Partnerships that Empower
Eller Partnerships Office is Good Business
By Dave Perry
From Sunday evening to 10 p.m. on Friday, without pause, the warehouse at Roche Tissue Diagnostics (RTD) in Oro Valley is humming.
In a given week, large quantities of empty large plastic bottles, dispenser parts, vessels of fluid and truckloads filled with pallets, cardboard boxes and spools of clear-plastic wrap funnel through one truck bay in the RTD warehouse space.
Ideally, materials sit in the warehouse for mere minutes to optimize production and distribution of life-saving cancer diagnostic solutions bound for Indianapolis and Mannheim, Germany. An interdisciplinary team from the University of Arizona Eller College of Management Partnerships Office (EPO) is helping to expedite that process.
In 2024, Roche entered a two-semester partnership with Eller’s Immersion Learning Projects program to analyze and solve costly warehouse bottlenecks. The program is one of numerous collaborations facilitated by the EPO with businesses in Tucson, Phoenix and beyond to solve real-world problems for its partners. Launched in 2023, the EPO is helping transform workforce development and boost economic prosperity for local and regional economies. Partnership projects typically span one semester or an academic year.
“The Eller Partnerships Office is a conduit between the college and the university and our industry and community partners,” said Anastasiya Ghosh, Ph.D., associate dean of partnerships with Eller.
“The goal is to solve an in-demand industry problem by leveraging our amazing students and faculty and to make sure that our students are workforce ready and are receiving relevant, timely knowledge about their disciplines and how to work in different roles in corporate America. These projects also provide real value to our partners.”
The Power of Student Insight and Industry Alignment
The impact has been significant for RTD, which was challenged with efficiently moving materials and finished products through the warehouse to “optimally utilize the space for growing business needs,” according to Himanshu Parikh, Ph.D., Roche’s VP of global operations.
He emphasized that “the slightest delay” can wreak havoc.
Enter the Eller consulting team led by Mohammed Shafae, professor in the U of A College of Engineering. Eller students Ximena Peregrino, Cole Hansen, Julie Amato, Noureen Mithaigar, and Eleni Canez were tasked with creation of a 3D model of the warehouse using the software Simio to “visually digitalize and reorganize” the space.
The investment paid quick dividends: Students designed a staggered schedule for deliveries and product shipping so that overlap is minimized, flow is maximized and money is saved.
“To listen to them … is very refreshing and exciting,” Parikh said of the students. “They have a different perspective which helps us to look at things differently.”
“These are very digitally savvy students teaching us about the software,” said Lansing Redford, Roche lead data analyst and project leader.
“The EPO program is extremely business-friendly. Their attitude is, ‘Let’s figure it out.’”
The 3D model enables Roche to study different possible configurations to move materials, finished products and people.
Simio “doesn’t give us theories; it lets us test theories,” Redford said.
“We can poke it, twist it, change it, without additional cost,” Parikh said. “You can do all the manifestations digitally. We can visualize them and then evaluate, ‘Did we get the expected result?’”
With warehouse flow optimized, RTD can grow its business up to 8% a year without adding more space.
There are practical future considerations for RTD, which plans to continue working with Eller graduate students to create a digital model for the entire factory.
Parikh added the importance of this partnership being local to Tucson: “It makes a huge difference.”
RTD Head Jill German categorizes the partnership as a win-win for everyone involved and encourages other businesses to take full advantage of resources offered by Eller.
“The project led to tangible improvements in our manufacturing workflow processes and outputs, which ultimately affects our ability to impact customers. Students in the program get good experience in solving the real-world business problems we have, while we receive benefits from their innovative viewpoints, and maybe solutions we haven’t thought of,” German said.
“Eller then becomes a source of innovation and practical problem-solving. We built on their unique skills to move our processes forward.”
Innovation Generating Real-World Solutions
The Eller Partnerships Office works with 88 companies of all sizes from diverse sectors on experiential projects involving 28 faculty and 141 students. The office has experienced 188% year-over-year growth and has generated $2.2 million in revenue for the U of A since its inception in 2023. Partnerships in Tucson and Phoenix have been formed with companies in diverse sectors including semiconductors; airlines; data analytics; energy and utilities; aerospace and defense; healthcare; retail; consumer goods; entertainment; mining; nonprofits and more.
Other EPO offerings include the Consortium for Environmentally Resilient Businesses, a collaboration between the academic, business and regulatory communities that focuses on climate change challenges, sustainable business practices and energy consumption.
