Well before Cakes & Ale, Allin was learning industrial engineering at Georgia Tech where extended members of her family also attended. Her grandfather played on the golf team.

She says that she picked IE because it “was a nice mix of things. It had some management; statistics, I loved. [It was] engineering with some economics – for my interests, it really clicked with me.”

Allin and Billy were married, and she took her post-graduate career out to San Francisco, where she got her MBA and had a career in management. Billy was in finance, but, as she notes, “Life just takes different turns sometimes.” That turn was Billy’s decision to attend culinary school. Afterward, he worked at Alice Water’s famed and influential Chez Panisse. Allin herself decided to work at a winery. About the career change she explains, “I think I was just looking for a new challenge, a new way to use my skills.”

A new challenge, indeed. When the couple started their family, they decided to move back to Georgia and, eventually, open a restaurant together: Cakes & Ale, which was one of Atlanta’s first casual fine dining establishments. When asked if being a restaurateur had been part of her future plans, Allin laughs. “I’m surprised my husband and I are working together. I never saw that coming. The fact that we’re running a restaurant – if you’d asked me when we got married if we’d be running a restaurant, I never would have seen that coming.”

Allin calls Cakes & Ale a “teaching kitchen,” where the couple actively works with their employees to cultivate their careers. Part of what defines happiness for them is “seeing people progress – moving people’s careers forward. Some of them are just starting out, and we train them up, but basically our whole mentality – kitchen to front of house – is trying to get people better and better and further grow everything.”  That progression is part of the impetus in opening their Inman Park bakery, Proof: to give their bakers a chance to really shine and get some recognition. “We took the leap,” she explains, “and decided we’re going to give them their own space. Even though they’re not the owners, they work as hard as if they were owners.”

As Allin describes it, their new café, Bread & Butterfly – also located in Inman Park, represents yet another chance to see her employees grow in their careers. Cakes & Ale’s sous chef will be the executive chef at the restaurant, and their sommelier will also run the wine program.

The café is named after the butterfly-like creature with toast wings in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass. (As Allin points out, Inman Park’s symbol is, serendipitously, also a butterfly.) The eatery will have a bit of a European flair to it, as the Allins were inspired by seeing similar concepts in their travels. She says, “We see these concepts that are these really cool kind of café/restaurant/bar/coffee bars all combined into one. They [are open] all day, so they start at 7 AM and last until midnight or 1 AM, with after-dinner drinks, desserts. We felt like we need that in Atlanta, and that’s where the inspiration for Bread & Butterfly came from.”

She also draws comparisons to their inspiration for Bread & Butterfly to the Beltline, having heard Georgia Tech alum Ryan Gravel speak at the Urban Explorers club, with which the Allins are involved. Gravel talked about having lived in Europe and then returning to Atlanta, wanting to create something similar to what he experienced overseas. Allin says, “On a much smaller scale with our restaurant, we’ve tried to do the same thing. Food-wise, we want Atlanta to be on the same plane that other cities are. That’s fitting into our goal of growing the vision that we have of furthering other people’s lives and careers, and that’s the path we chose to do that.”

That progression forward is one key component of the Allins’ happiness in their jobs; another is the reception of their customers to what the Allins are trying to do with their various restaurants: “Nothing makes us happier than having someone say, ‘That was great. That was a great experience for everything from the food to the wine to the service to the dessert. We just had a fun time.’ Or to even just look out at the dining room and see a table that’s really enjoying themselves.”

Part of Allin’s role at Cakes & Ale is working with closely with her employees. So the employees are, in IE terms, her “system”? “Yes,” Allin says, laughing. “The employees are my system. And that’s great, because it’s human interaction, but it’s also challenging, because they’re people, and they’re not predictable. Everyone is very unique, and everyone has different goals.”

Industrial engineering even plays a role in how the restaurants are run, particularly at Cakes & Ale. Allin notes that her work, on a daily basis, uses a combination of her IE and business school training. As she explains, “We’re always looking at systems here because restaurants are so unique – in that you don’t have machines, [so] you don’t have things you can tweak. But you’re always looking at how your employees are working, at the time of day things are happening, and in a way, the systems you’re using to make it better, so that component is always there. And then also always looking at data. It’s constant: the statistics, the data of how your sales were, your projections, all of that.” She adds, “That’s an IE thing for sure – the different stations back in the kitchen – and how [the employees are] getting things out in a timely manner so that people don’t have to wait too long. That’s a big part of making a good guest experience.”

Part of that good guest experience, she notes, starts with making people comfortable – beginning with taking their reservation, keeping the meal flowing once the guests are seated, all the way to bringing the check out at the end. But part of the process is also earning customers’ trust so that they can “push boundaries,” as Allin describes yet another element to what makes the couple happy in what they’re doing.

“That can be hard,” she explains,” because you’re doing something a little bit different – maybe the food – or something that’s not mainstream. Maybe your wine’s a little different – it’s not a California Pinot; it might be a French wine. We’ve worked a long time, and we work every day to get people to trust us”  in everything from asking the sommelier to recommend a wine to taking the server’s suggestion that guests try a new dish Billy has created.

One thing is clear: Running a restaurant is a constant, never-ending, always evolving process. Says Allin, “Every day is a new day, and so if we have a great night, you start over from scratch the next morning. If you have a bad night, you start over from scratch the next morning. And that’s the great thing about the restaurant industry – and the bad thing – because there’s never a chance to be like, ‘Whoo, yeah! We did it! We reached success.’ Every day is like ground zero, starting over. It’s fun though.”

At the end of the conversation, Allin is asked how she ultimately measures success. “Happiness – for all the reasons I said. Fulfillment, so we feel like what we’re doing is resonating with people. I don’t know that I would say I measure success financially. I think as long as you’re stable – you’re a stable business –that is success. And having guests who are happy, and making sure Cakes & Ale stays at a really high level. The things that we get notoriety for – being one of the top three to five restaurants in the city. Those things I would say are success. Not because we want the notoriety, but because what we’re doing is resonating with people.”

This joint collaboration will leverage common goals and interests in logistics to further enhance academic research, technological innovation, and knowledge dissemination in hyper-connected logistics.

With this new collaborations, ISyE and SCL continue to expand their global outreach in the field of supply chain and logistics. They are already working with affiliated international centers and programs in Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, and Singapore.

“If we are to assist in making supply chains more efficient and reliable, it is important to understand logistics from an international perspective,” said Edwin Romeijn, ISyE School Chair.  “And by working with DINALOG and VIL, we continue to expand our network to improve logistics performance worldwide.”

 ISyE’s Physical Internet Center catalyzes and leads projects in collaboration with scientific, industrial, and governmental partners from around the world, enabled by its new leading-edge Physical Internet lab.

DINALOG is the national institute responsible for the execution of the innovation program of the Dutch focus sector logistics. Within DINALOG, around approximately 300 organizations (logistics service providers, port authorities, shippers and knowledge institutions) work together in open innovation to advance logistics and supply chain management. Currently, many Dutch professors perform joint research projects with professors at Georgia Tech, particularly associated to SCL and the Physical Internet Center.

The third signer of this MOU is VIL, an open innovation platform for the logistics industry. Approximately 500 companies (shippers, carriers, logistics services providers, and port authorities) are members of VIL. With public funding by the government of Flanders in Belgium, VIL along with Flemish member companies perform logistics innovation projects to increase their member companies’ competitiveness.

As part of this mutual cooperation, the signees have agreed to:

• A grant scheme for Ph.D. candidates and post-doctoral researchers that will enable research visits to knowledge institutes in The Netherlands, Belgium, and at Georgia Tech.
• A jointly organized seminar for researchers and practitioners in all three countries on the subject of "Towards virtual ports in a physical internet.”
• A jointly organized International Physical Internet Conference in 2017 or 2018 hosted by the University of Groningen.
• As well as to foster other jointly developed projects and associated grant proposals.

Dutch Signers:

Liesbeth Staps-Brügemann, M.Sc., deputy director DINALOG

Iris Vis, Ph.D., on behalf of DINALOG, professor of Industrial Engineering, University of Groningen

Flemish Signer:

Francis Rome, Ph.D., Director External Relations VIL and professor of Supply Chain Management of Antwerp University

U.S. A. Signers:

Benoit Montreuil, Ph.D., P.E., Director of the Physical Internet Center, Coca-Cola Chair in Material Handling & Distribution, Professor, H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Edwin Romeijn, Ph.D., School Chair and Professor of the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Martin Savelsbergh, Ph.D., James C. Edenfield and Professor, H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

The Coca-Cola material Handling and Distribution Chair in the Stewart School for Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech, Montreuil is catalyzing a forward-looking new approach to the business of transporting, handling, and storing tangible goods. He calls this system the "Physical Internet."

"We are trying to transform the logistics and supply chain system to  a new era of hyperconnectivity that is more sustainable and much more efficient than what we have now,” said Montreuil, who graduated from Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in 1978 and received a master’s and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Tech in 1980 and 1982 respectively.

“We’re using the Internet as a metaphor,” he explained, “but instead of moving data, we’re talking about moving physical goods. The Physical Internet takes some of the basic characteristics of the information Internet — open access, standardization,  interconnectedness, digitization, speed — and applies them to the operation of supply chains and logistics.”

At Georgia Tech, this ambitious effort is based at the ISyE’s new Physical Internet Center founded by Montreuil, who serves as its director.

The center’s mission is threefold. One is to provide worldwide scientific leadership in the development and implementation of the Physical Internet, and to position the center as the primary resource for education and innovation. The second is to pursue technological breakthroughs through the center’s research lab.

“In order for the Physical Internet to happen, we’re going to need technological innovation,” he said. “We want to steer that process and work with industry, technologists, and scientists to develop breakthrough technologies.”

Among the areas of research interest are supply chain analytics, digital platforms, optimization, stochastics and simulation, and system informatics and control.

The third aspect of the Physical Internet Center’s mission is to engage its corporate partners as “living laboratories to enable change in the field” for testing and applying new technological advances in real-world, practical situations.

To support its mission, the center plans to secure grants, pursue partnerships in academia and business, and participate in consortiums, Montreuil noted. It will also offer technical services in a range of areas related to the phase-in of the Physical Internet, which is expected to span decades, given the scope and complexity of the task.

 “It’s not something you can do overnight,” he emphasized. “The Physical Internet is a progressively deployable, long-term solution to achieving a more sustainable global supply chain.”

 As Montreuil describes it, the Physical Internet is an open market where the transportation, storage, realization, supply and usage of goods conform  to common physical and operational standards worldwide. In other words, supply chains and logistics operate, in effect, as a single integrated, coordinated system worldwide. The system is highly computerized, allowing for continuous real-time tracking and monitoring, and features asset sharing across industries over interconnected networks and transportation modes.

At present, “everybody has their own supply chain,” he noted. “They have their own logistics, and they have their own manufacturing facilities and distribution centers, or they deal with their own service providers.” Even companies that conduct international business typically pool only their own assets to meet their needs, he added. “In the Physical Internet, we’re rather talking open asset sharing on a massive scale.”

As an example of a potential Physical Internet innovation, Montreuil points to plans for new kinds of modular containers designed for efficient transportation, handling, and storage. Built to standard dimensions, they lock together somewhat like Lego blocks. They’d be durable, light, reusable, and fabricated from recyclable materials. Different structural grades would be available, notably transportation, handling, and packaging containers. These “smart” containers would be communication-enabled, giving each one a unique signature to facilitate tracking and provide relevant data about the container’s contents, and ultimately take autonomous action as needed along their journey through the Physical Internet.

Each link in the producer-to-customer chain — from conveyor belts to trucks to warehouse layouts — would be adapted or built to accommodate the containers’ dimensions with little or no wasted space.

The benefits inherent in an integrated, standardized supply chain and logistics network include time- and energy-saving efficiencies that yield lower costs while boosting productivity, according to Montreuil.

He cites a study by the National Science Foundation indicating that if only one-fourth of U.S. manufacturers adopted the Physical Internet, and even if the transportation segment of that fraction was limited to trucks, the industry could realize $100 billion in annual savings while achieving a 32 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Physical Internet Center draws upon the research capabilities of resources from multiple disciplines, including ISyE centers such as the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute, the Center for Health & Humanitarian Systems, the Center for Analytics Research and Engineering, the Center for Predictive Analytics and Real-time Optimization, and centers across campus, such as the Center for the Development of Applications of the Internet-of-Things.

“We’re going to work with the top minds on the academic side,” he said. “At the same time, we want to be closely aligned with industry. We’re going to be very collaborative in Atlanta, and across the U.S. and the world. Many of the  large companies based in Atlanta want to move forward. They understand that the status quo is not going to work for the medium term, and they want to put themselves ahead of the game. We’ve got several companies lined up through next year to work together with us on projects.”

A number of Physical Internet investigation and implementation efforts are taking place around the world, Montreuil observed, several with his assistance. Substantial investments already have been made in Europe, where the Physical Internet is the “official grand vision for all logistics and supply chains in the 2030-to-2050 time frame.” China has already established a Physical Internet research laboratory.

In addition, the continuing globalization of the economy has fostered a number of free-trade agreements that make a case for deployment of the Physical Internet because it would help “make these agreements feasible and work at the ground level.”

In North America, “achieving critical mass for the Physical Internet requires exploiting existing infrastructures and means, then gaining momentum through large-scale adoption and innovation,” said Montreuil. “We want to make sure we’re following a road map that makes sense in enabling this vast space of investigation, innovation, testing, and implementation.

 "At the Physical Internet Center, we’re the nexus of this activity.”

“The road to economic opportunity and prosperity begins with great preparation, and we want to help our youth be ready to compete for and secure jobs that will lead to a strong future,” said David Balos, market leader for JPMorgan Chase and head of commercial banking in the area.

The first class will be open to 100 students, who will be invited to participate with tuition costs covered through the grant. Students will have the opportunity to train in various supply chain domains with a goal of receiving an industry-recognized certification. 

“Georgia Tech is pleased to be providing an opportunity to an audience who may not yet know about the numerous potential job opportunities and career paths in logistics and how to prepare to capitalize on these opportunities,” said Tim Brown, managing director of Georgia Tech’s SCL.  

Four main areas of instruction will be covered, based on input received from Atlanta supply-chain intensive companies, including Coca-Cola and UPS:
•    Supply Chain Management Principles
•    Warehousing Operations
•    Transportation Operations
•    Customer Service Operations

Students will be able to learn at their own pace while progressing toward certification.  In addition to the course content, students will receive career coaching and resume advice, and participate in a career fair. To learn more or for information on how to apply, https://www.scl.gatech.edu/LEAP.

Georgia Tech’s SCL is the largest supply chain and logistics leadership institute in the world providing comprehensive research, education, and outreach programs. SCL was founded in 1992 and is responsible for professional development of more than 8,000 professionals.

JPMorgan Chase is committed to enhancing and growing the economies of the communities in which it operates.  Increasing the accessibility of job readiness for first-generation higher education families is a key element toward creating a more sustainable and growing economy.

Emory’s Department of Radiology performs over 68,000 MRI procedures annually, making it one of the busiest MRI practices in the U.S. In order to improve Emory MRI’s patient flow and patient experience, the Senior Design team designed and evaluated alternative scheduling strategies using a computer simulation model. The recommended strategy is expected to increase throughput by 1.55 patients per day, on average, thus generating an extra $470K in annual profits. Importantly, the recommended strategy is also expected to increase patient satisfaction: it decreases the average waiting time per patient by 2 minutes, primarily by reducing the longest waiting times.

“We at Emory are proud to have worked with the Georgia Tech ISyE Senior Design Emory Radiology MRI team. Their work will enhance our ability to drive forward value for patients and the health system concomitantly in the MRI radiology space,” said Dr. Gregory J. Esper, the director of New Care Models at Emory Healthcare. “The team exhibited a tenacious desire to identify the true problem in MRI flow, and they implemented a test of change that has already shown operational improvement. Experiences with teams like this fuel the desire at Emory to continue our involvement in the Georgia Tech ISyE Capstone projects.”

Team members included Martin Restrepo, Paola Lopez Mantilla, Ayda Sawaf, Emilio Jose Munoz Leone, Armida Mariana Arcaraz Vazquez, Felipe Martinez, and Alberto Nogueira Vazquez. They were advised by Professor Natashia Boland.

The RaceTrac team introduced a new inventory management policy for RaceTrac Petroleum. RaceTrac, one of America’s largest private companies, operates over 650 gas stations across the Southeast. Due to incentive misalignments with their 3PL fuel carriers, RaceTrac carries more inventory than necessary and experiences too many costly express or on-demand deliveries. The Senior Design team proposed the introduction of a new contract type that allows for better inventory management and delivery coordination. Expected benefits include an average inventory reduction of 40 percent and elimination of most on-demand deliveries, resulting in estimated savings of $500,000 per year.

Team members included Anubhav Jain, Matthew Petersen, Xiaoxin Yu, Justin Haffad, Vignesh Ramesh, Anthony Robert Graziano, and Julie Deng. Their advisor was James C. Edenfield Chair and Professor Martin Savelsbergh.

The CDC Senior Design team worked with the CDC’s National HIV Epidemic Model and its corresponding calibration process. The model’s purpose is to inform decision-making related to policy, research, and allocation of funding. Using a combination of parameter analysis, optimization formulation, and machine learning algorithms, the team delivered a comprehensive and flexible model calibration solution to the CDC. This implementation, which is packaged in a user-friendly interface, cuts calibration time from three months to as little as one day and saves the CDC at least $70,000 per year.

Team members included Alison Burton, Gregory Miller, Elise Watson, Matthew Farkas, Laura Trube, Madison Rodenstine, Mary Titus, and Daniel Brachey. They were advised by Dean's Professor and Stewart Faculty Fellow Shabbir Ahmed.

Emory University Hospital is incurring high overtime costs and losing potential revenue due to inefficient surgery length estimation and scheduling. The Emory Surgical Senior Design team utilized linear regression to increase estimation accuracy and developed bin-packing based heuristics to create an improved scheduling policy. The two tools that were delivered will help Emory increase their surgery length estimation accuracy by 27% and reduce overtime by 54%. This translates to a $340,000 savings in overtime costs and $4.8 million in potential increased profits annually.

Team members included Alivia Rumbaugh, Melissa Mondello, Michael Ehmann, Rebecca Bishop, Sarah Kiefer, Mohit Jasani, Nellie Wong, and Logan Moore. They were advised by Dean's Professor and Stewart Faculty Fellow Shabbir Ahmed.

Monsieur is a technology company that makes artificially intelligent robotic bartenders. The Monsieur Senior Design team designed a drink menu optimization that allows users to create custom menus based on drink demand and profitability, as well as an inventory control model that takes in historical demand data and adjusts that data throughout an event to produce optimal ingredient refill times. These proposed solutions together will provide an expected cost savings and increased revenue totaling $14,067,000 as well as a competitive advantage to Monsieur.

Team members included Elizabeth Lee, Caroline Lee, Clayton Cross, Anqi Wang, Katie Finnegan, and William Gunnar Knight. They were advised by Dean's Professor and Stewart Faculty Fellow Shabbir Ahmed.

“Kiran is an exceptional tutor who has fully committed himself to our center, even though it is not a place he ever expected to be as an industrial and systems engineering student at Georgia Tech. His systems engineering background is one of his greatest assets, and not just for the content knowledge he brings to his tutoring sessions with other engineering students,” said Karen J. Head, who is the Communication Center’s director and an assistant professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication.

“Kiran is also one of our most popular tutors. Without question this is a reaction to his congenial disposition and his competence as a tutor. Students who have worked with Kiran are quick to say how much he has encouraged and helped them — even the graduate students who sometimes bristle when they learn their tutor is an undergraduate take the time to say how glad they are to have worked with him.”

In this interview, Rampersad talks about his work as a peer tutor, and how his industrial engineering focus helps with that role, his involvement with the Caribbean Students Association, and how it felt to win the SWCA award.

Why did you select Georgia Tech for your university experience, and industrial engineering as your major?

Georgia Tech is one of the most prominent universities for engineering. I am from the beautiful twin-island republic of Trinidad & Tobago, where I have lived all my life. I never envisioned myself studying abroad, but here I am!

The school’s close proximity to the bustling city of Atlanta creates the ideal setting for me to meet new people and have exciting experiences. Above all, Georgia Tech’s Industrial & Systems Engineering program is ranked No. 1 in the U.S.

I chose IE because it is such a versatile field. An IE graduate can find a job in almost any industry, from manufacturing to insurance. I have always loved math and finance, so my focus is on economic and financial systems. I am also pursuing a minor in economics, which complements my IE concentration.

What made you want to become an undergraduate peer tutor at the Communication Center?

Prior to attending Georgia Tech, I tutored high school students and volunteered to teach kids at an underprivileged children’s home in Trinidad. After doing both activities for a year, I grew to love tutoring and helping my peers. I was nominated to work at the Georgia Tech Communication Center by my English professor, Dr. Rebecca Weaver, from whom I took both English 1101 and 1102. I saw this as an excellent opportunity to help my fellow students and to positively contribute to the Georgia Tech community.

What is your favorite part of the experience of being a peer tutor?

I see peer tutoring as a two-way street: Students get help and guidance on their projects, while tutors learn both from the students they help and from the activity of tutoring itself. For me, that is the best part of being a peer tutor. Another wonderful part of this experience is receiving gratitude from students you have helped and seeing them reach their goals and be successful.

What has been the most challenging aspect of being a peer tutor?

At the Communication Center, we tutor both graduate and undergraduate students in any writing- and communication-based projects. Thus, I have worked with students on academic essays, research papers, dissertations, resumes, cover letters, mock job interviews, presentations, poster design, and public speaking. The challenge is to be versed and knowledgeable in all areas, so as to adequately guide students with any one of those various projects. 

I know you’re involved in other campus organizations, such as being vice president of the Caribbean Students Association. Describe your role there.

I have been heavily involved with the Caribbean Students Association (CaribSA) since I was a freshman. During my first two years at Georgia Tech, I served as treasurer, and now I am the vice president. CaribSA’s two primary roles are to provide a space where Caribbean students can meet, socialize, and network, and to promote our diverse and unique Caribbean culture on Georgia Tech’s campus through food, music, history, and art. As the vice president, I oversee all of the organization’s activities and domestic affairs. These include general weekly meetings, as well as cultural events and social gatherings that we host. I work closely with other student-run clubs and on-campus departments to promote our activities.

Describe a typical day for you. How do you find time for everything?

A typical day for me involves waking up early, attending all of my classes, meeting groups to work on projects for classes or having CaribSA meetings, tutoring at the Communication Center, completing all of my assigned homework, studying for upcoming exams and quizzes, going to the gym at night, and ensuring that I get an adequate amount of sleep.

I usually schedule everything in my head a day in advance for the following day’s activities, and try to stick to that plan. However, it is extremely tough to balance my time among my five classes, working at the Comm Lab, and serving in CaribSA. It’s almost like two full-time jobs.

How did you feel when you heard that you had received the Southeastern Writing Center Association Undergraduate Peer Tutor of the Year award?

I felt like all of my hard work over the past year and a half had paid off. I was particularly excited because I am the first Georgia Tech student to win this prestigious award. I will also be co-presenting at the 2016 SWCA Annual Conference with Peter Fontaine, the associate director of our center.

How do your IE studies help you in your tutoring role?

IE has helped me in terms of analyzing students’ work and organizing my sessions effectively to help my tutees. Since I do a lot of analysis in my IE classes, I am better able to examine a paper or project and give meaningful feedback and useful suggestions.

What does the future look like for you?

I would like to go back home after I graduate and work to improve some system(s) in Trinidad. Moreover, since I enjoy both tutoring and IE, I wouldn’t mind teaching industrial engineering, given the opportunity.

INFORMS Fellows

INFORMS Fellows exemplify outstanding lifetime achievement in operations research and the management sciences. They have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments and made significant contributions to the advancement of OR/MS. Their service to the profession and to INFORMS has culminated in election to the INFORMS Fellow Award. Two of the eight awarded fellowships went to ISyE faculty members.

Pinar Keskinocak, ISyE William W. George Chair and ADVANCE Professor, has been elected an INFORMS Fellow as part of the 2015 class. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at Georgia Tech.

Eva Lee, ISyE professor, was also elected a 2015 INFORMS Fellow. Lee directs the Center for Operations Research in Medicine and HealthCare, a collaborative center established through funds from the National Science Foundation and the Whitaker Foundation. Lee is a Distinguished Scholar in Health Systems at the Health Systems Institute of Emory University School of Medicine and Georgia Tech.

Winners

Eva Lee, ISyE professor, along with Fan Yuan, Georgia Institute of Technology; Bali Pulendran, Helder Nakaya, and Troy Querec of Emory University; and Ferdinand Pietz, Bernard Benecke, and Greg Burel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been awarded the prestigious INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner award for "Machine Learning for Predicting Vaccine Immunity.” The team created a model that uses genetic signatures to predict the efficacy of vaccines on an individual by individual basis. 

Valerie Thomas, ISyE Anderson Interface Professor of Natural Systems, along with Vishal Agrawal, assistant professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business; Mark Ferguson, Wilbur S. Smith Professor of Management Science at the University of South Carolina's Darla Moore School of Business; and Beril Toktay, Professor of Operations Management, Brady Family Chair, and ADVANCE Professor at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business, have had their paper selected as the best operations management paper in the INFORMS journal Management Science. Their paper is entitled “Is Leasing Greener Than Selling?”

Linwei Xin won the 2015 George E. Nicholson Student Paper Award, the top student paper honor at INFORMS. The award-winning paper was entitled “Asymptotic Optimality of Tailored Base-surge Policies in Dual-sourcing Inventory Systems," co-authored with ISyE assistant professor David A. Goldberg. Xin and Goldberg studied dual-sourcing inventory systems, in which one supplier is faster and more costly, while the other is slower and cheaper. Such systems are common in practice, yet notoriously difficult to optimize. Recently, Tailored Base-surge (TBS) policies have been proposed as a heuristic for such models, and shown numerically to perform well as the lead time difference between the two suppliers grows large. This paper provides a theoretical foundation for this phenomenon by proving that a TBS policy is asymptotically optimal as the lead time of the slow supplier grows large. 

Xin graduated with his Ph.D. in OR from ISyE (2015), co-advised by Goldberg and Professor Alexander Shapiro; he is now an assistant professor of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Hao Yan, ISyE Ph.D. student, along with assistant professor Kamran Paynabar and Carolyn J. Stewart Chair and professor Jianjun (Jan) Shi, won the Quality, Statistics and Reliability Refereed Track Best Paper Competition at INFORMS. Their paper is entitled “Real-time Monitoring and Diagnosis of High-Dimensional Data Streams via Spatio-Temporal Smooth Sparse Decomposition.”

Chenxi Zeng won the 2015 Doing Good with Good OR Student Paper Competition with his paper, “Improving Blood Collection Policies for Cryoprecipitate.” Zeng is the first Ph.D. student from Georgia Tech to win this award. To Zeng’s knowledge, this work has built the first analytical model and decision support tool to improve blood collection policies for cryoprecipitate. This work also has the impact in practice: the American Red Cross (ARC) Southern blood service center has used our decision support tool to change their blood collection strategies.

