Congratulations to Spring 2014 Graduates

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The College of Engineering Commencement Ceremony was held on Saturday, May 10 at College Park Center to honor the Spring 2014 graduating class. Krish Prabhu, President and Chief Technology Office of AT&T Labs, presented the commencement address.  In honor of all the Spring 2014 IE graduates, the IMSE Department would like to congratulate each one of them for a job well done. The Spring 2014 IE graduates, as published in The Shorthorn are:

Ph.D in Industrial Engineering

  • Sulaiman Hamad Al Jedaie, Dissertation Title: Inventory Pooling in Petroleum Upstream Logistics Network
  • Mohammed A. Al-Mansouri, Dissertation Title: Facility Capital Equipment and Labor Decision Support System Using a Discrete-Event Simulation and Bottleneck Detection Approach
  • Asama Kulvanitchaiyanunt, Dissertation Title: Design and Analysis of Computer Experiment-Based Approach to Approximate an Infinite Horizon Dynamic

Master of Engineering in Industrial Engineering

  • Shui Biu Ho

Master of Science in Engineering Management

  • Ravi Teja Doppalapudi
  • Surya Deep Gunnam
  • Steve V. Illyes
  • Dhaneesha Lanke
  • Praneeth Chandra Movva
  • Joseph Michael Munn
  • Esteban Pedraza
  • Hemaraj Sampath Kumar
  • Sheng Hsuan Wu

Master of Science in Industrial Engineering

  • Neim Aiderous Abubeker
  • Santosh Adivi
  • Seepong Aiumjaroen
  • Shanmukha Srinivas Badam
  • Karthika Harini Boobathy
  • Robert Wallace Combs
  • Sri Harsha Raju Datla
  • Banuchandar Esakkimuthu
  • Shalini Jagata
  • Holta Karruli
  • Mitali Prasad Khadilkar
  • Veneesha Kimmireddy
  • Jay Amit Oza
  • Srikar Krishna Rajagopal

Master of Science in Logistics

  • Mrugank Nandan Borgalkar
  • Elena Ogorodnikova

Master of Science in Systems Engineering

  • Leonard Best
  • Matthew Lee Craig
  • Jazmin Adriana Guzman
  • Ashok Sisodia

Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering

  • Rohit Prashad Acharya
  • Ahmad T. Alsmadi
  • Harrison D. Armstrong
  • Angela Colleen Bradshaw
  • Yazmin S. Chalico
  • Eryka Dira
  • Vanessa Duran
  • Mekdes A. Girmash
  • Benjamin William Howison
  • Anna T. Mai
  • Walter J. Mulflur
  • Santosh Paudel
  • Gustavo A. Robles
  • Muhammet U. Sarilar
  • Loc Vinh Truong
  • Jarrett Kale Walden
  • Mewan Wijemanne
  • Ting Xiao

Congratulations to all these graduates!

In case you missed the ceremony, you can view the video and photos of the event online.

IMSE Celebrates Graduates and Award Winners

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The IMSE Department celebrated graduates from the Summer, Fall, and Spring semesters as well as award winners with a banquet Thursday evening. The event began with a reception as Advisory Board members, faculty, staff, and honorees and their friends arrived at the banquet inside the Hospitality Suite at UT Arlington’s College Park Center. A catered meal was served after the reception as guests took their seats for dinner.

After the meal, Dr. Chen introduced IMSE alumna and co-founder of TransSolutions, LLC Gloria Bender, as the keynote speaker. She spoke about the importance of getting your degree and giving back to the community and how IEs could use their degrees to serve.

After the keynote address, Dr. Brian Huff recognized the members of the Alpha Pi Mu Industrial Engineering Honor Society. The attendees gave the members in attendance a round of applause.
The first award given in the evening was the G. T. Stevens, Jr. Endowed Alumni Scholarship which was established in 1998 to honor the IMSE Department’s former Chair. This year’s recipients were April Shortt (Junior), Ting Xiao (Senior), and Ezeh Perpetua Ebere (Graduate).

Next, Dr. Bill Corley presented the Elinor Pape Endowed Scholarship Award, which was established in 2006 to honor the Professor Emeritus’s service and dedication at UT Arlington. The award winners were Cynthia Rodriguez (Junior), Gustavo Robles (Senior), and Vikas Hinge (Graduate).

