Tec graduate wins Thesis Award from Zaragoza Logistics Center and MIT

Gala Priscilla Andrade Avelar, an Industrial and Systems Engineering graduate from Tec de Monterrey’s Aguascalientes campus, has won the award for “Best Master Thesis Project.”

Her project entitled “Implementing Sustainability Initiatives in Logistics” was recognized with the Thesis Award by Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC) in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

ZLC offers this award yearly to the Best Master Thesis in logistics and supply chain management.

“When I started my degree, logistics was always in my plans, as part of a master’s or specialist degree, but I never imagined that my dreams would come true,” said graduate Gala Priscilla.

She carried out her thesis project together with classmate María Fernanda Barragán Guadalupe, originally from Ecuador. Their thesis develops a model that will help companies to account for their gas emissions.

“What we did was base ourselves on a methodology that was designed by an MIT professor. From there, we made a model that would account for all emissions from logistics activities, including route emissions from three modes of transport and warehouse activities,” shared Tec graduate Gala.

Their project was applied in a pharmaceutical company in Denmark, taking 10 months to carry out. What’s more, it was deemed “innovative”, since it can be applied to different routes in the same company, and even in other companies and industries.

“This project came about largely due to my curiosity. I wanted to continue developing projects that would have an impact on climate change mitigation,” Gala said to CONECTA.

The graduate, who describes herself as “organized, tenacious, and assertive,” said that there are certain standards that allow us to account for production or factory emissions, but not emissions from logistics, because each company has a different supply chain and different logistics.

In order to achieve this dream, Gala was able to obtain two scholarships, one for postgraduate studies abroad from CONACYT, and the second, “MIT - Zaragoza Women in Logistics & SCM Scholarship”, which is granted by ZLC itself, with the aim of promoting female leadership roles in logistics.

ZLC, in addition to being an educational and research institute, is the Spanish center of the MIT Global SCALE network, which is an alliance between six international centers.

Some of these international centers include the Ningbo China Institute for Supply Chain Innovation, the Zaragoza Logistics Center, and the Malaysia Institute for Supply Chain Innovation, which are dedicated to development via innovation within the supply chain field.

According to the graduate, this program was established at the ZLC because, as well as being one of the largest cities in Spain, Zaragoza is a strategic location for logistics activities on the Iberian Peninsula.

“Right now, I’m very committed to my work. It’s something that motivates me a lot, and I believe I have a great opportunity to continue growing professionally within the company,” shared engineer Gala.

Andrade currently works as a logistics consultant at Capgemini, where she’s working on a project to integrate all processes within a company, as well as automating them.

The Tec graduate says that the Tec has played a very important role in achieving every goal she’s set herself. 

“I believe that we engineers develop certain key skills during our degree course, such as the ability to know how to work as a team, the ability to learn, leadership, and of course, entrepreneurship,” said Tec graduate Gala.

The graduate urges women to believe in themselves: “Despite the fear we may feel, we have the strength and intelligence to reach key positions in logistics.”

“Despite the fear we may feel as women, we have the strength and intelligence to reach key positions in logistics.”

Karen Franco, director of the Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) degree program at the Aguascalientes campus, says that the main role of women in engineering today is precisely to encourage more women to study this type of career.

“Women should be encouraged to pursue engineering, to try to hold managerial and strategic positions, to get more involved in research, including creating their own companies, and above all, to continue studying and pushing boundaries,” said director Franco.

What’s more, she said that Priscilla is not only an example to women, but to any graduate from any institution. Her knowledge and desire to struggle with both emotional and intellectual issues have led her to achieving her goals.

Finally, Gala invites young people to plan what they want, be persistent, look for a mentor, network, but mostly, “never stop learning.”

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