Business School Undergraduate Research Project Provost Award Winners 2025

The Business School presents the Provost Award winners for the Undergraduate Research Project Showcase 2025. A shoutout to every student who participated, the competition was high.  Our winners were:

Optimizing WooSox Ticket Sales and Fan Engagement Strategies
Justin Che (DS), Gavin George (BU), Jack Mahoney
(DS, MGE), Akshay Shinde (DS), Nathan Willemsen (DS)
The Worcester Red Sox (WooSox) sought to revitalize their mini-ticket packages for the 2025 season due to declining fan interest. Our team analyzed ticket sales, attendance trends, on-field performance, weather conditions, and marketing sur-vey data to identify patterns and opportunities. Predictive models were developed to forecast attendance, considering variables like promotions, weather, and game timing. Find-ings highlighted the impact of team performance, star play-ers, and premium pricing on ticket sales, as well as the un-derperformance of certain seating sections and weekday games. Merchandise data from multiple POS systems was integrated into an interactive dashboard, enabling the WooSox to track profitability and optimize offerings. Rec-ommendations include refining predictive models, enhancing data integration processes, and leveraging targeted promo-tions to boost sales and fan retention. Together, these strate-gies provide a roadmap to meet market demands, improve fan engagement, and maximize revenue for the 2025 season.
Advisors: Adrienne Hall-Phillips - Business School, Marcel Blais - Mathematical Sciences & Data Science
Sponsor: Worcester Red Sox

Saint-Gobain Abrasives: Optimizing the Finishing Process in Bond Plant 7
Aidan Eldridge (IE), Lauren Mitcheson (IE), Abigail Stack (IE), Sean Sullivan (IE)
The objective of this project was to collect data, identify bottle-necks, and develop solutions to improve the efficiency of the fin-ishing process of the Large Diameter Cut-off (LDCO) wheels at Saint-Gobain. This project informed Saint-Gobain on the feasibil-ity of integrating automation into their LDCO finishing line and ultimately reduce waste in the finishing process. SaintGobain's LDCO wheels require a finishing operation to ream the inner di-ameter, add pin holes, smooth the outer diameter, ensure the wheel is balanced, and speed test the wheel. Not all LDCO wheels go through every step of this process. During this project our team utilized value-stream mapping, axiomatic design, the implementa-tion of lean six sigma principles, time-studies, 5S, facilities plan-ning, and a time value of money analysis. Our results included implementing an alignment laser on the drill press, creating a kan-ban system for work in progress (WIP), running a 5S project for the entire line, and re-organizing one of their tools walls to facili-tate a more efficient workflow. Additionally, through time-studies and observations along with industrial engineering concepts we have learned, we analyzed the efficiency of the process and how it could be improved. We concluded that the process would benefit from more standardization and organization. To improve this, we wrote standard operating procedures (SOPs) for every operation, as well as creating a 5S audit that management can implement to ensure the operators keep the cells clean and organized. Finally, we also recommended that management eventually look into turn-ing the LDCO finishing line into an automated cell. In Saint-Gobain, there is a different production line that is automated. An analysis of our time studies provides evidence that an investment in the automation of the line would be valuable to the company.
Advisors: Walter Towner - Business School
Sponsor: Saint-Gobain