Designed for logistics professionals from across the entire supply chain, the series includes four courses:

--World-Class Inventory Planning and Management. Inventory availability is the most important aspect of customer service, and inventory carrying costs are typically the most expensive and riskiest aspect of logistics and supply chain management. In this course, participants learn how to manage inventories more effectively in order to increase fill rates and inventory turns.

--World-Class Logistics and Supply Chain Strategy. World-class logistics systems improve customer service, reduce operating expenses, and minimize capital investments. In this course, participants will learn how to develop a comprehensive supply chain strategy to improve business performance.

--World-Class Transportation and Distribution . Driven by more frequent and increasingly time-definite shipments, complex security and regulatory requirements, increased fuel and labor costs, and severe shortages in labor and capacity, transportation management has become a critical corporate function. In this course, participants learn how to interpret shipment activity, optimize routes, and manage total transportation for better service and reduced logistics costs.

--World-Class Warehousing and Material Handling . Warehousing minimizes the effects of supply chain inefficiencies, improves logistics accuracy and inventory management, and allows product accumulation, consolidation, and customization. This course focuses on ways to design warehouses to maximize supply chain efficiency and benchmark warehouse performance.

These courses can be taken individually or as part of a certificate program. Participants who complete all four courses will qualify for the Supply Chain & Logistics Certificate. By the end of the series, attendees will have received a broad but intense education covering:

*Customer service and order processing
*Inventory planning and management
*Supply chain integration and transportation
*Warehousing
*Distribution
*Logistics performance measures
*Benchmarking procedures
*Logistics information systems architecture
and implementation
*Third-party logistics strategies
*Logistics organization design

"This online learning experience was a great way to expand into every aspect of logistics, and I was able to complete it at my own pace," said Mark Lamarre, manufacturing manager at Raytheon. "It was straightforward and informative, not trying to be harder than it really is with tricky questions on the exams, like other programs I have done."

The series is taught by Edward Frazelle, PhD, who is known by his students for putting "logic back into logistics."

Each course is divided into nine to twelve sections with an online quiz at the end of each section.

"The online format is perfect for the busy professional as it affords them the flexibility to progress though the course material at their own pace," said Frazelle, author of the book Supply Chain Strategy. "Our online participants have the option of starting and stopping a course as often as they like as long as they complete the course within a twelve-month period."

Online course materials are presented using streaming video presentations synchronized with PowerPoint slides, extensive course notes, and photo galleries that highlight the operation of important logistics systems. The series is offered through a WebCT interface in a point-and-click format. It can be accessed from anywhere, by anyone capable of using a Web browser such as Internet Explorer.

For an online course demo, visit www.scl.gatech.edu/online.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2009 issue of Industrial & Systems Engineering, the alumni magazine of the Stewart School of ISyE.

This is the sixth installment of the CoolInsights column in Food Logisticmagazine hosted by Integrated Food Chain center at Georgia Tech. Click here to read more about the column and to find links to all six installments.

George Nemhauser, the A. Russell Chandler Chaired Professor, was honored as the first recipientof the newly established Khachiyan Prize, created to recognize an individual ora team for life-time achievements in the area of optimization. The award, namedfor Leonid Khachiyan, serves as an esteemed recognition of innovativeness andimpact in the area of optimization, including theory and applications.

Nemhauser’s remarkable academic career spans nearly a half-century, duringwhich time he has grown into one of the world's foremost experts in discreteoptimization and become one of the most recognized members of the INFORMscommunity. The basis for Nemhauser’s outstanding position as an operations researchscientist is his fundamental contributions to the theory and practice ofinteger programming and combinatorial optimization.

Bill Cook, Chandler Family Chair and professor, is another ISyE faculty member honoredat this year’s meeting. Cook was elected INFORMS Fellow, an honor reserved fordistinguished individuals who have demonstrated outstanding and exceptionalaccomplishments and experience in operations research and the managementsciences. Their service to the profession and to INFORMS has culminated inelection to the INFORMS Fellow Award. Cook, known widely for his work with theTraveling Salesman Problem and his research in combinatorial optimization andinteger programming, was elected for his research contributions in bothareas. Cook joins a distinguished list, including twelve other ISyEfaculty members who have achieved this recognition.

The George Nicholson Student Paper Competition, arguably the mostprestigious student award in the operations research community, was awarded toISyE PhD student Bo Zhang. The George Nicholson Student Paper Competition is held each year to honoroutstanding student papers in the field of operations research and themanagement sciences. Zhang received the Nicholson Award for his paper, “RefinedSquare-Root Staffing for Call Centers with Impatient Customers,” which heco-authored with Johan van Leeuwaarden and Bert Zwart, ISyE adjunct associateprofessor and Zhang’s thesis advisor.

