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<b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">IISE QCRE Student Paper Competition<o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>

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<b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">For presentation at the 2023 IISE Annual Conference & Expo<o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>

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<b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">May 20 - 23, 2023, New Orleans, Louisiana</span></b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>

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<span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>

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<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The Quality Control and Reliability Engineering (QCRE) division of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) is sponsoring a student paper competition as part of the IISE Annual

 Conference & Expo, May 20 – 23, 2023, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The purpose of this competition is to honor outstanding papers in the field of quality and/or reliability engineering research and practice. Awards will be presented at the QCRE town hall meeting

 during IISE Annual Conference & Expo. The winners will be acknowledged in the QCRE newsletter and the website.

<b><u><span style="color:#C00000">New for this year:</span></u></b><span style="color:#C00000"> the suitable finalist papers are eligible to be recommended for the “fast track” review process at the INFORMS Journal of Data Science (IJDS).<b><u><o:p> </o:p></u></b></span></span></p>

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<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;mso-themecolor:text1"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>

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<b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Eligibility Criteria<o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>

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<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Both undergraduate and graduate students are invited to submit papers. Advisers or professors are allowed to be co-authors but not the primary author. The following conditions apply to submissions

 for this competition: <b><o:p> </o:p></b></span></p>

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<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The paper topic must fit the QCRE themes.<o:p> </o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria, serif;margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;tab-stops:list .5in">

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The applicant must be a full-time student at the time of submission.<o:p> </o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria, serif;margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;tab-stops:list .5in">

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The student must be the first author. Moreover,

<b>a formal, signed statement by the student’s advisor must be submitted along with the paper affirming that the majority of the original results presented in the paper are due to the student’s efforts rather than the advisor or other collaborators involved

 in the work.</b><o:p> </o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria, serif;margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;tab-stops:list .5in">

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The paper must present original research results and cannot be accepted for publication elsewhere at the time of submission (it can, however, be submitted and/or under review for possible publication

 at the time of submission for this competition).<o:p> </o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria, serif;margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;tab-stops:list .5in">

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The paper must not have won or been considered for an award in another competition.<o:p> </o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria, serif;margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;tab-stops:list .5in">

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The first author (i.e., the student) must be an IISE QCRE member and be able to present the paper in the QCRE track at the IISE Annual Conference & Expo.<o:p> </o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria, serif;margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;tab-stops:list .5in">

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Primary authors will be asked to sign an ethics statement stating that they are full time students, that the research and writing are their own work, and that the work has not been accepted

 for publication elsewhere (see submission form, page 2 of attachment).<o:p> </o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria, serif;margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;tab-stops:list .5in">

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Previous finalists who wish to compete again should submit an entirely different paper. Past winners are not eligible for the competition.<o:p> </o:p></span></li></ul>

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<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>

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<b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Important Notes<o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>

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<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Papers submitted for this competition will NOT be published in the ISERC proceedings.<o:p> </o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Cambria, serif;margin-bottom:3.0pt;text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;tab-stops:list .5in">

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">IISE and the QCRE division do NOT own the copyrights of the papers submitted for this competition. However, the papers must be available to the QCRE division to be posted on their web page.<o:p> </o:p></span></li></ul>

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<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>

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<b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Formatting and Submission Guidelines<o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>

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<li><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Papers must be 8-12 pages (1-inch margins, single column, single-spaced, 12 point font, and Times New Roman) and must begin with a 250-word abstract.</span>

</b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The submitted paper must follow the format or will be returned without review.<o:p> </o:p></span></li><li class="elementToProof"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Entrants must submit a blinded and unblinded version of the paper along with

<b>a formal signed statement from the student’s advisor</b>, all in electronic format (.PDF files ONLY) to both coordinators,

<a class="">Dr. Dan Li (</a></span><a><span style="mso-bookmark:_Hlk120789082"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">dli4@clemson.edu</span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark:_Hlk120789082"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">)

 and Dr. Xiaowei Yue (</span></span><a><span style="mso-bookmark:_Hlk120789082"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">xwy@vt.edu</span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark:_Hlk120789082"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">)

</span></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">by

02/15/2023. Late or incomplete submissions will be ineligible for the competition.<o:p> </o:p></li><li><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">All submitted papers will be reviewed and ranked by the reviewer committee and four finalists will be selected and announced in April, 2023.

<o:p> </o:p></span></li></ul>

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<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>

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<b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Competition Coordinators<o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>

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<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dr. Dan Li (</span><a class=""><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">dli4@clemson.edu</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt;">),

 Clemson University</span><o:p style="color: inherit; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> </o:p></p>

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<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Dr. Xiaowei Yue (</span><a class=""><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">xwy@vt.edu</span></a><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">),

 Virginia Tech<o:p> </o:p></span></p>

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