Collaborators on this paper include ISyE’s  Chelsea White III, professor and Schneider National Chair in Transportation and Logistics, and Turgay Ayer, assistant professor and research director for medical decision-making in Georgia Tech’s Center for Health & Humanitarian Systems; John DeShane, ARC Director of Blood Manufacturing; and Zeynep Ozkaynak, ARC Director of Blood Collections; Professor Roshan Vengazhiyil, who helped with statistical analysis; and Associate Professor Anton Kleywegt, who helped with solving a large-scale MDP model.

 2^nd Place

David Goldberg, ISyE assistant professor, and Linwei Xin, recent ISyE Ph.D. graduate and assistant professor at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, earned second place in the INFORMS Junior Faculty Interest Group Paper Competition for their paper, "Asymptotic Optimality of Tailored Base-surge Policies in Dual-sourcing Inventory Systems."

Honorable Mention

Andy Sun, ISyE assistant professor, has won the honorable mention in the INFORMS ENRE Best Paper Competition. The paper is entitled "Adaptive Robust Optimzation for the Security Constrained Unit Commitment Problem," co-written with Professor Dimitris Bertsimas of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and Eugene Litvinov, Jinye Zhao, and Tongxin Zheng, all of ISO New England, Inc.

Finalists

Can Zhang was a finalist for the 2015 George E. Nicholson Student Paper Award with “2-Approximation Policies for Fixed-lifetime Perishable Inventory Control.” A fourth-year ISyE Ph.D. student, he works with ISyE’s Chelsea White III, professor and Schneider National Chair in Transportation and Logistics, and Turgay Ayer, assistant professor and research director for medical decision-making in Georgia Tech’s Center for Health & Humanitarian. Their research focuses on stochastic dynamic models with applications in inventory control and health care operations.

ISyE Ph.D. student Ran Li and Professor Spyros Reveliotis and their poster, “Optimized Scheduling of Sequential Resource Allocation Systems,” placed as finalists in the Poster Competition.

ISyE Ph.D. student Murat Yildirim's paper, "Sensor Driven Condition Based Generation Maintenance and Operations Scheduling" was selected as a finalist in the INFORMS 2015 Data Mining Best Student Paper Award. Yildirim is co-advised by ISyE Chandler Family Associate Professor Nagi Gebraeel and Andy Sun, assistant professor.

The paper “Ebola Treatment Facility Location Planning in Guinea (Analysis for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)” was a finalist in the Doing Good with Good OR Student Paper Competition. Contributors include ISyE graduates Kimberly Adelaar, Charmaine Chan, Matt Daniels, Javeria Javeria, Caleb Mbuvi, Chu Qian, Ivan Renaldi, and Jonathan Sutomo. The faculty advisor was Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Professor Julie Swann.

The paper “Infusion Center Process Improvement and Patient Wait Time Reduction” was a finalist in the Doing Good with Good OR Student Paper Competition. Contributors include ISyE graduates Sung Keun Baek, Xiaoyang Li, Allen Liu, James Micali, Jisu Park, Mengnan Shen, Yunjie Sun, and Emilie Wurmser. The faculty advisor was William W. George Chair and ADVANCE Professor Pinar Keskinocak.

Why did you choose IE as your major and Georgia Tech as the place to pursue it?

When I was 16 and a junior in high school, my mom took me to the annual Sports Analytics Conference held at MIT. At the conference, I heard Daryl Morey, general manager of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, speak. During his sessions, he spoke about applying advanced mathematics to the sport of basketball to make better decisions about team lineups, player acquisitions, and much, much more. It blew my mind that people were applying my favorite subject, math, to my favorite hobby, basketball. From that moment on, I have wanted to become a general manager of a NBA team, and so I've modeled my academic career after him. Morey studied statistics at Northwestern; I went to Georgia Tech for its No.1-ranked industrial engineering program.

Which came first – your desire to be an entrepreneur or your idea for Lean Basketball Analytics (LBA)?

 The idea came first. My idea was generated because I believed that basketball coaches were not playing their players optimally. So, I created a method that helps coaches make better in-game decisions. After successfully testing the program with Georgia Tech, I decided to pursue creating a company. The IE program teaches optimization; I transferred that to my favorite sport.

What inspired you to pursue developing LBA into a company, particularly while you’re in school?

The success of my method at Georgia Tech. Trent Angelluci, the video-coordinator for Georgia Tech at the time, was my contact during the 2013-2014 season. He thought my idea was fantastic, and that it really had the ability to help teams and coaches. His endorsement to my idea ignited my pursuit.

Take us through the timeline and process of turning LBA from an idea into a company.

I had the idea in October 2013. Coincidentally, [Georgia Tech basketball] Coach Brian Gregory came and talked to my fraternity the same day I had this idea – talk about fate! So, I pitched my idea to Gregory, and he thought it could be useful.

From there, I created the [data] insight for Georgia Tech by myself on Excel during the 2013-2014 season. I gave Angelluci my first batch of data on the day of the home game against UNC in January 2014. On the phone, I walked him through the spreadsheet and how to obtain the insight. At the end [of the conversation,] he asked if I had any recommendations.

I told Angelluci, “You're not going to believe this, but [then-redshirt sophomore] Corey Heyward is in seven of your top 10 scoring and four of your top five rebounding lineups. Heyward doesn't have any personal flashy stats, but when he's on the court, your team succeeds."

Angelluci remarked, “That's what I've been saying!” That was a great endorsement to the methodology.

I talked with two of my fraternity brothers, Matt Creatore and Mason Dimarco, about forming a company. Creatore is an ISyE major here at Tech graduating in spring 2017, and Dimarco is a senior computer science major who transferred to Brown during his sophomore year. We formed an LLC in late 2014, and then beta-tested our software we created during the 2014-2015 season with teams such as UNC, Notre Dame, Stanford, Texas, Georgetown, and more. Their testimonies backed up our ambitions.

Take us through a typical day for you. How do you balance running/promoting LBA with your school responsibilities?

 It's hard. But LBA is a huge passion of mine, so I don't view it as work. It's fun. Overall, I have to map out my days to ensure I have enough time to tackle my responsibilities for both LBA and school. Sometimes the times can conflict, and in those situations, I have to do what's best for my future.

What does the future hold for LBA, both in the immediate and the long-term?

 We are innovating our Clinch^TM software each and every day. We are making our software something that teams ranging from high school to college to even the professional leagues won't want to miss out on. This 2015-2016 season, we have about 25 Division 1 teams on board. If all goes well, other teams will follow suit. But I don't believe we will ever stop innovating our software. Currently, this is my career. I graduate in December 2015 and am not seeking a full-time job opportunity. If I'm going to fail, it's because I tried and nothing else.

How do you see IE and entrepreneurship fitting together? For example, what does IE enable you to do that you might not be able to do with another major?

IE teaches you how to think with an efficiency-oriented outlook. IE has taught me to accomplish tasks as quickly and as best as possible. Bottom line: The IE major at this school teaches one how to think. My analytical- and efficiency-driven perspective has blossomed at this school, and that's what allows me to run this company and handle my other responsibilities as well.

“Edwin has a unique blend of research expertise, teaching excellence, and national leadership that makes him well suited to expand ISyE’s tradition of excellence and leadership in research and education and to keep the program at the forefront internationally,” said College of Engineering Dean Gary May.

Prior to joining ISyE, Romeijn was the program director for Service Enterprise Systems, Manufacturing Enterprise Systems, and Operations Research at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Virginia, and Richard C. Wilson Faculty Scholar in the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. He received his M.S. in econometrics and his Ph.D. in operations research from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1988 and 1992, respectively.

Recently, I sat with Dr. Romeijn to chat with him about his vision, leadership, and what it is like to oversee a school consistently ranked the No. 1 industrial engineering program in both graduate and undergraduate education. -- Barbara Christopher

What piqued your interest in becoming ISyE’s school chair?

Honestly, I did not have a career-long goal of going the administrative route. I used to view myself as a career researcher. Over time, I became more interested in looking at a bigger, more strategic view of our field. This came up for me, partly, due to my time as a program director at the National Science Foundation. At that time, I thought if the right opportunity came along I would be interested in taking on a larger administrative role. And by right opportunity, I meant finding something that had a combination of a strong program — a unique potential due to its history, environment, faculty, and student population — someplace close to my heart, and a place where I could contribute something.

When ISyE approached me, it qualified in all areas. ISyE has a long-standing reputation as the No. 1 program in both undergraduate and graduate studies, as well as having top-notch research programs. I was impressed with the size of the program, but mostly its diversity in both theory and application in optimization, statistics, manufacturing, supply chain, health care, energy, you name it. I was excited that my research has touched on a lot of the existing research groups in ISyE. That really spoke to me.

And being a part of Georgia Tech, one of the best technical institutes in the country — if not the world — creates unique opportunities for interdisciplinary research, which is important for all disciplines but especially for industrial and systems engineering.

I’ve been with ISyE for just under a year now, and I can say it is a great place to work.

What are you responsible for as ISyE’s school chair?

Generally speaking, I am responsible for creating and maintaining a healthy environment in which students, faculty, and staff can thrive and be the best that they can be.

As part of your job as chair, you also meet and work with a lot of our alumni. How has that been so far?

Meeting with our alumni is one of my favorite parts of my job. They have been and continue  to be instrumental in maintaining the success of ISyE through their involvement on the advisory board, student mentoring and other volunteering activities, as well as through their generous philanthropy.

I had the honor to meet the H. Milton Stewart family before I officially started this position and was impressed with their hospitality and dedication to ISyE. Since then I have gotten to meet many of our alumni, and I look forward to meeting many more. I continue to learn the history and culture of this remarkable school through their eyes.

What are some of the traits of a good leader that you strive to embody?

There are two different yet intertwined traits that I work toward — to be a good listener and to communicate clearly. It’s important to make sure that everyone feels heard, that their opinion matters, and their input is, at the very least, being considered. However, not everyone can get their way each time. While my goal is to build consensus as much as possible, sometimes it will be necessary to make decisions when there is no consensus. At  the end of the day, I will always make a decision that I believe is for the good of the School as a whole and will work to communicate why a particular decision has been made.

How do you take a school that has had a long successful run as No. 1 and expand its tradition of excellence to have greater influence?

At the core is the faculty. To a large extent they dictate any new directions or changes within the School. The chair cannot single-handedly decide the direction of the School. A chair suggests, points, and helps coordinate groups of faculty so that synergies are explored and exploited, but at the end of the day it should be the faculty who provides the new ideas. They are the true experts in the different fields of specialization. It is the faculty who will make sure we remain leaders in the field and the No. 1 program.

What is hot in ISyE at the moment?

Analytics is a hot topic, of course. While ISyE can contribute to all three branches of analytics — descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive —  it can play a particularly unique role when it comes to prescriptive analytics, i.e., in decision-making. In a way, ISyE has been dealing with problems related to this area for a long time. Yet with the explosion of different types of data available in recent years, there is a need for more and new modeling, statistical, and operations research methodologies. It is exciting that the field is facing problems that  we could not conceive of five to 10 years ago, before this kind of data was available. The area of supply chains and logistics is seeing a reinvigoration, with new focus areas such as the Physical Internet and hyperconnected optimization. Areas such as health and humanitarian logistics, energy, and sustainability have been active areas in ISyE for some time but can only be expected to grow in importance in coming years. And with the advent of smart manufacturing, ISyE is poised to expand its role in the area of manufacturing as well.

What do you think are the keys to success?

Having passion and enthusiasm for what you do.

Students often ask me: What should I write my Ph.D. thesis about? What topics should I study to maximize my chances of a good position in five years?

I tell them to pick a topic that really excites them. If they are excited about the topic, most likely they will work hard and be successful at what they do. More often than not, having passion and enthusiasm for the work you do will take you a long way.

What are some current opportunities for ISyE?

There are several opportunities open to us. ISyE has been No. 1 for a long time and has an excellent reputation in a lot of areas. Part of this is because we have great researchers. Part of it is because we have a large program. As a group we are doing fantastic work, but I’d like to see us further increase our leadership to the field as a whole. After all, it is the responsibility of the No. 1 school to do this.

Also, I’d like to see more bridges built and synergies exploited between the various research groups. This is an ideal time to come together and think harder about ways to work across platforms to drive our impact to greater heights. ISyE has a great group of researchers with so many great opportunities to be a front runner in some important upcoming areas.

Currently, we have a large number of undergraduate students. Our challenge there is to make sure we maintain the quality of the undergraduate program despite its growing size. But this is a challenge we are happy to face.

We have high-quality incoming students, and our outgoing students are in very high demand. Employers are scooping them up as soon as they graduate. So both the input and output is quite healthy, and we are dedicated to preserving and improving the quality of the program.

Tell me a little about your research.

My research has been on analytics and optimization theory and applications, in particular in the area of supply chain optimization and optimization in healthcare. I started off more in the area of theoretical optimization, development, and analysis of algorithms. Then I moved to add the area of applied or application-driven research to my work.

On the supply chain optimization side, the problems I work on are more theoretical and motivated by problems that can or may occur in practice but not necessarily following from collaborations with industry.

On the health care side, my work is much more practical. I work closely with radiation oncologists and medical physicists in developing new models and algorithms for finding optimal treatment plans for cancer patients.

How do you balance your research with the administration side of ISyE?

Now that has been a bit of a challenge over the last nine months. As time goes on and I get more fully acclimated, I hope to get more active on the research side again.

You have taught classes in operations research, stochastics processes, applied probability and statistics, supply chain management, and decision support systems. Can you tell me a little about how you teach?

When I teach a class, I always try to set it up in such a way that I encourage the students to actively think along. I want a dialogue with the students, not just a one-way street. I am not interested in the students learning by heart; I’m interested in them learning how things work. This way, they learn intuition behind things and how to approach problems in practice. That is the ideal situation for me.

What brought you to the U.S.?

I started my Ph.D. in 1988 in The Netherlands. At that time, quite a few Ph.D. students in The Netherlands spent part of their research time at top schools in the United States. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a significant amount of my Ph.D. student years at the University of Michigan. After graduation, I received a grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research [the Dutch counterpart of NSF] to spend a year as a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. I enjoyed the academic environment in the U.S.; it not only allows for a great deal of independence, but the tenure-track system is unique in that it rewards merit, motivation, and hard work.

And on the more personal side, what is your idea of a perfect day outside of work?

It’s relatively simple, really. My wife, Sylvia, and I like to go outside, whether it is for a walk in the park, a bike ride, or to eat lunch or dinner. We also enjoy home remodeling activities, which has been our hobby for the last few years. Between Michigan and Florida, we remodeled several houses together. I like to do the demolition. Sylvia enjoys painting. And we both can install kitchens, flooring, etc. Neither of us can do the real construction work so we called in contractors for those.

Reed Baker is currently senior vice president and principal of Advantage Industrial Automation based in Atlanta, Georgia. Advantage Industrial Automation provides OEMs, industrial end-users, and system integrators with intelligent manufacturing solutions by adding value to the leading products in factory automation and controls. After graduating from ISyE, Baker’s first position was with Square D Company (now Schneider Electric) as a field engineer. He is married to Angie Baker, IMGT 1985, and has two children currently attending Georgia Tech.

Michele Etheredge retired in 1998 after a successful career with CAPS Logistics and Frito-Lay as a project manager implementing supply chain solutions. Etheredge has also raised funds for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and is currently assisting the Boy Scouts of America locally. She received her Georgia Tech degree with honors. She and her husband, Jimmy, IE 1985, have three children. Their oldest son is now a student in ISyE. They presently reside in Atlanta, Georgia, but enjoyed living in Surrey, England for six years.

John Marshall is the co-founder of AirWatch. Under his leadership, AirWatch became the largest enterprise mobility management provider in the world, with more than $200 million in 2014 bookings. AirWatch has more than 18,000 customers, including four of the top five global Fortune companies. VMware acquired AirWatch for $1.54 billion in 2014, the largest acquisition to-date for VMware. Marshall was named the 2013 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southeast and the Atlanta Business Chronicle selected him as one of “Atlanta’s Most Admired CEOs in 2014.” Marshall is also a board member of the Georgia Tech Information Security Center Industry Advisory Board.

Jim McClelland recently retired as president and chief executive officer of Goodwill Industries in Central Indiana.  McClelland has been active in the international development efforts of Goodwill Industries International and was heavily involvedin starting new Goodwills in South Korea. He serves on the Dean’s Council of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business – Indianapolis, the Georgia Tech Grand Challenges Advisory Board, the Board of Governors of the Economic Club of Indiana, the Executive Committee of the Central Indiana Education Alliance, and the Urban Areas Commission of the Indiana University Public Policy Institute. McClelland earned his MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

Major General (Ret.) Kelly McKeague is transitioning from the military to the civilian sector. He most recently served as deputy director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which has worldwide responsibility for the analysis and investigation, search and recovery, and forensic laboratory operations to account for Americans missing from World War II to the first Persian Gulf War. After receiving his commission from Georgia Tech’s Air Force ROTC program, he began his 34- year career as an industrial engineer and served in a variety of engineering and legislative assignments. He and his wife, Nancy, reside in Alexandria, VA.

Analytics is attracting a great deal of attention in the business world these days, and no one knows that better than Joel Sokol, the Fouts Family Associate Professor at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech.

Sokol also serves as director of Georgia Tech’s new interdisciplinary Master of Science degree in Analytics, which graduated its first class this past August.

“We couldn’t advertise the degree until it was formally approved by the Board of Regents, and that happened in late May last year,” says Sokol. “So we missed the entire application season, which usually happens in the fall and spring. We were hoping we could scrape up 20 people to put this class together, but we got about 80 applications in just a few weeks. We accepted 44 outstanding applicants. All but three students enrolled, with a couple students deferring their admission, so we started with 39.”

Word got out. The current class, which started in August 2015, drew more than 400 applicants, from which a class of 47 was selected.

These numbers reveal a growing interest in analytics among businesses and organizations as a way to analyze and interpret the data they acquire. At ISyE, where analytics has been central to its educational mission for many years, this interest is reflected not only in the number of applications to the new master’s program, but also in analytics research into contemporary problems and a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum that includes Senior Design projects for undergraduate seniors.

What is analytics?

The basic definition of analytics is the extraction of meaningful information from data. At ISyE, this definition goes a key step further.

“For us, analytics is not only the techniques to process data and extract information from data or even the knowledge obtained from data,” says Martin Savelsbergh, James C. Edenfield chair and professor. “It is also how you can use that information or knowledge to improve business processes or make better decisions."

“Analyzing data per se is not what people are after,” he adds. “In the end, you want to use what you learn from data to be better at something, and being better at something usually means that you make better decisions.”

Savelsbergh points out that the ability to collect, store, and manipulate data has grown exponentially over the years, along with sophisticated techniques and algorithms for analyzing it. But more data in and of itself isn’t necessarily the right objective.

There can be data overload, he says, citing an actual example of a trucking company that outfitted its vehicles with GPS and two-way communication so as to better keep track of its fleet.

“Every five minutes the company gets updated information from each truck regarding the time it is estimated to arrive at the distribution center. At one point, a signal is received that says a particular truck is expected in one and a half hours. Five minutes later the   signal says the truck is expected in one hour and 40 minutes. Five minutes after that the signal says the truck will arrive in an hour and 45 minutes — and so on.

 “Is this really very useful information?” Savelsbergh asks. “What are you going to do with that information? Certainly the people at the trucking company don’t know what to do with it.”

While conceding that more information is generally better than less information, one must be careful to avoid collecting data simply for its own sake.

“You want to process, analyze, and understand the data — maybe understand trends — but whatever it is you’re looking for in the data, you want to be sure it helps you make better decisions about something.”

M.S. in Analytics follows an interdisciplinary approach

The practical, decision-enabling orientation of analytics at ISyE is evident in the new master’s program as well, which includes an applied analytics practicum at the end of the one-year program.

Graduate analytics degree programs are relatively uncommon in the U.S., and the majority of those that do exist are part of a particular college or school.

“Ours is one of the handful that’s interdisciplinary,” says Sokol. “It’s a joint program among the College of Engineering, the College of Computing, and the Scheller College of Business.

“Students get an interdisciplinary core that covers a full range of analytics topics, and then they pick a track to get a deeper specialization. Each of the tracks is aligned with one of the three units. We have an analytical tools track that includes additional statistics, and ML and OR predictive and decision modeling material. Students who opt for the business analytics track get a deeper understanding of the practice of developing and executing analytics projects within businesses. In the computational data analytics track, students get additional depth in acquiring, managing, analyzing, and visualizing data.”

Another unusual feature is that half or more of the 10 courses that students take are electives, which allows them to tailor their degree to fit their personal career interest.

“They may take courses in specific areas so they can perform the right  kind of analysis for whatever industry they want to go into,” Sokol elaborates. “For example, if they want to do analytics in the hospitality industry, they might take electives on pricing  and revenue management, Web search and text mining, and optimization so they could capture and analyze data such as from TripAdvisor and, then use the results to suggest improved pricing policies.”

The broad applicability of analytics is reflected in the diverse backgrounds of the program’s applicants.

“The majority of them come in with degrees in business, engineering, math, statistics, or computer science, but  we also get people with degrees in psychology, anthropology, astrophysics, linguistics, religion — a whole range of backgrounds,” Sokol notes.

A variety of job experience is represented as well, with about 60 percent of applicants having had some previous employment.

Their resumes run the gamut from just a few years of post-bachelor’s degree work experience to positions as lead product engineers and corporate vice presidents. One applicant had spent the past few years in the U.S. Navy aboard a nuclear submarine, according to Sokol.

 Analytics helps undergraduates solve problems

When an Atlanta-area hospital wanted to cut wait time and provide more accurate wait-time estimates for its emergency room patients, it sought help from a group of Georgia Tech industrial engineering undergraduate students who took on the assignment as their Senior Design project.

Senior projects are an integral part of the undergraduate curriculum, says Sokol, who supervises the program each fall. “At the end of their time at Georgia Tech, students form groups and carry out real industrial engineering projects for companies and organizations that need their help. A lot of what they do involves analytics, but at the undergraduate level.”

 Back at the hospital, the team of six students observed emergency room operations over several months. They collected and analyzed data on patient arrivals and conditions as well as the amount of time taken to be seen by nurses, doctors, and other hospital staff. The students then used statistical techniques to model the emergency room system in a simulated environment, and devised process-improvement recommendations that would reduce wait time without changing the quality or quantity of care. They also developed a real-time simulation tool that helps the hospital give entering patients a more accurate estimate of their wait time.

Other examples of senior capstone projects reveal the wide applicability of analytics and include delivery routing and logistics for supply chain design, pricing for hotels and parking, race strategy for a motor sports team, and the timing of trains and railcar sequencing.

In addition, student teams have worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on various aspects of their response to the Ebola outbreak, and improvements to the organ transplant system.

Analytics can improve medical decision-making

Data analytics research conducted at ISyE explores innovative new methodologies and techniques for analyzing data across a spectrum of applications, from energy and finance to supply chains and sports.

But no other area affects the quality of daily life for more people than their health.

Arriving at the best medical and health care decisions relies heavily on data, says Nicoleta Serban, Coca-Cola Associate Professor of ISyE. “We are interested in finding ways to capture and analyze data to optimize the decision-making process in health care.”

Her work extends into the arena of public health as well, where policymakers need data-driven conclusions to help them make effective problem-solving decisions.

Serban is co-founder and co-leader, along with Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Professor Julie Swann, of the Health Analytics Group. Its mission is to provide a foundation for better medical decisions by applying mathematical and computational modeling techniques to health services research data and health economics data.

One of the challenges of health care analytics is that it may deal with so-called Big Data — huge data sets measured in terabytes and exabytes — but not always.

“The quality of data is a more important consideration than the volume of data,” Serban says. “The key term is ‘decision-making’ — that data is captured and analyzed for the purpose of making better decisions. Sometimes this involves Big Data, and sometimes it involves very little data.”

The Health Analytics Group’s wide-ranging research interests address both traditional and emerging health analytics models, including:

• Designs for telemedicine interventions that improve health care access or balance cost and equity.
• Logistics efficiencies that address patient flow at clinics or hospitals, the scheduling of medical residents and staffing of nurse call centers, and disaster-response planning.
• Decision support tools to help health care providers schedule catch-up vaccinations for children and adults or to optimize radiation treatment for tumors.
• Statistical techniques to help clinicians identify patients with the greatest risk for nonconvulsive epileptic seizures.
• Evaluations and recommendations to inform public policy such as the effects of school closures during an influenza pandemic, identifying areas with the highest levels of childhood obesity, quantifying the status quo of health care service utilization and pathways, interventions to treat or prevent disease, and the analysis of health-related expenditures.

One example of a specific research initiative is the group’s ongoing study of pediatric asthma.

Asthma — the second most common reason for pediatric emergency room visits in Georgia — impairs quality of life and contributes significantly to health care costs, particularly for emergency room visits and hospitalizations, many of which are preventable. These costs are especially burdensome to children from low-income households.

“Our immediate objective is to describe underlying asthma care pathways for children in the Medicaid program,” Serban explains. “For each pathway, we evaluate utilization and costs to suggest potential policy and network interventions.”

Designing interventions with the greatest impact on patients with limited resources begins with the creation of an asthma care baseline.

“We want to quantify a set of measures around pediatric asthma for the Medicaid population,” she notes. “Our initial baseline includes things related to outcomes and costs, and for geographical areas and subpopulations within the state of Georgia.”

Baseline data would include many of the complicating factors in treating pediatric asthma such as age, severity of the condition, and environment.

In addition, there are different levels of asthma care to consider, from doing nothing to obtaining care from a primary care physician or asthma specialist, or visiting the emergency room.

“Using retrospective Medicaid claims data, our research spans multiple directions,” she says. “In addition to the set of baseline measures for asthma care, we’re interested in linking access to outcomes, and identifying trends in care utilization and cost.

“Ultimately, our goal is to design policy and network interventions to improve health outcomes and access for people with limited resources.”

Spreading the word

Industrial engineers are problem solvers, which is why analytics is considered an engineering discipline.

“We’re not concerned with building or designing physical objects,” says Savelsbergh. “We’re interested in processes and in finding ways to improve the performance of businesses and organizations.” Thus, analytics is a natural fit.

“There are still a lot of people who are trying to understand what is meant  by analytics,” he continues, “and this gives us an opportunity to interact with organizations either in government or private industry to not only talk about what we do in analytics, but to emphasize our belief that its goal is to improve decision-making.

 “We have been doing analytics for a long time -- and we're very good at it."

The academic concentrations supported by the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering are myriad. Its graduates at all levels reflect this variety by making substantive contributions in a broad span of important practical settings, such as supply chain logistics, manufacturing, health care, finance, natural systems, energy, and others.

It is also the case that ISyE places great value in maintaining a strong theoretical research presence in our fields, and, in parallel, strives to educate the next generation of scholars so that they are well-positioned to thrive as contributors to that effort. The concrete value of our emphasis on theoretical work and, by extension, the profession we serve, deserves a closer look.