The next two scholarships were established by IMSE alumnus Keith Weiss. Keith and Carolyn Weiss were on hand to award Dylan Slick with the Keith and Carolyn Weiss Industrial Engineering Scholarship, which is given to deserving Industrial Engineering undergraduate students who are working to support their education. Slick works as a Resident Assistant at UT Arlington Apartment and Residence Life. The Weiss Family Endowed Scholarship is an award distributed by the UT Arlington Alumni Association to award a junior or senior undergraduate who have been working to support their education. This year’s recipient was Greta Leza who works at Airbus Helicopters, Inc. (formerly known as American Eurocopter).

The next award given, the John and Pat Priest Family Endowed Scholarship, is the IMSE Department’s newest endowed scholarship. It was established by current IMSE professor John Priest and his wife in 2013. This year’s winner was Colin Brisco.

The next two scholarships were awarded by the RFID and Auto ID (RAID) Labs. Dr. Erick Jones presented the awards to the winners. This year’s recipient of the RFID and Auto ID Labs Research Excellence Scholarship, which recognizes students for his/her excellence in RAID research and published work, was Harrison Armstrong. His research paper, “A Framework for Detecting Hazardous Events Occurring in Transit with AutoID Technologies” was accepted by IIE Sensors in March 2014. The RFID and Auto ID Labs Outstanding Research Scholarship recognize students conducting outstanding research in RAID Labs. This year’s recipients were Mewan Wijemanne (Undergraduate) and Ryan Dietrich (Graduate).

The Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Outstanding Student awards recognizes outstanding scholarship, leadership, and service to the IE profession. This year’s recipients were Cynthia Rodriguez (Junior) and Rachel Machbitz (Senior). After receiving their award, they were joined by previous Outstanding IIE Award winners.

The final award presented in the evening was the Texas Industrial Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award, which was created in an alliance between the Industrial Engineering departments at Texas public universities including UT El Paso, Texas A&M, Texas Tech University, the University of Houston, and Lamar University. Awardees are alumni selected by these universities based on the impact of their career on society. Gloria Bender presented the honor to this year’s awardee, Gloria Maceiko. Maceiko founded DirectNu Energy in 2009 with a vision to develop Energy Independence for commercial entities, nationally and globally, by focusing on solar and wind project development. She serves as its CEO and manages multimillion dollar projects from concept to contracts and worked over 25 years with high tech companies in Silicon Valley. She was also at the forefront of trend setting startups.

The wonderful evening concluded with a few brief comments from our graduating seniors and a final congratulation to award winners and graduates of the past year.
Pictures of the event will be posted on our Facebook page soon!

IMSE Seeking Applications for Graduate Assistance for Areas of National Need (GAANN) Fellowships

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The Department of Industrial, Manufacturing, & Systems Engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington seeks applications for Graduate Assistance for Areas of National Need (GAANN) Fellowships. The Department GAANN Fellowship Program is funded by the United States Department of Education (P200A130164). The GAANN Fellows are selected based on multiple criteria including qualification, merit, applicant’s financial need, and availability of funds. Only doctoral students who are U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents are eligible for this fellowship. New Ph.D. applicants must be unconditionally admitted to the Industrial Engineering Ph.D. Program. If selected, GAANN Fellows must participate in specific training for teaching and for professional development (e.g., scientific presentation skills development, paper writing classes, teaching workshops/courses, etc.).  These activities may occur outside the regular long semesters.

The University of Texas at Arlington is a doctoral, research-extensive university and part of the University of Texas System with approximately 34,500 students. The Department consists of a collegial faculty of 13 members and over 400 students including about 50 doctoral students (https://www.uta.edu/ie/). Current faculty research involves manufacturing, operations research, systems engineering, human factors, and numerous application areas. The Department houses the Center on Stochastic Modeling, Optimization, & Statistics (https://www.uta.edu/cosmos/), the Systems Engineering Research Center (https://www.uta.edu/engineering/serc/), the RFID and Auto Identification Lab (https://www.uta.edu/rfid/), and the Micro Fabrication Lab (https://www.uta.edu/ie/research-centers-labs.php).

The University is located in the center of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metroplex, a major industrial center with opportunity for interaction in the aerospace, manufacturing, telecommunications, electronics, logistics, transportation, energy, and health care industries, plus numerous other areas. Arlington is a thriving community with convenient access to the entertainment, recreational, and cultural activities offered by a major metropolitan area.

