UC Berkeley IEOR Student Elise Vambenepe Receives 2025 Women in Logistics Award

Elise Vambenepe, a third-year bachelor of science student in UC Berkeley’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, has been awarded the 2025 Women in Logistics Scholarship. The annual award supports Bay Area students pursuing fields connected to logistics or supply chain management and reflects Women in Logistics’ mission to expand professional development, mentoring and educational opportunities across the industry. Founded to strengthen information-sharing and networking within logistics, transportation and supply chain management, the organization serves as a resource for students and professionals seeking to stay current with emerging practices and technologies.

Vambenepe brings substantial hands-on experience in operations and production environments, including an operations internship with Amazon in Dijon, France. In this role, she integrated volume forecasts from central operations with local HR staffing data to reduce overstaffing buffers and supported the rollout of new automation across French delivery stations, tailoring processes to each site’s mechanical and scheduling constraints. She also served as sponsorship chair for Cal Triathlon, where she built partnerships and secured resources for more than 100 athletes. In addition, Vambenepe contributed to teaching efforts as a member of the course staff for CS10: The Beauty and Joy of Computing during her sophomore year.

Reflecting on her goals in the field, Vambenepe highlighted the importance of designing AI-enabled systems that support human expertise: “With logistics and supply chains becoming increasingly automated and AI-driven, the focus is shifting away from how humans can work most efficiently. From my own experience implementing automation in plants, I’ve seen that instead of replacing humans, these systems streamline tasks and enable operators to focus on higher-level decision-making. I hope to contribute to building smarter, AI-enhanced systems that optimize operations while leveraging the human role where it truly adds value.”