Sliding into pedantry is easy when it comes to defining theoretical research. The term by its very nature describes a relative concept. What could be considered “theoretical” by a software engineer might easily be declared “very applied” by a number theorist. Here we have used the “you-know-it-when-you-see-it” rule-of-thumb. Accordingly, a significant amount of theoretical research in our school takes place within the fundamental methodologies that are core to our discipline: mathematical optimization, stochastics and simulation, and statistics.

Theoretical research is often motivated by applications

Engineering, by definition, is an applied field; its practitioners solve important and real- world problems, often in incredibly creative and ingenious ways. Engineers draw their most effective technical skills from the hard sciences, most prominent among which are physics and chemistry. In the final analysis, engineers are users, doers. This certainly includes industrial engineers, with the exception that their core science base tends to be mathematics and statistics.

As is the case in most fields, the easy systems-level industrial engineering problems get solved routinely, and the genuinely hard ones ultimately prove resistant to existing methodological tools. Those hard problems don’t go away, leaving shakier options for their treatment, including the design of ad hoc fixes or approximations that may be clever and work in some cases but that may also fail miserably in others. But seeking ways to solve — or at least handle effectively — the hard problems is where the need for advances in existing theory most clearly reveals itself. Necessity, it’s true, is the mother of invention.

A commonly cited example — one that contributed directly to the development of what became the field known as Operations Research (OR) — relates to efforts by the British, in the years just prior to the outbreak of World War II. A multidisciplinary team of scientists, including many Nobel laureates, was assembled to conduct experiments on how fighter aircraft could be better deployed, based on radar-generated information. The need for success was obvious, and the groundbreaking work ultimately produced proved to be an important factor in winning the Battle of Britain. Similar teams helped to break enemy codes, optimize troop deployments, and even understand nuclear chain reactions.

Our methodological fields — the theory-oriented ones identified in the introduction, and that are prominently identified with ISyE — are also rife with similar stories where this scenario has played out. Typical are settings that benefit, sometimes in very practical ways, from results focused on seemingly abstract research pursuits such as understanding deeply how known methodologies work, generalizing and extending what is known, and, possibly, establishing formal limits regarding what can be known.

Some examples of famous outcomes of theoretical research include the well-known work of George Dantzig, conducted shortly after WWII, including his invention of the simplex algorithm for solving linear programs; John von Neumann’s anticipation of duality theory, actually motivated by discussions with Dantzig during this same period; Stan Ulam’s development in the late 1940s, following work related to the Manhattan Project, of the process that became Monte Carlo simulation; Ralph Gomory’s circa 1960 work that set the basis for a theory of cutting planes that played a pioneering role in initiating the field of integer programming; Jack Edmonds who in the mid-1960s coined the phrase “good algorithm,” and demonstrated the relevance of its formalization by presenting an ingenious solution for the so-called matching problem — which in turn ushered in the field that would became combinatorial optimization; and Richard Karp who, in the early 1970s, showed how apparently different problems were fundamentally equivalent in that either they all were solvable by a good algorithm or none were.

Common to all of these iconic contributions and developments that derived from theoretical research efforts is that they were authored by people educated and trained in mathematics. That this level of formal mathematical expertise was applied in producing these fundamental results is, of course, not a requirement, but neither should it be a surprise; such is the nature of the mathematical machinery and rigor needed to make substantive progress. And, no one should find it peculiar that some of the most productive theoretical research success stories affiliated with ISyE have been authored by faculty trained at a certain level of applied and even pure mathematics.

The short historical list of work we’ve identified above accurately reflects the complexion of what constitutes fundamental research efforts as they would be viewed and practiced by many who conduct their scholarly work in methodological areas directly supported by ISyE. With this deep emphasis on theoretical research, traced largely from the early to mid-1980s, the School is among the elites in terms of its theoretical research activity and its corresponding impact on our fields. We are in the company of such institutions as MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, and Cornell.

By any measure, at least a third of ISyE’s full- time academic faculty are active in theory-based research as their primary focus — a remarkable number for industrial and systems engineering programs. In some facets of our methodological disciplines, our respective faculty have few (if any) peers.  The ISyE faculty boasts some very famous scholars. In particular, the contributions to discrete optimization by George Nemhauser, convex optimization by Arkadi Nemirovski, stochastic optimization by Alex Shapiro, graph theory by Robin Thomas, design and analysis of algorithms by Santosh Vempala, and industrial statistics by Jeff Wu are unparalleled in the world.

Theoretical research breeds new application areas

Why even bother with something as obscure as theoretical research? The answer is that not much gets done without it. In fact, one of the outcomes of basic theoretical research is that  it very often produces valuable and important practical results as spin-offs, especially as the work progresses. New questions often arise that open new avenues for fundamental research; much of this occurs along the way, even if the original problem being pursued remains elusive or resistant. It’s not at all uncommon for these so-called spin-off results to sometimes rival, ifnot overshadow — in both elegance and utility — the anticipated outcome when the research was initiated

Sometimes knowing that a tool has been invented for solving a problem in one context facilitates the search for related ones, where the newly discovered methodology can be applied. For instance, similar to the research group working on behalf of the British military, groups of interdisciplinary scientists in the U.S. army were formed to protect convoys, improve anti- submarine warfare, and increase success with bombers during the war. Then, by the 1950s, the methodological tools developed explicitly to solve military problems began to be useful in addressing many other postwar applications.

The typical paradigm is as follows: A scientist trained in various theoretical methodologies is introduced to a new and complex (and perhaps pressing) practical problem. The setting in which the problem arises need not be familiar  to the scientist. Usually, the first step is to state this problem in a familiar mathematical form. Once this possibly difficult feat is accomplished, known algorithms, mathematical techniques, and theoretical results can take over to solvethe problem. Indeed, the theoretical research accomplishments mentioned in the previous section, along with significant contributions by faculty at ISyE, are used daily to solve new problems for industry, business —  and humanity in general.

The above described process often involves heavy lifting; there are no easy problems anymore, and seldom does the resolution of these problems follow as a routine or obvious application of what is known, even if the latter is a newly discovered outcome of an arduous theoretical effort. And, even knowing that a problem is solvable in theory does not mean that the solution will be instantaneously useful in business and industry. Often a gap needs to be bridged in moving from theory to practice, which can require some effort and time. Still, knowing that a problem is solvable, even in a theoretical sense, is a major hurdle to overcome if any hope for practical impact is to ultimately be realized.

Naturally, when the progression from theory to algorithm-creation to practical application plays out, limits inevitably will be reached. Sometimes, known theoretical methodologies will be stymied. But then the investigative cycle repeats, and ultimately progress is made. This understanding is what motivates the research efforts of many of the aforementioned faculty in ISyE. That the School has attained its elite status as a center of serious theoretical research validates their efforts.

Final remarks

The intent here has not been to claim, or even suggest, that all theoretical research in our methodological fields can be painted with the same colors. The quality of theoretical work, no matter the field or discipline, can sometimes only be judged by experts, and certainly, its true worth is often gauged over time. Above all, since theoretical research is basic research, its value — or the justification of its worthiness for pursuit — cannot be exclusively influenced by utilitarian requirements or prospects of immediate payoff. For the payoff to become obvious and substantial can take time.

Theoretical research of the sort that we’ve been addressing here requires a great deal of support for its development. It’s true that much of this support involves material resources such as time and money, but equally important is the need for support in terms of a strong institutional commitment in the endeavor—a genuine belief that a serious engagement in theoretical research is valuable and important. While ISyE has been a proud producer of strong, applications-focused research, it has also been enormously successful in building a strong and visible presence in the extremely competitive field of theoretical research. It is crucial that the School continues to solidify its place among those few, highly regarded academic programs with which it has earned the right to be considered a peer. The strongest evidence serving to corroborate this intention to stay at the theoretical forefront, in terms of quality and level of activity, can be gleaned from ISyE continuing to add young  and exceptionally talented faculty to its roster. Many of these young stars were attracted by the heritage of excellence in fundamental research that has evolved in ISyE over the last 30 years, and it will be up to them to continue it.

At the camp, we explored campus and received an overview of industrial engineering through hands-on activities and field trips. We interacted with professors  and several current ISyE students. As a high school student, I really looked up to these incredibly intelligent and motivated people who were only a couple years older than me. This motivated me to push myself to the limit to achieve my goals.

One of the many people who stood out to me during Mission Possible was Stephanie Kalman, IE 2009 and MBA 2015. We walked across the street from campus to visit the Coca-Cola Company headquarters, where Kalman co-oped as an undergraduate and then joined full-time after she graduated. She gave us a presentation of what she did as an industrial engineer at Coca-Cola.  I was inspired by her career path, and I knew that I had found the perfect school and major for me.

I have finished my first year at ISyE and am now in my sophomore year.  It has been an amazing experience so far. One of my favorite things about industrial engineering is its endless career possibilities and how it helps me build a mindset to make systems more efficient and effective for people in everyday life. While the program is not  easy, Georgia Tech offers plenty of resources for students to succeed, such as the TA help desk, one-on- one tutoring, and group tutoring sessions. In only one year, my mind, my attitudes, and my social skills have all been challenged.

Georgia Tech’s ISyE program has given me new perspectives and many opportunities. I have maintained contact with Kalman, keeping her in the loop about my freshman year and future plans. It is astounding how two years ago, during my first time at Georgia Tech, I was inspired to pursue an industrial engineering degree from visiting the Coca-Cola headquarters. Now I am very excited to have received a co-op offer at Coca-Cola, and I will start working there this fall for the next three alternating semesters.

I am very thankful to have attended Mission Possible and for its positive impact on me. I hope future high school participants take advantage of this program and have the same great experience I did or better. It’s truly an honor to be at Georgia Tech, especially the No. 1-ranked school for industrial and systems engineering.

One of the most common preventable causes of fetal and maternal mortality is obstructed labor caused by the mismatch between baby size and maternal pelvis. A possible preventive approach to obstructed labor is early identification of high-risk patients for timely referral to a district hospital for medically assisted delivery or Caesarean section.

 Sebastian Pokutta, Coca-Cola Assistant Professor in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech, has been researching machine learning using 3-D scan technology. He has developed a working prototype to address detection problems in obstructed labor complications. The technology uses economical off-the-shelf sensors together with a low-cost workstation and screen. At a price point of less than $1,500, this noninvasive and contact- free technology is magnitudes lower in cost than comparable technology.

Pokutta’s scanner produces a large amount of 3-D streaming data. The measurement time is minimal, between five and 10 seconds, which results in minimal discomfort for the patient, compared to MRIs that require long exposure times. Moreover, this smart technology is easy to use and does not require highly skilled personnel to operate and interpret results.

 Pokutta — along with research team ISyE Ph.D. student Daniel Zink and Professors Brandon Dixon and Rudolph Gleason from the School of Mechanical Engineering — will use this technology to obtain skeletal tracking data to detect architectural and volumetric body features in real-time.

“Output will be a digital 3-D model of the patient, from which standard measurements such as body height, hip height, width, and circumference, waist height, width, and circumference, shoulder height and width, as well as more involved volumetric measures such as abdominal volume and shape are inferred and various measures can be derived,” said Pokutta. “Based on these measurements, decisions can be made in advance to help ensure a safer delivery.”

Currently, the technology is being field-tested in rural Ethiopia.

With minor modifications, this device has a broader application appeal, including monitoring for malnutrition to find out which food programs are working better, and diagnosing lymphedema, the chronic swelling of arms and legs of some cancer survivors.

 The initial funding for this project, in the form of a seed grant from the George Family Foundation, defined the feasibility of the technology. In July 2015, the team won a seed grant challenge from Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development, where they were one of 17 award nominees selected to receive funding from more than 750 submissions. This new funding will be used for the first clinical trial in Ethiopia, which began in September 2015.

No doubt, working on real-world problems adds value to a student’s education, but when the project is actually implemented, the broader impact of the work is something worth talking about.

In one such case, a team of eight ISyE students, pictured on the next page with faculty advisor Pinar Keskinocak, worked with the Emory Winship Cancer Institute’s Ambulatory Infusion Center (AIC) during the fall semester of 2014. AIC wanted to shorten the amount of time patients waited before being taken to their infusion chair, to help reduce stress and anxiety for their cancer patients. The ISyE team focused on identifying the causes of delays and finding practical ways to curtail them.

After interviewing and shadowing staff and patients, collecting data, and conducting time studies, the ISyE team proposed that improved workflow, increased ability to know where patients were located during the various phases of the treatments, and a better system to notify nurses when chairs were available would shorten patient wait times.

The team then developed a Real-time Visibility Tool, a web- based app that allows the Infusion Center to communicate with and notify each other throughout the steps of the process. They also developed a comprehensive simulation model with a user interface enabling them to modify flow and observe results as well as a list of recommendations to improve AIC’s process flow.

AIC, impressed with the tool and recommendations, implemented the project.

“The impact of this [project] has been huge,” said Catherine Parker RN, MSN, OCN, the unit director at the Infusion Center. “The development and implementation of the visibility tool has helped the triage RNs significantly by providing a technological solution for what was extremely manual and inefficient. The tool has also made it possible on extremely short-staffed days to utilize only one triage RN, which helped the overall staffing for the team by adding the second triage RN back to direct care. This is substantial for the staff and patient flow.”

One of the implemented recommendations involved changes in the check-in process. Previously at check-in, paperwork was placed in a rack until one of the triage RNs could retrieve it. After implementing the ISyE team’s recommendations, the front-desk staff member delivered the paperwork to the triage office immediately after patient check-in.

 AIC patients have reported to AIC that wait times have decreased due to this change.

“The Real-time Visibility Tool created by the Georgia Tech students has been one of the best tools I have ever worked with here at Winship,” said Claudia Giddings, RN. “As a triage nurse, it has cut down on time by more than 30-40 percent.”

PHILADELPHIA, PA, November 4, 2015 – The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS^®), the leading professional association in analytics and operations research, today announced that the winner of the Daniel H. Wagner Prize is a team comprising researchers from the CDC, Georgia Tech, and Emory University for creating a model that uses genetic signatures to predict the efficacy of vaccines on an individual by individual basis.

The winner of the INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize competition was named on Tuesday, November 3 at the 2015 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. The competition is judged by CPMS, the association’s practice section. Over 5,500 academics and practitioners attended the conference.

Machine Learning Framework for Predicting Vaccine Immunogenicity, is by Eva K. Lee, Fan Yuan, Georgia University of Technology; Bali Pulendran, Helder Nakaya, Emory University; and Ferdinand Pietz and Bernard Benecke, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Eva K. Lee is the winner of numerous INFORMS awards. She was named an INFORMS Fellow at the INFORMS annual meeting.

The ability to better predict how different individuals will respond to vaccination and to understand what best protects them from infection marks an important advance in developing next-generation vaccines. It facilitates the rapid design and evaluation of new and emerging vaccines. It also identifies individuals unlikely to benefit from the vaccine.

The authors created a general-purpose machine learning framework, called DAMIP, for discovering gene signatures that can predict vaccine immunity and efficacy.  

Using DAMIP, implemented results for yellow fever demonstrated that, for the first time, a vaccine’s ability to immunize a patient could be successfully predicted with greater than 90% accuracy within a week after vaccination. A gene identified by DAMIP decrypted a seven-decade-old mystery of vaccination. Results for flu vaccine demonstrated DAMIP’s applicability to both live-attenuated and inactivated vaccines. Similar results in a malaria study enabled targeted delivery to individual patients.

The project guides the rapid development of better vaccines to fight emerging infections and improve monitoring for poor responses in the elderly, infants, and those with weakened immune systems.

Importantly, the project’s work is expected to help design a universal flu vaccine.

The other four finalists for the 2015 Wagner Prize were:

• Integrated Planning of Multi-type Locomotive Service Facilities under Location, Routing and Inventory Considerations by Kamalesh Somani, Jing Huang, CSX Transportation; Xi Chen, Yanfeng Ouyang, Zhaodong Wang, and Siyang Xie, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Scheduling Crash Tests at Ford Motor Company byDaniel Reich, Ellen Barnes, Erica Klampfl, Ford Motor Company; Marina Epelman, Amy Cohn, and Yuhui Shi, University of Michigan
• Strategic Re-design of Urban Mail and Parcel Networks at La Poste by Stefan Spinler, WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management; Matthias Winkenbach, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Alain Roset, La Poste
• Using Analytics to Enhance Shelf Space Management in a Food Retailer by Teresa Bianchi de Aguiar, Maria Antónia Carravilla, Luis Guimarães, José Oliveira, and Elsa Silva, University of Porto; Jorge Liz, João Günther Amaral, and Sérgio Lapela, Sonae MC

While the Internet of Things is getting increased attention among stakeholders in industry and government across all markets and countries, the Physical Internet is progressively considered as an approach worthy of consideration in rethinking the global supply chain (Science, June 6, 2014).

Read the article in its entirety within Manufacturing.net.

The analytics world significantly lacks qualified employees. In 2011, the McKinsey Global Institute determined that by 2018, the U.S. will face a shortage of 140,000-190,000 employees with deep analytical skills, and a shortage of analytics-trained managers by 1.5 million. Employees who are well-versed in analytics are in high demand – and that demand will only increase in years to come. This “deep need,” as the program’s Corporate Relations Manager Candice McLemore describes it, results from “so many companies that have all this data, and they don’t know what to do with it. The companies that are going to be most successful in the future are the ones making data-driven decisions.”

Sam Franklin, Head of Decision Sciences at 360i, a New York City-based digital marketing firm, concurs: “Data-driven decision-making is fundamental to running a successful business. Large amounts of data are continuously generated by every part of an organization, from HR to logistics to marketing. That data is full of hidden opportunities for organizational improvement and growth.” These opportunities, explains Franklin, created by such intense data generation, are why “realizing their full potential requires thoughtful, creative analytics professionals.”

And the graduates of the M.S. in Analytics program at ISyE are particularly well-placed to help propel that data-driven future forward and meet the challenges of the opportunities Franklin describes. This is partly because of the training they receive in the program and partly because of the strong qualities the students themselves bring with them on entering the program. As Sokol explains, “We have an outstanding set of students. They come in with a wide variety of backgrounds: Some have academic backgrounds in analytics-related fields while others might not. The common threads we look for in all of them are intelligence, creativity, quantitative talent, ability to communicate well, and overall outstanding potential for success in analytics.”

Take Gautam Krishna, a summer 2015 graduate who was hired by 360i as a data scientist, as an example. He helps his company’s clients make data-driven decisions in their paid social media campaigns. Krishna received his undergraduate degree in IE from a university in India, and then after working for a few years, he came to Atlanta from India in 2014 to enter the M.S. in Analytics program.

 When asked why he selected GT’s ISyE for his graduate work, Krishna explained, “The advanced statistics courses, combined with the computing courses, provides a strong base for building/learning new approaches and tools. Compared to my previous work experience (before the M.S. program), now I feel more self-reliant and confident in dealing with data and generating insights from the data.”

Rufus Frazer, another summer 2015 graduate, speaks to a similar experience. Prior to entering the program, he had worked as a math teacher, earned his MBA, and worked for AT&T “doing something,” he says, “that might be called ‘analytics’ but wasn’t strictly within the job title; they started pushing me more toward project management work and as I started looking around at AT&T at what I wanted to do, it was more in the analytics field.” He focused on the program’s analytical tools track, which helped refine and extend what Frazer learned from his MBA work. Frazer now works for Ernst & Young as a traveling consultant based in Philadelphia.

In fact, Ernst & Young made Frazer a job offer in November 2014 – well before Frazer had graduated from the program. This is typical for M.S. in Analytics participants. Sokol says, “The combination of student quality and program quality is reflected in the number of employers asking to meet our students in the hopes of hiring them. Many companies even make offers before our students have even completed their first semester of coursework, an indicator of how much they value our students and the education we give them.” In fact, GT’s M.S. in Analytics is the only program in the United States that brings together top 10 departments in statistics/OR, computer science, and business-quantitative analysis in its interdisciplinary approach.

Summer 2015 graduate Ari Siesser was hired by Atlanta-based Cardlytics, a digital advertising company, as a senior analyst. He calls what the program graduates learned “data literacy,” explaining that “increasingly we’re relying on numbers to answer questions that humans might have tried to answer with intuition before. We want data-driven decision making, and not management using their gut to influence decisions – and to explain your results in ways that people care about.” He says that the business classes he took as part of the program helps him convey the results so that they answer the “so-what” question, rather than just being about the numbers.

360i’s Franklin notes, “Georgia Tech’s M.S. in Analytics program’s interdisciplinary approach is the key to developing versatile data scientists who are able to tackle a wide variety of analytics problems.” And it is part of the equation, along with the high qualities that program participants bring with them, that has contributed to the graduates’ 100 percent job placement. This is an achievement of which program director Sokol is justifiably proud. Adds Frazer, “The M.S. in Analytics program is putting it all together.”

More on the program

What makes Georgia Tech’s M.S. in Analytics program unique compared to most other programs of this type is its interdisciplinary approach. The Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE), the College of Computing’s School of Computational Science and Engineering, and the Scheller College of Business offer coursework in business intelligence, data analytics, statistics and operations research, machine learning, big data, visualization, and more.

Students take required courses offered by all three schools, and what McLemore calls “boot camps” or other special sessions in leadership, creativity, ethics, programming languages such as Python and software like SAS, advanced math and statistics, and communications. About the latter she explains, “One of the biggest things that we’ve heard from employers is that communication skills are very important – particularly verbal communication – not just being able to crunch the numbers, but be able to solve problems and communicate with nontechnical people about what that data means.”

Fifty percent of the curriculum is in electives. After taking the boot camps and foundational courses, students can select electives from one of three tracks: an analytical tools track, a business track, or a computational data analytics track. They then select a personalized set of coursework from over 40 possible electives. The program also includes a mandatory applied analytics practicum experience working with a company on an analytics project.

For additional information, visit the program’s website here.

“CREATE-X is an initiative to instill entrepreneurial confidence in our undergraduate students.” says CREATE-X director Raghupathy Sivakumar, also Wayne J. Holman Chair Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

CREATE-X is an umbrella program that encourages students to learn about starting their own business, make their product, and then launch their own startups. In particular, Startup Summer is the “launch” portion of CREATE-X. Each startup team is given seed money, legal guidance, and hands-on help to get their businesses going. Recently, two ISyE students participated in Startup Summer on two different teams, and both students are living different versions of the startup life.

In Frederick Grimm’s case (BSIE 2014), he came to Georgia Tech specifically because he was interested in entrepreneurship. However, Grimm’s path to his current startup, FIXD, did not take a direct route. He originally participated in Startup Summer 2014 with a team called Sucette, which developed temperature-sensitive pacifiers. Due to development complications, he and his partner, Rachel Ford (BSBME 2015), are pursuing a patent for Sucette but have otherwise put the company on hold.

At the time, Grimm had graduated and planned to work for McKinsey in August 2015, but that left a gap of eight months to fill, so when he was invited to join FIXD – another Startup Summer team on which Ford was also working – he took the opportunity. Grimm has been with FIXD ever since.

The FIXD team – four of whom are Georgia Tech alums and two of whom are current students – has developed a diagnostic sensor that plugs in below a car’s steering column, and then connects via Bluetooth with an app they created. Once the app is opened, if the car’s check-engine light is on, the app will identify the problem and its severity, and translate this information back to the operator in comprehensible English. “We’re trying to help people better understand and maintain their cars,” explains Grimm. “You can leave the sensor plugged in and whenever you have a problem, it’s like a roadside assistant or a mechanic in your car.”

When asked how his background in IE helps support the rest of the FIXD team, Grimm says, “My role right now at FIXD is business strategies; we’re looking at forming a lot of larger partnerships that can help us distribute our product and increase our revenue. We have mechanical engineers, computer science majors, electrical engineers, and they’re very much concerned with building the product.” In the longer term, Grimm very much sees an IE component for FIXD: He gives the example of aggregating data from customers to create a knowledge base for when specific parts will be needed based on a car’s mileage, make, and model. This will enable auto-parts stores to carry certain parts at certain times. He describes this as a way to “better manage the supply chain.”

Grimm is fully committed to helping FIXD take off and getting the product into the hands of consumers. Having decided not to pursue his job at McKinsey, he’s living the full-time startup life: “It’s a lot of work. You wake up in the morning and talk to people all day and try to get your product off the ground – there’s not a lot of separation between work life and [personal life] right now. It’s fun because I enjoy it. That helps a lot.” He adds, “I don’t want to make it sound like it’s the easiest path ever – all the profits we’re making we’re reinvesting back in the company, so we’re not taking a salary at the moment, just drawing off savings. We’re going through the investment process right now.”

In fact, in terms of funding, FIXD has taken the path of many startups – by launching its own Kickstarter campaign in September 2014. The campaign was 100 percent funded and attracted the attention of such tech-oriented websites as Mashable and Engadget, as well as support from the Georgia Tech community. And, as Grimm noted, the campaign verified that FIXD is creating a product that consumers want and need.

Grimm recommends CREATE-X – and specifically, the Startup Summer program – for fellow IEs without reservation: “I feel like sometimes ISyE students feel like they’re at a disadvantage in terms of these startup programs because we’re not taught to build physical objects. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have value on a startup team. ISyE students are very entrepreneurial themselves. I feel like I can see an idea and see the potential in it. A lot of classes teach [you to consider] how from a theoretical perspective can I optimize this? How can I take this from a small idea and make it huge potentially? If you have a team of all MEs, eventually they’re going to face roadblocks that IEs could help them solve.”

Ricardo De Andrade, who is currently a junior in ISyE with a double major in computer science, also went through the Startup Summer process this past summer, with the Shortweb team. Shortweb, as he describes it, “makes it extremely easy for people to do research by allowing them to search, aggregate, and reference the information they care about. We're making a research engine that delivers content that you can aggregate into relevant topics. We take it a step further than Google. Our search results aren't web pages, they are highlights of the relevant web page's content. Ranking of search results is based on content relevance and not page relevance.”

Although both companies were launched via Startup Summer, Shortweb’s development took a slightly different route than did FIXD. First, the Shortweb team participated in HackGT, Georgia Tech’s national hackathon, and then in the University of Michigan’s equivalent, MHacks. Ultimately, Shortweb reached the finals for GT’s 2015 InVenture Prize – all of which was encouraging. So, when summer arrived, De Andrade had a decision to make: study abroad in France, while co-founder Miguel Oller (BSME 2015) interned on Wall Street, or together spend the summer developing Shortweb. In the end, he says, “We decided to apply to Startup Summer because we though that being part of an accelerator was going to bring a lot of value to the company, which it did. We managed to finish a usable product by the end of summer.”

De Andrade is currently balancing the demands of starting his own company with being a full-time student. He typically wakes up between 2 and 4 AM and works on Shortweb until lunchtime. After lunch, he goes to class and takes care of school responsibilities such as homework until 8 PM. Then, work on Shortweb begins again until midnight, which is when he finally sleeps. When asked what drives him to keep such a demanding pace, De Andrade explains, “Learning. One of the things that I like the most about entrepreneurship is how much one can learn in such a small amount of time. For example, during the summer, Miguel and I taught ourselves a new computer language, and we built the whole app with it. With Shortweb, I feel that I have learned so much, not only technical stuff, but also in business, legal, marketing, and many other fields.”

Shortweb is evolving quickly, he adds. It started out as a Google Chrome extension that let people highlight stuff in any website. De Andrade and Oller have further tweaked the idea, and they are building a research engine that will help people find relevant content online. Anyone from bloggers to students can benefit from this.

