Unmanned parcels deliver top marks for International Management/CEMS students

A team of international management graduates from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) was one of seven teams who were rated top for their International Business Project at a gathering of 30 premier global business schools. Hundreds of business projects from thousands of CEMS students all over the world were prepared during the spring term, and only the seven that received a perfect evaluation were presented at the CEMS Annual Events in Stockholm in December.

RSM’s graduates were joined by hundreds of others from other international business schools. The annual meet-up includes a graduation ceremony for the Master in Management from the CEMS alliance of business schools. RSM’s version of the programme, the MSc International Management/CEMS programme (IM/CEMS) is ranked among the top five of its kind worldwide by the Financial Times.

All 30 CEMS schools include the International Business Project (IBP) in their spring semester. The top-rated RSM team worked on a project for Head Communications, an international remote monitoring, data delivery and communications company. Founder and director Cornelius Wicks heaped praise on the RSM students for their radical new logistics system for real-time express delivery service that presents a competitive advantage in the industry.

Autonomous vehicles

Top-scoring team members were Thomas Behrendt (German); Tim Heijmann (Dutch); Tamás Százdi (Hungarian) and Thomas Servais (Belgian and studying on exchange at RSM from Louvain School of Management). Their Unmanned Postal Delivery project included feasibility analysis, business planning and viability study for an unmanned postal delivery service using autonomous aerial and ground vehicles based on technology from the European Space Agency. The service is under development in the Netherlands and the UK.

Cornelius Wicks said the challenging project addressed the forming of a new service. “Intelligent parcel delivery using remote piloted aircraft systems does not yet exist commercially, and has only been performed on a research basis.”

“This team of four CEMS students worked professionally while performing tabletop research, conducting interviews and organising workshops with potential end users, insurance companies, legislators, manufacturers of RPAS (drones) and people from Head Communications. The team was able to obtain critical information from the stakeholders which could lead to the establishment of this sustainable service in the near future,” he said.

Commercial partners and public sector partners in the project consortium also provided positive feedback about the RSM team’s performance. Head Communications said it intended to conclude the feasibility study and would include RSM in its quest to bring independent parcel delivery services to the commercial market.

More information

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam – a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who can become a force for positive change by carrying their innovative mindset into a sustainable future. Our first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes encourage them to become critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinkers and doers. www.rsm.nl

For more information about RSM or this release, please contact Erika Harriford-McLaren, Media & Public Relations Manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at harriford@rsm.nl.