QUEST Honors Fellows Program
Encyclopedia
The QUEST Honors Program is a specialized program for undergraduate students at the University of Maryland, College Park
. The program accepts students from the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences, the Robert H. Smith School of Business
, and the A. James Clark School of Engineering
.
The name QUEST is an acronym for Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams. The QUEST curriculum covers quality management, process improvement, and systems design. In the capstone course, QUEST students conduct consulting projects for corporate clients and present their results at a conference.
began a total quality initiative on campus. President William E. Kirwin and senior staff spent a year in total quality training, examining both administrative and pedagogical processes on campus to address the challenges of a dim financial forecast and declining enrollments. In October 1991, 18 months into the University of Maryland's efforts, IBM launched a grant competition for universities to improve total quality in higher education. IBM offered eight awards in the amount of $1,000,000 cash and $3,000,000 of IBM equipment, and received 204 applications. Of the eight universities to receive awards, the University of Maryland was the only school to include an undergraduate program as part of their total quality initiative, a program which began as the IBM-TQ program and continued in 1998 as QUEST.
They must take three QUEST courses: Introduction to Design and Quality, Systems Thinking for Managerial Decision Making, and the QUEST Consulting and Innovation Practicum.
QUEST students also take two elective courses from a list of courses related to quality management and process improvement, operations research, and production and operations management.
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
. The program accepts students from the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences, the Robert H. Smith School of Business
Robert H. Smith School of Business
The Robert H. Smith School of Business is a school of business management within the University of Maryland, College Park. The school was named after alumnus Robert H. Smith...
, and the A. James Clark School of Engineering
A. James Clark School of Engineering
The A. James Clark School of Engineering is the engineering college of the University of Maryland, College Park. The Clark School of Engineering is nationally ranked and consistently considered to be among the Top 20 engineering programs in the United States. The school consists of fourteen...
.
The name QUEST is an acronym for Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams. The QUEST curriculum covers quality management, process improvement, and systems design. In the capstone course, QUEST students conduct consulting projects for corporate clients and present their results at a conference.
History
In 1990, the University of Maryland, College ParkUniversity of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
began a total quality initiative on campus. President William E. Kirwin and senior staff spent a year in total quality training, examining both administrative and pedagogical processes on campus to address the challenges of a dim financial forecast and declining enrollments. In October 1991, 18 months into the University of Maryland's efforts, IBM launched a grant competition for universities to improve total quality in higher education. IBM offered eight awards in the amount of $1,000,000 cash and $3,000,000 of IBM equipment, and received 204 applications. Of the eight universities to receive awards, the University of Maryland was the only school to include an undergraduate program as part of their total quality initiative, a program which began as the IBM-TQ program and continued in 1998 as QUEST.
Curriculum
QUEST students begin the program in their sophomore year.They must take three QUEST courses: Introduction to Design and Quality, Systems Thinking for Managerial Decision Making, and the QUEST Consulting and Innovation Practicum.
QUEST students also take two elective courses from a list of courses related to quality management and process improvement, operations research, and production and operations management.