Like Grimm, De Andrade talks about how Georgia Tech encourages entrepreneurship in its students, and how IE fits in well with business: “When I arrived to Tech, I was not thinking at all about building my own company. As time passed, I became aware of the entrepreneurship environment that was flourishing on campus. With Shortweb I have learned that entrepreneurship is what I really want to do, because it is what I am really passionate about. IE may sometimes teach concepts focused in big, well-established companies, but almost everything that is learned during the degree can actually be applied to one’s company. IE and entrepreneurship are not mutually exclusive.”

Sanjay Parekh, Associate Director of CREATE-X, has plenty to say about nurturing entrepreneurship in Georgia Tech’s students. “This is really the next frontier for universities; we’re educating them to get jobs but we need to educate them to be able to create jobs. This is really going to change the face of Georgia Tech. I can’t wait for the day when there are kids saying, ‘I want to go to Georgia Tech because I want to be an entrepreneur, and they have this great program. That’s going to couple with the engineering that I know I want to do, so I can start this great company.’”

Silicon Valley, watch out.

Story by Van Jensen

The virtual worlds of Guy Primus—engineer, entrepreneur and Hollywood revolutionary

 ORIGIN STORY

This kid grew up in the 1970s and ’80s in east Pittsburgh, a blue-collar neighborhood. His mom was a teacher; his dad worked the late shift. They named their son Guy—Guy Primus—and with a name like that, it’s no wonder the kid had dreams.

In high school, Guy worked at his cousin’s convenience store. Saturday would come, and he’d pick up his $20 for the week and head down the street to Stedeford’s Record Shop, where he dropped every last cent to buy four 12-inch singles.

Guy dreamed of music. He wanted to be a DJ, so he built up his record collection, bought a turntable, taught himself to spin. But he wasn’t content to be just another DJ. He wanted to be great.

So Guy built his own setup, decked everything out with fabric and lights. He disassembled a telephone handset and rebuilt it to be his earpiece, a little touch of style to set him apart.

As much as Guy loved the music, the mechanics of the equipment fascinated him even more. His turntable broke, so he picked it apart, fixed it. Same with the TV at home—well, except he never could get that working again.

His dreams changed, and he saw himself designing and building speakers, a scientist with style, just like Amar G. Bose, the MIT professor whose eponymous company was overtaking the sound system industry.

So Guy would be a physicist. And to excel at that, he’d have to head south, to Georgia Tech. It was 1987, and fresh out of high school, he moved away from Pittsburgh for the first time—off to Atlanta.

He stepped onto campus, just another freshman. But he had conviction. He believed he would do something great. He had imagined it, and now he would set about the work of making it so.

FAITH

Suspension of disbelief.

The British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge first coined the phrase in the early 1800s. Writers of the era were obsessed with reality, believing readers couldn’t possibly engage with fiction featuring supernatural or fantastical elements.

Coleridge disagreed. Reality couldn’t contain his imagination, and he focused his efforts into building new realities. But Coleridge knew he must invite his readers to cross into the world of his mind, that he must make his work familiar and true.

He must “procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.”

The onus is not on the audience to set aside its skepticism. It is the visionary who bears the responsibility for guiding others into his dreams.

REVOLUTION

The office is in old Hollywood, an unassuming high-rise, built maybe in the 1920s. You walk through, and you can still almost hear the clack of typewriters echoing off the tile—forgotten screenwriters creating the golden age of movies one keystroke at a time.

You take the elevator to the ninth floor, past the offices of production companies where people are hard at work on the latest superhero movie, or the next episode of Dance Moms.

You step into the office, and the first thing that hits you is the view, a vista of downtown Los Angeles rising from the city’s unending expanse. But the office feels more tech startup than Hollywood. Ikea desks sit in tight formation, holding computers and other high-tech gear. A whiteboard along one wall seems to sag, it’s so laden with diagrams and equations labeled with phrases like “cross-collateralized.”

Guy Primus stands over a desk, next to a colleague, scanning data on a screen. He sees you, walks over, shakes your hand.

Guy is in his 40s now, his hair graying, but otherwise with the same tall build, the broad, bright smile. He welcomes you to his latest venture, The Virtual Reality Company, which is creating some of the first content for the nascent VR devices that soon will be widely available to consumers for the first time. He is now the company’s chief executive officer.

Guy has worked at some of the largest companies—Starbucks, Microsoft—and with some of the largest names—Will Smith, Sean Combs—in the world. He has enjoyed success beyond what some can fathom. But, as he says, “I wasn’t going to establish a legacy, working for someone else.”

So he’s taking what is just the latest in a long series of risks, building up an industry that doesn’t yet exist.

“Virtual reality is revolutionary,” Guy says. “There is no seminal work of VR. Being there at such an early, foundational stage is daunting, but it’s a great place to be at. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Guy asks you to imagine the future of entertainment, a world transformed, of revolutionary technology partnered with world-class content.

But you don’t have to imagine it. You can see it.

COURSE CORRECTION

The vision grew hazy, obscured. It wasn’t so simple as just learning to build the world’s best speakers. Most physics majors ended up working in the federal government, not a path Guy wanted to walk.

Guy struggled to stay interested in his classes, and he questioned himself, his vision of the future. He didn’t know what he’d do. Then he heard the song.

“I’m a Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer.”

What the hell was he doing at Georgia Tech if he wasn’t going to be an engineer? He cast around, examining schools, programs. Industrial and systems engineering struck his interest.

“Industrial engineers don’t really create things, but they like to work with people, not stuck in a lab all day,” he says. “Optimization was really appealing.”

During the first quarter of his senior year, he enrolled in a distributions systems class under Don Ratliff, now the Regents’ Professor Emeritus of ISyE. Even among some fifty students, Guy stood out, “by far the best student in the class,” Ratliff remembers.

One day they talked, and Guy revealed he wasn’t sure what to do after graduation. He told Ratliff that the course was the first one he’d really liked. Ratliff suggested graduate school, but Guy worried his grades weren’t good enough. “I said, ‘That doesn’t make sense. You’re the brightest guy in the class, the top score on everything,’” Ratliff says.

The grades were subpar, but Guy had been involved in more organizations and activities than Ratliff could count, and was a leader in many of them. Ratliff saw that Guy could succeed when he was working on something he was passionate about, so he went to the head of graduate studies and lobbied for Guy’s admission.

“Normally, I didn’t do anything like this,” Ratliff says. “But I thought this guy was special. I personally vouched for him. They let him in, and he did great; he made all A’s.”

After graduate school, Guy joined Ratliff’s software company, Caps Logistics. During his two years there, Guy saw a new world open up, one beyond the blue-collar setting of his youth. He also felt the familiar tug of ambition, to explore the world of management.

He took a job as a consultant at A.T. Kearney, solving business problems using analytics. The firm offered to send him to business school, and he went to Harvard. There, he remembers talking to famed professor Carl Sloane, who told him, “You’re at the West Point of capitalism. You can do anything you want to do. Follow your passion, and the money will come.”

Guy realized he’d gotten away from his first love—music—thinking he had to choose between entertainment or a career in business.

“I stepped back and said I had always wanted to work in entertainment, but I had this analytical bent,” Guy says. “So how could I combine them?”

He set his imagination to work, combining his passions. While others saw the worlds of art and technology as wholly separate, he saw a way to unite them. He would be a bridge.

ARTIFICE

On one desk sit a pair of what looks almost like ski goggles—it’s a brand-new pair of Rift virtual reality glasses built by Silicon Valley darling Oculus. Guy picks them up, hands them to you.

You pull on headphones, then the glasses. The world goes black, disappears.

Then it reappears, but, no, this isn’t the same world. You tilt your head left and right, up and down. You stand on an island. And the island floats in the sky. In the near distance are other islands. A whale rises suddenly from the ether, and you instinctively reach out to touch it as it flies past.

You’re in a dream, except it’s real. No matter how hard you look for a crack, a seam, you find none. There’s a rustle of wind in your ear, and the knee-high grass undulates with the breeze.

You follow a small girl, running from something now, something dark. She leads you out onto a rickety wooden pier, which extends out into the sky, then stops. The girl leaps, disappears.

You’re at the edge of the pier. You have to jump, or the dark thing will catch you. You look down at the drop, down and down forever.

You’re afraid of heights. Your whole body tenses. Your stomach churns. But the momentum takes you. You leap into the blue.

Then the glasses come off, and the old world returns. And you wish you could go back, to see what comes next.

CUTTING EDGE

Out of business school, Guy began using the analytics training he’d picked up at Georgia Tech and applying it to the world of marketing. That drew the interest of Bad Boy Entertainment, the media giant run by Sean Combs, the producer and rapper formerly known as Puff Daddy.

There, Guy learned the power of tastemakers first hand. Combs had street teams, people who knew what parties to be at, to get a feel for what the crowd wanted, what was becoming popular. Bad Boy also leveraged connections to DJs, getting their feedback, testing out music before widely releasing it.

“It’s not enough to just put out a great product,” Guy says. “You have to market it, you have to promote it, you have to connect it to the tastemakers.”

From there, he went to Microsoft, where he saw early the rise of digital music and leveraged it across the company’s platforms like MSN Messenger. Guy reached out to his friends in the music industry to create the Microsoft DJ Summit, which led to a series of playlists from DJs like DJ Spooky and a young Kanye West. The effort won a major advertising industry award. It also confirmed Guy’s theory that the key to success is finding the best content and then using emergent technology to bring it to consumers.

At Starbucks, Guy continued to work in music, developing a partnership with Apple that gave customers download cards for new songs, a different track every week. It became the company’s Pick of the Week program, which is still running strong, almost eight years later.

Guy moved his family from Seattle to Los Angeles to become the chief operating officer of Overbrook Entertainment, the production company of film star Will Smith. Though Guy says he’s never been in awe of celebrities, there’s a definite benefit to working with big names.

“I’m not the most talkative person,” he says. “So I choose who I work with. People know Sean Combs. They know Will Smith. Microsoft and Bill Gates, everyone knows. It opens a door a lot more quickly.”

But, after several years at the company developing its interactive portfolio, Guy felt a familiar pull. He wanted to stay on the cutting edge of technology, as he had his entire career. But he also wanted to build something of his own. Again, it was time to reflect on the vision, to see where it would lead next.

Guy started a handful of companies and worked as an adviser to startups. It was a systematic approach to testing out opportunities, seeing what resonated. It was also exhausting.

“I was stretched too thin,” Guy says. “I was finding myself shortchanging projects that deserved attention and putting too much effort into things that weren’t going anywhere.”

One project that did well was the Marvel Experience, a virtual tour through the company’s world of superheroes that Guy helped develop. Through it, he saw the power of taking people through an immersive experience. He saw the future, and it looked virtual.

ARTIFICE

Virtual reality.

The term first appeared in a 1938 book by French playwright, actor and director Antonin Artaud. He described theater as “la réalité virtuelle,” a space where actors, directors, playwrights, set designers take part in an alchemical process, uniting to create a new reality.

But it is not just those who take part in the process that are transported. No, this new plane of existence is one that the audience enters and experiences.

ARRIVAL

You know a little about virtual reality, that it’s been around in some form since the 1980s, when technologists commandeered the term for the new computer-designed virtual spaces they were constructing. You know that since then, VR has grown and developed in fits and starts, used mostly for training simulation.

While it hasn’t taken off, the signs of its potential are there. You read a recent study by researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory that says virtual reality is a very effective treatment for people who suffer from fear of flying. It allows them to go through their fears, to process them, and to learn to cope. It’s powerful, you see, but relatively untapped.

But VR has never taken off as a form of entertainment. In part because the technology has been too expensive for broad adoption, and in part, Guy tells you, because VR lacks the powerful stories that draw readers and viewers to other media.

“Ted Turner took the best of content and had this distribution that was novel,” he says. “People didn’t know what to do with cable TV, but he did know what to do with it. He made the Braves America’s team just because he knew what to do with emergent technology.

“We’re in the same space today. There’s this really great technology platform that exists, in virtual reality, but there’s no content. There’s zero content. Most of the content being created is very gimmicky. We’re looking to create really immersive, story-driven, character-driven content. It feels like you’re there, as opposed to sitting there and watching.”

You think it’s a risky plan, relying entirely on a technology that remains mostly foreign to consumers. But, you realize, the same could be said for the television, or the computer.

“Silicon Valley only invests in technology,” Guy admits. “It’s a challenge for us. We’re in a tech-driven form of media. Billions are going into VR tech. But no one will buy a headset without content.”

You look at Guy’s three partners in the business, and you think that if anyone could pull this off, this would be the group to do it. The VR you just watched is a preview of There, a fantastical story from the mind of the chief creative officer, Robert Stromberg, who created the virtual world of Avatar and directed the recent Disney hit Maleficent. The chief production officer is Chris Edwards, head of Third Floor, a firm that has created a revolutionary way to streamline the filmmaking process. And the president is Joel Newton, a producer whose credits include the film The Kids are All Right.

Their advisers include former Tech president G. Wayne Clough and Steven Spielberg. You’ve seen all of his movies.

“It wasn’t his name,” Guy tells you. “It’s that he has a vision. He can make a project that still resonates, 40 years later.”

You hear that Spielberg is developing a story for the Virtual Reality Company, a family-oriented project. You make a note, to make damn sure you experience it. You hear about other projects in development, including a documentary about Jerome Bettis, the NFL running back recently inducted into the Hall of Fame, as well as one called The Museum of Supernatural History, and another that’s a virtual concert venue, allowing you to experience a show and even go backstage, all from your living room.

“Something about being in the world, it connects you more deeply,” Guy says. “You feel it.”

You ask Guy about the stories he likes. Family, he says. He lists off a string of shows and movies: Frasier, Scarface, Godfather, E.T. All stories about families, the blood-relation kind and the kind we create.

Guy has a young daughter, and he talks about her, how she’s brought into focus the importance of women’s issues, how technology still has so far to go to be as diverse and welcoming as it can be.

“Women and people of color, historically, we’re always playing catch up,” he says. “We want to have women and people of color involved in the creative process, and to make sure the content is connected to them, that it speaks to them.”

The vision grows, changes, evolves. But it is clearer now, crystal. You can see that Guy knows it, that he sees his moment has come.

“I literally have been waiting for this moment in time since 1988,” he tells you.

He dreamed it, then made it so. Turned his vision into a new world, one that’s right there, just ahead. Would you like to see it? ▪

This story was originally published in Engineers, the Georgia Tech College of Engineering magazine.

“A dream come true” is how ISyE graduate (and May 2014 Commencement speaker) Shinjini Das describes her past year. Das is a busy young woman who is clearly going places: She juggles a job with Deloitte in California as a business technology analyst, along with developing careers as a professional speaker and media personality through an increasing number of TV interviews, blog contributions to the Huffington Post and Elite Daily, and her growing social media presence, which includes reaching almost 7,000 followers on Twitter and Facebook in less than a year.  

For Das, the breakthrough moment – and her favorite story from the past year – was getting her first piece published on Huffington Post this past January – a post called “5 Secrets of a Go-getter Girl.” “No one talks about this,” Das says. “No one says that being an ambitious woman is cool, at least that’s what I saw. … It’s not just ‘okay’ or ‘acceptable’ to be ambitious; it’s great to be ambitious, and why are we shying away from that?” The post garnered international attention and generated a cultural discussion. “People have blogged about this saying they have go-getter girls in their lives, and one woman blogged that … her husband is helping her embrace the go-getter in her.”

For Das, being a go-getter girl is more than just words: She embodies it – a process that began in high school and continued while she was at Georgia Tech. She chose industrial engineering as her major because of its combination of business and engineering, which would give her an “analytical background and foundation … the career paths were appealing,” she says. “ISyE being No. 1 also helped!” Each IE class emphasized leadership, the thought process being, she explains, “WHEN [rather than “if”] you become a business leader.”

She also pursued leadership in other ways at Georgia Tech, joining the public speaking club and conducting workshops, and becoming a student ambassador. In many ways, being a representative for Georgia Tech prepared Das to become her own personal brand ambassador. “That is literally my job now … representing something. Then it was representing Georgia Tech; now I’m representing my brand, what I stand for, my values, my thoughts … It’s very, very similar.”

Given that she is building her own personal brand, Das was asked if everyone should consider developing their own personal brand, and what some steps toward doing so might be. Her response was emphatic: Every person is in fact his or her own brand. The first step toward developing that is to “identify your value proposition: Who are you? Why should people buy your product?” The process requires time and thought – time and thought Das also put in for herself. “It’s not magic,” she notes. Next, “identify your goals. What do you want to do?” Your goals will determine your branding strategy. And finally, “identify and create an action plan.” She encourages people to not only “dream and take time to think” about these issues, but also “to act. Without an action plan, a dream is not a completed task.”

Das is continuing her pursuit of being a go-getter girl – and she’s seeing results. In November 2015, she will be honored as one of 50 global heroes for her work to empower youth and advocate for gender equality by a top United Nations partnership. Further, she will soon be profiled by the Institute of Industrial Engineers in “Final Five” for engaging in nontraditional work. In 2016, she will embark on her first national speaking tour.

Das is returning to Georgia Tech on Tuesday, October 6^th as a guest lecturer for Professor Bill Todd’s Principles of Management Consulting class, where she will be speaking on “human factors in consulting … client skills, relationship skills … How do you deal effectively with so many different people?” After all, Das points out, “That is life. How do you get the most of out of every transaction?”

You can connect with Das on Twitter or Facebook and visit her website: www.shinjinidas.com.

The award recognizes the exceptional accomplishments of an alumnus, including professional achievements, peer recognition, community engagement, and a strong relationship with UQTR. The award is “the equivalent of a gold medal,” which the recipients receive for offering out-of-the-ordinary education, application of their work, and their achievements.

Montreuil is also the director of the Physical Internet Center and a leader within the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute. He received his B.S. from UQTR in 1978, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1980 and 1982, respectively.

The Pythagore Award is another in Montreuil’s long list of awards, which recently include DC Velocity’s Rainmaker of the Year and The Physical Internet Pioneer Award.

What makes the Pythagore Award really special, says Montreuil, is that  it’s “from my alma mater where I have been a student and then a professor (1998),” and that he “was nominated by a large group of people (engineers and business notably) … and I feel that it may help people in the region [where he was born] believe that they can follow their dreams and passions and succeed to thrive with the best.”

Montreuil can indeed be considered to be among the best of the best. He has become known worldwide for his breakthrough research contributions at the intersection of industrial and systems engineering, operations research, logistics, supply chain engineering, business design, strategic management, and sustainability.

Montreuil will travel to the awards gala on October 16^th, 2015 to receive the award at UQTR.

ISyE graduate student Kevin Ryan has received $7,500 from the Achievement Rewards for Academic Scientists program (ARCS). When asked how he felt about receiving the award, he said, “Humbled and a bit vindicated. On the one hand, I know the history of the award and the amazing researchers who have won it in the past. To live up to the standards that they have set will be a challenge. On the other hand, I feel that now I can say with more confidence that I must be doing something right in my research.”

Ryan chose Operations Research at ISyE because of the depth and breadth of the faculty. He looks forward to pursuing “the best research opportunities” as a result of the award, and participating as a future ARCS member.

ISyE graduate student Amy Musselman has been awarded the $10,000 Global Impact Award from the Achievement Rewards for Academic Scientists (ARCS). Musselman chose to do her Ph.D. at ISyE because of the numerous faculty doing applied research in a wide array of fields. When she received notification about winning the ARCS award, she was sitting on the beach in Belize with two friends, and she thought, “Could my life be much better right now?”

Musselman has tried to focus her research on areas that will have a positive social or environmental impact and see the ARCS award as confirmation that others see her work as valuable as well.

 “We are proud that ISyE’s hard work and dedication to excellence in education and research continues to be recognized,” said Edwin Romeijn, professor and H. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart Chair.  “This long-held position as # 1 in its field is a tribute to our world-class faculty, outstanding students, dedicated staff, and engaged alumni who can be found around the globe in leadership positions.”

Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering also continues to be recognized as one of the best in the nation, tying for sixth place in the annual undergraduate engineering program in the USNWR rankings. Each of the College of Engineering's 10 undergraduate degrees programs was ranked seventh or higher in their respective fields with six programs ranked fourth or higher in year's edition.

Researchers focused their investigation on a drug called necitumumab, which is awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Previous studies have shown that the drug extends the life in patients with metastatic squamous lung cancer by about seven weeks. 

The researchers used their economic model to factor medication and administration costs with life expectancy, frequency and management of adverse effects, and quality of life. The results demonstrated that the value-base price for necitumumab ranges between $563 and $1,309 per three-week cycle, which is significantly lower than most cancer drugs that have entered the marketplace recently.

“Cancer drug prices have been skyrocketing in recent years, and these prices are not linked to the benefit that the drugs provide. Most new cancer drugs cost in excess of $10,000 per month,” says lead study author Daniel A. Goldstein, MD, who recently completed his fellowship in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Winship.  “These rising prices are unsustainable to the system. Potentially life-saving drugs should carry a high price tag, but drugs such as necitumumab that extend life expectancy only by a matter of weeks should cost significantly less.”

According to the study authors, “the current system of paying for cancer drugs in the United States provides little incentive for manufacturers and physicians to consider value when pricing and using drugs.” Although the study determined pricing for one specific drug, the analysis conducted establishes a model by which other cancer drugs can similarly be assessed in the future to develop value-based prices. The study concludes: “There is currently a crucial step in the drug development and approval process that is missing – an evaluation of cost and value.”

Other study authors include ISyE PhD student Qiushi Chen, BSc, and ISyE Assistant Professor Turgay Ayer as well as Winship Cancer Institute members David H. Howard, PhD, Joseph Lipscomb, PhD, Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, Christopher R. Flowers, MD, MS.

• Identify and pursue pre-competitive and industry-focused research inspired by significant promise for economic and social impact and contributions to the body of knowledge,
• Accelerate and de-risk the path from knowledge discovery to innovation and commercialization,
• Nurture and develop the Next Generation supply chain & logistics workforce,
• Provide up-to-date business intelligence to better understand today’s competitive landscape.

During the inaugural ceremonies, Georgia Tech Provost Rafael Bras noted, “Logistics is a major player of the U.S. economy comprising over eight percent of the U.S. GDP, and Georgia, in particular, is a U.S. logistics hub.  In parallel, Singapore and its container port thrive on expert logistics know-how. The new generation of logistics must integrate supply chains, movement of goods, manufacturing innovation, data analysis for predictive logistics, and growth of urban regions and megacities. It represents the future, and we are thrilled to define that future together with our Singaporean partners.”

Chelsea C. White III, Schneider National Chair in Transportation and Logistics and Professor in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, has spearheaded Georgia Tech’s participation in this initiative and is co-leader of the center with the NUS principal investigators, Professors Lee Loo Hay and Chew Ek Peng. 

“We are delighted to be collaborating with NUS in an area of research and innovation that has such potential societal and economic impact for both our countries. Next Generation technology, data availability, customers, manufacturing innovations, and demographic trends will shape Next Generation logistics and supply chain systems, and it is critical that both nations are leaders in these areas to insure sustainable economic growth and prosperity,” said White, who presented the Center vision during the inaugural ceremonies.

Georgia Tech has collaborated with NUS for more than 15 years as the co-founders of The Logistic Institute – Asia Pacific, and the new Center will further expand this collaboration. 

The Center has received seed funding from Georgia Tech and NUS over a two-year period to develop the Center concept and expects a 5-year initial funding commitment of $3 million annually from collaborating government agencies and industry partners to support approximately 25 faculty and graduate researchers.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150810110632.htm

Because of this, ISyE is making sure students in high school learn just how exciting and rewarding a career in industrial engineering can be. Enter Mission Possible, an annual one-week summer program providing rising 9th through 12th grade students with an overview of the industrial and systems engineering major at Georgia Tech. The program demonstrates how IE is utilized in real-world settings through field trips, game competitions, and lectures. For this camp, ISyE partners with the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC), which is dedicated to the enhancement of K-12 STEM education.

During Mission Possible 2015, students participated in interactive learning sessions in order to better understand how industrial engineers are changing the world. For example, two companies, Caterpillar and Procter & Gamble (P&G), ran manufacturing games with the students, emphasizing process flow improvements. Students building cars and Lego structures on assembly lines witnessed bottlenecks and struggled with quality control. Caterpillar's game focused on reducing or eliminating waste in the process and finding ways to make the customer happy. P&G's game emphasized creating and selling products under a strict production schedule. Both companies gave the students the opportunity to improve by changing processes—from altering their production schedule to cross-training their workers.

Also on the agenda was a tour of the Coca-Cola Headquarters, where the students were given a presentation on the company’s supply chain. Through this experience, students heard firsthand how industrial engineering is directly related to products they enjoy every day.

The week ended with student presentations demonstrating all they learned. ISyE hopes to challenge these students to see if they have what it takes to become an industrial engineer and one day make the impossible possible.

This year’s action packed program was made possible, in part, by sponsorship from Procter and Gamble. If you would like to sponsor next year’s program or provide assistance to a student with financial need contact: nancy.sandlin@isye.gatech.edu

If you know of a student who may be interested in attending, contact: brandy.blake@isye.gatech.edu or dawn.strickland@isye.gatech.edu     

The EMIL-SCS Program is the premiere executive-style masters degree in supply chain and logistics. EMIL-SCS is delivered in an Executive format over an 18-month period. Participants meet for two-weeks of intensive classes (residences) every 3-4 months. Members participate via distance learning alternatives between residences. In total, there are 5 EMIL-SCS residences. This unique 18-month masters program keeps key employees on-the-job while teaching them practical techniques for decreasing logistics costs and improving supply chain efficiencies.

The EMIL-SCS is currently looking for the next class of supply chain and logistics leaders! The application window is now open, and will remain open until December 15, 2015. The program admits students on a first-come-first-served basis, until the class is full. The program will accept applications after the December 15, 2015 deadline, as long as spots in the new class are still available.

The Class of 2017 will begin classes in Atlanta, GA on January 31, 2016. For a full list of residence dates and more information about the program, please visit our website.

If you are interested in the program, you can apply here, or contact the EMIL-SCS Program Coordinator, Jonathan Goitz at jonathan.goitz@isye.gatech.edu

Following his Ph.D., Daniel spent two years as a Simons Postdoctoral Fellow in the Computer Science department at New York University. In September 2014 he joined Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), a Dutch national research institute for mathematics and computer science, as a tenure track researcher in the Networks and Optimization group.

He is currently interested in developing techniques for solving a broad range of optimization problems, where he particularly likes those benefiting from geometric thinking. In his free time Daniel enjoys traveling, swing dancing, and riding his bike through the canals of Amsterdam.

The citation for the prize reads:

Daniel Dadush obtained an ScB in Mathematics from Brown University in 2006, and a PhD from the Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization program at Georgia Tech under the guidance of Santosh Vempala in 2012. He is currently a tenure track researcher at Centrum Wiskunde and Informatica in Amsterdam.

In his PhD thesis "Integer Programming, Lattice Algorithms, and Deterministic Volume Computation" Dadush presents several impressive results on algorithmic convex geometry, geometry of lattices, and the complexity of integer programming. His results include a proof of the claim that the Chvatal-Gomory closure of a convex body is a rational polyhedron, improved algorithms for finding the shortest and closest lattice vectors, an optimal deterministic algorithm for computing an M-ellipsoid of a convex body, and a much-improved and nearly-optimal deterministic algorithm for computing the volume of a convex body. By combining all the techniques derived in his thesis, Dadush derives the fastest currently known algorithm for integer programming. The complexity of the algorithm represents a significant improvement over classical algorithms by Lenstra and by Kannan and shows Dadush's deep understanding of lattice techniques and convex geometry. In his work Dadush pays great attention to detail and exposition, which results in a thesis that is truly worthy of the 2015 A.W. Tucker prize.

As a freshman, and not sure which field or industry to enter upon graduation, he did his research and spoke with people whose experience and opinion he valued highly. Villafane ultimately chose ISyE because of the versatility of the program and its distinction of its well-rounded courses that combined a solid foundation and strong analytical mindset for those who became industrial engineers. “I chose Georgia Tech because its reputation and the quality of its education. I continue to be very proud of being part of the Georgia Tech family. I truly am a rambling wreck from Georgia Tech, and a helluva an Engineer”.

Villafane’s distinguished career path has led him to his current position, VP of Sales and Business Development (Commercial) at SES.

How has ISyE prepared you for your career?

The program, its emphasis, and courses provide a world class foundation that is very relevant in most industries, even complex sales and business development which is my career focus area. Another important part of the answer has to do with the large, proud ISyE community worldwide. I am originally from El Salvador, and while at Tech, I was part of a very tight-knit Latino community. To this day, we remain connected, and the camaraderie and support is still there, strong as ever. It is great to see that many of them are leaders in their respective fields, contributing in positive ways to the societies where they live. One example is my friend & ex-classmate, Juan Carlos Varela, who now is the President of Panama. 

What does SES do?

SES is one of the largest satellite solutions companies in the world (www.ses.com). We are part of the communications platform that allows people to be connected at all times and deliver communication services that help improve people’s lives.  With our partners, we focus on being the most customer centric satellite solutions provider in the industry. We have over 1,200 professionals in offices around the world.  We run, operate, and commercialize a robust, modern satellite infrastructure comprised of over 50 satellites that cover 99% of the world population.

As VP of Sales and BD (Commercial) at SES, what do you oversee?

My responsibility is Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and certain U.S. service providers that utilize satellite communications to provide services to the Latin America Region. I spend most of my time in the Mexico facility as it is one of our key markets and we have several strategic initiatives in process.

Describe a typical work day.

Very simple, I strive daily to do what is necessary by: (1) Maintaining a healthy personal/work balance. (2) Maintaining and improving our revenue position. (3) Maintaining and improving customer satisfaction and customer intimacy (4) Continuing to develop a high performance organization focused on value selling. And (5) Continuing to build an organizational modus operandi that strives on identifying how to address customer communications needs with our resources (technology, partnerships, and infrastructure) with the intent of bringing/adding value to the customer's specific objectives.

This is an important challenge since we work with customers in all verticals and each one has its own idiosyncrasies: Government, Enterprise, Service Providers, and Value added resellers. Doing what is necessary at the office includes: resolution of customer issues, drive pipeline execution, lead and manage our resources (specially our Human Resource), and assure we maintain an effective governance aligned to our Corporation objectives.

What is one of the biggest challenges you face in satellite communications?

Generate the right mindshare in our market place that we are a 'solutions provider' versus just a segment/communications transport company. We must avoid to be perceived as a commodity. SES has significant capabilities that together with our best in class satellite infrastructure could be part of solutions' that truly address communications needs. My challenge is to lead our efforts so that we identify what those needs are in mobility, video, data, and government so that we can put together offers that add the most value.

What do you find the most enjoyable about your work?

The daily interaction with people at every level and helping lead the development and implementation of solutions that resolve customer issues. I am a people person and absolutely enjoy engaging with people and treating everyone with dignity. I learned this at an early age from my father. He owned and ran a sugar cane plantation in El Salvador and always treated people with the utmost dignity regardless of their economic or social standing.

What do you think is the importance of global communications?

There have been books written in this space, and there is significant research going on about the importance of sound, solid, capable ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) backbones in order to be more effective and efficient in delivering products and services; and the overall concept of improvement of people’s lives. I think we can all envision how this benefits the business world and our day to day lives just by looking at our place of employment and our dependence on connectivity in our daily activities. The other important aspect that is more obvious in developing countries is the topic of social inclusion. In these countries, ICT is critical in programs related to social inclusion from the educative, health, and cultural points of view. In my opinion, communications is not evolving, but transforming. It is transforming the way we work, the way we communicate, the way we have access to our information, the way we access our entertainment, and even the way we socialize. I am fortunate to be part of this transformation.

How do you define success?

In my opinion, we all have several aspects to our lives. In my case, those aspects include: being a husband, father, son, brother, friend, and being a professional. Success to me is when all aspects of my life are in balance and in order. This 'balance' is not static; it is something that I work on daily founded on positive attitude and a set of values that promote quality of life.

What is one thing you are doing this summer to capture the magic of the summer time?

Spending quality time with the family, if possible at the beach, and contemplating more on how beautiful the simple things in life are.

These programs are created to meet the growing demand for business-savvy engineers and technical managers who can design and synchronize multifaceted global supply chains.

The SCM rankings act as a recruiter’s guide to future supply chain management talent. SCM World annually compiles these standings by surveying hundreds of supply chain executives around the world to find out which universities they look to as “markers of talent”.

The tally of the data came down to how employers view the talent pools coming from graduates entering the workforce. According to SCM World, their main goal is to recognize which universities are “top of mind” for supply chain executives when they are recruiting future employees.

The SCM World community aims to empower supply chain professionals with the capability, commitment and confidence to drive greater positive impact on business performance and help solve three of the world’s fundamental challenges: health, hunger and environmental sustainability.

The event kicked off with a spectacular reception on Wednesday night in the Constellation Suite on the top floor of the hotel.  Alumni mingled among floor to ceiling windows that provided stunning views of the Vancouver skyline.  Alumni were offered a glimpse of the beautiful sunset over English Bay, while relaxing on the outside patio of the Constellation Suite.  The Welcome Reception set the tone for an amazing reunion. 

On Thursday, the morning kicked off with three presentations from current EMIL-SCS alumni on a variety of topics.  Alexis Takvorian (Class of 2009) presented on the "Last Mile," and engaged participants in a discussion of e-commerce and how the last mile provides an opportunity to make a lasting impact on the customer.  Next, Jim Blaeser (Class of 2013) discussed the Global Container Shipping Outlook.  Jim examined the financial performance of the global carrier industry, the headwinds companies will face in 2015, and opportunities for improvement.  The morning came to a close with Todd Ericksrud's (Class of 2005) interactive presentation on MatchBack Systems, Inc.  After a full morning of learning, alumni went out and explored Vancouver, hitting key destinations such as Stanley Park, Granville Island, and Grouse Mountain.  Members of the class of 2005, 2009, and 2013 even took a seaplane ride, catching wonderful views of downtown, the water, and the surrounding areas from the sky!

Friday morning started with three more educational presentations.  Brad Grimsley (Class of 2011) kicked things off with a presentation on the Multichannel Customer, touching on the ever evolving customer.  Next, Greg Andrews (Class of 2005) spoke about Project Logistics, sharing key experiences from various real-world projects.  To end the morning, the EMIL-SCS Program recognized and acknowledged Greg Andrews, who served as the program's Executive Director from 2007-2012.  Greg received a special award for his work with the program, some GT swag, and, his favorite, an Auburn hat.  The program recognized Greg for his selfless service and dedication to keeping the EMIL-SCS program at the top of executive supply chain education field.  

The Reunion and Summit came to a close with a lovely celebration dinner at the hotel.  Amidst pictures and memories from past residences, participants connected one final time.  At the celebration dinner, the EMIL-SCS program announced the creation of the Greg O. Andrews Scholarship for the class of 2017.  Thanks to the generous donations from various alumni, the program dedicated the $1500 scholarship to the ex-Executive Director, and will offer the money to one deserving student from the new class.  

Open Enrollment for the Class of 2017 is now available!
For more on the EMIL-SCS Program, contact Jonathan Goitz at jonathan.goitz@isye.gatech.edu or visit http://www.emil.gatech.edu/

Lally’s computer science knowledge, analytical mindset, and her attention to detail at both ISyE and ESPN are some of the keys to her success.  Before graduating, she was offered and accepted a position with the St. Louis Rams in Football Information Systems. And she is already thinking about what she wants to be doing five years from now.

“In five years I would like to be innovating new ways to approach data in order to impact multiple departments within the front office. I have entered the sports world in the beginning stages of the big data movement, so in the next years I want to help change the way the game of football is analyzed and contribute to the foundation of how players are recruited.”

This is a career that will be best viewed from the 50 yard line.

You completed a dream internship this past summer, and now will begin working for the NFL. How does that feel?

I worked really hard throughout my college career, and even in high school, to achieve my dream of working in sports. The internship with ESPN Stats & Info was an incredible experience that helped focus my career goals even further. Although I loved my time at ESPN, I knew the front office of a team was more aligned with where I wanted my career to go. That was my ultimate goal, but I never thought I would be so fortunate to begin my professional career with the St. Louis Rams. The trust and responsibilities the Rams have already given me confirmed that I am in the right place. They are excited to have me, and I am even more excited to be here. I actually spent my third week of work in Seattle for a Sports Science Conference so I am embracing the opportunities I have to travel and continue learning new things. It has been everything I hoped it would be and more. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

What will a typical day look like for you?

My primary role is analyzing data on the football players. A typical day consists of fitting regression models to data, looking for trends, determining how to predict future performance and using software to visually analyze the data. All of this work is done as a collaborative effort with colleagues in different departments, such as scouting and strength conditioning, in order to assess their data analysis needs, improve the organization as a whole, and gain a competitive advantage.

How did ISyE prepare you for this new chapter in your life?

ISyE’s curriculum of statistical programs like R and Minitab, as well as cross-disciplinary computer science classes with Python programming and SQL for databases are directly applicable in data analysis in the real world. In addition, the analytical thinking, ability to solve problems, and recognition of patterns in data are all keys to success. Lastly, I am thankful for senior design and the industry experience we gained from it. I improved my ability to work well on a team, problem solve, and meet deadlines. The impact that we were able to make was evident and motivating as I have begun my career.

How will you apply your IE skills to your work in sports?

R and SQL will be used in my daily work. My job will require creativity daily in order to find new avenues to analyze. I also will have to look at data through an unbiased lens, and use my IE statistical knowledge to validate any findings by finding relevance and significance of models and trends. In addition, my job will require the attention to detail that was required for success as an IE student and basic time management skills.

How do you define success?

To me, individual success is defined by happiness. That happiness comes from my well-being, but also other sources such as my ability to make a direct impact and add value to the organization. For the team, success is observing how our analysis manifests itself in the way we play but also in winning games. The end goal is to win championships and get that ring.

What is one thing about you, that you are willing to share, that does not show up on your resume?

I hope that my experiences will inspire others to follow their dreams. One day I would like to be able to speak with young women in high schools or colleges in order to encourage them to find their gift and pursue a career where they can use that gift to make a difference. 

It was about a year and a half ago when David Goldberg, assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering, contacted GTPD to see if he could make himself useful in the department’s work. Goldberg’s research focuses on applied probability, optimization, and machine learning.

“I wanted to find a way to use my work on campus,” he said. “Sometimes as an academic you lose sight of what you can do right here.”

Since then, Goldberg and a team of undergraduates have been working with GTPD and the Atlanta Police Department (APD) to make enhanced use of their data from recent years. So far, Goldberg’s team has input the rich set of data to present visualizations of when and how crime has taken place. 

The preliminary analysis showed that crime has dropped, both on campus and in Atlanta, in recent years. The project’s next steps will be to see if the researchers can use that data to predict what crime will look like in the future, and to build more optimization into what GTPD and APD are already doing. They will analyze how crimes may correlate with one another, how crime clusters, and how it changes over time, especially in relation to how Atlanta has grown and evolved in recent years.

“There’s a huge amount of creativity involved, which I think is vital to developing innovative solutions,” said David Wang, a fourth-year student who has been working on the project for about five months. The project involves around half a dozen undergraduate students and recently won a President’s Undergraduate Research Award.

Researchers are making use of resources such as Microsoft MapPoint, Google Earth, and Geographic Information System software as they examine crime locations and police zones. Knowing that their efforts will play a role in keeping others safe has added significance to the work.

“When we come up with suggestions and solutions, we know they will potentially be applied in real-world practice, and that means huge responsibility,” said Henry Wang, a fourth-year student who has been part of the project since fall 2014. 

That responsibility, though, has motivated the team to work harder and take the work more seriously. Goldberg believes the impact of working with something so close to home creates excitement and energy that can’t be reproduced in a lab.

“It’s just so different from other research work I have done,” said Bingyi Bao, another undergraduate researcher. “The topics of most research work are about inventing new theories, but this project is about us.”

For GTPD, working with researchers gives them another way to get to know the campus and who they are working to serve and protect. Not only does their police work protect individuals in the community, but it also protects the research enterprise at work every day.

“I can’t impress enough what it means to us to have this partnership,” said Randy Ory, crime analyst for GTPD. 

For Goldberg, it’s a chance to collaborate and use his expertise to improve the campus community. With the early success of working with GTPD, he is looking for other ways to build optimization into campus operations. 

“We want to use sophisticated analytics and big data technology to help support, optimize, and fine-tune policies and decisions,” he said. “I love for academics to have a direct and meaningful impact on local communities.”

The certificate program consists of three courses: Pre-planning Strategy for Health and Humanitarian Organizations; Tactical Decision Making in Public Health and Humanitarian Response; Systems Operations in Health and Humanitarian Response. It is offered in a 6-day format (2 days per course), which enables individuals traveling from outside of Atlanta the opportunity to earn a certificate in less than a week. The blended delivery format includes pre-course reading assignments, in-class lectures, discussion, interactive games and group work.

Course topics focus on logistics and supply-chain management related to a broad range of activities including preparing, responding to, and recovery from natural and man-made disasters, as well as ongoing humanitarian crises due to war, famine, infectious diseases, and chronic health problems. Participants valued the diverse group of experiences among their classmates and the opportunities to network with and learn from each other as well as the practical applications and group simulation activities which gave them new approaches to challenges in their areas of work.

Amanda Paniagua, Shipments Manager at MedShare International Atlanta headquarters reflected: “The professors were exceptional and incredibly knowledgeable on all things supply chain. I also learned so much just from hearing other students share their experiences from the field in class.” Likewise, Kenny Onasanya, Procurement team lead for Crown Agents in Nigeria, emphasized the “scope of subjects covered, practical case studies in diverse sectors from health, education and other public sector projects.” The “practical and interactive training” also helped practitioners such as Bob Muteeganda, Supply officer at the United Nations Ivory Coast, to “understand the theory behind practices in the industry.” He reflected: “I now feel well prepared to reorient my career to the health and humanitarian supply chain management sector.”

The HHS Center is fortunate to provide a limited number of scholarships for program participants which were made possible through the generosity of The UPS Foundation, Andrea L. Laliberte, Pete Quinones, and Richard E. and Charlene O. Zalesky. This year’s scholarship recipients represented organizations such as Family Health International (FHI 360), Last Mile Health, MSF (Doctors Without Borders), Save the Children, USAID and World Vision in addition to United Nations agencies such as UNICEF, UNHCR and the UN World Food Programme. Other course participants included representatives from national ministries of health in their countries, non-governmental organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, MedShare, and Partners in Health, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The 2015 courses were led by HHS Center Co-Directors, Drs. Özlem Ergun, Pinar Keskinocak and Julie Swann. Guest speakers included Georgia Tech faculty member and supply chain expert Dr. John Bartholdi; Rollins Professor and chair of the Hubert Department of Global Health at Emory University, Dr. Carlos Del Rio; Medical Officer assigned to the Emergency Response and Recovery Branch (ERRB) at the Center for Global Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Mark Anderson; and Academic Director of the Master of Advanced Studies in Humanitarian Logistics and Management (MASHLM) at the University of Lugano, Switzerland, Paulo Gonçalves.

For more information about the scholarships or to sponsor students for scholarships in 2016, please visit: http://hhls.scl.gatech.edu. For more information about the courses, visit: http://www.scl.gatech.edu/professional-education/HHL/ or email: hhscenter@isye.gatech.edu.

Publications:

Shabbir Ahmed, Dean's Professor and Stewart Faculty Fellow, co-authored the paper Large scale Decentralized Unit Commitment that was published in the International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems along with Mohammad Javad Feizollahi, ISyE Ph.D. student, Santiago Grijalva, associate professor at the School of Electrical Engineering (ECE), and Mitch Costley, an ECE Ph.D. student. Their paper focuses on a method for formulating and solving a decentralized unit commitment problem. The method, which extends the alternating direction method of multipliers, is presented along with several heuristics and refinements to mitigate oscillations and traps in local optimality that result from the nonconvexity of unit commitment.

Shabbir Ahmed, Santanu Dey, Fouts Family Associate Professor, Gustavo Angulo, ISyE Ph.D. student, and Volker Kaibel,  Chair for Mathematical Optimization at the Institute for Mathematical Optimization co-authored the paper Forbidden Vertices that was published in Mathematics of Operations Research, vol.40  In this work, they introduce and study the forbidden-vertices problem and provide additional tractability results and extended formulations when P has binary vertices only. Some applications and extensions to integral polytopes are discussed.

Shabbir Ahmed, George Nemhauser, A. Russell Chandler III Chair and Institute Professor, and Qie He, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, co-authored the paper Minimum Concave Cost Flow Over a Grid Networkthat was published inMathematical Programming vol.150. They studied the minimum concave cost network flow problem over a grid network with a general nonnegative separable concave cost function and showed that this problem is polynomially solvable when all sources are in the first echelon and all sinks are in two echelons, and when there is a single source but many sinks in multiple echelons.

Santanu Dey, Fouts Family Associate Professor, had his paper, Analysis of MILP Techniques for the Pooling Problem, published in the INFORMS Journal of Operations Research. In this paper, we prove that the ratio of the upper bound obtained by solving piecewise-linear relaxations (objective function is maximization) to the optimal objective function value of the pooling problem is at most n, where n is the number of output nodes.

Paul Griffin, Virginia C. and Joseph C. Mello Chair and Professor, and ISyE Ph.D. student Nathanial Bastian published two papers. The first one, Multi-criteria Logistics Modeling for Military Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Aerial Delivery Operations, is on a supply network design model that was developed for the military for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief for their work with USAID that is published in Optimization Letters.  The second one, The AMEDD Uses Goal Programming to Optimize Workforce Planning Decisions, is a workforce planning model they built for the army medical system that is published in Interfaces.  The results and models in both of these papers are already in practice.

Spyros Reveliotis, professor, had his paper Coordinating Autonomy: Sequential Resource Allocation Systems for Automation published in the June issue of the IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine. The paper is an invited tutorial overviewing a theoretical framework that is developed in an effort to support effective and efficient resource allocation in the context of many complex technological applications; these applications range from automated production and other workflow management systems, to intelligent transportation systems, to multi-threaded software and the quantum computing paradigm that is currently explored for the future computing systems. A large part of the presented results are coming from the author’s research program and his collaborations with other researchers in the relevant area.

Edwin Romeijn, ISyE School Chair, co-authored the paper Optimization Approaches to Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy Planning that was published in Medical Physics. In this paper, the authors review the state-of-the-art in volumetric modulated arc therapy planning from an algorithmic perspective.

Craig Tovey, David M. McKenney Family Professor, published two papers within the Proceedings of the 2015 Conference on Autonomous Agents.  Towards Completely Decentralized Mustering for StarCraft was co-authored with Zach Suffern, undergrad research assistant at Georgia Tech, and Sven Koenig, professor at the University of Southern California. The paper studied decentralized agent coordination with performance guarantees by developing a primitive for mustering teams of agents of minimum acceptable team sizes for StarCraft using randomization to accurately estimate the size of the team. His second paper,Probabilistic Copeland Tournaments,was co-authored with Sam Saarinen, undergrad research assistant at the University of Kentucky and Judith Goldsmith, professor at the University of Kentucky. In this paper, they consider a probabilistic model of round-robin tournaments, or equivalently, Copeland voting, where candidates are the voters.

Keynotes, Panels, and Presentations:

Shabbir Ahmed, Dean's Professor and Stewart Faculty Fellow, gave the keynote on Scenario Decomposition of Stochastic 0-1 Problems at the Barbaros Tansel Memorial Lecture held at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey on May 8. He presented a scenario decomposition algorithm for stochastic 0-1 programs. The algorithm recovers an optimal solution by iteratively exploring and cutting-off candidate solutions obtained from solving scenario subproblems. Ahmed was also the keynote speaker on Stochastic Integer Programming at the CUSO Summer Seminar held in Zinal, Switzerland June 7. He gave four lectures: stochastic integer programming, exploiting submodularity in stochastic integer programming, and lastly scenario decomposition of stochastic integer programs.

Professor Spyros Reveliotis gave a plenary talk Real-Time Management of Complex Resource Allocation Systems: Necessity, Achievements and Further Challenges at the 5th International Workshop on Dependable Control of Discrete Systems.  To effectively support and manage the extensive levels of concurrency and operational flexibility that are contemplated for these environments, and the ensuing complexity, there is a substantial need for Formal models and tools that will enable the modelling, analysis and eventually the control of aforementioned resource allocation function so that the resulting dynamics are, both, behaviorally correct and operationally efficient. His talk gave an overview of a research program that seeks to address the aforementioned need by using the unifying abstraction of the resource allocation system and supporting modelling frameworks.

Martin Salvesbergh, James C. Edenfield Chair and Professor, gave the plenary lecture Supporting Innovations in Transportation: Research Opportunities at the 4th Meeting of the EURO Working Group on Vehicle Routing and Logistics Optimization on June 9 held in Vienna, Austria. His lecture focused on the ever-increasing digital connectivity, automotive technology advances, and societal changes that have resulted in a proliferation of disruptive and innovative transportation services, for both passengers and freight. Salvbergh reviewed some of these transportation services and highlight how they can lead to new, interesting, and challenging routing and scheduling problems.

Valerie Thomas, Anderson Interface Professor of Natural Systems, presented Solar Air Heaters: Enhancing Heat Transfer with Artificial Roughness with co-author Professor Abdul-Malik E. Momin, of Sana’a University, Yemen, at the International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology (ISSST), in Dearborn Michigan on May 20. ISSST is the premier conference for research related to the sustainability of science and technology systems. The program covers the spectrum of issues for assessing and managing products and services across their life cycle, and the design, management, and policy implications of sustainable engineered systems and technologies.

Tim Brown, managing director of the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute, moderated the panel Igniting Innovation through Incubation at the APEC Global Supply Chain Event for SMEs on June 8.  The panel discussed how incubated process coordinated with academic institution creates better global export opportunities and financing technical capability training that can be provided to SMEs. The panel included: Tod R. Burwell, president and CEO at the Bankers’ Association for Finance and Trade, David J. Closs, John H. McConnell Chaired Professor of Business, at Michigan State University, and Marcos Vaena, International Trade Centre.

Professor Xiaoming Huo was invited to be a panelist at the Statistical Challenges in Assessing and Fostering the Reproducibility of Scientific Results Workshop. The panel was organized by the Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics, originally established by the National Research Council. Other panelists and speakers included Giovanni Parmigiani from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Lida Anestidou from the National Research Council, Tim Errington from the Center for Open Science, and Roger Peng, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Chip White, Schneider National Chair in Transportation and Logistics, was selected to moderate the panel on “Strategies to Identify and Manage Supply Chains” at The 2015 SelectUSA Investment Summit Summit on March 23-24, in Washington, DC. The topic of discussion focused on how the U.S. offers access to strong networks of small and medium-sized suppliers and the opportunities for connecting with innovative U.S. suppliers, including access to resources, programs, and case studies. Included on the panel was The Honorable Steve Beshear, Governor of Kentucky, Reginaldo Ecclissato, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain at Unilever North America, Cindi Marsiglio, Vice President of U.S. Manufacturing at Walmart, and Michael McNamara, Chief Executive Officer of Flextronics.

Chip White, Tim Brown and Carole Bennett, SCL marketing and administrative manager, were largely involved with organizing the APEC SME Global Supply Chain Event. This event provides a unique opportunity for U.S. SMEs to engage with other SMEs from the Asia-Pacific region while learning about multinational corporation requirements, government regulations, supply chain financing, cold chain technology, smart chain and logistics management, and IT chain solutions.

ISyE Ph.D. student Amelia Musselman presented Analyzing Wind Location Options for the Southwest Power Pool at the 2015 ISERC Conference in Nashville, Tenn. She is co-advised by Valerie Thomas, Anderson Interface Professor of Natural Systems,and Dima Nazzal, executive director of academic administration and student experience.

New Grants:

Alan Erera, associate chair for graduate studies and Coca-Cola Professor, and Martin Salvesbergh, James C. Edenfield Chair and Professor, jointly received a foundation research grant from GrubHub for a 12-month research effort.  They will work on methodology and algorithms for optimizing their meal delivery processes, with the intent of maximizing the diner delivery experience and improving utilization of their independent delivery driver contractors.

Mathworks, the leading developer of mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists, has awarded a grant to ISyE for the development of computational tools to support undergraduate education in material flow systems.  Leon McGinnis, Professor Emeritus, and Dima Nazzal, executive director of academic administration and student experience, are leading the design effort, with George Thiers, post-doc, and Tim Sprock, ISyE Ph.D. student, leading the implementation. The goal is to enable students to use standard analytical approximations as well as discrete event simulations to evaluate and design a wide variety of flow processes, developing not only analytical skills but also intuition about the roles and limits of engineering approximations.  In addition, the project will explore the potential for students to use Mathworks' Notebook to create a digital archive containing, in an executable form, the models they have learned and used in their homework and projects.

As a Singapore citizen by birth, he served in the military right after high school. It was through that experience that he realized he didn’t want to pursue a career in such a specialized field as aerospace engineering. He still wanted the discipline of engineering, but preferred a broader discipline, and “lo and behold, [he] discovered industrial engineering.”

“Once I was set on industrial engineering, it was clear to me that Georgia Tech was the best choice. I had already applied to the Aerospace Engineering program, so I requested a switch over to IE,” says Chia.

Since graduating ten years ago, Chia’s colorful career is one that many IE’s dream of having.  And the main theme of his dream is delivering value to his customers.

Chia currently serves as senior vice president of operations at GrubHub (https://labs.grubhub.com/), an online and mobile food ordering and delivery company that connects you with a plethora of takeout restaurant choices delivered right to your door.  

In this interview, Chia brings us up to speed on his life as an industrial engineer as well as how many times a week he orders through GrubHub.

Start from the beginning and tell us how you got to where you are now.

 I like to think of myself as a Singapore born New Yorker. I was born in Singapore and moved to New York when I was about 10 months old.  So consider me a Yankee loving pizza snob. I had the privilege of living in New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and then served in the Singapore Armed Forces as an Armored Infantry Lieutenant.  I credit the diversity of my upbringing and the amazing experience in the military for helping me to develop into who I am today. 

