmy Award, and it includes several RIT graduates.

Featured in the video are Sarah Bonzo, lean sigma specialist at Rochester General Hospital; Nicole Heiges-Rank, improvement integration manager, The Hershey Co.; Kevin Kelley, plant manager at Xerox Corp.; and Kanika Wright, purchasing manager at Carestream Health. All four are alumni of the industrial and systems engineering program in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering.

The video is being used to promote industrial engineering degree programs and the varied career opportunities in industries that range from aeronautics and manufacturing to services industries and health care—even the food service industry at companies such as Hershey.

The announcement about the Emmy award took place on April 13 at the annual ceremony hosted by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The video was developed by the University at Buffalo’s Center for Arts and the Council of Industrial Engineering Academic Department Heads for the Institute of Industrial Engineers.