On May 2, 2013, the IMSE Department celebrated the inaugural Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Banquet by honoring graduating seniors, award winners, and scholarship recipients. Attendees included our Advisory Board members, former and current faculty members, as well as our current and former students and their families. The gala began with a reception and delicious catered dinner inside the San Saba Room at the University Center. Jim Crites, Executive Vice President for the Operations Division of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, presented the keynote address to graduating seniors. His speech urged the soon-to-be graduates to use their IE degrees to help find solutions to real-world problems. As he stated, only IEs have the gift that can be utilized to find efficiency while optimizing profit margins, citing numerous problems that industrial engineers have resolved in the airport industry. Crites explained how skills gained from an IE degree can solve real-world problems because IE are trained to think on a multi-dimensional level.
Following the keynote address, Interim Chair Dr. Tory Chen presented the endowed scholarship winners. The first scholarship awarded was the G.T. Stevens, Jr. Endowed Alumni Scholarship, which was established in 1998 to honor our Chair Emeritus. The award is given to outstanding Industrial Engineering students. This year’s recipients were Senior Luke Brigmon and Junior Anna Mai.
The next award, the Elinor Pape Endowed Scholarship, was established in 2006 to honor Dr. Pape’s service and dedication at UT Arlington as a member of the IE faculty. The Professor Emeritus was on-hand to present the scholarship to award winners Holly Lane, a senior, and Angel Decena-Guzman, a junior.
The final two scholarships that were presented were established by alumnus Keith Weiss. This year’s awardee for the Keith and Carolyn Weiss Industrial Engineering Scholarship was Harrison Armstrong. The Weiss Family Endowed Scholarship in Industrial Engineering was awarded to Ashvin Thomas.
After the scholarships were presented, Dr. Jamie Rogers presented the Industrial Engineers Outstanding Student Awards to Outstanding Senior, Adam Achkantana, and Outstanding Junior, Walter Joseph Multhur.
The last IE award presented was The Texas Industrial Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award which was created in alliance between Industrial Engineering departments at public universities that include UT Arlington, UT El Paso, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, the University of Houston, and Lamar University. These universities select awardees based on the impact of their career on society. This year’s winner was alumnus, Mr. George Pickett, for his long career as an IE and his innovations in the founding of Atlantic Southeast Airlines which was acquired by Delta Airlines in 1999 and survives today as ExpressJet, the world’s largest regional airline carrier.
Finally, the evening was capped with a big surprise as Dr. Jamie Rogers honored Dr. Don Liles with a plaque for excellence in service for more than three decades as a faculty in the IMSE department. All the attendees gave him a well-deserved standing ovation as he received his award. Dr. Liles served as Chair of the department from 1998 to 2012 and remains at the university as Professor and Academic Advisor for the Engineering Management and Systems Engineering programs.
The event was a wonderful success as the IMSE Department got to honor their graduating seniors and award winners for the first of what will hopefully become an annual event.
Check our 2013 IMSE Banquet Photo Album on Facebook!
The Board of Directors at the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) has elected Dr. Jamie Rogers for president. ABET is a “nonprofit, non-governmental organization that accredits college and university programs in the disciplines of applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology.” ABET accreditation assures that the university’s program meets the standards of quality established by the profession in the various fields of study. The IMSE Department is ABET accredited.