Right out of school, I started in General Electric’s Operations Management Leadership Program, a fantastic entry-level program that allowed me to gain some core supply chain knowledge and develop my leadership skills.  Upon finishing the program, I took on a variety of leadership roles at GE in Six Sigma, Operations, and Business Management. While there, I also pursued and received my MBA from Emory. I transitioned from GE to Cisco systems, because my inner geek always told me that eventually I wanted to get into the hi-tech space, and while I loved my experience at GE, I wasn’t involved in one of their hi-tech businesses. 

 At Cisco, I was able to transition some of my knowledge and experience from a long-cycle business to a shorter-cycle space – as well as engage deeply with the customer base. I then had the opportunity to join Amazon, where customer obsession rules, you work hard, play hard and make history. My first role with Amazon was leading the World Wide Amazon Customer Excellence Systems Supply Chain team. It was a wild ride, working with critical vendors, and technology, and operations teams, determining innovations in the rapidly changing e-commerce world. 

From there, I had the opportunity to run the U.S. Amazon Retail Toys business. If you ever thought that the toy industry was a fun place to work, it is.  Working with the toy companies you grew up with, determining the best way to delight customers, while working for a technology company obsessed with customers – was the most challenging and fun job I’ve ever had the privilege of having.

 Most recently, I was presented a new challenge and opportunity – to help grow and develop the operations infrastructure at the nation’s leading online and mobile food ordering and delivery company, GrubHub, where I began in April of 2015 as Senior Vice President of Operations.

As the senior VP of operations, what exactly do you do?

 I’m responsible for developing and managing the operational infrastructure of the company, as well as the P&L (profit and loss) for our delivery business units.

Describe a typical work day. 

 I begin by reviewing a summary of the previous day’s performance in our various markets to identify issues with our diners or restaurants that require immediate attention. I don’t see that changing in the foreseeable future, as our priority will always be our diners and restaurants. Other than that, I don’t have a “typical” workday, as each day brings new and exciting challenges.

How do you pull in restaurants to work with you?

We strive to provide a valuable offering to our restaurants so they want to work with us. Their success is our success. To continue being that positive business partner, we are always looking for ways to bring even more value to both our diners and restaurants. This has proved to be an effective strategy that is enticing to our growing two-sided network.

How do you optimize your fleet of deliverers?

 Every decision we make regarding our drivers is in consideration of our customers. We want to make sure that our restaurants and our diners are getting the optimum takeout experience.

What is on the biggest challenges you face in this business?

 As with everything in a digital and technologically-advanced age, the landscape we deal with is always changing, with innovation happening at historically unsurpassed rates.  Ensuring that we stay ahead of the curve to continue delivering value remains our utmost priority as well as our biggest challenge.

What do you find the most enjoyable about your work?

 I love working in an organization with amazing people that are unwaveringly focused on customers. It’s a recipe for success, and it’s what GrubHub is all about.

How often do you order using the GrubHup app?

 Honestly?  When I consider lunch and dinner, and with a 20-month-old at home, I use it at the very least 5 – 6 times a week, but often more than that.  It’s so easy. Click, click, food.

Are there any new developments on the horizon for GrubHub that you can talk about?

I would simply say that our focus on continuous innovation on behalf of our diners and restaurants has us consistently focused on new developments.  Keep watching!

Their most recent accolade was the ISyE Alpha Pi Mu Academic Excellence Award for their GPA, and rigor of curriculum and research. The award was presented by ISyE Professor Dave Goldsman who has witnessed their inseparable bond. He says, “Their close relationship as twins is a pleasure to observe – they often finish each other’s sentences as well as challenge one another on academic, political and other issues.”

From playing significant roles on their senior design team last semester where they were finalists and winners of the Southeastern IIE Student Technical Paper Competition, to both leading a public speaking club for Georgia Tech students, it is clear that this duo will be doing big things in the future. We were able to talk to the two about their time at ISyE and what lies ahead for them.

What motivated you to become an industrial engineer? Were you always interested in ISyE?

Dylan: Originally, I enrolled into Georgia Tech as a BMED major. I changed to an ME major, before ultimately deciding to be an ISyE major. I became interested in industrial engineering because I like how it is a hybrid of technical and business acumen.

Nick:  I was looking for a major in which I could combine my passion for data analytics and business.  I found that ISyE allowed for just that after I attended Freshmen Orientation for ISyE and heard Dr. Chen Zhou's presentation about industrial engineering.  As a high school student in California, I originally applied to Georgia Tech as an applied mathematics major and was going to double major in business.

What was it like to go through this program together as twin brothers and now classmates? What is it like to be twins going through the same academic program at the same time?

Dylan: I really enjoyed having gone through the program with Nicholas. I believe we had around 20 of the courses together, so it was nice to have a majority of the program with each other. I always felt like I had a “study buddy” in my course with Nick, and would trust his input with any questions I had on the course material. 

Nick: It was awesome. I believe in the majority of our ISyE courses we were enrolled in the same class times, so outside of class it was nice to be on the same schedule. One benefit that comes to mind in going through the same classes together is that we were able to study/do homework together. 

Do you compete or complement each other?

Dylan: I like to think that we complement each other.  

Nick: I'd say complement. We both have different strengths and may thus approach problems from different perspectives.   

Studies have shown that twins usually think alike; do you find this to be true with both of you?

Dylan: I think that our mindsets are similar yet different. It is similar in that we have similar aspirations and motivation. However, it is different in that Nicholas tends to think in the “big picture”, while I think in terms of the “specific details”.

Nick: Growing up, we were always together. Thus, I think personality and interests we tend to be similar. However, in terms of problem solving, we approach problems with different perspectives.

 Can you tell us about the public speaking club you led for GT Tech students? Why do you think this is important to be a part of?

Dylan: The goal of the Public Speaking Club is to provide a positive informal setting for peers to learn many essential elements of public speaking such as volume, eye contact, hand gestures, and body movement, etc. Over the years, I have seen many undergraduate and graduate students greatly improve and develop confidence in public speaking from partaken in this club. I feel that developing this skill is important because in the business world, effective communication skills are highly desired.  

Nick: When Dylan and I were part of the public speaking club, what we enjoyed most about it was in seeing individuals have a growth in confidence.  Thus, I feel like the most important thing is not the "little pieces" of advice for how to improve a speech.  I believe it is more than that; I think the importance of the organization is thus the confidence it helps individuals grow so that the next time a presentation opportunity arises, he or she will be looking forward to it.

Have you had a dream come true while at ISyE?

Dylan: I am really appreciative at everything the ISyE program has offered to me in my 4.5 years. Through my three internships with General Motors, General Electric, and Johnson & Johnson, I got to learn about different industries and see different parts of the United States (Michigan, Arizona, New Jersey). Also, I am a glad to have done the GT Lorraine program where I got to visit 17 cities and 7 countries through Europe.

Nick: Looking back at my 4.5 years at Georgia Tech, I am grateful for the opportunities it has allowed for me to travel throughout the world.  Through Georgia Tech, I've been able to have internship experiences in Alaska with BP, New Jersey with Johnson & Johnson, and Kentucky with Toyota.  Also was able to spend a summer in Europe through the GT Lorraine Study Abroad program. 

What can you attribute your academic success to?

Dylan: Showing up to a professor’s office hours with prepared questions. After each class, I would review and rewrite my notes from the lecture, and if I didn’t understand something, I would reach out to the professor. By doing this consistently, I felt that I never really fell behind in the course.  

Nick: Hard work ethic is one aspect.  I've also been lucky to have great professors who were more than happy to answer any questions I'd have in office hours and emails. 

What is one thing you couldn’t live without?

Dylan: I would say my smartphone. I like to always be reachable, and have access to instant information.

Nick: Cell phone.  Post college, it has been even more important, as it is allows for me to keep in touch with my buddies.

What are three traits you would use to describe each other?

Dylan: I would say that Nicholas is loyal, caring, and hardworking. I know that Nicholas always “got my back” and has my best interests in mind.

Nick:  Diligent, loyal, and well-rounded.

 Do you feel anything will change when you start work at Johnson & Johnson, since you’ve spent most of your life together?

Dylan: So far in the four months we have been working with Johnson and Johnson, I would say that things really haven’t changed. During the weekdays, I am so focused on my work that it doesn’t really hit me that we are separated from each other. We have been separated before during past internships, so we have been through this before. Fortunately, we are only two hours away from each other - I am in Pennsylvania, while Nick is in New Jersey - so we try to see each other every other weekend. 

Nick: In the past four months since we have started work, not much has changed.  We typically see each other every other weekend, and sight-see around the Northeast.  During the weekdays, work has been quite busy so I haven't really thought about it much during the weekdays. The times that we get to see each other we make the most of it, and it is just like our old days before college and Georgia Tech. Most of our buddies are in Atlanta, but we are lucky to have one in New York who we are looking forward to continue spending time with them.

What do you do for fun?

Dylan: For fun, I like playing sports, lifting weights, traveling, and reading. 

Nick: I like to play sports (basketball and baseball), travel, and root on my New York Yankees!

Michelle Jarrard, IE 1989, and Major General Kelly McKeague, BSIE 1981, MSIE 1987, both received The Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award for their distinguished contributions to the profession, field, Institute, or society at large. Dennis V. Vohs, IE 1976, received an Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame Award is for his meritorious engineering and managerial contributions during his career.

Michelle Jarrard is a director of McKinsey & Company. In her capacity as director of firm personnel (CHRO), she leads the firm’s people functions for all firm members globally, which includes: Recruiting; Learning; Compensation; Benefits; Evaluation and Promotion; Diversity; Workforce Planning; HR Tools, Metrics, Policies and Risk Management. She serves on the firm’s operating committee, the group of directors appointed by the managing director to oversee the firm’s operations worldwide. Jarrard originally joined McKinsey in 1989 in the Atlanta office. Her client service focused on operational transformations for clients in industrial and service-based industries. In 2004, she moved to London for an assignment as the chief of staff to the firm’s managing director, and she accepted her current role in 2007. Outside the firm, Jarrard has had a lifelong interest in community service and currently serves on the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Operating Board and the Georgia Tech Board of Trustees.

Major General Kelly McKeague was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1981 through Georgia Tech’s Air Force ROTC program, and began his Air Force career as an industrial engineer serving in a variety of assignments at base and headquarters levels.  In 1995, Kelly transferred to the Maryland Air National Guard and has served on active duty in myriad base engineering and legislative affairs positions.  Among his general officer positions at the Pentagon were chief of staff of the National Guard Bureau and Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for National Guard Matters. McKeague currently serves as deputy director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which has worldwide responsibility for the analysis and investigation, search and recovery, and forensic laboratory operations to account for Americans service members missing from World War II to the first Persian Gulf War. Kelly is of Native Hawaiian ancestry, and coming to Georgia Tech marked his first trip out of Hawaii. He serves on the ISyE advisory board.

Dennis V. Vohs is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Ross Systems, an application software company. Early in his career, he held a variety of technical positions at IBM. In 1969 he joined Atlanta-headquartered Management Science America (MSA), where he held various management positions including executive vice president and president of MSA Advanced Manufacturing. In 1988 he led a group of investors in a leveraged buyout of Silicon Valley-based Ross Systems. He served as its chairman and CEO until he retired in 2000. He has held positions on the boards of Corporate Software, Frame Technology, Coin Financial Systems and Stamford Systems. In non-profit organizations, he has served as president of CURE - Childhood Cancer Research & Support Board, served on the industry association’s ITAA micro software board, and served on the advisory board to the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. He has also served on the Board of Governors of the Hammock Dunes Club, served on the Board of Visitors at Emory University, and served on the Foundation Board of the Daytona State College. Currently he is a member of the Board of Supervisors for the Dunes Community Development District, where he serves as treasurer, and the Hammock Dunes Home Owners Association, where he heads the community planning committee.

While Nishididn't initially plan to graduate early, her excitement to take her core industrial engineering classes first allowed her get a leg up on completing her hours. “Looking back, I'd have to thank my parents for instilling in me a sense to always push myself. I think that's really what propelled me to graduate in three years,” said Nishi.

Nishi is now beginning her career in Atlanta with the Boston Consulting Group. Here she reflects on her time at ISyE.

What motivated you to become an industrial engineer?
I've always enjoyed math and problem solving. In college, I wanted to study a field that I could apply in real life without getting too technical. Simultaneously, I also wanted to gain business knowledge. In my junior year of high-school, my brother suggested looking into industrial engineering. Once I did, it was an easy choice.

You recently told me that one of your fondest memories was Senior Design. Tell me about it.
My teammates and I didn't know each other when we decided to work together; but by the end of the semester, we became friends. We spent most of Thanksgiving break working 12+ hours in the IE lab. But none of us was upset. Instead, we joked around throughout. It made the task at hand easier and, more importantly, fun. Overall, Senior Design gave me the opportunity to work with some of the smartest people, whom I can now call friends.

You completed your course work in three years? How did you have to rearrange your life to make this work for you?
I tried to take most of my core industrial engineering classes early on. It was challenging at times, but I genuinely enjoyed most of my IE classes. That thankfully removed the stress out of them. I also had to balance my extracurricular activities according to my course schedules. In my freshman year, I got involved in just about anything I found interesting. But going into higher level classes, I narrowed down my campus involvement to the few clubs I was really passionate about. 

You completed two internships. Tell me about your experience there and what you learned?
Both my internships with Deloitte Consulting were quite different. The first summer I was on an SAP project where I had the opportunity to not only learn how to work with the software but also closely observe how technology has become a crucial component in firms' successes. The second summer I worked with a relatively small team with senior client executives. I had a chance to observe and learn from senior clients about the challenges they faced. I basically had a bird's eye view of running the business, which was quite different from the first implementation project.

You co-founded The National Organization of Business and Engineering @ GT.  Why?  And can you tell us about that?
Given Georgia Tech's focus on engineering, we saw an evident gap between the engineering and business disciplines on campus. As an Industrial Engineering major myself, I have had a unique opportunity to learn about business and engineering that most of my friends from other majors lacked. Hence, we started the club in order to bridge this gap and help students gain working business knowledge while strengthening their analytical, problem-solving skills. We believe this will better prepare fellow Tech students for professional success.

What are you looking forward to about starting your career?
While working as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group, I will have the chance to work on cases related to a variety of organizational functions and a variety of industries. I look forward to these tremendous learning opportunities and gaining experience in a wide range of sectors.

What advice would you give to students trying to manage extracurricular activities, internships, and academics?
Along with academics, extracurricular activities can be a significant time commitment. It helps to narrow down your commitments to a few organizations you're really passionate about instead of taking on several roles that just look good on the resume. Given the rigor of academics at Georgia Tech, it can be difficult, and sometimes stressful, to keep up with student organization commitments one hundred percent if you're not involved in them for the right reasons.

How do you define success?
To me, success isn't about milestones. It is about being able to continually push myself and fully utilize my capabilities for the development of myself and others around me. As long as I can continue to grow and help others grow, I am successful.

Have you had a dream come true while at ISyE?
Being featured in the student spotlight series is one! My team's selection as an ISyE Senior Design finalist was another. Being able to apply our industrial engineering skills to make a positive difference in the lives of liver transplant patients was a perfect culmination of the ISyE degree.

In a recent study, Thomas and Deepak Divan, professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, looked at how a high adoption rate for electric vehicles would affect the cost of various sources of electricity. Among their findings: If you could control when vehicles are charged, so it could be done when most cost-effective for grid operators, the cost of electricity for the entire power system would be reduced — including for renewables.

Power management is nothing new, Thomas said, pointing to demand-response programs where utilities pay customers to reduce power usage during hours when energy consumption is the highest.

“It’s something I think needs more emphasis,” she said. “Energy challenges are typically viewed from the supply side; not to say we don’t want a better battery, but there are some very interesting opportunities on the demand side — changing how we use energy and how the system is managed.”

At the same time, major advances in energy storage, especially for small-scale renewables, have the potential to dramatically change the power game, Thomas said.

“For example, if it became easier to produce and store electricity on an individual basis, then we might not need the grid anymore.”

She added:

“These are really interesting times. Significant advances in energy storage could alter our entire way of managing and delivering electricity — resulting in less vulnerability to power outages and real environmental pluses.”

This story was originally featured in Georga Tech Research Horizons.

Valerie Thomas is the Anderson Interface Associate Professor of Natural Systems in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, with a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy. Her research interests are the efficient use of materials and energy, sustainability, industrial ecology, technology assessment, international security, and science and technology policy.

The Home Depot Senior Design team developed an optimization tool that will allow The Home Depot to reduce seasonal product import transportation costs by 18%. The tool provides a standardized method for planning the containerization of products such that each container is maximally utilized and shipped on the most cost-effective date. Students include Audrey Shlapak, Mala Morjaria, Alex Hovancik, Sean Moore, Casey Ferguson, Kelly Kujawa, Haley Hahmann, and Wood Alter, advised by Dean's Professor and Stewart Faculty Fellow Shabbir Ahmed.

In light of the recent Ebola outbreak, the CDC Senior Design team focused on how treatment facilities were critical to stopping the epidemic, but beds were largely unavailable in some areas and went unused in others. Thus, they built a simulation to project the spread of cases within Guinea, overlaid with heuristics to trigger when and where to place treatment facilities. Their results showed that an additional 2,000 lives and $25 million could have been saved if Ebola Treatment Units were set up quickly or if health centers had been built in advance in densely populated areas. The teamincludes students Javeria Javeria, Kimberly Adelaar, Charmaine Chan, Matthew Daniels, Caleb Mbuvi, Chu Qian, Ivan Renaldi, and Jonathon Sutomo and were advised by Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Professor Julie Swann.

The Energy Dispatch Senior design team focused their project on truck scheduling and fuel inventory management with an emphasis on reducing excessive travel by assigning drivers to handle certain deliveries. The team provided an optimization model to better schedule deliveries and assign trucks to gas stations, as well as a combination of a demand forecasting model and an inventory policy to manage store fuel inventory. By providing a user interface that integrates these models, annual transportation costs and inventory holding costs are drastically reduced to provide savings of an upwards of $5.8 million per year. Students include Rohan Aggarwal, Hye Bae, Jacob Evans, Nathaniel Jones, Zubbia Saeed, and William Seo, and were advised by Director of Student Services, Dima Nazzal

The Phillips 66 Senior Design team focused on making a Los Angeles refinery’s distribution network more efficient. The team chose a location for a new distribution center that will be closer to their customer base, as well as calculating optimal inventory levels for the new DC. Their solution reduces expected inventory costs by 70%, transportation costs by 35%, and increases fill rate by 16%. The team of students includes Connor Zendt, Taylor Fairey, Alex Edson, Jennifer Taylor, Kyle Kenney, and Victoria Jones, and were led by their advisor, Director of Student Services, Dima Nazzal.

The UPS team proposed their project on measuring and incentivizing call quality. The specific call center their project focuses on is in Clark, Philippines. The center, comprised of 750 employees with 30,000 calls handled daily, experienced reduced quality and high costs resulting from the flawed incentives offered to its customer service representatives. Their project redesigned the entire Clark incentive program to drive improvements in employee behavior, call quality, and cost savings. UPS should see improved call quality and increased retention of top performers while streamlining costs by over $100,000. Team members include Katherine Marchand, Samay Jhunjhunwalla, Conrad Rybka, Jeffrey Allen, Angad Chawla, Bianca Palacio, and Maria Samuel, and were advised by Fouts Family Associate Professor Joel Sokol.

As he went through high school, Juan participated in the engineering club and practiced thinking outside the box. He enjoyed creating something out of nothing and solving problems. “I fell in love with working with such a blank canvas for creativity and innovation, and I felt that as an engineer I could do that again,” says Juan.

Now a sophomore in ISyE, Juan is interning this summer as a manufacturing operations intern with Eaton.

Out of all the fields you could have chosen in engineering, why did you choose industrial engineering?

I went to a summer program at Duke University where we were tasked with creating an "Innovation" for a future scenario. As much as I felt like I liked the idea of working on the prototype and the idea of our device, what I truly enjoyed was the logistics of how it would work, what the business model would be and so on. I was accepted to Tech as a civil engineer but after learning more about industrial engineering, I felt that it was the best suit for me and switched majors even before my first semester. I love the fact that IE is a broad field and that I could apply my thought process across a variety of careers.

I understand you are focusing your studies on operations research. What is it that draws you to this concentration?

I feel that operations research gives me the opportunity to further develop my technical skills that the other tracks might not. As a proud industrial engineer, I want to be as comfortable as possible with the technical aspect of my career as much as the soft skills. Combining an operations research concentration with the depth and breadth of the courses will allow me to do that.

You obviously love sports. You play every intramural sport including basketball, volleyball, flag football and kickball. How do you balance your academic and free time to accommodate so many sporting activities? How does sports help in your academic studies?

Having an intramural game about every day forces me to schedule my time effectively. I know I cannot leave my assignments for later because my evenings are occupied with something else. So rather than taking away time from my schedule I would say it further forces me to dedicate time to the right things. It's also the best stress reliever. I wouldn't be as calm as I am were it not for the relief which participating in these sports brings me. College is tough, and I feel we need time for ourselves in order to avoid it from entirely consuming us.

Tell me about your involvement with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)?

When I first came to visit Georgia Tech, I was received by the Hispanic community on campus; all of them involved with SHPE. They were the big reason I decided to enroll here and thus I knew I wanted to be involved since day one. During my first year, I was freshman liaison where my job was to integrate the freshmen into everything SHPE did. I later joined the Eboard this year as SHPE Jr. Coordinator where I was in charge of the community outreach of our chapter into local high schools and primary school. Moving forward, next year I will continue in the Eboard as External VP; being in charge of the corporate relations of the organization. 

Saying I am passionate about SHPE would be a huge understatement. I continue to push for SHPE to grow in its impact to the Hispanic community and the rest of campus. 

What accomplishment are you most proud of since you’ve been at ISyE?

Many of my highlights of GT have come from intramurals. Winning four championships this year has been amazing but just being able to share those moments with my best friends is what really makes it a great accomplishment. 

Tell us something few people know about you that you are willing to share.

I dream of one day being the owner of the Miami Dolphins. 

Reed Baker, IE 1985, is currently senior vice president and principal of Advantage Industrial Automation based in Atlanta, Gerogia. Advantage Industrial Automation provides solutions by adding value to the leading products in factory automation and control utilizing the manufacturers they represent. After graduating from ISyE, Baker’s first position was with Square D Company (now Schneider Electric) as a field engineer.  He is married to Angie Baker, also a Georgia Tech graduate, and has two children currently attending Georgia Tech.

Michele Etheredge, IE 1986, retired in 1998 after a successful career with CAPS Logistics and Frito Lay as a project manager implementing supply chain solutions. Etheredge has also raised funds for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and is currently assisting the Boy Scouts of America locally.  She received her Georgia Tech degree with honors. She and her husband, Jimmy, IE 1985, have three children. Their oldest son is now a student at ISyE. The presently reside in Atlanta, Georgia, but enjoyed living six years in Surrey, England.

John Marshall, IE 1996, co-founder of AirWatch, currently serves as senior vice president and general manager, driving the company’s strategy and operations. Under his leadership, AirWatch has become the largest enterprise mobility management provider in the world with over $200 million in 2014 bookings and 15,000 customers that include the top four global Fortune companies. In February 2014, VMware acquired AirWatch for $1.54 billion, the largest acquisition to-date for VMware. Prior to AirWatch, Marshall helped launch Celarix and Manhattan Associates. Marshall was named the 2013 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southeast and the Atlanta Business Chronicle selected him as one of ‘Atlanta’s Most Admired CEOs in 2014.’ Marshall is a board member on the Georgia Tech Information Security Center Industry Advisory Board.

Jim McClelland, IE 1966, recently retired as president and chief executive officer of Goodwill Industries in Central Indiana.  McClelland has been active in the international development efforts of Goodwill Industries International and was heavily involved in starting new Goodwills in South Korea. He serves on the Dean’s Council of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business – Indianapolis, the Georgia Tech Grand Challenges Advisory Board, the Board of Governors of the Economic Club of Indiana, the Executive Committee of the Central Indiana Education Alliance, and the Urban Areas Commission of the Indiana University Public Policy Institute. McClelland earned his MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

Major General Kelly McKeague, IE 1985, MSIE 1987, is currently the deputy director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which has worldwide responsibility for the analysis and investigation, search and recovery, and forensic laboratory operations to account for Americans service members missing from World War II to the first Persian Gulf War. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1981 through Georgia Tech’s Air Force ROTC program, and began his Air Force career as an industrial engineer serving in a variety of assignments at base and headquarters levels. 

Cheyenne’s concentration at ISyE is quality and statistics and she is completing her third co-op rotation with GE Energy Management as a Consultant Co-op for Energy Consulting in New York. Recently, she was presented another scholarship, the Kurt Salmon Associates Scholarship, for her academic merit and contribution to ISyE.  During Cheyenne’s time at Georgia Tech, she became very involved and held a number of leadership positions. Currently, she is part of the Women in Engineering Mentor and Mentee Program, Alpha Phi, Briaerean Honor Society, Society of Women Engineers, and the General Electric Women’s Network.

Cheyenne has a long list of previously held positions on campus. She was part of the Leading Edge Program, an undergraduate leadership development program, a student ambassador for Women in Engineering, elections chair for the Vice President of Administration, Engineering Awareness Chair for the Society of Women Engineers, All-Star Program Chair for the Presidents' Council Governing Board, served on the Freshman Leadership Initiative, and Dinner Jackets co-facilitator of the Student Alumni Association.

In her free time, Cheyenne enjoys running 5K races, painting, writing poetry, and volunteering for opportunities to spread engineering awareness to young girls. This summer, she plans on studying abroad in Asia with the Beijing-Singapore Summer Program. She is excited to experience a culture and language that she’s never been exposed to before. Not a stranger to study abroad, after her freshmen year, Cheyenne did a cultural exchange program in Bogota, Colombia as a Youth Media Ambassador for Motivos, a bilingual magazine. She found this to be a great experience with her years of studying the Spanish culture and language.

Dr. Ammons is a pioneer of engineering for women, a supporter of enhancing educational opportunities for underrepresented minorities, and a leader in the overall field of industrial and systems engineering. Her tenure at Georgia Tech has been marked by many firsts and many successes. She was the first female ISyE Ph.D. recipient (1982) and the first female ISyE faculty member. She previously served as associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Engineering, and in 2011, was appointed to hold the H. Milton Stewart and Carolyn J. Stewart School Chair in ISyE, becoming the first female school chair in the College of Engineering.

For more information on this or other ISyE scholarships, contact Nancy Sandlin at nsandlin@isye.gatech.edu. 

“Our outstanding graduate students are integral to the teaching mission of the Stewart School,” said Alan Erera, associate chair for graduate studies and Coca-Cola Professor at ISyE. “Tugce and Simon have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in teaching that is exemplary and worthy of commendation, providing our undergraduate students with top notch instruction and course support.”