Utilities companies from Arizona and California compose the hub of the consortium, which works with academics and students to advance knowledge, develop the next generation of leaders and improve policy regulation.
“The consortium is an opportunity for our students to provide consulting for a group of companies in our communities that share common challenges and come together to pool their resources—not only money, but data and knowledge—to produce better outcomes,” said Ghosh.
Consortiums and consulting projects are transforming traditional graduate education and creating unique ports of entry for students to learn in real time, according to Bailey Lloyd, associate director of corporate partnerships for Eller. Students apply technical skills in a non-classroom setting and attain crucial soft skills in communication, teamwork, resilience and management.
“These experiences are invaluable to our students and are a great resource and asset to our partner companies. They help our students to be as successful as possible and to show what they have learned, how to apply it, and how to make real change in an organization,” said Lloyd.
Raytheon, an RTX business unit, has experienced that value firsthand, according to Mark Edmondson, senior solutions architect with Raytheon. An Eller alum with a Master of Science in MIS, Edmondson is the Raytheon liaison for the Eller Immersion Learning Projects. He has worked on a variety of projects directly with student teams including blockchain; democratized data; alternative business value for portfolio management; and leveraging lightweight 3D digital models (digital twins) to accelerate the business.
He credits the teams with “fitting in a niche that provides the same quality of research and work as a consulting firm.” Their efforts have had a measurable impact in Raytheon strategic investments.
“Raytheon is always evaluating our technology portfolio and refining our capability roadmaps and Eller students provide us with thousands of research hours to refine those roadmaps that would not be possible otherwise,” said Edmondson.
Workforce Development: A Pipeline to Talent Acquisition
Immersion projects and consortiums also keep companies and students abreast of emerging trends and alternative business approaches while promoting idea exchange. Additionally, they aid with talent acquisition in an era when hiring has become challenging for potential employees and employers alike.
“It is hard to discriminate real talent from someone who ran it through an AI profile creator and businesses are using similar profiles. . .it has become a war of AI profile creators for jobs and potential new hires. . .and working with Eller students is a great way to combat that,” Edmondson said.
In addition to imparting workforce readiness skills in management, coordination and leadership, the hands-on experiences can net student internships or permanent employment.
Roche retained Mithaigar, a Master’s in MIS candidate, as a summer intern to “fine tune” the warehouse model while earning a final credit toward her degree.
“It was a transformative experience. I contributed to a real-world manufacturing optimization project alongside a talented team of University of Arizona students,” Mithaigar said.
“This experience has elevated my understanding of warehouse operations, data-driven decision-making, and simulation modeling. I’m excited for what’s next.”
Sandhya Rangaswamy, who completed undergraduate studies in chemistry at the University of Delhi and is a 2026 candidate for a dual Master of Science in Business Analytics/Master of Science in MIS, has doubled down on consulting projects. Her experiences with Banner Health and Roche “created situations where people from different majors all came together as one team, one mind, which was both interesting and challenging.”
Rangaswamy said the projects provide excellent workforce preparation on every level.
“They help you shape yourself for the future, building the adaptability to work effectively with different people and circumstances. Here, you can experiment with techniques you might not get to try in the real world, and you have the upper guidance of professors through the Partnerships program—it’s like a guiding light.”
In the highly technical business environment facing graduates today, hands-on job training and development of soft skills—communication, resilience, teamwork—are imperative, according to Ghosh.
“Our program essentially takes on-the-job training in-house, which reduces the risk for companies. . . because they can preview the talent, and it prepares students to be workforce ready on day one,” said Ghosh.
Ultimately, the EPO is strategically building U of A/business relationships that benefit the city, region, state and beyond.
“The University of Arizona has long been a resource for remaining on the cutting edge and Eller is a prime example of that,” said Edmondson.
“The Tucson business community and U of A are joined at the hip in a mutually beneficial relationship. The Eller Partnerships Office is one of the best ways to lean into that relationship and ensure that Tucson is not just a pitstop for higher education but actually a destination for careers.”
Businesses interested in prospective partnerships with the EPO can learn more at https://eller.arizona.edu/engage/partnerships-office.
Pictured above from left – The Eller Partnerships Office, Sandhya Rangaswamy; Anastasiya Ghosh, Ph.D., associate dean of partnerships with Eller; Bailey Lloyd, associate director of corporate partnerships for Eller. Photo by Brent G. Mathis
READ THE FULL SPECIAL REPORT HERE.
