MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Larry Shuman, PhD

I am delighted to come back to the IE Department as we search for the new department chair. It is a tribute to the Department that in my long tenure at the University, there have only been three chairs – Albert Holzman, Harvey Wolfe, and Bopaya Bidanda. Bopaya, in addition to advising me, has now returned to the faculty as the Ernest Roth Professor of Industrial Engineering. He has quite a full plate as the international IISE President, the fifth IISE president with Pitt connections in the past twenty years! In addition, he will be joining the ABET Executive Board in the coming year.

I am very excited about the direction that the Department is heading. Our recent hires, Jourdain Lamperski, Amin Rahimian, Oliver Hinder, and Michael Sherwin have greatly enhanced our teaching and research capabilities. They are enabling us to expand our offerings in data analytics, machine learning, and supply chains. Speaking of data analytics, Paul Leu is leading an effort to create undergraduate and graduate certificates in Engineering Data Analytics, which, when approved, will be available to all Swanson students.

We continue to tweak our academic offerings to better prepare our students to meet the needs of the next decade. We are also expanding our graduate programs with the team of Lisa Maillart (PhD recruitment), Jay Rajgopal (MS recruitment), Bopaya Bidanda (international recruitment) and Michael Sherwin (part-time MS recruitment) leading the effort. To better support graduate students, Ravi Shankar is heading an effort to greatly increase our sponsored research.

A statement from Dr. Ravi Shankar

Professor M. Ravi Shankar was asked to share his thoughts about his new role as Research Coordinator.

Since 2006, I have witnessed the Industrial Engineering department grow in ways that reflect its long tradition and evolution in directions few could have foreseen. I was able to play some part in this by leveraging my interests in manufacturing and materials design. Not only did IE help me build a thriving research program, but it also allowed me to attract some of the best minds to join us. The growth of our department is also reflected in how my own research has taken on new flavors. I am currently working in the area of soft robotics, active metamaterials and harnessing machine learning to design materials with unusual properties – areas that would be unrecognizable to my former self.

As the Department’s Research Coordinator, my focus is on building an ecosystem of collaboration that represents a “phase transition” in our research intensity. In some ways, it would be a break from the past, but it will continue to leverage strengths built by us over the years: that we are a collegial, energetic group of scholars. In my new role, I have two immediate goals. First, is to set us on a path to double our research expenditures within 5 years. Second, I want to see IE take the lead in developing multi-disciplinary programs and perform high-impact research that tackles problems at the frontiers of engineering. I look forward to working closely with the team led by Larry to bring these goals to fruition.

Lisa Maillart's research helps valuable donor milk reach infants in need

Professor and PhD Recruitment Coordinator, Lisa Maillart, was featured on a recent Resoundingly Human podcast from INFORMS. In a conversation with host Ashley Kilgore, Dr. Maillart discusses the valuable work being done to help improve access to donor milk resources for infants in need.

Listen to the podcast here >

Amin Rahimian's research on social media algorithms

Assistant Professor Amin Rahimian was recently featured in an article about his research into 'rewired' algorithms designed to mediate communication in social media contexts. Dr. Rahimian's work is in collaboration with researchers from the University of London's Birbeck College and MIT Sloan School of Management. Read the article here >

Fall Fest 2021

The undergraduates of the Industrial Engineering department organized the annual Fall Fest gathering at Dr. Haight's house in October. The gathering is a great time where IE students and professors have an opportunity to socialize while carving pumpkins and enjoying other festivities. By all accounts, this year's fall fest was a success!

Click here to view some photos from Fall Fest 2021 >

Moataz Elsisy will join Cairo University as Assistant Professor

Graduating PhD student Moataz Elsisy recently accepted an offer to join the mechanical engineering department as Assistant Professor at Cario University, Egypt's premier public university. Mr. Elsisy will be graduting this December after having successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Manufacturing and Design Validation of New Stent Grafts That Contain Complex Geometries" before his committee led by Dr. Younjae Chun. At Cairo University, Mr. Elsisy plans to continue his research in the design and manufacturing biomaterials for endovascular applications.

100 Years of Industrial Engineering at Pitt

2021 marks the 100th year anniversary of the Industrial Engineering department at the University of Pittsburgh. To mark this centennial, a retrospective looking back at the history of the department has been published over at SSOE Virtual Newsroom alongside rarely-seen vintage photographs of the department in its infancy. Click here to read >

IE Alumna Guiping Hu Named New Sustainability Department Head at RIT

IE PhD alumna Guiping Hu (MSIE '06, IE PhD '09) has been named the sustainability department head at Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS).