Research HighlightsAshlea Bennett Milburn, assistant professor of industrial engineering,

received an National Science Foundation grant through the Faculty

Early Career Development Program to develop decision-support

models that identify scenarios in which the integration of information

posted to social-media could improve emergency response.

Undergrad Highlights Senior Design teams received first place in the Process Modeling and

Analysis track and second place in the Systems Optimization track at

the General Donald R. Keith Memorial Capstone Conference hosted

at West Point in April. The conference is a student-focused forum

for applied research in Systems Engineering, Industrial Engineering,

Engineering Management, and Operations Research.

Grad HighlightsPayam Parsa, doctoral student, was awarded the Electrification and Controls Manufacturers Association Honor Scholarship by the Material Handling Education Foundation Inc. Additionally, he received 3rd Place in the Doctoral Colloquium Poster Presentations at the IISE Annual Conference, May 2016 for his poster: Quantifying the Benefits of Continuous Replenishment Program for Partner Selection – Payam is advised by Manuel Rossetti.

Faculty HighlightsThree new professors will join the Industrial Engineering Department in fall 2016…

• Joseph Geunes, Professor and John and Mary Lib White Systems Integration Chair in Industrial Engineering

• Art Chaovalitwongse, Professor and 21st Century Research Leadership Chair

• Kaveh Bastani, Assistant Professor

Edward A. Pohl, professor and Department Head of industrial engineering, was recognized as a Fellow by the Society of Reliability Engineers. Fellow status is the highest honor of the society and recipients must have contributed to and attained distinction in reliability-related disciplines.

Furthermore, he was awarded Diplomate status in the Society of Health Systems February 2016.

He is also the 2016 John L. Imhoff Global Excellence Award recipient for Industrial Engineering Education from the American Society for Engineering Education. (123rd Annual Conference and Exposition in June—2016)

industrial-engineering.uark.edu

ArkansasIEAward Winning Faculty

Heather Nachtmann, professor and Associate Dean for Research, was recognized with the title of fellow at the Institute for Industrial and Systems Engineering Annual Conference (IISE), in May 2016. She was also selected as SEC Academic Leadership Development Fellow in September 2015. For the past two years, she was among the top 15 funded researchers in the university; and she ranks among the nation’s top industrial engineering

faculty members in terms of external research funding support. Her extraordinary service to the profession includes service to ASEE and ASEM, as well as IISE.

Richard Cassady, professor of industrial engineering and Director of the Freshman Engineering Program in the College of Engineering, was recently awarded the Albert G. Holzman Distinguished Educator Award by the Institute for Industrial and Systems Engineering at the annual conference in Anaheim, California. The award recognizes educators who contribute significantly to the profession through teaching, research and publication, extension, innovation or administration. Additionally, he received the Annual Alan O. Plait Tutorial Excellence Award at the Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium in January 2016.

Ashlea Milburn, assistant professor, received the IISE Teaching Excellence Award in Transportation and Logistics, at the IISE conference in May 2016. Furthermore, she is recipient of an NSF CAREER award grant of $500,000, for her research to develop decision-support models that identify scenarios in which the integration of information posted to social-media could improve emergency response. Milburn received her doctorate

in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, after earning a master’s degree from Virginia Tech and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas. Her primary areas of teaching and research are healthcare systems engineering, humanitarian logistics and transportation logistics.

Tish Pohl, clinical assistant professor of industrial engineering, was awarded a Certificate of Merit for Faculty Academic Advising from the National Academic Advising Association, or NACADA. Established in 1983, the NACADA Annual Awards Program for Academic Advising honors individuals and institutions making significant contributions to the improvement of academic advising. In addition to this honor, Tish was also recently one of two recipients of the 2016-2017 Outstanding Advisor Award from the University of Arkansas Academic Advising Council. In addition to advising all undergraduate industrial engineering majors, Tish teaches five courses throughout the academic year and serves as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) coordinator for the Department of Industrial Engineering.

What’s New?Emerging Institute for Advanced Data Analytics Stored data doubles every two to three years and without extracting actionable value from the data, it serves as only an expense.

Data analytics are the key to extracting value from the data. The application of analytics is the key basis for competition driving innovation and productivity growth. In response to the demand for this data ecosystem, a number of units on campus are conducting research related to data analytics and big data.

The Institute for Advanced Data Analytics takes statistics and analytics to the next level, serving as the catalyst for big data research, innovation, and practice by partnering with organizations seeking solutions to their data problems. The institute’s vision is to initiate and facilitate multidisciplinary collaborations among departments, colleges, and industry partners to help solve the emerging data and analytics research problems and implementation opportunities. Faculty and students at the institute work on these problems and opportunities.

Co-directors of the institute: Art Chaovalitwongse, Professor and 21st Century Research Leadership Chair, Industrial Engineering; Mark Arnold, Associate Professor and Statistics and Analytics Director, Graduate School; and David Douglas Professor, Information Systems Walton College of Business.

ASCENT, an institute housed in the College of Engineering, was established in January 2016. Its mission is to:

• Identify and solve modern security challenges in the ares of cyber, transportation, critical infrastructure, and food/water;

• Establish and grow partnerships with industry professionals to ensure that the security research retains significant and practical impacts;

• Develop and support educational initiatives that continuously evolve with state-of-the-art security issues and technologies in all thrust areas; and

• Serve as the Arkansas’ source for communication and awareness of security threats, solutions, and needs.

Leadership Team: Jia Di, Director and Professor 21st Century Research Leadership Chair, Computer Science and Computer Engineering; Chase Rainwater, Co-Director and Associate Professor, John L. Imhoff Chair, Industrial Engineering; Steven Ricke, Co-Director and Wray Food Safety Endowed Chair and Director of the Center for Food Safety Food Science Department Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Science; and Dale Thompson, Co-Director and Associate Professor, Computer Science and Computer Engineering.

ascent.uark.edu