Other ISyE faculty and students who received recognition for theiroutstanding work include:

Li Xu, a third-year PhD student, won the 2010 INFORMS Energy, Natural Resources and the Environment best student paper competition for his paper, "Carbon Emission Permit Price Volatility Mitigation via Financial Options." Xu’s thesis advisor is Shijie Deng.

Pinar Keskinocak, Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash professorand co-director of the Center for Health and HumanitarianLogistics, and PhD student Hannah Smalley were finalists for the Daniel H.Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice for their paper,"Universal Tool for Vaccine Scheduling - Applications for Children andAdults." Keskinocak and Smalley co-authored the paper with Dr. LarryPickering of the Centers for Disease Control and Faramroze Engineer (PhD IE2009).

PhD student Ran Jin was a finalist for the best studentpaper award of Quality, Statistics and Reliability section of INFORMS. Ranworked with Jan Shi, the CarolynJ. Stewart Chair professor.

Ozlem Ergun and Julie Swann, associate professors andco-directors of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics; Keskinocak;and PhD students Monica Villarreal and Paul Kerl won third place at theINFORM-ED Case Competition for their paper, "A Leader Home ImprovementRetailer Commitment to Disaster Response."  Former students Matthew J. Drake (MS IE 2005,PhD IE 2006) and Gonca Karakus (MS IE 2008) co-authored the paper.

PhD student Kelly Bartlett won the Monday poster session forher poster titled, “AssetAllocation and Routing in a Recruiting Organization.” Bartlett’s advisors are George Nemhauser and Joel Sokol.

Undergraduate students Rene Alvarenga, Dani Slaton, andJordan Stone won second place in the INFORMS' “Doing Good with Good OR” studentcompetition. Ergun was the advisor.

James Wade (IE 2010) won an honorable mention in the INFORMSundergraduate student paper competition for his paper "Supply Chain Improvements for the World Food Programme." Ozlem Ergun was the advisor.

INFORMS,thelargest professional society in the world for professionals in the field of operationsresearch, management science, and business analytics, serves the scientific and professional needs of operationsresearchers and those in the management sciences including educators,scientists, students, managers, and consultants. The Institute serves as afocal point for operations research professionals, permitting them tocommunicate with each other and reach out to other professional societies, aswell as the varied clientele of the profession's research and practice.

The class began its residence in Panama City with a coursein fundamental theory about the region.  PatriceFranko, Grossman Professor of Economics and International Studies at ColbyCollege, presented an overview of Latin America from a geopolitical and socio-economicperspective.  Once the regional frameworkwas set, the class heard from John Bartholdi, Manhattan Associates chair andprofessor of supply chain and logistics at Georgia Tech.  Bartholdi lectured on warehouse optimization,facility design, IT systems, and software to enhance order fulfillment anddistribution. 

Following the two days of intense lecture, the class was readyto get out and experience Panama City and the Colon Free Trade Zone.  First visiting was ManzanilloInternational Terminal (MIT) Logistics Park site, the class learned theimportance of MIT throughout Central America with an emphasis on portoperations and performance metrics, rail integration and its support of thePanama Canal and the canal railway, and intermodal truck operations. 

From the MIT offices, the class traveledto J.Cain & Company, a third-party warehouse service provider locatedon the campus of MIT.  J. Cain presentedan overview of the facility and discussed the benefits of being located withinthe MIT Logistics Park and the benefits and challenges of being inside theColon Free Trade Zone.  The lastessential site visit in Panama was the Panama Canal Authority, where thestudents learned the rich history of building the Panama Canal, as well as thedetailed future plans to expand the canal by 2014.

That evening the class boarded a plane to Lima, Peru,a first-time visit for the EMIL-SCS program. The class began its Lima visit in the classroom with part two of Bartholdi’swarehouse optimization discussion. Following the lecture, the class made its firstsite visit in Lima to Ransa, an integrated logistics service provider.  Ransa provided an overview of its portoperation logistics services, with a focus on facilitating trade into and outof Lima in support of the mining, retail, consumer, and cold chainindustries. 

The class began its second day in Lima with a lecture fromMaria Rey Marston, senior lecturer in the Supply Chain & LogisticsInstitute at Georgia Tech and executive director of the Center for Emerging Logistics& Supply Chains. Marston spoke on logistics and supply chain management inLatin America, with a specific focus on infrastructure needs and understandingthe Latin American consumer.

