Simio Announces Student Simulation 2020 Winners

The Simio Student Simulation Competition is a bi-annual event dedicated to undergraduate and graduate teams across the world participating in simulation modeling and scheduling coursework. The Simio Student Competition is the industry’s leading competition for students, and it prepares students for the application of simulation technology to solve complex real-world problems in teams of not more than four individuals.

Every year, Simio outlines the rules and regulations for participation alongside a problem overview which participating student teams must solve to win excellent prizes. The December 2020 Competition problem focused on a Barbecue Pit or restaurant experiencing poor service levels due to inadequate inventory management and long wait times. Contestants were tasked with optimizing the restaurant’s service levels through optimized inventory management, scheduling, and solving staffing bottlenecks to reduce ingredient waste and long wait lines using Simio Simulation Software.

The Student Simulation Competition 2020 was highly competitive with hundreds of student teams sending in great answers to the simulation problem but there could only be one winner. Simio is excited to announce The Grillers of ESEN University El Salvador, as the winning team of the Student Simulation Competition December 2020.

Supervised by Professor Avelar, the winning team consists of Mónica Torrez, Michelle Ángel, Alejandra Artiga, and Juan Martínez from Escuela Superior de Economía y Negocios (ESEN) University. The Grillers developed a 3D simulation model of the Barbecue Pit, its workers, layout, and workstation while imputing forecasted data such as wait times, available inventory, and demand using Simio Software. At the end of a two-week simulation run where diverse worker scenarios and the addition of new workstations were tested, The Grillers’ final solution involved hiring a worker to manage the meat assembly station which was poorly managed. This solution led to improved customer service levels, reduced order-to-delivery times or long wait times, a 10% increase in order fulfillment rate, and a $5,997 increase in the restaurant’s profit margins.

The Grillers’ successful optimization of the ailing restaurant using Simio Simulation Software won the team from ESEN a grand prize of $2,500.

The runner-up was Simio Squad from Binghamton University. The team was supervised by Professor Won Yoon and consisted of graduate students Jun Kataoka and Jaewoo Kim, who won $1,500. In third place, winning $1,000, was VIP Row from ESEN University. The third-place team was supervised by Professor Josa and it consisted of Mario Solano, Ana Cuestas, Andrea Marin, and Katherine Ramirez. Rounding up the top four and winning $500 was Source2Sink, with Professor Lautre supervising graduate student Rishikesh Kakde from the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology.

According to Elizabeth Millar, Applications Engineer, Simio LLC, “The December 2020 Student Simulation Competition was the highlight of an uncertain year as hundreds of student participants brought the smiles back to our faces with creative and unique ideas to solving simulation problems.” She continued by saying that, “Although prizes were given to only the top four, we appreciated the competitive spirit every participant brought to the competition.”

Eric Howard, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Simio LLC, said, “The Student Simulation Competition 2020 was highly competitive and we were encouraged by the large turnout of competitors, a record number of two thousand three hundred and thirty-nine (2,339) students participated in the 2020 event, making it the largest in the competition’s history.” He concluded by stating, “The 2021 Simio Student Competition is currently open and interested educators should register their students early to have a chance of winning the grand prize in the simulation industry’s leading competition.”

Register for Simio Spring 2021 Student Simulation Competition here: https://www.simio.com/academics/student-competition/.