Outstanding Graduate Jacob Gimbel chips in at Frito-Lay
Photo courtesy of Jacob Gimbel
Editor’s note: This story is part of a series of profiles of notable spring 2026 graduates.
Jacob Gimbel doesn’t just want systems to work. He wants to know why they fail, how to fix them and how to make them run better at scale. In the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, he found the perfect testing ground, using engineering management to bridge the gap between technical precision and real-world business decisions.
“ASU stood out to me because it offers strong and flexible academic programs that are supplemented with real-world learning opportunities that align with my career goals,” Gimbel says.
This spring, he graduates with a degree in engineering management and recognition as an Outstanding Graduate. His path into the field started early, during a quality engineering internship that revealed how deeply intertwined production systems and decision-making really are.
“The engineering management program stands out because it uniquely blends engineering with business, giving me a more complete understanding of how to improve systems and make impactful decisions,” he says. “I’ve also gained a better sense of how these ideas apply in real-world situations, like leading teams, working more efficiently and making decisions based on real data.”
Gimbel quickly moved from theory to impact, focusing in on the behind-the-scenes optimization that keeps production lines running smoothly. During an internship at Axalta, a leading industrial coatings company, he led a Lean Six Sigma project to rethink how paint is mixed, improving consistency and reducing variability in quality testing. Later, at snack food powerhouse Frito-Lay, he zoomed out to the scale of global supply chains, developing a defect tracking system for finished goods that helped pinpoint root causes of issues.
A stellar student who received both a Salt River Project Scholarship and the New American University Scholarship, Gimbel learned that better data leads to better decisions.
Along the way, mentorship helped refine his perspective. Gimbel said Ali Kucukozyigit, a Fulton Schools associate teaching professor, stood out for making complex systems feel intuitive and grounded in reality.
“Dr. Kucukozyigit framed systems concepts in a way that made them engaging and easier to connect to real-world applications,” Gimbel says.
After graduation, he will return to Frito-Lay’s headquarters in Plano, Texas, as a full-time supply chain analyst, where he’ll apply his engineering management skills to optimize the systems that keep products moving from factory floors to store shelves.
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