Southampton Business School postgraduates make a difference through summer placements
Talented MSc graduates from the Southampton Business School are already making an impact in the business world. Four former students of Management Science and Finance, Supply Chain Management and Logistics and Business Analytics and Management Sciences have received prizes for their dissertations following their three month summer placements at companies and organisations around the world.
Graduate Alvise Piazza worked with Carnival UK to develop a prototype deployment optimisation model for P&O Cruises; the findings of his project are now being considered by senior managers. Impressed by the results of the collaboration, Carnival UK will be sponsoring four projects in 2016.
Head of Destination and Deployment Planning Paul Reeves says: “As we want to introduce as many newcomers to cruise holidays as possible, while satisfying the needs of our loyal customers, we look at many different factors when planning cruises. These range from net ticketed yield and operating costs to, of course, guest satisfaction.
“His solution to this very complex issue pushed the boundaries of the planning process and his scientific methods used will be ones we will look to develop in the future. Alvise was an absolute credit to the University and to himself and we would be delighted to have the opportunity to work with him again in the future. We wish him every success.”
Alvise, now working as a Management Consultant at PwC, reflects: “The project was a fantastic opportunity to apply in practice what I learned during my Masters course and the support provided by Carnival's team was exceptional.
“Working with Carnival helped me develop important technical and soft skills which I've ended up using widely in my graduate job. I strongly encourage future students to take part in these projects as it is an invaluable way to gain real business exposure and develop your networking ability."
Richard Warne, Head of Revenue Automation, says Carnival UK values its links with the University of Southampton: “Working with MSc students helps us find solutions to issues within the company and supports our recruitment. Graduates from these programmes have the right analytical skill sets to succeed in our very complex business.”
Other prizewinners were Jingya (Celia) Liu for evaluating logistics models of supplying supermarkets on the Isle of Wight, Kathrin Schreiber for investigating workforce rostering for Red Funnel Ferries, and My Le Huong (Wanda) for modelling health and care competences for the UK Department of Health.
University of Southampton Pro Vice-Chancellor, International, Professor Mark Spearing says: “This is an excellent example of the University’s strong links with business. Our students make a tremendous contribution to companies and organisations around the world.”
The placements have been organised for more than 30 years by the University’s Centre of Operational Research, Management Science and Information Systems (CORMSIS) based in the Southampton Business School and Mathematics.
CORMSIS Industry Liaison Officers: Julie Hickman and Peter Becque