November 2023
 
| TOP NEWS
Photo Credit: Liz Roll
From left, Stephan Biller, Sen. Todd Young, Purdue President Mung Chiang Photo credit: Liz Roll

Stephan Biller, XMO co-chair, issues call to action for resilient US supply chains at national summit
Stephan Biller, Harold T. Amrine Distinguished Professor of Industrial Engineering & the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, was named co-chair of eXcellence in Manufacturing and Operations (XMO) in May 2023, along with Ajay P. Malshe, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Biller is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

The initiative, launched on Nov. 7 at the XMO Summit in Washington D.C., took place at the National Academy of Science and featured panel discussions covering the topics of retraining, retooling, and reshoring American manufacturing operations. Indiana Senator Todd Young, who helped author the CHIPS and Science act, delivered an address at the Summit. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Johnson is the 12th active Purdue IE faculty member to earn a NSF CAREER Award. 

The master plan consists of a large number of projects aimed at preserving and protecting the Louisiana coast, with an investment of roughly $50 billion. Johnson and his colleagues estimate that with these investments in place the state of Louisiana will see a reduction in storm damage of approximately $15 billion annually. 

To hear about the research in Johnson's own words, visit our YouTube channel for a brief video, or for a more in-depth interview please check out episode #2 of our "Next Up" podcast.
 
Hua Cai and team develop AI based TA

"A virtual teaching assistant, powered by artificial intelligence, is being utilized in an engineering course at Purdue. How might this technology transform education in the years to come?"

A survey conducted by the team showed that students who actively used the optional AI TA tended to perform better than those who chose not to use it. 
 
| FACULTY AWARDS & RECOGNITION
Sivaranjani "Siva" Seetharaman named to MIT 35 under 35

Seetharaman is developing tools  to keep power grids running reliably in the face of many challenges. According to the MIT Technology Review website, Seetharaman said developing better algorithms and other software tools can rapidly improve the performance of today?s grids to ensure what is being built is more efficient, flexible and robust for the future.

 
Seetharaman, Hunter earn DEPSCOR awards
Susan Hunter and Sivaranjani Seetharaman were awarded grants by the Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCOR) this past May. 

Hunter?s project is titled ?Theory and Algorithms for Two-Stage Decision Making Under Conflict and Uncertainty.? 

Seetharaman's project aims to develop new mathematical tools to control complex system behavior in response to unexpected events and disturbances. 
 
Estrada Gómez, along with co-PI Leopold Green of Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, have been awarded an NSF grant of over $700,000 to fund development of a non-invasive tool that can detect and treat inflammatory bowel diseases.

The project, titled ?Collaborative Research: SCH: Therapeutic and Diagnostic System for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: Integrating Data Science, Synthetic Biology, and Additive Manufacturing,? emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary research and collaboration.
 
Brandon Pitts receives 2023 Stephanie Binder Young Professional Award

Pitts was presented the award at the Surface Transportation Technical Group (STTG) business meeting during the 2023 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) annual meeting in Washington D.C. 
 
Denny Yu, associate professor of Industrial Engineering, has been named a Fulbright Scholar to Austria, and has also received a National Safety Council Rising Star of Safety award. 

As a Fulbright Scholar Yu will examine sensor features' effects on cognitive load while researching "Real-Time Human-Aware Systems for Enhancing User Performance and Decision-Making."
 
| NEW FACULTY
Welcome!
We are proud to announce the addition of new faculty members, Lucky Cho (Lecturer), Souvik Dhara (Assistant Professor), Zhe "Jimmy" Zhang (Assistant Professor, joining January 2024), and Syed Ahmad Helmi Syed Hassan (Professor of Practice). 

In addition, we welcome Ron Latanision (Neil Armstrong Distinguished Visiting Professor of Industrial Engineering; a member of the National Academy of Engineering), Jason Reinhardt (Adjunct Associate Professor), Anika Rimu (Visiting Assistant Professor), and Pramiti Sarker (Visiting Assistant Professor).