The GSI award is given to recognize excellence in teaching by a graduate student as measured by exceptional scores on the Course-Instructor Opinion Survey and other evidence of teaching effectiveness including accessibility to all students and passion about teaching and learning. Tugce Isik won the award this year for teaching ISYE 3044 Simulation Analysis and Design; a required course in the IE curriculum.

Tugce motivates her students through her strong curiosity and enthusiasm for the topics she teaches. She sets clear teaching goals, has strong communication with her students in and outside the classroom, and helps the students to see the values of the course material for themselves, “not just something they want to get over with.”  Tugce says of her class: “My class is not necessarily the easiest, but I think being open, fair, and friendly helps a great deal.”

The GTA award recognizes ISyE graduate students who have demonstrated exceptional performance in the execution of their TA responsibilities. Simon Mak received nominations from both the students he assisted and the faculty member he worked with in the required foundational course ISyE 2027 Probability with Applications. 

As a teaching assistant, Simon strives for an engaged and interactive teaching and learning environment. He works with his students to ensure a strong foundation of concepts as well as to build problem-solving strategy thinking rather than merely showing students how to solve a specific homework problem.  His goal is to provide students with the tools they need to solve any problems they face, within the course or otherwise, rather than having them try to follow step-by-step solutions without understanding why such steps were taken.

The awards were presented at the Graduate Student Honors Luncheon on April 16, 2015.

Congratulations to the following students:   

Peter Gumulia and Haley Hahmann received The H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering Leadership Award for their strong leadership in the ISyE community and beyond. Peter served as president of the Student Chapter of IIE and has made a lasting and positive impact on the ISyE community.  His leadership skills show in the many well-planned and executed events and activities that provided development opportunities and enhanced students’ exposure to academic and career opportunities. He established stronger partnerships with other organizations in ISyE and is an inspiring person who is admired by his peers. During her tenure as the president of the ISyE ambassadors, Haley created a new vision for the organization that broadened its impact and improved its efficiency and effectiveness. For example, during Haley’s leadership the ambassadors launched a new outreach program at Atlanta high schools to introduce underrepresented minorities to the field of Industrial Engineering.  During the same year, she streamlined multiple processes and increased and diversified the organization's membership. 

Dylan and Nicholas Buczek received the ISyE Alpha Pi Mu Academic Excellence Award for their GPA, rigor of curriculum, research, and other scholarly accomplishment. Dylan and Nicholas Buczek have made their mark in ISyE.  According to their professor, Dave Goldsman, their close relationship as twins is a “pleasure to observe – they often finish each other’s sentences as well as challenge one another on academic, political and other issues.”  Dylan and Nicholas played significant roles on their senior design team last semester.  The team’s project, which was ultimately selected as one of the finalists, focused on the development of a decision support system that improved the accuracy of predicting infectious organs from 70% to 90%.  Their report won the Southeastern IIE student Technical Paper Competition in 2015.  They also worked together to form a public speaking club for Georgia Tech students that helps other students improve this very important skill.

Anubhav Jain received The H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering Service Award for his exceptional service to ISyE. Anubhav has supported the ISyE program and his fellow students immensely throughout his tenure at Georgia Tech. He has served and contributed through multiple roles on the IIE board during his time here. He has helped countless students, and cares for his fellow peers’ academic success as much as his own success.

Alex Moran received the Henry Ford II Best Junior Award for best academic performance in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering. This award is administered in the College of Engineering and given to the student at the end of the third year with best academic performance in the ISyE. In addition to a 4.0 GPA, he conducts high quality research under demanding advisors. Julie Swann, Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Professor, who presented Moran the award, said he is one "of ISyE’s brightest stars.”

Jisu Park received the COE Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award organized by The Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP). Jisu won the PURA award and conducted research under the supervision of Professor Seong-Hee Kim, who says of Jisu is curious, creative, enthusiastic, and possesses excellent skills in analysis and computing. Jisu’s research shows the impact of measurement errors in surveillance sensor networks and his research paper was selected as a finalist for the Undergraduate OR Research Prize in INFORMS in 2014.  He is also the co-author of a journal paper under review.  He will attend graduate school at Columbia in fall 2015.

Gabriel Paik received the ISyE Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Award. Gabriel was a teacher assistant in ISyE Adjunct Porfessor Alisha Walker’s ISYE2027 class last fall. She says, “He was the best teacher assistant I have had so far at Georgia Tech. He made complex concepts seem really simple and helped me learn everything in depth.” Students says he is always available for questions, help, or just being a good resource in general.

Lorenzo Azarcon, Marco Ferro, Zulqar Islam, Tommy Lam, Alnoor Ruhani, Kyle Seebohm and Diem Tran received the Jack C. Webb Scholarship based on their scholarship, leadership, extracurricular and community activities.

Cheyenne Cazaubon, Lisa Liu and Macie Whatley received the Kurt Salmon Associates Scholarship in Industrial and Systems Engineering for their academic merit and contribution to ISyE. 

Noland Smith received the KS2 Technologies, Inc. Entrepreneurship Award for his entrepreneurship spirit while pursuing his degree. Noland has always been on the lookout for different business ideas, starting out by selling English study guides while in high school. Although additional income is good, Noland believes that the art of creating and maintaining a business is appealing.  He has started and continues to operate two businesses:  Sideways Promotions, LLC since 2012, and Aerial Cinematography since 2014.  Sideways Promotions has generated over $100,000 in revenue and provided work experience for many college students. Aerial Cinematography uses drones to provide aerial photography and videography for the construction industry, sporting venues, real estate agents and much more. 

Julie Deng has received the KS2 Technologies, Inc. Innovative Technology Award. Julie is co-owner of Leia Naturals, a provider of organic cosmetic solutions for skin and hair. Julie combined her strong background in Industrial Engineering and her work experience in technology to provide the best customer experience through marketing, supply chain optimization, and utilization of multichannel retailing. Leia Naturals recently launched on Amazon.com and will continue launching on other sites for the rest of the year.

Georgia Tech IIE Student Chapter Awards were given to Nishi Anand, who received the Outstanding Senior Award, Anmol Chhabria who received the Rising Star Award, and Hojin Lee, who received the Top International Student Award. The student chapter of IIE gives these awards to recognize those with strong academic performance, service and leadership. Nishi is a 4th year graduating this May. She has demonstrated exceptional leadership experience and academic achievement. She is the president of the Undergraduate Consulting Club, Vice President of Enterprise to Empower, and she co-founded The National Organization of Business and Engineering @ GT. Hojin is on the executive board of the Korean-American Scientists Engineers Association. His ability and commitment to balance both the Korean and American culture make him the ideal candidate for this award. In working with 1st generation Korean and Korean American scientists and engineers, he has helped countless students celebrate and learn about their Korean culture while adjusting and contributing to the Georgia Tech community. In addition to his cultural contributions on campus, Hojin placed 5th out of 100 teams and 1st place out of 18 Georgia Tech teams in the 2015 JDA Supply Chain Challenge in February. Amnol will be graduating in the spring of 2017. During her time at Tech, she has demonstrated ongoing and exceptional growth in leadership, service, and academics. She has been involved in AOE, the Residence Hall Association, and India Club. As an Executive Board member for India Club, Amnol planned Garba 2014, Diwali Dinners 2014, and she is currently planning Holi Show 2015. Through her role as Philanthropy Chair for AOE, she has sustained participation in Service Events in the Atlanta area, which include Dress for Success, the Hot Chocolate 5K, Be The Change, and Team Buzz. In the future, Amnol is interested in pursuing a career in Analytics, and as a result, is pursuing a minor in Computer Science.    

“With ongoing record-breaking port activity, the deepening of the channel, continued strong growth in global trade, and the widening of the Panama Canal, Savannah is poised for a continued run of strong supply chain and logistics employment growth,” said Tim Brown, managing director of the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute. “Furthermore, with the decommissioning of more than 3,000 military personnel each year, Savannah is well-positioned to provide a solid workforce to meet these needs. The Supply Chain & Logistics Institute is doing its part to prepare the region for continued success by providing a means for the workforce, at all levels, to continually enhance their supply chain and logistics skills.”

In the coming months, the SCL Savannah campus will be offering programming related to sourcing and procurement, international logistics and compliance, and lean logistics, among others. SCL enables supply chain professionals, businesses and governments to transform complex supply chains and trade corridors to improve logistics performance by providing education, innovation and solutions for global and domestic supply chains.

For more information on the upcoming SCL programming offered at the Georgia Tech-Savannah campus, please visit www.scl.gatech.edu.

ABOUT THE SUPPLY CHAIN AND LOGISTICS INSTITUTE:

The Supply Chain and Logistics Institute is a unit of the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. The Stewart School is the largest industrial engineering program in the United States (more than 60 faculty members, 1,500 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students). For 25 consecutive years, U.S. News and World Report has ranked the Stewart School as the best undergraduate and graduate industrial engineering program in the United States.

ABOUT GEORGIA TECH PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION:

Georgia Tech Professional Education is an academic division of the Georgia Institute of Technology, offering professional master's degrees, short courses, and certificate programs to meet the needs of working professionals and industry partners. Programs are available at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center in Atlanta, the Georgia Tech-Savannah campus, and worldwide through a variety of formats. In addition to professional course offerings, the division manages meeting and event facilities, and administers K-12 outreach and English as a Second Language programs. Last year alone, Georgia Tech Professional Education served individuals representing more than 3,000 companies, with an enrollment of more than 26,000.

The course, Defining and Implementing Effective Sourcing Strategies, is intended to provide sourcing, procurement, and supply chain professionals with the skills needed to be effective in strategically sourcing materials and components worldwide. The course is part of a three course sequence in SCL’s Strategic Sourcing and Supply Management Certificate program.

With the recent opening of a SCL office at the Georgia Tech-Savannah campus, SCL is positioned to offer the Coastal Empire tailored workforce development courses, online training, supply chain short courses and executive seminars.  Additionally, the Savannah office will serve as a mechanism for dialoging with local businesses regarding challenges that can be addressed as student group projects or research engagements.

“With ongoing record-breaking port activity, the substantial capital investment in port capacity enhancement, continued strong growth in global trade, and the widening of the Panama Canal, the Coastal Empire is poised for a continued run of strong supply chain and logistics employment growth,” said Tim Brown, managing director of the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute. “The Supply Chain & Logistics Institute is doing its part to prepare the region for continued success by providing a means for the workforce, at all levels, to continually enhance their supply chain and logistics skills.”

Going forward, SCL will be offering Coastal Empire businesses with programming related to sourcing and procurement, international logistics and compliance, and lean logistics, among others at its Savannah office location. Programs may be public offerings, custom courses, or a hybrid. For more information, please visit www.scl.gatech.edu.

For information on the upcoming sourcing course offered in Brunswick, please visit pe.gatech.edu/scl-sourcing.

ABOUT THE SUPPLY CHAIN AND LOGISTICS INSTITUTE:

The Supply Chain and Logistics Institute is a unit of the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. The Stewart School is the largest industrial engineering program in the United States (more than 60 faculty members, 1,500 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students). For 25 consecutive years, U.S. News and World Report has ranked the Stewart School as the best undergraduate and graduate industrial engineering program in the United States.

ABOUT GEORGIA TECH PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION:

Georgia Tech Professional Education is an academic division of the Georgia Institute of Technology, offering professional master's degrees, short courses, and certificate programs to meet the needs of working professionals and industry partners. Programs are available at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center in Atlanta, the Georgia Tech-Savannah campus, and worldwide through a variety of formats. In addition to professional course offerings, the division manages meeting and event facilities, and administers K-12 outreach and English as a Second Language programs. Last year alone, Georgia Tech Professional Education served individuals representing more than 3,000 companies, with an enrollment of more than 26,000.

Nazzal is a faculty member and director of student services for the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering. She is responsible for the management and coordination of operational issues associated with ISyE’s academic processes including management of academic resources allocation and instructional budget planning, coordination with the associate chairs of undergraduate and graduate programs on course assignments. Nazzal directs undergraduate students academic and career advising policies and procedures, registration, the technical communication program, and serves as the faculty lead for the Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and the Master of Science in Operations Research programs.

Nazzal received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2006. Her research focuses on the applications of operations research methodologies to design sustainable supply chain systems. Her recent work has addressed production planning and inventory decisions in cold supply chain systems aiming to reduce costs and green gas house emissions. She has worked on projects with companies, and healthcare providers, including Walt Disney World, Lucent Technologies, Brinks Securities, and Emory Healthcare.

This WIE banquet brings together nearly 500 students, alumni, corporate partners and Institute leaders to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of female engineering students who have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and above. As a testimony to the excellence of College of Engineering’s female undergraduate students, about 1,800 female engineering students, representing over half of the College's female engineering students, qualify to attend the banquet each year. This event recognizes student and faculty leaders through Student Mentoring Awards, and Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards. 

The Supply Chain & Logistics Institute is doing its part to prepare the region for continued success by opening an office on the Georgia Tech Savannah Campus which is launching tailored workforce development courses, online training, supply chain short courses, and executive seminars. More details on these programs to come this summer!

“Almost all the awards I have received have been from my profession,” Nemhauser said. “This is the Georgia Tech award. This means a lot to me because it connects directly to Georgia Tech.” 

The Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award recognizes outstanding achievement in teaching, research, and service. It is the highest award given to a faculty member. The award, instituted in 1984 by the Class of 1934 in observance of its 50th reunion, is presented to an active professor who has made significant, long-term contributions — contributions that would have brought widespread recognition to the professor, to his or her school, and to the Institute.

Letters of support for Nemhauser’s nomination came from colleagues and former students around the world. 

“My stimulation and the fact that I can still be working and having lots of fun — as old as I am — is because of what these people give to me,” said the 77-year-old. “I’m not this great humanitarian, unselfish guy by any means. It’s completely a two-way deal. When I get a chance to work with these young people, to me, that’s the greatest pleasure in life. That’s always been the best thing for me: to work one-on-one or with a small number of undergraduate and graduate students and young faculty. Those are the people who keep me on my toes.”  

From Center Field to Operations Research 

Growing up in New York, Nemhauser dreamed of playing center field for the Yankees. He estimated that by the time he was ready for the position, Joe DiMaggio would be retiring. That didn’t happen. He was a teen when DiMaggio retired, and Mickey Mantle took the position. 

“I played all sports — with lots of effort and very limited ability. I did not have talent,” Nemhauser laughed. “But I love math. I was the kid who could compute the other kids’ batting average. I wasn’t the best player, but if they wanted to know their batting average — see George.” 

When it was time to head to college, Nemhauser was leaning toward majoring in math, but his mother encouraged him to study engineering. It was during a summer internship that he first learned about optimization and game theory, and he was fascinated. He started graduate school in chemical engineering, but switched to operations research as the field was just starting academically. 

“Man, was I lucky,” he said. “Any success like this — honestly, so much of it is luck: being in the right place at the right time. I believe that 100 percent.”  

What is Optimization?

“Optimization is about decision making. Whether it’s a problem in business or a problem related to health or medicine, the notion is: ‘How can we use optimization to make better decisions?’ 

“Most of these optimization problems have a huge number of variables and constraints. The contribution from our optimization group here at Georgia Tech — which, by the way is the best optimization group in the world, independent of me — is that we build the algorithms that allow [for] efficient computations for problems with thousands of variables.” 

Nemhauser’s company, the Sports Scheduling Group, schedules games for the ACC, the SEC, the Big 10, and Major League Baseball. 

“Scheduling Major League Baseball is a big optimization problem. You have all of these games to schedule, and a lot of it is driven by television contracts, which is where the revenue comes from. If you don’t get the right games at the right time — that Saturday or Sunday afternoon game between the Yankees and the Red Sox — the contracts won’t be what they would be otherwise.”  

Having Fun

Having started teaching in 1961, Nemhauser has advised 65 doctoral students. Many of them are now on the faculty at MIT, Chicago, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, and other top universities around the world. One of the biggest changes he’s noticed over the 54 years he’s had dealings with graduate students is the interaction with them. 

“I’ve always tried to eliminate formality. I hate formality. I’m a very, very casual person,” he said. “When I started, there was more formality. To get a graduate student to call me ‘George’ was hard. But I needed to do that from the get-go, so I spent time trying to break down the formality that existed between faculty and students. Now, I think that problem has gone away. Things are much more casual.”

In keeping with his casual approach, Nemhauser says he doesn’t have a specific plan for the future. 

“I don’t know what’s next,” he said. “If I can keep my health and I’m having fun…  

“I’ve never made long-term plans. I don’t believe in them,” he said. “I’ve never had a five-year-plan in my whole life,” he said. “A one-year-plan? That’s good. 

“My basic philosophy is: No. 1 — have fun in what you’re doing. That, to me, beats it all.” 

Andradóttir and Goldsman both stated that they were honored by the recognition and were lucky to have enthusiastic classes that stayed engaged with the material.

The Class of 1940 distinction is awarded annually and based on the Course Instructor Opinion Surveys that were administered in the fall 2013 and spring 2014 semesters. A high response rate (85% or greater) and a near-perfect evaluation score are required for consideration. A maximum of 40 awards are made to Georgia Tech faculty annually.

This award will be formally celebrated in March when CETL holds its annual Celebrating Teaching Day.

Strickland will also be working with ISyE student organizations, industry representatives, the Mission Possible summer camp, our ISyE GT 1000 seminars, and teaching one class per semester.  Her office will be in the Academic Office area on the 2nd floor of Groseclose.

Previously, Strickland served as the assistant dean of Graduate Student Services and Postdoctoral Affairs for the Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York City. She was also an adjunct associate professor in both the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and Computer Science departments. Before Columbia, she served as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Winthrop University.  

Strickland received her B.S. in mathematics from Duke University in 1997 and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Operations Research from ISyE Georgia Tech in 1999 and 2002, respectively.  While a graduate student in ISyE, she was a Presidential Fellow and an ARCS Fellow.  Her thesis was advised by Fouts Family Associate Professor Joel Sokol and Professor Earl Barnes.

Montreuil is a professional industrial engineer and graduated in 1978 from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR). He earned a master’s and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from ISyE, in 1980 and 1982 respectively. After serving on the industrial engineering faculty of UQTR and Purdue University, he was a Professor of operations and decisions systems in the faculty of Business Administration at Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada since 1988.

His main research interests lie in developing concepts, methodologies and technologies for creating, optimizing, transforming and enabling businesses and value creation networks to thrive in a fast evolving world. He stands at the crossroads of industrial and systems engineering, operations research, computer science and operations, logistics, supply chain, strategic management. His research builds mostly on a synthesis of optimization modeling & mathematical programming, discrete & agent-based simulation modeling, systems science & design theory. Montreuil has extensive advisory, entrepreneurial and collaborative research experience with industry.

Montreuil holds the Canada Research Chair in Enterprise Engineering. He is a founding member of the CIRRELT Interuniversity Research Centre on Enterprise Networks, Logistics and Transportation. He is also the immediate past president of the College-Industry Council on Material Handling Education.

Through 30 years of research, in collaboration with students and colleagues, Montreuil has introduced an imposing set of paradigm-challenging leading-edge contributions such as virtual cellular manufacturing systems, fractal and holographic factory organization, industrial microcosm, symbiotic manufacturing networks (now known as virtual supply chains), network enterprises, responsibility networks, NetMan networked collaborative operating system, personalizing business networks, holistic simulation, tetrahedral business design framework, supply webs, the human web and the physical internet.

An analysis of two treatment strategies for follicular lymphoma, conducted by researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology and Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, indicates that the treatments are cost-effective. The team included Turgay Ayer, ISyE assistant professor, Qiushi Chen, operations research graduate student at ISyE, Loretta J. Nastoupil MD, Christopher R. Flowers, MD, MS, and Adam C. Rose, MD, of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology and the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University.

The researchers looked at maintenance therapy with rituximab (MR) versus observation, and radioimmunotherapy consolidation (RIT) versus observation, immediately following the first-line treatment for FL.  Clinical research has established that these treatment strategies can effectively extend the duration of remission after the first-line treatment and help patients maintain good quality of life. Given the current costs of therapy for individuals with FL of about $20,000-$36,000 per patient per year, it is also important for physicians and policy makers to understand whether the additional costs of MR and RIT are worth their clinical benefits.

The main results of the study indicate that both MR and RIT are cost-effective strategies, at an additional cost of about $40,000 per additional quality-adjusted life-year, given that a threshold of $50,000 to $100,000 has been commonly used to justify cost-effective health intervention programs in health economics studies.

The researchers concluded that MR and RIT following frontline FL therapy demonstrate favorable and similar cost-effectiveness. These findings support the coverage and use of both approaches in clinical practice, although RIT has been less commonly used. The researchers remarked that these findings do not imply a gold standard for selection of either approach or observation, and the treatment strategy for an individual with FL needs to be tailored based on individual characteristics and risk for each patient.

The full study, Comparing the Cost-Effectiveness of Rituximab Maintenance and Radioimmunotherapy Consolidation versus Observation Following First-Line Therapy in Patients with Follicular Lymphoma, is published in Value in Health.

After deciding on ISyE, Alex didn’t think twice before choosing operations research as her concentration. She had some exposure in high school with tasks such as modeling a baseball game with Markov chains. “Operations research is all about using mathematical tools to solve real world problems. I love problem-solving and formulating models to the specifics of the situation, rather than memorizing a one-size-fits-all formula.”

It’s no secret that life at Georgia Tech and ISyE can be demanding. To balance her intense academic work, Alex plays rugby and participates in Crossfit. “Exercise is really important for me to clear my head and focus,” she said, “There is nothing better than taking your energy out on the field to help you forget about the three tests you have coming up next week.” 

What do you like best about your ISyE education so far?

The best part of the ISyE program for me is the analytical and operations research component. After learning the basics of optimization and stochastics, I was amazed at the diverse set of problems that I could solve. ISyE does a great job of teaching the technical skills and more importantly, the critical thinking skills. The concepts train your brain to think like an engineer.

I love that most of the courses in the ISyE department have a strong focus on mathematics. I think Georgia Tech IEs are so valuable because they approach problems very analytically. Many classes teach new programming languages and software packages as well, giving us the tools to actually build the models we learn about.

What advice would you give to a student interested in ISyE?
Try research! From what I know, there aren't many undergraduate IEs that do research. The faculty at Georgia Tech are world-class and research is a great opportunity to work with them one-on-one. The projects I work on have taught me more about optimization and data analysis than most of my classes. It's also benefited my problem-solving skills and independence.

I understand that you’ve participated in a couple of undergraduate research project.  Would tell us a little about your projects?

I am working with Dr. Joel Sokol to develop an optimization model for determining playoff tiebreak scenarios in the NFL. The NFL has a lengthy process for deciding what team makes the playoffs and the rules differ depending on the number of teams tied and whether they are competing for the division championship or the wildcard. A few weeks out from the end of the season, it's difficult for teams to determine if they have clinched a playoff spot and which remaining games are crucial for them to win. The model I'm working on uses thousands of binary variables to work out all of the tie scenarios and then configures game outcomes that would optimize a team's chances for winning their division or clinching a wildcard.

I also started a project with Dr. Dima Nazzal this semester dealing with class scheduling in ISyE. The goal is to assign instructors to courses and time slots that minimize overlap of classes students usually take in the same semester and satisfy as many instructor preferences as possible. It's a really interesting project and it could have a lasting impact on the ISyE department and improve the registration process for students.

What are your plans after graduation?
I plan on going to graduate school in operations research. Eventually I'd like to become a professor because I love both research and teaching. I started a research project this semester and it got me really interested in discrete optimization. I like applied operations research a lot, but recently I’ve taken an interest in the theory of optimization algorithms. Thankfully, I still have a few years to figure out what exactly I want to study.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Don't be afraid to take risks and fail. The transition from being a top student in high school to being surrounded by all of the brilliant students at Tech can make you doubt yourself and your abilities. I've had to learn that the only way to grow is to go after what you want and not be afraid to make mistakes. I still struggle with this on a daily basis, but I remind myself that every accomplishment in my life began with a risk.

Who is your hero and why?
My hero is my late grandfather, Ernie Schmid. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force and my family always said I got my analytical skills from him. He was a brilliant man and a loving and supportive grandfather. Plus, he has a mountain named after him, Mount Schmid in Antarctica.

Tell me something about yourself that few people know.

I started playing rugby when I came to Tech, and the summer after my freshman year I got selected to the Junior All-American team. I got to go to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA and work with some of the best coaches and players in the country. I didn't make the travelling side, but it was an incredible experience.

Dr. Bertsimas discussed multivariate statistics and machine learning under a modern optimization lens. In his presentation, Bertsimas shared how key problems of classification and regression can naturally be written as optimization problems. While continuous optimization approaches has had a significant impact in statistics, discrete optimization has played a very limited role, primarily based on the belief that mixed integer optimization models are computationally intractable. While such beliefs were accurate two decades ago, the field of discrete optimization has made very substantial progress.

He presented how to apply modern first order optimization methods to find feasible solutions for classical problems in statistics, and mixed integer optimization to improve the solutions and to prove optimality by finding matching lower bounds.

Dr. Bertsimas is currently the Boeing Professor of Operations Research and the co-director of the Operations Research Center at MIT and has been with the MIT faculty since 1988.  His research interests include optimization, statistics and applied probability and their applications in health care, finance, operations management and transportation. He received his SM and PhD in Applied Mathematics and Operations Research from MIT in 1987 and 1988 respectively.

The team consists of ISyE undergraduate students Nishi Anand, Dylan Buczek, Nicholas Buczek, Timothy Lin, Tanay Rajore, and Muriel Wacker, and their advisor Professor Pinar Keskinocak, who is the William W. George Chair and Professor at ISyE.

Their paper discusses two decision-support tools they developed to help reduce transplant transmission of infectious encephalitis organs. The tools developed include

1. An infectious encephalitis risk calculator for physicians to estimate the probability that a donor has infectious encephalitis.
2. A liver transplant decision aid for transplant doctors and patients to evaluate the trade-offs between accepting or rejecting an increased-risk encephalitis liver.

As first place winners in the regional competition, their paper now goes to the Undergraduate Technical Paper Competition Global Finals with winners announced at the IIE Annual Conference & Expo in Nashville in May 2015.

Every university brags about its alumni, but how many can call a country’s president one of its graduates? Georgia Tech can. 

On May 4, Tech engineering alumnus Juan Carlos Varela was elected president of Panama. Varela came to Georgia Tech in the fall of 1980 and received his degree in industrial engineering in spring 1985. He returned to Tech this fall to serve as a member of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board (and to attend a Jackets football game).

At a one-on-one interview (if you don’t count the four U.S. Secret Service members and the Panamanian security detail, along with members of his staff), we had a chance to talk with Varela about Tech, engineering, and what it’s like to be Mr. President.

- Kay Kinard

On choosing Georgia Tech engineering:

I wanted to be an industrial engineer, and Georgia Tech is the No. 1 school for industrial engineering worldwide. Also, Atlanta at that time was becoming a vibrant city, and it was the capital of the South. My two brothers came to Tech — one graduated in industrial engineering and the second one was in industrial management. My family has a rum distillery, a family business that is 100 years old. So many things with the business involved engineering, construction, planning, designing. Since I was a kid, I liked it.

