High school students from Texas and beyond explored cutting-edge logistics, robotics, and college life during the immersive summer program hosted by the Center for Supply Chain Innovation.
July 17, 2025
By Victoria Ruiz Sandoval
This summer, the TCU Neeley School of Business Center for Supply Chain Innovation hosted its annual Business Tech Camp, an immersive program for high school students interested in exploring supply chain, marketing, and business technology.
The camp introduced high school students to the supply chain industry, showcasing career opportunities through interactive classes with college professors, hands-on learning and visits to industry leading companies. During the camp, students gained valuable insights into the world of business technology.
The summer program is offered at no cost to high school students and gives them a glimpse into college life. Over the years, the Business Tech Camp has expanded its reach and this year included participants from Houston and Alabama. Although the focus is experiential learning, students stay in campus residence halls, enjoy extracurricular activities like pickleball, dinners in campus dining halls, and more.
“Our camp enables participants to see the systems corporations use to get the product to the consumer,” said Debra Procter, assistant director of the TCU Neeley Center for Supply Chain Innovation, including visiting industry leaders in the field.
“We visited the BNSF Railway control center. This massive control center housed in the safest building in Texas (able to withstand a F5 tornado), showed us the high stakes of moving freight across the nation, and the vital role rail plays within the U.S. supply chain,” Proctor said.
A key component of Business Tech Camp is student engagement through immersive experiences, including site visits to BNSF Railway, Callaway Golf, TTI Inc., along with an informative session with Raytheon. These activities provided students with insights into the supply chain industry and helped them gain a deeper understanding of recent technological advancements and real-world applications.
“What makes this camp truly unique is the access students gain to some of the most advanced supply chain technology facilities in the country,” said Travis Tokar, professor of supply chain management. “The ability to tap a button on a smartphone and have a product arrive at your doorstep within a few days, (or even hours), or be ready for store pickup, is something we often take for granted. But behind that convenience is an incredibly sophisticated system.”
An example of one of those systems students witnessed was TTI’s order-picking robots by Autostore, a system that had transformed traditional warehouse operations. In many warehouses, employees walk through aisles picking items off shelves. At TTI, robots do the walking. Students had the unique opportunity to see this cutting-edge system in action, watching as robots retrieved items from a densely packed cube structure and delivered them to a stationary picker.
Experiencing technology close up helped students connect what they’ve read or learned about automation to an actual working environment, sparking curiosity and excitement about future possibilities in supply chain.
“Students had the rare opportunity to go behind the scenes at two major distribution centers – Callaway Golf and TTI, Inc., to witness firsthand the robotics, automation, and skilled professionals that make modern logistics possible,” Tokar said.
By combining innovation, collaboration, and experimental learning, the Center for Supply Chain’s Business Tech Camp helps equip the next generation of business leaders with the inspiration to pursue careers in supply chain and connected industries.