That afternoon the class went to Alicorp, a company dedicated to the preparation of massconsumption products, industrial supplies, and animal nutrition food.  The company presented an overview and thentook the class on a tour of the plant and distribution center.  The final site visit in Lima was to JorgeChaves International Airport for an operational overview of their import -export processes, custom regulations, and the cold chain supply chainsupporting fresh fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The class left Lima and flewto Cuzco, Peru, where they visited Machu Picchu over the weekend to tour theInca ruins.

The class began the second week of its residence in SaoPaulo, Brazil, with Lars Meyer Sanches, PhD, LALT/UNICAMP, Laboratory of Apprenticeshipon Logistics and Transportation. Sanches gave an overview of Brazil,specifically addressing logistics and supply chain challenges andopportunities, contract logistics, and managing corporate taxes in Brazil.  Later that day the class met with AntonioGrandini, Brazilian supply chain and logistics consultant, who presented anoverview on tax strategies in Brazil, as well as case studies on Landed Cost Models usedto offset the impact of the Brazilian Tax Regime.

From Sao Paulo, the class took a bus trip to Campinas,Brazil, to meet with Dell Hortolandia for a site visit and a discussion onlogistics issues and opportunities working with customs in Brazil, outboundshipping to other countries within Latin America and to non-Latin Americanregions, and ocean/air inbound and outbound shipments.  Following the Dell visit, the class touredViracopos/Campinas Airport Infraero, a customs bonded import-exportfacility.  As a major hub, Viracoposutilizes express lanes for courier traffic, which are exceptionally quick andless-bureaucratic for Brazilian standards.

The third day in Brazil included a visit to the Port ofSantos for a harbor tour and overview of the Port ofSantos and its role in support of containerized ocean cargo into and out ofBrazil.  While visiting the Port ofSantos, the class got the chance to board an incoming ocean vessel outin the harbor and transit with the ship into the Port of Santos.  The class also visited with ELOG-Columbia,where they received an overview of EADI BondedWarehousing and took a look at the 3PL industry in Brazil.

On the last day of the residence,the students visited GM Automotive Industrial Complex in Sao Paulo. The class learned about the economic foot print of GM in SaoPaulo - Brazil- Latin America, as well as: factors influencing GM’s choice ofSao Paulo as a location and the current advantages/disadvantages of beinglocated in Sao Paulo; the participation of suppliers in the site and how thatinfluences logistics and procurement practices; the sales process (internet vs.dealers); how the internet process influences the production processes; finishedvehicle distribution including modes of transportation and tax considerations;and post sales and service, highlighting which models they run in Brazil and whereand how they serve Latin America.

The next destination for the EMIL-SCS Class of 2011 isResidence IV in Asia.  The class will be traveling to Seoul, South Korea;Shanghai, China; and Hong Kong from February 20 – March 3, 2011. 

Click here formore on the EMIL-SCS program or contact Erin Howlette at erin.howlette@isye.gatech.edu.

 The thought that immediately comes tomind is how uniquely remarkable ISyE is as an academic unit in higher education in the United States andthroughout the world. Rankings are not necessarily accurate indicators ofquality.

However, having both our graduate andundergraduate programs consistently ranked first by U.S. News &World Report in industrial andmanufacturing engineering is a source of great pride to us all. That ourgraduate program has been ranked first for twenty consecutive years is simplyextraordinary. To paraphrase an external review of ISyE written three yearsago: ISyE is thenation’s flagship academicunit in industrial engineering and operations research andplays a leading role in shaping the strategic directions of the discipline. Such recognitiondoes not come without significantinvestments in time, effort, and money by Georgia Tech as an institutionand the School’s alumni, faculty, staff, students, and friends overa long period of time. Let me thank all of you for your manycontributions that have made ISyE the premier academic unit that it is.

Over the last five years, we strivedto ensure continued and increased strength of the School’s foundationdisciplines (optimization, stochastics andsimulation, and statistics) and to broaden the School’s applied researchhorizons through continued support of supply chain and logistics initiatives,efforts to revive traditional strengths in health, and new initiatives inhealth and humanitarian logistics, sustainability and natural systems, andsystems informatics and control. ISyE also expanded its internationalactivities beyond those in Singapore to include programs in Shanghai and LatinAmerica. During this period, the faculty strove hard to continuously improvethe quality of incoming students and faculty, the mentoring process for juniorfaculty, and the evaluation processes for faculty reappointment, promotion, andtenure.

In 2006, ISyE received a $20 millioncommitment from H. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart that enabled, and willcontinue to enable, ISyE to have greater impact on its academic and researchcommunities and on challenges of economic and societal importance. Overall,ISyE foundation accounts more than doubled from endowment gifts and commitmentsduring the last five years, helping to ensure the School’s financial stabilityand health during the economic downturn and providingresources to help ISyE increase its dominance among its academic peers in thefuture. Let me end by expressing my appreciation for being given the opportunityto have served as ISyE chair and for the chance it gave me to get to know somany of the fine people—alumni, faculty, staff,students, and friends—who have contributed to ISyE.