Application materials are available at https://www.uta.edu/ie/gaann.php. Review of applications for Fall 2014 will begin April 15 and will continue until the fellowships have been granted.

A criminal background check will be conducted on finalists.

The use of tobacco products is prohibited on UT Arlington properties.

UT Arlington is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.  Women, minorities, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Featured Alumni: Piyush Kumar, Ph.D.

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I came to UT Arlington to pursue my master’s in August 2007 in Industrial Engineering. I was a life-long student having never worked in the industry, so it was not a very big jump to go from B.Tech to a master’s and then on to a Ph.D. which I completed in December 2013. The operations research courses attracted me the most in my master’s, especially the ones taught by Dr. Corley, Dr. Rosenberger, and Dr. Chen. Even though I made some B’s, I had a lot of fun learning some amazing mathematics and statistics.

As a part of my master’s, I undertook research projects under Dr. Jay Rosenberger which gave me my first exposure to Ph.D. level research. The projects were done by previous students in the Center On Stochastic Modeling, Optimization, & Statistics (COSMOS) . My first impression of joining the COSMOS lab was when I peeked through the door and found that Spock from Star Trek was looking straight at me, disapprovingly. I started smiling when I realized it was only a life-sized replica. I was relieved to see that even though I was jumping into some serious research, there was still an element of humor to lighten the somber mood of the lab. Even though, quite frustratingly, when my own lack of knowledge and ignorance was brought into sharp focus, I looked at those times as a great learning opportunity. I worked on a nurse optimization project which was entering the testing stage at HEB hospital. After my master’s, I joined the Ph.D. program as a natural extension to my research work. Around that time, Dr. Anjomani came to Dr. Rosenberger for optimization of urban planning. The problem was to choose which would be the best land use to assign any given land piece. Each land piece would be given a certain rating regarding various land uses, e.g., high residential, low industrial, open areas, etc. It was a simple assignment optimization problem. We tried to use the methodology that was used for nurse optimization for urban planning optimization, but we hit a block which did not allow us to make any progress due to symmetry issues.

Given that we recognized we would not be able to make progress in the research in the direction we were headed, we decided to switch directions. I extended the simple land use optimization problems with more constraints by taking into account urban sprawl. After literature review, I recognized that urban sprawl had a lot of research towards solving it but there were not many comprehensive optimization models. So, the next step was to construct a mathematical model which would address all the various factors contributing towards urban sprawl. After the model was constructed, it was so large that CPLEX, an optimization software, would not even accept the model. It allowed us to experiment with Benders Decomposition method to reduce the model size and allow us to solve the model.

I also worked as a teaching assistant for the IMSE Department when I joined the master’s program. I sincerely enjoyed my time at UT Arlington since it gave me an opportunity to try a variety of things, e.g., salsa, yoga, aikido, etc.

I am currently working as a software engineer for E2open as their optimization specialist.

Written by Piyush Kumar, Ph.D. Industrial Engineering
IMSE Alumni 2013

Comprehensive Exam for Graduating MS and PhD Students

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Students in the MS or PhD program who applied to graduate for the Spring 2014 must take a Comprehensive Exam as part of their degree requirements.

The exam location will be in Woolf Hall 404 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. An Exit Interview Questionnaire will be from 4:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. PhD students must consult with their dissertation supervisor for Part 2 of the PhD Exam.

Featured Student: Misagh Faezipour, PhD Student

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I am a Ph.D. candidate with a focus on Systems Engineering. I had always wanted to continue my education in the United States like my parents. The intellectually stimulating environment at UTA inspired me to think about continuing my studies in the field of Industrial Engineering, after gaining an undergraduate degree in Software Engineering. I received my M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from UTA and then decided to pursue a Ph.D. in the same field.

I have worked as a graduate research assistant on multiple projects at the Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC). I am currently a graduate teaching assistant in the IMSE department. As a result, I have had the valuable opportunity to work with professors and aid students with their basic course work.

