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<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">Dear Colleagues,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">We are pleased to announce the 2026 QCRE Best Student Paper Competition at the 2026 IISE Annual Conference & Expo, taking place May
16–19, 2026, in Arlington, TX.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">Organized by the Quality Control & Reliability Engineering (QCRE) Division, this competition recognizes outstanding student research
papers in the areas of quality control, reliability, and related fields. We warmly invite students to participate and showcase their work. As a note, papers submitted to this competition will not be published in the official conference proceedings. IISE and
the QCRE Division do not retain copyright over submitted papers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">Key Deadlines:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">-Full Paper Submission Deadline: January 23, 2026<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">-Notification of Finalists: February 27, 2026<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">-Speaker Registration Deadline: March 8, 2026<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#242424">For additional information or submission guidelines, please check the CFP below or reach out to the competition coordinators Dr. Juan
Du (<a href="mailto:juandu@ust.hk"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#242424;text-decoration:none">juandu@ust.hk</span></a>) or Dr. Haifeng Wang (<a href="mailto:wang@ise.msstate.edu"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:#242424;text-decoration:none">wang@ise.msstate.edu</span></a>).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Best, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Juan Du, Ph.D.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="elementtoproof" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black">Assistant Professor,
</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Smart Manufacturing Thrust, Data Science and Analytics Thrust<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Affiliate Assistant Professor,
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpersonal.hkust-gz.edu.cn%2Fjuandu%2FIDADM-Lab%2Findex.html&data=05%7C02%7Ciefac.list%40mailhost.ces.clemson.edu%7Cb83ef008aeed4e29068a08de1a7e8ee7%7C0c9bf8f6ccad4b87818d49026938aa97%7C0%7C0%7C638977329382679037%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Diy20lhBHT%2FxLRCIRChcnwg4mcs%2FH7jOpuFN6UFyOyU%3D&reserved=0" originalSrc="https://personal.hkust-gz.edu.cn/juandu/IDADM-Lab/index.html"><span style="color:blue">Industrial Data Analytics and Digital
Manufacturing (IDADM) Lab/Home (hkust-gz.edu.cn)</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Phone: +86 020 88335989<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Email:
<a href="mailto:juandu@ust.hk"><span style="color:blue">juandu@ust.hk</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Personal Link:
<a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2Fview%2Fjuandu%2F&data=05%7C02%7Ciefac.list%40mailhost.ces.clemson.edu%7Cb83ef008aeed4e29068a08de1a7e8ee7%7C0c9bf8f6ccad4b87818d49026938aa97%7C0%7C0%7C638977329382687274%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C40000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=R2EsDtVgVl%2FDTYcmtnEaHhAHFGkDWr%2FNb%2FQdiXPOH%2Bw%3D&reserved=0" originalSrc="https://sites.google.com/view/juandu/"><span style="color:blue">https://sites.google.com/view/juandu/</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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