Chelsea “Chip”White, the Schneider National Chair in Transportation and Logistics and formerH. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart Chair of Georgia Tech’s H. Milton StewartSchool of Industrial and Systems Engineering, will be spending next year in AbuDhabi helping to launch an industrial and systems engineering department atKhalifa University of Science, Technology, and Research (KUSTAR). In his newrole, White will help establish the curriculum for KUSTAR’s systems engineeringprogram and recruit systems engineering faculty members. He will also beproviding leadership for the Logistics Institute, as well as support in theenrollment of personnel. He will be based at the university’s Abu Dhabi campus.Abu Dhabi, the richest and largest of the seven city-states in the United ArabEmirates, approached Georgia Tech to help them build the educational base AbuDhabi needs to reduce its economy’s dependence on oil. White is not the onlyGeorgia Tech professor at KUSTAR; professors in Tech’s biomedical engineeringand aerospace engineering schools will also be spending the 2010-2011 schoolyear helping KUSTAR build curricula and recruit faculty.

This articlefirst appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of Industrial and Systems Engineering:the Alumni Magazine for the Stewart School of ISyE at Georgia Tech.

Simon, a logistics manager at MercaSID, is a 2009 graduate of GeorgiaTech’s Executive Master’s in International Logistics & Supply ChainStrategy program (EMIL-SCS). The eighteen-month,residence-based program prepares executives to manage a multitude of globallogistics and supply chainissues. Working either individually or as a team, EMILSCS participants developa solution to a real-worldproblem instead of writing the traditional master’s thesis. Simon chose tofocus on a new approach to the product demandplanning process as a means of achieving inventory reduction.

A producer of cookingoils and other agricultural-based products, MercaSID is also a major Caribbeandistributor forconsumer-product giants, including Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, Kellogg, and Clorox.Its inventory is massive—too much so, Simon thought—resulting not only inexcessive financial and warehousing costs, but also in less-than-optimal customerservice.

The key is tostrike a closer balance between demand and inventory while maintaining as highan order fill rate as possible.

“Weneeded to understand the demand side better,” said Simon. “We had a lot of theright information, but we weren’t using it properly.”

His approach iscomprised of two parts. The first involves data collection—basic numbercrunching—to come up with the projected demand for each product category, andthen determine demand estimates for individual products. That information subsequentlyundergoes a value assessment by representatives of the company’s sales,marketing, and operations departments.

The group arrivesat a consensus on final product forecasts, which are used to determine thenumber of any given item to bemaintained in inventory. This final number does not necessarily match theanalytical forecast provided by a computerprogram, because it takes into account factors including market information,market situation, and the company’s marketing plans.

“This process hashelped us streamline our inventories and improve our service levels as well,”Simon noted.

The results so farare impressive. While maintaining or exceeding a 90 percent fill rate levelacross all product categories,inventory was reduced 15 percent last year and an additional 5 percent in thefirst half of 2010. Further reductionsare likely when MercaSID’s suppliers are brought fully into the planningprocess, probably next year, Simonsaid.

 “We did get somesupplier collaboration in the first phases of this new process, but we know wecan take it further,” he said. “That’s going to be a little more difficultbecause it involves the participation and buy-in of other companies, not justourselves.” Simon expects MercaSID’s finance department to become more activein the process as it evolves.

Buy-in withinMercaSID itself was also crucial for the project’s success, Simon added,pointing out that many people have to believe in the process for it to work.“It has taken discipline, but we did a lot of consensus building about how theprocess should take place,” he explained. “After we proposed something, wedidn’t take it to the next level until all sides of the team—marketing,sales—were in agreement that that’s the way we should go.

“We’ve had athousand percent support from the highest levels of the company, and that’smade a lot of difference too,” headded.

Simon’s experienceis not uncommon among EMIL-SCS graduates. “It’s the only program of its kind,”said Greg Andrews,managing director of the EMIL-SCS program. Students, typically sponsored bytheir employers, participate in fivetwo-week semesters spread out over eighteen months. The first semester is an “academic boot camp” held at Tech, where studentsare exposed to the “concepts of industrial engineering as applied to supplychains,” Andrews said. Subsequent semesters are spent traveling to countries inEurope, Asia, and the Americas for a combination of academic study, practicalapplication, and real-world problem solving.

“The 2009 classthat Emile Simon is a part of had seven global projects with a combined savingsof about $250 million ifimplemented,” Andrews continued. “That’s a pretty good payback.”