My calculus professor, Dr. Michael Barnsley, was a great professor. He gave me a life lesson. I got good grades the first part of the quarter. I came into the final with 85%. The final was worth 15%. I had four A’s and one B. The Calculus I final came, and I just put my name on it. I wanted to go back to Panama to celebrate my birthday. When I came back to Tech for the winter, I got a C in calculus. The only C I got at Tech. I went to talk with Dr. Barnsley and I asked him that if I had 85%, it would be a B, so how come I got a C? He said that it was because it was not my best effort. It was not about the grades; it is in making the best effort. So he gave me a life lesson, and I will always remember that.

I also remember spending time in the Student Center and Junior’s Grill. I had very good friends here that I will remember the rest of my life.

On early political involvement:

Before coming to Tech, I was involved in various social movements in my country. When I came to Tech, many countries in Central and South America were involved in civil wars. I was confused about what to do after I graduated high school. My brother said to come to Tech. I applied and was accepted. But I was worried about what was happening and followed the news every day. It was a very difficult time. I always knew I would be back in politics one day.

On life outside the classroom:

To be at Georgia Tech is not easy. Chemistry, physics, statics, calculus — the first two years are very tough. I remember the classes very well. I did go to the football games, but I am not saying what else we did. We will keep that to ourselves. I always enjoyed seeing the freshmen, the RATS, on the football field. I will remember that. I still have my RAT cap.

On engineers as politicians:

As president, I use daily my engineering training. As industrial engineers, we simulate the future, we see alternatives. We see the future and then come back to the present.

That has helped me a lot in my political career. I am president today because I made some decisions in my career, and I made those decisions because I was simulating the future. When you graduate from Tech and in industrial engineering, you may not remember all that was in the books, but the training of the mind lasts forever. The problems that the people in Panama and worldwide are facing today require good minds and training to solve it. An engineer’s mind. Being an engineer means trying every day to improve people’s lives.  Engineering is a beautiful career.

Although I am not working for a technical company, I use my engineering training every day. It helps me with the design of the transportation system for our cities. I use it to help establish my budget. I use critical paths for making decisions and implementing solutions to problems. Right now, I am doing a test of 3,600 sources of drinking water in my country. The first time that someone is going to test all the drinking water sources — that is quality control. You apply your engineering training wherever you are.

Advice for a student coming to Tech:

Study. Enjoy, but study, study. Spend all the time you can studying. You can have a little fun on weekends. A college degree is the first thing you get in life that truly belongs to you. Fight hard to get your college degree. You can still have fun while getting good grades. I did it. Fight hard. Don’t let the system defeat you. During the first two years at Tech, the system defeats many students, but you have to keep fighting. 

This article first appeared in the Spring 2015 Georgia Tech Engineers Magazine.

Originally called the National Biodefense Science Board, the NPRSB’s new title is designed to more accurately reflect the board’s work, expertise, and contributions to the HHS and the nation’s health resilience. Working groups are established within the NPRSB to tackle critical issues, and the board is charged with assisting the government accordingly.

With her appointment to the NPRSB, Lee becomes the first person with a background in mathematics, operations research and systems engineering selected for the board, which is typically filled with scientists trained in the bio/medical domain, or emergency response leaders.

“I am very honored to be selected, and am excited to be given the opportunity to work with such an outstanding group of experts on the challenges of preparedness and response,” says Lee, Distinguished Scholar in Health Systems with the Emory/Georgia Tech Health Systems Institute

Lee’s work in biodefense and public health began in 2003 when the CDC enlisted her help regarding the challenges inherent in preparing and protecting a city and its population in the event of a pandemic or bioterrorism incident. The CDC and her team at Tech worked late nights during the winter holiday break, benchmarking and testing the limits of the existing technologies, ultimately developing a powerful mathematical and computational tool now used by local public health departments across the U.S.  She also assisted with the U.S. response to the earthquake in Haiti and was on the ground in Fukushima for the radiological emergency response there.

Lee’s work has been recognized through the years with numerous national honors, including the INFORMS Franz Edelman, Pierskalla, and the Daniel H. Wagner awards.  A sought-after speaker, she will present her research on medical preparedness and pandemic response at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, touching on issues including the flu, measles and Ebola.

Now in her fourth year of college, Erin has emerged as a leader on campus. She has made the Dean’s list every semester and is on track to graduate with high honors.  Erin’s knowledge in supply chain engineering continues to grow, with two product supply internships with Procter and Gamble and one product supply internship with Coca-Cola under her belt.

Why did you choose the SCE concentration?

I chose it because I wanted to learn the decision-making strategies behind storing a product and transporting it from point A to point Z.  The field of supply chain engineering (SCE) gives you all of the answers to the what, when, where, why, and how questions of any organization that makes a product or provides a service. The food we eat, clothes we wear, and homes we live in are all the results of supply chains. By selecting the SCE concentration, I take courses that answer questions like: When is the best time to start selling my favorite seasonal candy? Where in the United States should a company produce blue jeans? And how do you schedule all of the building materials for a new house to arrive at the right time?

What aspect of the overall program to you find most beneficial?

I am grateful that ISyE has an extensive faculty, many of whom are the leaders in their respective fields. I know that I am being taught by the best! Additionally, my professors and advisors have supported me outside of the classroom by encouraging me to pursue research opportunities and recommending me for various conferences, scholarships, and student leadership roles.

What do you want to do when you graduate?

After graduating with my B.S. in Industrial Engineering, I will work for Amazon Fulfillment as an Area Manager. Also, I aim to attend graduate school to earn my M.S. in Supply Chain Engineering or my MBA within the next six years. I also look forward to remaining involved in community outreach.

What was the best piece of advice you ever got? The worst?

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was to not be afraid to ask for help. Asking for help whether it pertained to my classes, personal life, or career goals was a way to ensure I made progress daily and kept a positive outlook on my future.

The worst advice anyone ever told me was to fake it until you make it. Yes, it’s good to envision yourself as a better person, student, or friend. But it’s better to take active steps to making it a reality. Then you won’t be faking it!

You are very involved at GT. How do you balance that with your classwork?

I learned the importance of work-life balance the hard way at Georgia Tech. I reached my limit during my junior year when I took 18 credits each semester and was president of two organizations. Even during that demanding but incredible year of involvement, I followed a weekly schedule including my classes, events, and study time. I also set aside personal time for my favorite TV shows, sports games, and singing in G.I.F.T.E.D. gospel choir.

Do you use your IE skills outside of the classroom? If so, how?

This semester, I earned an undergraduate research assistantship with Georgia Tech Health Analytics which is a dream come true. A huge goal of mine was to apply IE concepts to address challenges in the healthcare and education fields, so I’m ecstatic to have this opportunity.

Tell us something few people know about you.

Few people know that I studied Vocal Music in middle and high school. I sang Alto in a Grammy award-winning ensemble, and I directed a children’s choir for seven years prior to enrolling in Georgia Tech. The Davidson Chorale and the Beulah Grove Children’s Choir in Augusta, GA are both close to my heart.

This issue marks the twenty-fifth consecutive year that ISyE has ranked as the foremost program of its kind in the nation at the graduate level within industrial/manufacturing/systems engineering category. In total, ISyE has held this title for 26 years.

All of the College of Engineering’s specialties were ranked in the top ten in their respective fields, making Georgia Tech the only institution in the nation to garner top ten rankings for all of its engineering graduate programs in four straight years.

Three of Georgia Tech’s engineering graduate programs rose in this year’s U.S. News & World Report graduate rankings of national universities granting doctoral degrees, helping the College of Engineering maintain its second-place ranking among public institutions (sixth overall).

The Institute’s College of Engineering ranked No. 6 and all 11 of the programs within the college are ranked in the top 10, including industrial engineering (No. 1), biomedical and bioengineering (No. 2), environmental (No. 4), civil (No. 5), aerospace (No. 5), mechanical (No. 5), electrical (No. 6), computer (No. 7), nuclear (No. 5), materials (No. 6) and chemical (No. 9). Georgia Tech appears on the top 10 list of engineering specialties more than any other ranked institution.

That's because Joel Sokol, Fouts Family Associate Professor, and his colleagues happen to conduct research on one of the biggest sporting events of the year- the NCAA basketball tournament. Their Logistic Regression/Markov Chain (LRMC) ranking system is a computerized model that has had a respectable level of success in picking the men's national basketball champion and overall tournament results over the last several years. During the season, the LRMC uses basic scoreboard data to create a weekly ranking of all 351 Division I NCAA teams. The mathematical formula looks at every game and factors in the margin of victory and where each game is played. The research has been published in several jourals and presented at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

After this year's tournament field was set on March 15, Sokol's team released its bracket, and now sports fans looking for help filling out their own brackets are finding their way to the LRMC website. The model has shown to be more effective than 80 others, including the NCAA's own Ratings Performance Index (RPI). 

The 2015 LRMC "Profs' Picks" have top seeds Kentucky and Villanova meeting in the final after each beating two seeds in the Final Four. The model also predicts some early upsets- Texas over Butler and Ohio State over Virginia Commonwealth, as well as a few ninth seeds knocking off eighth seeds. 

For more about their methodology visit the LRMC website, or skip ahead and go straight to their complete bracket.

On the women's side the professors and their model have projected a final consisting of Connecticut and Notre Dame with no major upsets in the opening round.

Sokol is joined on the LRMC team by fellow IGeorgia Tech professors Paul Kvam and George Nemhauser and professor Mark Brown of City College, City University of New York, as well as a dedicated group of undergraduate students.

“The core problem is food distribution, not supply,” says Ozlem Ergun, Georgia Tech professor of industrial and systems engineering. “It’s quite expensive and challenging to deliver food that is abundant in one region of the world to another.”

As co-founder and co-director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems, Ergun and her team of faculty, staff and students work with groups such as the United Nations’ World Food Programme to create more efficient food distribution systems. When thinking about who can solve the world’s hunger crisis, industrial and systems engineers may not exactly be the heroes that jump to mind. But Ergun says the engineers who make these sorts of logistical and supply chain improvements not only save time, effort and money, but also human lives.

Mallory Soldner, PhD IE 14, is one of these unsung hero engineers. As a graduate student, Soldner spent more than a year in Rome helping the World Food Programme create a supply chain dashboard designed to help humanitarian workers track problem areas using key performance indicators. For example, one aspect the dashboard measures is the reliability of food commodity orders placed by a country office. The dashboard uses graphs to show what percentage of orders have arrived on time, in good quality and in the right amount to their destination. If orders are arriving early or late, the dashboard will help pinpoint what’s causing the problems.

“It promotes a better dialogue around what’s happening, why it’s happening and what you have to do to tweak things to get where you want,” Soldner says. “It’s a really digestable way to focus on the most important pieces.”

Soldner, who now works at UPS’ corporate headquarters in the advanced analytics group, says engineers indeed have an important role to play in the humanitarian arena. “Engineers help translate solutions to areas where tradeoffs are difficult,” she says.

The Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems was what initially attracted Soldner to Georgia Tech. She attended the Center’s annual logistics conference before she decided to pursue her doctorate at Tech.

The center was established in 2007 as a way for students and faculty to share their skills to improve logistics in the public sector. And that’s important because resources in the nonprofit world are often limited.

“Every dollar that can be saved in operational costs can be used to help another person,” Ergun says.

But humanitarian organizations present some very unique challenges. Unlike at a typical private-sector company, it’s very difficult to predict what demand will be like from one day to the next. A typical corporation can predict demand for its products in the future based on sales from past years. But predicting a tsunami or political revolution isn’t quite as straightforward.

Humanitarian organizations often struggle with consistent funding as well.

“Even if you can estimate demand, without a confirmed donation you cannot start your supply chain action,” Ergun says. “The money starts to trickle in when there’s an emergency. But when there’s an emergency or humanitarian event—such as a storm that wipes out food supplies—it’s already too late to start buying.”

Simply put, Ergun says one of the goals of the center and its partnerships with humanitarian organizations is to help ensure that they get the right amount of food, at the right price, to the right place at the right time.

“That really fits into our expertise at Tech,” Ergun says. “We have one of the best departments in the world in this area and we have a lot of experience.”

In fact, Ergun believes the Institute deserves some credit for the growing prominence of engineering in the humanitarian sector. “We were one of the pioneer groups, but it has become quite a big field for academia,” Ergun says. “And I think part of it is due to our leadership.”

This article first appared in the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine Vol. 91, No. 1 2015.

The project particularly focuses on the optimal control of hepatitis C Virus. This study will use data-driven mathematical models to underpin some of such complex health policy decisions.  From an educational standpoint several high school and undergraduate students will be engaged into these research activities.

The abstract of Ayer’s grant reads:

The research objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award is to study the design of optimal population-based disease surveillance policies and treatment prioritization strategies for chronic infectious diseases in resource-limited settings. The project particularly focuses on the optimal control of hepatitis C Virus (HCV), an epidemic affecting nearly 2 percent of the entire US population, fastest-growing cause of cancer-related deaths in the US. If successful, results from this research may improve hepatocellular carcinoma surveillance and HCV treatment prioritization decisions in practice and can inform prevention and treatment decisions at the national level in terms of guideline development. Under this project, in collaboration with several medical researchers, a PhD student will be rigorously trained to apply systems modeling methodologies to the healthcare area. In addition, several high school and undergraduate students will be engaged into these research activities. The results of the project will be widely disseminated to both engineering and medical communities through paper publications and conference presentations.

Many health policy questions, such as optimal disease surveillance and treatment prioritization decisions for chronic infectious diseases, cannot be answered through the traditional research methods in medicine, such as randomized control trials and observational studies. This study will use data-driven mathematical models to underpin some of such complex health policy decisions. The resulting stochastic optimization models are non-standard, large scale, and computationally challenging. Therefore, this study will either create new approaches or extend the existing methodology to account for the critical features of the disease epidemiology, resource limitations, and management strategies. An important component of the research is careful parameterization and calibration of the models using some of the largest datasets in the nation. While this project mainly focuses on hepatocellular carcinoma and HCV, the themes of this study can be generalized and applied to several other disease management problems.

Ayer conducts research on stochastic modeling and optimization, with applications in medical decision making, health policy, healthcare and humanitarian operations.

The award will help with the integration of undergraduate engineering students' experiences in senior design projects enabling students to connect their coursework directly to interesting real-world applications.

The abstract of Goldberg’s grant reads:

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program grant will develop algorithmic and modeling tools and methodologies for inventory control problems. The problem of managing inventory when demand is stochastic is one of the core problems of Operations Research. Such models have many applications critical to the American economy, including: supply chains, healthcare, energy, cloud computing, military operations, and advanced manufacturing. It is common wisdom that the more noise, uncertainty, and high-dimensionality that one introduces into such a model, the more difficult that model becomes to solve. This award supports the development of algorithmic and modeling frameworks which break this fundamental barrier by embracing randomness and uncertainty as an algorithmic and modeling tool, turning the associated hardness into an advantage. The award will also advance the state of pedagogy, by integrating undergraduate engineering students' experiences in senior design projects into their introductory Operations Research and Industrial Engineering courses, enabling students to connect their coursework directly to interesting real-world applications pertaining to actual inventories and related models. The award will also lead to the development of new Ph.D. courses, and the integration of students at all levels into the supported research.

The award will support research into two fundamental families of inventory models. Lost sales inventory models with positive lead times are appropriate for many applications, but have resisted solution due to the curse of dimensionality. This has led to the use of incorrect models in many applications, for example the use of models with backlogged demand when lost sales models are more appropriate. If successful, the supported research will create an algorithmic framework and supporting methodologies aimed at developing efficiently implementable heuristics which provably perform nearly optimally as more randomness is introduced into the problem, for example through longer lead times, and generalize the approach to related models. The second modeling framework to be considered is that of (distributionally) robust inventory control, in which one takes model misspecification into consideration when performing the relevant optimizations. The supported research will develop a modeling framework and solution methodology for analyzing such models in the presence of demand forecasting and dependencies, by considering settings in which one has limited information regarding the conditional distribution and moments of demand over time. The research will also create a theory explaining how different approaches to modeling uncertainty in the joint distribution of demand over time lead to qualitatively different inventory control policies, and explore these questions in related models.

Goldberg works in applied probability, interpreted broadly, on topics ranging from inventory control and queueing theory to distributionally robust optimization, Markov random fields, and combinatorial optimization.  Much of his recent work on inventory control centers around using insights from applied probability and the theory of random walks to develop efficient algorithms and policies for challenging and fundamental inventory problems (e.g. models with lost sales).  Here he has also studied how uncertainty in the joint distribution of demand impacts policy decisions, through the lens of robust optimization.  His work on queues centers around developing novel stochastic comparison techniques for bounding the congestion in large-scale networks, and studying how quickly such systems approach their steady-state behavior.  Also, his work on Markov random fields and combinatorial optimization has focused on applications of the correlation decay phenomena and techniques from statistical mechanics to the independent set and matching problems on large graphs, and has been applied to certain problems in economics involving bartering networks.  Goldberg has also recently begun a collaboration with the Georgia Tech and Atlanta Police departments, working with a team of undergraduates to analyze crime data.

The abstract of Pokutta’s grant reads:

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program grant will explore the power of Semidefinite Optimization problems. This broad class of optimization problems is fundamental to solving many real-world problems in engineering and computer science as well as pivotal in analyzing the theoretical performance of algorithms. Approaches based on semidefinite optimization often provide superior algorithms yet at the same time the power of semidefinite optimization problems is only partially understood. The leitmotif of this grant is: How best to exploit the power of semidefinite optimization problems? This grant will relate the structure of optimization problems to their representability as semidefinite optimization problems and explore new ways of solving large semidefinite programs efficiently. Moreover, it will relate semidefinite optimization to the weaker but more easily solvable class of so called linear optimization problems. Understanding the power of semidefinite optimization problems will advance both our understanding of theoretical computational complexity as well as practical feasibility of solving semidefinite optimization problems. As such the results will positively impact both society and the U.S. economy. The tightly integrated educational program will broaden the involvement of under-represented groups and enhance engineering education.

The expressive power of semidefinite programs will be studied in the natural framework of extended formulations, which is a unified way of denoting optimization problems. Extended formulations have been highly successful for linear programming, answering long standing open problems. However very little is known about the more general and significantly more complex semidefinite case. A major aspect of this CAREER grant is to study both the construction of small semidefinite extended formulations, as well as strong lower bounding techniques, potentially allowing for efficient approximations of hard combinatorial optimization problems. Structured extended formulations derived from hierarchies have proven to be powerful however it is not well-understood when they can be outperformed by more general formulations. Closely related to these aspects is the question regarding the relation between semidefinite extended formulations and linear extended formulations. While linear programs can be solved rather efficiently for largest scale instances, semidefinite programs are notoriously hard to solve in practice, so that it can be desirable to solve a linear approximation instead. It is known that this is not possible in general, however for large classes of problems of interest linear programming based approximation might provide sufficient guarantees and identifying sufficient conditions is part of this grant.

Pokutta's research concentrates on combinatorial optimization and polyhedral combinatorics, and in particular focuses on cutting-plane methods, extended formulations, and on applications of optimization methods in supply chain management, production planning, mechanical engineering, and especially finance. His research is motivated by exploring these limits of computation and by applications in various disciplines requiring the solution of non-standard, highly complex optimization problems. Examples of Pokutta's applied work include stowage optimization problems for inland vessels, oil production problems, clearing of electricity markets, portfolio optimization problems, and optimal liquidity management strategies.

This project is also working to integrate research with course development and in-classroom teaching in hopes of engaging more females and underrepresented minorities in engineering, and to expose high-school students and middle-school girls to the field of industrial engineering and operations research.

The abstract of Zhou’s grant reads:

The objective of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program project is to develop new methods for optimizing and predicting performance of complex systems that are described by stochastic simulation models. Such systems arise in various areas such as finance, engineering design, systems biology, and manufacturing, and are often characterized by complexities, nonlinearities, and uncertainties in their dynamics. The major challenges in the optimization and prediction of the system performance are the expensive evaluation of system models, lack of structure in the performance measure, huge search space, and the need to address the balance between efficiency and accuracy. This research aims to make strides towards these challenges by developing new theory and methodologies. The proposed methods will be applied to modeling of a class of biological systems from experiment data and studying modes of behaviors of these systems, helping to reveal functional mechanisms and design principles of biological systems. This project also supports the PI's educational objective to integrate research with course development and in-classroom teaching, engage more females and underrepresented minorities in engineering, and expose high-school students and middle-school girls to the field of industrial engineering and operations research.

If successful, this research will provide a set of new algorithms that possess both superior practical performance and rigorous convergence guarantees for the following two problems: (i) simulation optimization; and (ii) characterization of the response space of a system model. For simulation optimization, an algorithmic framework will be developed by integrating the central idea of model-based methods from deterministic nonlinear optimization with classical gradient-based search in a seamless way. To efficiently explore the response space, a new approach is proposed to sample from the response space and the parameter space iteratively, which takes advantage of the simple structure of the parameter space to circumvent the nonlinearity of the model while using the information on the response space to expedite the search in the parameter space.

Zhou's research interests lie in theory, methods, and applications of simulation optimization and stochastic control. She currently works on the development of efficient algorithms for optimizing and predicting performance of complex systems that are described by stochastic simulation models, and solving dynamic decision-making problems under uncertainty and driven by data. Her research is at the interface of simulation, control, and optimization. The application areas of her research include financial engineering, inventory control, and systems biology.

“We believe that projects such as NextBuzz provide a great learning opportunity, and are pleased to have partnered with such excellent students and faculty, resulting in real improvements for Tech’s transit system and a greater transportation experience for the Institute’s constituents,” the Parking and Transportation Services office said.

After 1.5 years of testing, NextBuzz was implemented on the Trolley transit system in 2013. The program was developed by John Bartholdi, Manhattan Associates Chair of Supply Chain Management at ISyE, Don Eisenstein, professor at the University of Chicago, Russell Clark, senior research scientist at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, Jin Lee, ISyE graduate student and research engineer, and several other students involved with the Vertical Integration Project’s Intelligent Transportation Systems project team.

NextBuzz is a software and hardware application designed to coordinate buses on a fixed route, dynamically adjusting the layover time of a vehicle at the end of a line based on real time data in order to equalize headways and reduce the occurrence of bus bunching. Subsequent testing has shown that vehicle headways have been reduced resulting in shorter wait times. With that, there is less variability in headways, so service is more reliable.

The class began the residence in Hong Kong, a longtime favorite of the program.  To kick things off, the class met with Dr. Ping Ping Fu, Associate Professor of Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  Fu provided the students with an introduction to the region, focusing on leadership challenges and successes in China. 

The following morning, the class traveled to a corporate site visit at DKSH, the leading Market Expansion Services Group with a focus on Asia.  The class met with Victor Hew, Head of Central Management Team at DKSH to discuss the company and logistics in Hong Kong.  The class then traveled to the DKSH warehouse in the Hutchison Logistics Center to discuss healthcare logistics, supply chain management.  The class finished the day with a tour of the facility.   

Day 2 in Hong Kong began with a meeting with Mark Millar, Managing Partner of MPower Associates for a discussion on the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong region.  Millar led the class through discussions about the business climate in China, special incentives for companies to use Hong Kong, variety, complexity, opportunities and challenges across Asia, and Asia’s key emerging markets. 

After lunch, the class took the MTR to Li & Fung, for a meeting with their President of Logistics, Joseph Phi.  Phi engaged the class in a presentation about Li & Fung, the company’s business opportunities, and innovations in the supply chain field.  Phi also discussed global sourcing opportunities offered by the company. 

After 2 full days in Hong Kong, the class traveled by train to Shenzhen, China for a day trip full of visits.  The day kicked off with a visit to SF Express, a logistics provider headquartered in China.  The class met with Alan Wong, Vice President of Corporate Development for a discussion on SF Express residential delivery program, e-commerce and fulfillment, custom logistics solutions, and international growth and operations.  Next, the class traveled to Da Chan Bay Terminal One, a relatively new port terminal on the Yangtze River, for an overview of the port, and a presentation about port operations and throughput.  The class crossed back into Hong Kong that evening for one final night in the city.

The final day in Hong Kong started with a site visit to Cathay City, Cathay Pacific’s headquarters near the Hong Kong International Airport.   The class took a tour of the facility, seeing everything from pilot training facilities to crew operations and training and flight simulators.  Following the site visit, the class boarded a plane for Dubai.

The first morning in Dubai, the class met with Dr. Wasseem Mina, Associate Professor of Economics & Finance at the United Arab Emirates University, for a discussion on the Middle East and North African region.  Mina talked about economic and social developments in the UAE and region, as well as investment opportunities and risks.  That afternoon, the class stayed in the hotel to meet with Francis Cherian, EMIL-SCS Class of 2008 alumnus and co-founder of Innovatus, for a discussion about strategic sourcing and how a success sourcing strategy plays into success supply chain management.  The lecture focused on how to develop a strategic sourcing methodology, supplier relationship management, supplier rationalization, and enablers, specifically, how to execute strategic sourcing within your company and how to create a framework for initiating strategic sourcing. 

On Day two in Dubai, the class took some free time to explore the city.  Groups visited the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, the Dubai Mall, and the Mall of the Emirates.  In the afternoon, the class took a desert safari, which included dune buggy driving, sand surfing, camel riding, and henna tattoos.  The day ended with a delicious Middle Eastern meal in the desert before heading back to the hotel.

Classes resumed on Sunday, beginning week two with a site visit to the Caterpillar (CAT) Parts Middle East Distribution Center.  The class met with Dale Carr, Logistics Center Manager for a presentation on CAT in the Middle East, managing labor in the Gulf, and reaching customers in the region.  The class traveled back to the hotel in the afternoon for Part I of a course on Labor, taught by Owen Darbishire, Rhodes Trust Associate Professor in Management Studies at Said Business School at Oxford University. 

Day three in Dubai began with the final part of Darbishire’s Labor presentation, discussing labor relations, issues, opportunities and risks in the UK, EU, and USA.  Darbishire also covered various labor models from around the world.  After lunch, the class traveled to Aramex for another site visit.  Aramex is a global provider of comprehensive logistics and transportation solutions in the Middle East.  The class met with various people within the company to discuss the company’s strategy and business model.  The visit ended with a tour of Aramex’s distribution center and warehouse. 

The final day in Dubai began with a site visit to the Dubai Multi-Commodities Center (DMCC), for a presentation on DMCC, the Free Zone, gold & diamond exchanges, and DMCC Tradeflow.  After leaving DMCC, the class boarded a plane for Mumbai, India for the final leg of the journey.

The following morning, the class met with Jasjit Sethi, CEO of TCI Supply Chain Solutions, for a presentation on logistics and cold chain in India.  In the afternoon, the class traveled to Hindustan Unilever for the final site visit of the trip.  The class learned about retail in India, Unilever’s channels and segmentations, and the impact of VAT may have on Unilever’s business. 

On the final day of Residence IV, the class met with Pankaj Mehta from Carrier Transicold for a more in depth presentation on cold chain in India. 

Up next for the EMIL-SCS Class of 2015?  Residence V will be held from May 3-15, 2015 in Montreal, Canada, Mexico City, Mexico, and Seattle, Washington. 

For more on the EMIL-SCS Program, contact Jonathan Goitz at jonathan.goitz@isye.gatech.edu or visit http://www.emil.gatech.edu/