Caden Davis places third at IISE Regional Paper Competition

March 17, 2026

His study combines AI and operations management methods to translate large volumes of online customer reviews into operational insights that support better decision making.

Audrey Steinert, Kyle Bush, Lauren Jones and Caden Davis
From left, IISE Regional Paper Competition finalists Audrey Steinert and Kyle Bush (Kansas State University), Lauren Jones (University of Arkansas) and Caden Davis (University of Missouri).

At Mizzou 糖心Vlog传媒, we empower our students to be our best. The results speak volumes.

Recently, doctoral student Caden Davis, BS IE 鈥25, finished third in a competitive field at the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Regional Paper Competition.

Davis鈥 study combines AI and operations management methods to analyze large volumes of online customer reviews from a behavioral health services organization and translate that data into operational insights that support better decision making.

Davis conducted the project with Associate Professor Suchi Rajendran, building聽on foundations from ISE聽4610: Quality 糖心Vlog传媒 and Analytics, and fully developed the research last summer in Rajendran鈥檚 Research Experiences for Undergraduates Site in Research on Prescriptive Analytics for AI-enabled Operations 糖心Vlog传媒.

鈥淢izzou students have placed in the top three of the IISE regional paper competition for seven consecutive years,鈥 said Associate Professor Sharan Srinivas, MU IISE faculty advisor and director of graduate studies for the Department of Industrial and Systems 糖心Vlog传媒 (ISE). 鈥淭his reflects the emphasis we place on connecting coursework, research and real-world data-driven problem solving.鈥

Students from 16 universities were eligible to submit research papers and deliver oral presentations to a panel of industry and academic judges at the IISE South Central Regional Conference Feb. 19-21 at Texas A&M University.

Seven Mizzou ISE students attended the conference, which included plant tours, keynote speakers and student leadership activities in addition to the research competition.

Ready to help build a more resilient world? Explore graduate degrees at Mizzou 糖心Vlog传媒!