In a fast-movingconsumer goods company, finding the right balance between customer service andthe cost of doing businessmakes the difference between success and failure, noted Renato Cantarelli,MercaSID’s vice president ofoperations. “Key to achieving this balance is to have a robust yet simpledemand planning process where sales, marketing, procurement, manufacturing, anddistribution are integrated, along with a consolidated operational plan. This wasEmile’s project—to conceptualize and implement our demand planning process.Now, after more than one year in operation, this process is fully operationaland is well accepted by all levels of our organization. Furthermore, it isdelivering the benefits we expected from the outset.

 “The knowledge Emilebrought with him from his experience at Georgia Tech was fundamental for him to successfully finishhis project and for the business to accrue the benefits. It was money and timewell spent—we are very happy!”

GaryGoettling is a freelance writer who writes forGeorgia Tech’s Research Horizons and other alumnipublications.

The award is named for Leonid Khachiyan, famous in the optimizationcommunity for his use of the ellipsoid algorithm to demonstrate that linearprogramming, in the Turing machine model, has a polynomial-time algorithm. The Khachiyan Prize recognizesa sustained career of scholarship from nominees who are still active at theyear of the nomination. The prize serves as an esteemed recognition ofinnovativeness and impact in the area of optimization, including theory andapplications.

Nemhauser’s remarkableacademic career spans nearly a half-century, during which time he has growninto one of the world's foremost experts in discrete optimization and becomeone of the most recognized members of the INFORMs community. The basis forNemhauser’s outstanding position as an OR scientist is his fundamental contributionsto the theory and practice of integer programming and combinatorialoptimization. His integer programming books have guided the field for more thanthirty years, each introducing a host of new techniques for handling IP modelsin theory and practice. As well, Nemhauser’s nearly two hundred research papersin the field are unmatched in their breadth of coverage.

Though he has shown aunique ability to find, solve, and present applied work in Operations Research,Nemhauser is first and foremost a superb contributor to the theory underlyingoptimization techniques. This is evident from his publications throughout hiswhole career, starting with traveling-salesman-problem work in 1962 andcontinuing through his recent papers on piecewise-linear optimization.Fundamental models and techniques covered by Nemhauser include Lagrangianoptimization, dynamic programming, capital budgeting, set partitioning, cuttingplanes, branch-and-price, transportation problems, graph coloring, vertexpacking, submodular functions, facility location, cutting stock, and stochasticprogramming

Nemhauser isa founding partner of the Sports Scheduling Group, a company that doesscheduling for various college conferences and major league baseball. He has served ORSA as council member, president,and editor of Operations Research,and he is past chair of the Mathematical Programming Society. Nemhauser is thefounding editor of Operations ResearchLetters, and co-editor of Handbooksof Operations Research and Management Science.  He has also served various governmentalagencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institute ofStandards and Technology, and the National Research Council.. His other honorsand awards include the Kimball Medal, the Lanchester Prize (twice awarded),Morse lecturer of ORSA, and membership in the National Academy of Engineering.

Click here to view Nemhauser's acceptance speech.

The INFORMS FellowAward is reserved for distinguished individuals who have demonstratedoutstanding and exceptional accomplishments and experience in operationsresearch and the management sciences. Their service to the profession and toINFORMS has culminated in election to the INFORMS Fellow Award.

Cook,known widely for his work with the Traveling Salesman Problem and hisresearch in combinatorial optimization andinteger programming, was elected for his research contributions in both areas.  Cook is one of eleven Fellows elected thisyear.

In addition to his researchinterests in combinatorial optimization and integer programming, Cook is alsoheavily involved in research dealing with computational issues involved intreating hard discrete problems such as large instances for the celebratedtraveling salesman problem.

Cook is the author or editor ofseven books, the latest due out in 2011, and the current editor-in-chief of theMathematicalProgramming Computation journal. Hisawards, in addition to his election as INFORMS Fellow, include the I.E. Block Community Lecturer prize from the Society forIndustrial and Applied Mathematics and the Beale-Orchard-Hays Prize forExcellence in Computational Mathematical Programming.

Cook joins adistinguished list, including the following twelve other ISyE faculty memberswho have achieved this recognition:

Dr. Jan Shi
Dr. John Bartholdi
Dr. Jim Dai
Dr. Augustine Esogbue
Dr. John Jarvis
Dr. Ellis Johnson
Dr. George Nemhauser
Dr. Donald Ratliff
Dr. William Rouse
Dr. Michael Thomas
Dr. Chelsea White III
Dr. Jeff Wu

The George Nicholson Student Paper Competition,arguably the most prestigious student award in the operations researchcommunity, is held each year to honor outstanding student papers in the fieldof operations research and the management sciences.

