The last quarter of 2018 was very busy for Gurram Gopal, Industrial Technology and Management Industry Professor. In November he visited Bolivia upon invitation from Universidad Privada Boliviana (UPB) as a former Fulbright Scholar and Fulbright Specialist. UPB is one of the top-ranked universities in Bolivia and offers leading-edge programs in digital business. As part of his visit he gave lectures on E-commerce and blockchain applications to doctoral and master’s degree students and alumni in four cities—Cochabamba, Sucre, La Paz, and Santa Cruz.

When not traveling, Gopal was writing articles with several of his former INTM graduate students based on special projects they completed while earning their Master of Industrial Technology and Operations at Illinois Tech. He and student Ines de Madariaga co-wrote an article based on de Madariaga’s project, “Direct-to-Consumer Strategies for CPG Manufacturers” that appears in ISE Magazine, January 2019. Gopal also wrote an article on the expedite process in companies, based in part on the special project of recent graduate Beatriz San Miguel, published online in the supply chain journal, Supply Chain Brain. A third article about the CPG industry, written with his former student, Albert Macarrón Fabregat, appears in CSCMP’s 4Q 2018 issue of Supply Chain Quarterly.