The University of Michigan’s Trading Agent Competition (TAC) team of computer science students came in first place at the TAC Supply Chain tournament on July 16.

Members of the 2008 team are Patrick Jordan, a PhD student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Lee Callender, a 2008 engineering graduate who will start a master’s degree in the fall.

While the team typically does well in this competition, this is the first time it has won.

Professor Michael Wellman, of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, said the win is the culmination of years of student efforts. He named recent PhD graduate and former team member Christopher Kiekintveld as a major contributor.

“I’m very proud,” said Wellman, the team’s adviser. “The students have worked very hard over the years. This really does represent the state of the art in automated supply chain management.”

Wellman started the TAC in 2000. The supply chain scenario is one of the more popular tournaments in the competion. It requires students to write a program to automatically run a business for a year from a supply-chain perspective. The program must be capable of buying the parts, scheduling the factory efficiently and then selling the wares. This year, the scenario involved a computer business.

Michigan’s team beat 13 others from seven different countries to win the tournament.

“Our ultimate hope is to have an influence on supply chain practices. We think more and more trading procurement sales will be automated and so we need to develop techniques for companies to make good decisions,” Wellman said.

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