Zhang received the Nicholson Award for his paper, “RefinedSquare-Root Staffing for Call Centers with Impatient Customers,” which heco-authored with Johan van Leeuwaarden and Bert Zwart, ISyE adjunct associateprofessor and Zhang’s thesis advisor.

Inthe paper, Zhang studied how to solve for the minimum staffing level subject todifferent service-level constraints for call centers with impatient customers. Theauthors developed an approximate solution procedure, which they named"refined square-root staffing,” and then demonstrated that this approachpreserves the insightfulness and computational scalability of the celebratedsquare-root staffing principle and yet is provably more accurate.

Aboutthe paper, Zwart said that it is a “well-written, solid theoretical basis thatprovides relevant practical insights for the most popular model out there forcall centers.”

Zhangwrote the paper while a guest at Bell Labs, but also worked with Sem Borst and Martin Reiman at Alcatel-Lucent and Josh Reed (PhD IE 2007) at NYU.Reed also received the Nicholson Award while a student at Georgia Tech.

In addition to the Nicholson Award,Zhang also received the Performance Best Student Paper award for his paper“Optimal Server Scheduling in Hybrid P2P Networks,” which he co-authored withBorst and Reiman.

In this paper, the authors studied how to manage server capacity in hybridpeer-to-peer networks, an increasingly popular type of Internet contentdistribution paradigm in which each user plays a dual client-server role. Accordingto Zhang, “we find that the structure of optimal server scheduling policies insuch systems depends intricately upon the altruism level of users (i.e., users'willingness to stay in the system and continue helping others after theirdownload completion).

Aboutthis recent accomplishment, Zhang said that “a lot of credit should go to thefour coauthors of the two papers, who are also great mentors, especially mythesis advisor, Bert Zwart.”

Zwart and Zhang’s co-advisor Hayriye Ayhan, ISyE professor, are proud of Zhang,noting that he is exceptional in that he has broad research interests and isable to work on diverse research projects simultaneously. In addition to hiswork with Zwart and Ayhan, Zhang has collaborated with top researchers in andout of the country, which, according to Ayhan, is very unusual for a PhDstudent. With Ayhan, Zhang has beendeveloping optimal admission control policies in two-stage loss networks. “Tothe best of our knowledge,” states Ayhan, Zhang’s “work is the first one thatcompletely characterizes the optimal admission policies in this setting.”

To read Zhang’s research papers,visit his webpage at http://www2.isye.gatech.edu/~bzhang34/.

With the theme, “SUPPLY CHAIN FLEXIBILITY: Critical ChangesMay Require Expanded Flexibility,” the two-day meeting, sponsored by the H.Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering’s (ISyE) SupplyChain & Logistics Institute (SCL), featured prominent speakers andfacilitated discussions to help stimulate thought and dialogue to address thesequestions.

John Welling, vice-president of Wal-Mart Innovation; EricPeters, CEO of FoodLink Online; Jack Allen, director, Global Logistics, CiscoSystems; and John Bauer, director, Global Transportation, Supply Chain Operationsfor Starbucks Coffee Company all gave presentations tackling the topic ofsupply chain flexibility in their own companies.

Additionally, Dr. John Langley,SCL professor of Supply Chain Management and Executive Forum faculty director; Dan Gilmore,editor, Supply Chain Digest;and Gene Tyndall,executive vice president – Global, Tompkins Associates, facilitated aninteractive session revealing the results of a member survey on supply chainflexibility. A unique feature of this afternoon session was the graphicsrepresentation of the discussion facilitated by Martha McGinnis, president ofVisual Logic, Inc., a graphic facilitation firm.

The key questions and issues the presenters were asked toaddress with respect to supply chain flexibility included:

• What is your definition of supply chainflexibility?
• Why is flexibility important to your supplychain?
• What are some objectives and priorities you haveset for supply chain flexibility?
• How do you measure supply chain flexibility?
• What are some examples of supply chainflexibility that you have experience with at your company?
• How to achieve supply chain flexibility (e.g.,process, organizational challenges, etc.)?
• Barriers to greater success with supply chainflexibility?

John Welling of Wal-Mart wasthe first to address these questions in his Wednesday keynote presentation,“Supply Chain Flexibility at Wal-Mart.” Quoting from the article “Perspectives, practices and future of supplychain flexibility” by Dileep More and A. Subash Babu, Welling definedsupply chain flexibility as the  inherentability or characteristics of the supply chain and its partners to be sensitiveto minor and major disturbances in the business environment; to correctlyassess the actual situation; to quickly respond, adjust and adapt with littletime, effort and cost; and to effectively control the organization; and to keepthe performance stable. Expanding that definition with his own, Welling said thata flexible supply chain supports multiple, evolving business models byleveraging common physical assets and inventory and collaborates with suppliersto remove waste, reduce cost, and improve service levels.