The addition of these new faculty members are a key part of our overall growth strategy to add a significant number of new tenure/tenure track faculty members over the next several years. 
 
| ALUMNI NEWS
Purdue, Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy sign MOU with Taiwan university
This summer Purdue University and the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue signed memorandums of understanding with research universities in Taiwan. Keith Krach (BSIE '79, HDR '18), is co-founder of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy and founder of DocuSign, a former U.S. Under Secretary of State, and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee. 

The second of these MOUs, between National Chengchi University and the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy, is intended to "promote international cooperation between the two organizations to underpin their shared values and mission to advance freedom by driving the innovation and adoption of trusted technology."
 
Industrial Engineering alumna Air Force Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Theresa Carter (BSIE '85) and Army Lt. Gen. Karen Gibson (BSIE '86), also currently serving as the US Senate Sergeant at Arms, have been named to a new Purdue Online Learning 2.0 Military Advisory Board. The goal of the board is to better meet the the needs of veterans, uniformed personnel and their families.  Carter also serves on the Purdue Board of Trustees. 
 
IE Alumnus Christopher Saldana named DOE's AMMTO Director
This summer the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy selected Christopher Saldaña (MSIE '06, PhD '10) as the director of the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO). 
 
Purdue Alumni CEO Summit reception at Build@Scale Lab

In October the Build@Scale lab was on full display for the guests at the Purdue Alumni CEO Summit. Thirteen Purdue alumni CEOs attended, including three from the School of Industrial Engineering. Patti Poppe (BSIE '89, MSIE '91), Keith Krach (BSIE '79, HDR '18), and John Edwardson (BSIE '71, HDR '06) were in attendance for this event hosted by the office of Purdue President Mung Chiang.
 
| LAB UPDATE

Gateway Labs move forward
The Gateway facility, comprised of Dudley and Lambertus Halls, opened in early 2023. Over the summer and fall the various lab spaces belonging to Industrial Engineering have added new technology that will help educate future IEs.

Dudley Hall is now home to Move4D equipment, the first of its kind at an educational institution, and the Build@Scale Lab in Lambertus Hall recently held a dedication ceremony for the new Zeiss Scanbox. Both of these new technologies will greatly enrich the student learning experience in the School of Industrial Engineering. 

 
| GRADUATE STUDENT SPOTLIGHTS

Earlier this year Ibukun Phillips, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Industrial Engineering, was awarded the Brian Marr Best Student Paper Award as well as the Stevens/INCOSE Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Award.

Phillips also was selected by the Purdue Office of Diversity and the College of Engineering to attend the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Institute on Mentoring and Teaching Conference. Learn more about Ibukun in our recent student spotlight.
 
Guoyang Zhou earns 2023 Dieter W. Jahns Student Practitioner Award

Presented by the Foundation for Professional Ergonomics, this prestigious award recognizes Zhou, a Ph.D. student, for his work using augmented reality and 3D projection to enhance training simulations for nursing students.

Zhou?s project is a joint venture with the School of Nursing and Envision Center. The project was titled ?Bringing Patient Mannequins to Life: 3D Projection Enhances Nursing Simulation.?
 
| SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS
Students honored at awards banquet
The annual IE Scholarship Awards Banquet took place on Nov. 9. The event celebrates both our outstanding students and our generous donors.

Over 100 undergraduate and graduate students received scholarships. The total funds awarded this year exceeded $487,000.

Photo Gallery
 
| PURDUE IE PODCAST
New Podcast!
New for fall 2023, the School of Industrial Engineering has launched a podcast that can be found on Spotify or on YouTube.

The debut episode features undergraduate Conor McCarthy, who recently spent his summer working as an intern with NASA's Artemis program.

The most recent episode is an in-depth discussion with Associate Professor David Johnson, in which he discusses various aspects of the Louisiana Coastal Master Plan among other topics.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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