My dissertation research is related to addressing water sustainability in hospitals. Water is a valuable and limited resource and access to clean water is stated as one of the grand challenges in engineering according to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Hospitals are a major consumer of water. According to the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA), health care institutions are consistently within the top 10 water users in their communities. Therefore, considering water sustainability in hospitals is important. Hospitals are large complex systems that consist of various elements and relationships between these elements. Systems engineering guides the engineering of complex systems and can be used to help address the multi-faceted and complex sustainability challenges. An objective of my research is to help hospitals better comprehend the effects and relationships between various factors related to water sustainability in hospitals. The research includes development of a system dynamics based simulator that will help individuals assess the key water sustainability factors and their relationships in hospitals.

I have truly enjoyed my experience here as a Ph.D. student and am honored and proud to be part of an outstanding program at UTA. I am planning to defend my dissertation this year.

Written by Misagh Faezipour, PhD Student with a Focus on Systems Engineering
Email: misagh.faezipour@mavs.uta.edu
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/misa–faezipour/57/a88/881

Dr. Rogers Seeking Input for NSF Workshop

Jamie Rogers on

Hi everyone,

I am writing to share good news and request input for my upcoming NSF Workshop 3/16-3/21/2014.

Background:

The Directorate for Education and Human Resources has implemented a new program for “Improving Undergraduate STEM Education” (IUSE) through its Division of Undergraduate Education (EHR/DUE). An “Ideas Lab” is a new merit review strategy being used at the National Science Foundation to address grand challenges in STEM research and education. The Ideas Lab process is modeled on the “IDEAS Factory” program [2] http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/routes/network/ideas/Pages/experience.aspx developed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the United Kingdom.  The Ideas Lab process starts with submission of a brief application to participate in the Ideas Lab, indicating a Principal Investigator’s interest in and preliminary ideas regarding the specific Ideas Lab topic.  A diverse sub-set of participants from a range of disciplines and backgrounds will be selected from the submitted applications by NSF and will be brought together in an intensive, interactive and free-thinking environment, where participants immerse themselves in a collaborative dialog in order to construct bold and innovative approaches.

I have been selected to participate in the workshop below and would like your input. Please provide your answer to 1) Why did you choose engineering? 2) How can we get more folks (as described below) to choose engineering? What new strategies could be used????

Engineering

Social inequality in engineering education and practice is a durable problem, one that has resisted perennial efforts to “broaden participation,” “increase diversity,” or “improve recruitment and retention of women, minorities, and people with disabilities.” While a great deal of previous and ongoing work has focused on fostering the ability of individuals to access and persist in the engineering education system, this Ideas Lab will focus on changing the system itself.

Ending inequality in engineering is crucial because it represents a direct and effective way to meet workforce needs; because members of marginalized groups should not be on the sidelines in shaping our infrastructure and technological future; because workforce diversity strengthens work product; and because increased participation in high paying, prestigious workforce sectors like engineering is itself a strategy for achieving greater equity.

Many prior efforts for inclusion have been hampered by a presumption that certain parameters can’t be changed (for example, eligibility criteria, narrow definitions of what counts in or as engineering, limited roles for 2-year institutions, or a four year degree model). This ends in disappointment and frustration when change is not achieved. A radical rethinking is needed to move forward.

In the Engineering Phase I Ideas Lab, engineers and social scientists will face head on the systems and structures that reproduce social inequality in engineering education and in the engineering workforce. A complete and direct discussion is not afraid to examine manifestations of racism, sexism, and ableism in engineering, and to also consider classism, heteronormativity, ageism, and obstacles faced by Veterans and other non-traditional groups. The Engineering Phase I Ideas Lab will generate new framings and new strategies to move the nation toward greater inclusion of marginalized groups in engineering.

Thanks everyone!

Go Mavs!!!

Written by
Dr. Jamie Rogers, IMSE Faculty

UTA IIE Student Chapter Holds Joint Meeting with DFW Chapter

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IIE Outstanding Senior and Junior Awards Winners
IIE Outstanding Senior, Rachel Machbitz, and Outstanding Junior, Cynthia Rodriguez, Awards Winners

As part of the Engineers Week Activities, the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) UTA Student Chapter held a joint meeting with the DFW Professional Chapter on Tuesday, February 18. Students were able to enjoy some slices of pizza and also had the opportunity to network with IE professionals. Guest speaker, Dr. Joseph Michels, presented the benefits of getting a Professional Engineering license. Dr. Michels is himself a licensed engineer who works with the international management/engineering consulting firm of Solomon Bruce Consulting LLC. Michels has extensive experience with businesses as well as non-profit and governmental organizations and is an active member of the local community. He serves as Co-Chair of the Young Engineers Committee and is a member of the Rotary Club of Fort Worth. In 2012, he was awarded the Montana Ambassador of the Year Award.