Continuing the theme onThursday, FoodLink’s CEO, Eric Peters, in his talk, “Cold-Chain Solutions toCreate Supply Chain Flexibility,” said that the produce supply chain is uniquein both the way in which product is delivered from farm to consumer, as well asthe communication required across links in the chain. Flexibility in thatsupply chain is important because perishables, unlike dry goods, have a shortshelf life and fragmented vendor base, are subject to commodity pricing and purchaseorder changes, and require multiple pickup locations. For Peters, flexibilitystarts with the flow of information. “Without an effective trading partnercommunication channel that is integrated with back-end systems,” Peters pointsout in his presentation, “perishable procurement becomes extremely difficult.”

In his presentation, “Flexibility at Cisco in Unusually UncertainTimes,” Jack Allen defines supply chain flexibility as the “promptnessand degree to which our supply chain can respond with proactive and reactiveadaptations of our speed, processes,network locations, and volume in order to handle changes in demand volume (up or down) and mix, operatingcosts, and business needs.” Continuing, he explains that Cisco’s objective isto satisfy the customer, reduce cost and amount of unsatisfied demand, andimprove utilization, all with little or no penalty in response time.

To achieve this, Allenrecognizes that there are multiple layers to flexibility, which he describesas:

• Supply Flex -- The ability of suppliers to flexup and down through multiple levels of the supply chain
• Tactical Flex -- The ability of the supply chainto respond to immediate unexpected events
• Capacity Flex -- The ability of the productioncapacity to change up or down in time
• Leadership Flex -- The ability of the managementteam to change for events and trends
• Systems / Process Flex – The ability of theprocesses and systems delivering the supply chain to change in time to newrequirements.

Rounding out the presentationswas Starbuck’s John Bauer, with his talk titled, “Supply Chain Flexibility: TheStarbuck’s Coffee Story.”  Bauerdiscussed Starbuck’s uplifting mission - to inspire and nurture the human spirit– one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.  The Starbucks Coffee story reinforced theneed to build flexibility into today’s supply chains, in both the short- andlong-term. 

The spring 2011 Executive Forum will meet on April 6 - 7,2011. To learn more about Georgia Tech’s Supply Chain Executive Forum, visitthe website at http://www.scl.gatech.edu/professional-education/scef/.

“We listened carefully to the industry community and to the students at Georgia Tech to design a program that meets the needs of the supply chain professional of the 21st century,” said Harvey Donaldson, associate chair of industry and international programs at ISyE. “With this degree, students now can pursue a highly focused graduate education experience in supply chain engineering and explore immediate career opportunities with global enterprises.”

The program’s intensive 12- month curriculum deliversacademic knowledge inanalytic methods, supply chain engineering, and enterprise management whilebuilding professional practice skills and real-world industry experience, all leading to a respectedgraduate degree from the #1-ranked Stewart School of Industrial & SystemsEngineering.

Students, who may come from a wide range of academic,business, and geographical backgrounds, will move through the program’s coursestogether as a cohort, creating strong connections and networks.

The program’s innovative curriculum, which is true to ISyE’straditions and standards and adaptable to international students and globaluniversity partners, is designed to be a new model for a highly focusedgraduate professional education in supply chain engineering.  The curriculum:

• Leverages the traditions and rigorous academicstandards of Georgia Tech’s Stewart School of ISyE;
• Balances ISyE’s strengths in analytical methodswith enhanced resources in supply chain engineering applications, enterprisemanagement, and professional development;
• Offers new courses and instructional approachesthat place more emphasis on integrative and experiential learning; and
• Provides smaller class sizes, more non-classroomlearning activities, and a capstone industry problem-solving experience.

The curriculum is structured around classroom courses (eightrequired and two elective) offered during the fall and spring semesters and thecapstone industry experience, which is completed during the summer term.

Applications for the August 2011 class are already beingaccepted. Visit www.sce.gatech.edu formore information on joining this class.

One of those students, Jessica Heier-Stamm, said that theMorris Fellowship has afforded her the opportunity to focus on the researchthat interests her most, namely applying quantitative industrial engineeringmethodologies to the challenges of humanitarian relief, disaster response, andpublic health.  Because of thefellowship,” states Heier-Stamm, “I have also had time to devote to serviceactivities that reach future engineers and scientists.  All of these have increased my awareness ofthe broader research community, including professional developmentopportunities, contacts, and funding agencies.”

