21st Century Human Development

Recognized as one of the most pressing challenges of our time, our researchers in 21st Century Human Development address the basic needs of all people: food, housing, health care, emergency response, and education.

The Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering aims to significantly enhance the wellbeing and quality of life for people worldwide through operations and logistics, human factors engineering, optimization, and data science. We strive to foster quality, safety and security, accessibility and equity for all.

Join us as you take your next giant leap to help others and make societal impacts.

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Team

Team

Team Leaders

Brandon Pitts

Brandon Pitts

Elliott Sigal Rising Star Associate Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Multimodal sensing to support physical, physiological, cognitive, and social health, well-being, and quality of life

Evaluation of smart home technologies for independent living of aging populations

Human-automation/AI interaction and human systems integration for older adults

Accessibility and human-centered universal design for personal mobility and transportation

Yuehwern Yih

Yuehwern Yih

Tompkins Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration with NGOs and healthcare providers

Gap identification in operations and systems design: supply chain, care delivery, medication adherence and safety, global health

System modeling and predictive models (simulation-based, statistics-based, AI-based)

Real-time decision making and strategies for risk mitigation

Patient flow and capacity management for in-patient and out-patient care

Risk stratification for re-admissions, longer length of stays

Interactions of human, technologies, and information –

technology adoption, care quality and safety in medication administration, discharge process, re-admission

Vancomycin dosing management for pediatric patients

ML approach to severity score for pneumonia

Food distribution for HIV patients to improve anti-viral treatment outcomes in Kenya

Demand sensing for medical supply chains to improve maternal/child health in Uganda

NICU spatial furniture design and layout design in Malawi

Team Members

Vaneet Aggarwal

Vaneet Aggarwal

Reilly Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Supervised learning

Reinforcement Learning

Large Language Models

Quantum Machine Learning

Applications in Networking, Transportation, Robotics, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Biomedical, and Climate

Stephan Biller

Stephan Biller

Harold T. Amrine Distinguished Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering & Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business Director of Dauch Center for the Management of Manufacturing Enterprises
Research Interests

Digital-Industrial Strategy, Business and Financial Models

Resilient and Sustainable Manufacturing & Supply Chains

Production Systems, Operations Management, Enterprise Systems

Smart Manufacturing, Industry 4.0, AIoT

Digital transformation, Digital Twins

Energy Transition & Transportation

Innovation Commercialization & Go-to-Market @Scale

Hua Cai

Hua Cai

Thomas and Jane Schmidt Rising Star Associate Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering - Joint Appointment with School of Sustainability Engineering & Environmental Engineering
Research Interests

Understanding the link between urban form and human health

Assessing the “

mobility option”

equity in Indiana

AI-based TA tool “

Arthur”

to enhance student learning

Barrett Caldwell

Barrett Caldwell

Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering - Courtesy Appointment in Aeronautics & Astronautics
Research Interests

Search and Rescue agent collaboration and task coordination

Wearable sensors for healthcare (sleep management)

Radiation oncology

Humanitarian assistance activities

Bradley Duerstock

Bradley Duerstock

Professor of Practice in Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering, Joint Appointment with Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests

Wearable physiological sensors for monitoring dysautonomia

Development of assistive technologies for persons with disabilities

Human-centered design of home and workspaces including STEM labs

Vincent Duffy

Vincent Duffy

Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering - Joint Appointment with Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Research Interests

Digital human modeling

Safety engineering

Work methods and measurement

Ergonomics

Behzad Esmaeili

Behzad Esmaeili

Dr. Rohan & Mrs. Merle Phillips Rising Star Associate Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering Joint Appointment with Civil Engineering
Research Interests

Construction safety

Risk management

Decision making

Joaquín Goñi Cortes

Joaquín Goñi Cortes

Juan Ernesto de Bedout Rising Star Associate Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering - Joint Appointment with Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests

Data driven methods with structural and function

Understanding Human brain structure and function

Collaborations exploring schizophrenia, Alzheimers, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Zachary Hass

Zachary Hass

Assistant Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering & Nursing
Research Interests

Projecting long-term services and supports needs in Minnesota

Improving data systems in Montana Adult Protective Services

Evaluation of a community coalition on opioid use disorder

Susan Hunter

Susan Hunter

Associate Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Methods for simulation optimization

Multi-objective simulation optimization

Two-stage multi-objective linear programs (e.g. disaster planning)

Cost-effectiveness analysis

Reem Khir

Reem Khir

Assistant Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Developing optimization-based technology for dynamic decision making

Enhancing and streamlining operations using real-time analytics

Supporting planner-in-the-loop environments

Risk analysis of critical networks such as food supply chains

Transportation systems design trading off economic, environmental, and social goals

System Modeling, Robust & Stochastic Optimization, Machine Learning for Optimization

Nan Kong

Nan Kong

Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Joint Appointment with Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Stochastic integer programming/Markov decision processes

Resource allocation and scheduling in healthcare and supply chains

Disease prevention/control modeling

Electronic health record data analysis

Seokcheon Lee

Seokcheon Lee

Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

EMS logistics –

ambulance dispatching, relocation, collaboration

Humanitarian logistics –

routing with non-routineness, flying warehouses

Mark Lehto

Mark Lehto

Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Human Factors

Safety engineering

Hazard Communication and Decision Support Systems

Ramses Martinez

Ramses Martinez

Hall Family Rising Star Associate Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering - Joint Appointment with Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests

Nanofabrication

Soft Robotics

Flexible Electronics

Wearable and Implantable Devices

Smart/Programmable Materials

Nagabhushana Prabhu

Nagabhushana Prabhu

Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Nonlinear optimization and its applications

Eigenvalue computation of large sparse matrices

Computational oncology

Soliton physics

Mohamed Salama

Mohamed Salama

Visiting Assistant Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Supply Chain Network Design and Management

Logistics with drones and automated vehicles

Public transportation network design

Disaster Management

Resilient Community to Disruptions

April Savoy

April Savoy

Associate Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Health information technology

Cognitive systems engineering

Situation awareness

Usability

Health information exchange

Clinical decision-making

Yu She

Yu She

Assistant Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering; Courtesy appointment in Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Courtesy appointment in School of Mechanical Engineering
Research Interests

Robotics

Mechanism Design

Tactile Perception

Young-Jun Son

Young-Jun Son

James J. Solberg Head and Ransburg Professor of Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Real-time Control of Smart Factories via Digital Twin

Modeling Human Decision-Making (BDI Model)

Multi-paradigm Simulations (agent, discrete event, VR)

Modeling and Control in Emergency, Healthcare, UAVs

Juan Wachs

Juan Wachs

James H. and Barbara H. Greene Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Machine and computer vision

Robotics

Tele-operations

Human-Computer Interaction

Assistive technologies and Health support systems

Wenzhuo Wu

Wenzhuo Wu

Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Wearable multimodal sensors for health monitoring

Sensors for performance assessment

Nanotechnology for clean water and power resiliency

Miaolan Xie

Miaolan Xie

Assistant Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Stochastic Optimization

Data Science

Nonlinear Optimization

Machine Learning

Algorithms

Healthcare Applications

Denny Yu

Denny Yu

Cubitt Rising Star Associate Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Adaptive human-robot interaction for surgery performance

Real-time workload sensing

Zhe Zhang

Zhe Zhang

Assistant Professor Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering
Research Interests

Stochastic Optimization

Distributed Optimization

Machine Learning

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