In addition to the guest speaker, winners of the annual Outstanding IIE scholarship were announced. Rachel Machbitz won for Outstanding Senior, and Cynthia Rodriguez, earned the Outstanding Junior Award. Congratulations to the both of them.

Even though the outstanding student scholarships were awarded, there are plenty of IIE events scheduled this semester. If you or anyone you know is interested in joining IIE, the professional organization for industrial engineers, you can join here.

Special Thanks to:
Marco Torres, IIE Outreach Director
for providing information and photo for this blog post

Warehouse Management System Software Certification Weekend Class

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Dr. Jones has negotiated a discount for UT Arlington students to attend training for CIS Logistics Execution Suites including WMS, Inventory and Delivery Software.  The company has also committed to selecting an intern from those at UTA who attend and pass the certification exam.  For more information on UTA’s partnership with CIS, a global Logistics execution system provider and integration services, read CIS’s press release announcing our new partnership.

1. Certification on WMS software Inbound Process will be available on Saturday, March 1st 2014.
2. Certification on WMS outbound processes will be available on Saturday, March 8th 2014.
3. To qualify for internships and job opportunities attendance and passing of exams is mandatory

The training will be held on the UTA Campus.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Donavan Wheatfall at 972.739.6054, email at dwheatfall@CISorg.com or register online at http://www.cisorg.com/Registration/Certification.cshtml

Featured Alumni: Dr. Kaushik Gorahava

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Some of you may remember Kaushik Gorahava from his time at UT Arlington as a student and a teaching assistant. Below is his reflection on his research and experience at UT Arlington:

I completed my Ph.D. from the Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering department at The University of Texas at Arlington in summer 2013. After having worked as an Industrial Engineer in India’s manufacturing industry for more than three years, I came to the USA in August 2007 to pursue further studies. I completed my M.S. in Industrial Engineering degree in 2009 and took many advanced Statistics, Optimization, and Mathematical Modeling courses in the Industrial Engineering and Mathematics department, respectively.

As a project in the Stochastic Processes course, I reviewed and analyzed a Stochastic Model for using Ring Vaccination for smallpox control. The project was well received in the class and motivated me to pursue further research at the interface of Systems Science and Epidemiology. Under the guidance of my mentors, I developed my broad research area, optimization in neglected public health issues, for my Ph.D. dissertation. In fall 2009, I started my Ph.D. in the Center On Stochastic, Modeling, Optimization, and Statistics (COSMOS) laboratory, under the guidance of Dr. Jay Rosenberger, an expert in Optimization. I was also mentored by my dissertation co-adviser, Dr. Anuj Mubayi, an applied mathematical scientist working at the intersection of epidemiology and social networks.

Being from India, a developing country, I had observed first-hand the suffering caused by disease and poverty. I noticed an urgent need for improvement in public health policies, especially the basic ones. I chose to work on improving one of the basic control measures for a neglected infectious disease, Leishmaniasis, which mostly affects poverty stricken communities and is the second deadliest vector-borne disease in the world. Leishmaniasis spreads to humans by the bite of an infected sandfly. Bihar’s Public Health Department has limited financial resources and can spray insecticide at a limited number of sites. My research aimed to address questions on optimal insecticide allocation for conducting a spray campaign. My dissertation research involved building and analyzing optimization models. The mathematical models were built by considering factors affecting disease transmission and metrics to help the Public Health Department make better decisions. The results of my dissertation study recommended an improved and long-lasting insecticide spray campaign policy for Bihar’s Public Health Department.

I also enjoyed training and teaching individuals, a set of skills which I acquired through my experience as a Teaching Assistant at the Industrial Engineering department during my doctoral studies. During my graduate studies, I mentored some undergraduate and master’s students. I am an independent researcher now and aim to work at the interface of System Dynamics Engineering and Medical Sciences.

Written by Dr. Kaushik Gorahava
IMSE Alumni

Dr. Gorahava graduated in 2013 with a  PhD in Industrial Engineering and currently works as a Systems Analyst for Horizon Technologies Inc.