Issue link: https://industrialengineer.epubxp.com/i/920036
66 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine Matt Jordan recently began the College of Engineering graduate program in ISyE for supply chain engineering as he plays his last season in NCAA division 1 football due to a foot injury. The ISyE program works to meet the demand for business-savvy engineers in the supply chain industry. Jordan currently holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and serves as a speaker where he shares his story of being a successful athlete despite being diabetic and encourages young people with diabetes to pursue their dreams. with Matthew Jordan, supply chain engineering graduate student and quarterback, Georgia Tech final five Now that you have an undergraduate degree in business administration, what are the benefits of a master's degree? There are a couple of benefits that I think getting a master's provides. One is personal growth. It allows me to challenge myself academically and learn more in my field, so I will be pre- pared to enter the workforce and start my career. Second, it will allow me to have greater career advancement and greater employment opportunities. How do you manage the workload that football practice and classes demand, and do you plan on continuing your football career after graduation? When you play college football, you develop great time management skills. You must use these skills to plan out and schedule your week. With practice and traveling for games, this may call for some late nights and early mornings sometimes. I've decided to forego my last year of eligibility in football due to health con- cerns. In May, I'll be graduating with my master's degree. I'll have received my undergrad and graduate degrees in four years. Since I had no intention of going to the NFL, I felt it was best to focus solely on my supply chain career. What supply chain principles do you apply on the football field? I think probably the best principle to apply to football would be network op- timization. Especially on offense, this principle can be applied using arcs and nodes. For example, on a pass play I'm the starting node, and when I throw the ball to one of the receivers and this is the arc, and wherever the receiver catches the ball is the next node and so on. When did you find out about industrial and systems engineering, and what attracted you to the ISyE program? I always heard about Tech's IE program, so I've known about the ISyE school for a while. But I really didn't know much about Tech's graduate programs until I was getting ready to graduate and look- ing at the next step. After seeing ISyE's master's in supply chain engineering program, I knew that was the program that I wanted to go into and apply for because it interested me the most and would help me further my career. What kind of advice could you give to other students who are in sports and pursing an ISE-related career? To have great time management skills. It may be tough sometimes, but it will pay off in the future. Once you learn more supply chain tactics, you'll begin to realize how much you're exposed to it on a daily basis. — I terview by Cassa dra Joh so