Morris, who stays in touch with the fellowship program,states that he owes a great deal of his success to Georgia Tech and ISyE. “I amvery proud and thankful to be able to help ISyE stay number one by helping toattract top graduate students. I am very impressed by the quality and breadthof the students and know they will be successful.”

Morris is retired co-chair of StoneCreek Capital, a merchantbanking firm that sponsors leveraged acquisitions and leveraged buildups inpartnership with management teams. He is a former trustee of the Georgia TechFoundation and an emeritus member of the ISyE Advisory Board. Additionally,Morris is a member of the ISyE Hall of Fame and the ISyE Academy of DistinguishedAlumni, and he was honored with the College of Engineering DistinguishedAlumnus Award in 1996.

AfterRogers’ opening remarks, Thomas updated the board on the ISyE chair searchcommittee and other School activities.   The chair search committee, which formedduring the summer and comprises seventeen faculty, staff, and alumni, is beingchaired by Vigor Yang, chair of the Guggenheim School of AerospaceEngineering. Current enrollment numbers forISyE include 1,183 undergraduate students, 231 master’s students, and 171 PhDstudents.  Thomas introduced the fall2010 issue of Industrial and Systems Engineering magazine, which was hot off the press.  Thefeature story focuses on ISyE’s graduate program, which U.S. News and World Report ranked first for the 20^th consecutiveyear.  The feature article, “First in ItsClass,” describes some of the attributes that form the underpinnings of a greatgraduate program and underscore how the program in ISyE measures up incomparison to others.  Thomas alsoreported that the Campaign Georgia Tech, which originally was slated to raise$1 billion and run through 2010, is now most likely going to have a goal of$1.5 billion and run through 2015. Georgia Tech, as a whole, has raised $916.3million from July 2004 to date, and ISyE, which had an original goal of $50million, has raised $40.2M to date.  Nancy Sandlin, ISyE director ofdevelopment, and Thomas will work closely with central development as theydetermine ISyE's new goal.

Jane Ammons, ISyE professor and associate deanof engineering, hosted a discussion on what industrial engineers do today andwhere they are headed tomorrow.   Ammons opened her session by showing a videotitled Industrial Engineers Make a Difference.  Sponsored by the Council of Industrial Engineering Academic Department Heads,the video features industrial engineers talking about the jobs they do, the satisfactionthey experience, and the impact they make in people's lives.

Ammons thenfocused her discussion on some of the trends and drivers in engineering (climate change; energy needs; middle classgrowth; consumer demand; transportation; healthcare; waste; informationparadigm shifts; shortage of food, clean water, and housing; growth ofmegacities;  and changes in sea levels),grand challenges in engineering (re-engineeringhealthcare delivery; engineering a sustainable society; developing betterdecision-making tools for a dynamic world; mitigating and responding todisasters; point-of-use manufacturing; infrastructure construction; and engineeringfor a safe, available, and affordable water supply), and strategicdirections within the field. 

In summary,she stated that we are now seeing global opportunities in the field ofindustrial engineering and management, that the grand challenges are strategicimperatives for our research and education, and that we must position ourstudents to achieve maximum impact by exploiting the unique strengths ofindustrial engineering.  For thoseinterested in more information, she recommended reading NAE’s The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineeringin the New Century.

 Following this discussion, twoundergraduate students (Anna Smoak and Chelsea Sanders) and one graduatestudent (Animesh Garg) provided their personal perspectives on how they viewindustrial engineers and where they are in the program.

• Smoak is a second-year industrial engineering student who is a part of the co-op program.  She is currently working in a hubdistribution center for a company that makes and distributes healthcareproducts.  This experience has given hersome practical knowledge and skills beyond her years studying in the field.Smoak, in her nascent stage of becoming an industrial engineer,  has already formed a working definition ofindustrial engineering,  “IE is aboutcreating processes and systems and having the ability to think outside the box.“

• Chelsea Sandersis a third-year ISyE student who spent the summer in Chile where sheparticipated in the study and work abroad program.  “What really sets Georgia Tech apart is itsglobal focus,” said Sanders.  “And ISyEis really pushing us to be prepared to work in this global community.”  She went on to say that learning inclassrooms with ISyE’s top faculty is great, but you also need to get out inthe world to continue your growth.  “Youhave to experience some things for yourself, and spending the summer working inanother country required me to step, even further, out of my comfort zone andforced me to learn and grow outside the classroom.”  Sanders is not sure what she will do aftergraduation, but feels her options are infinite. “ISyE has taught me how to think and problem solve; no matter whatproblem is presented to me, I can solve it. I feel I have endless possibilities in the field of industrialengineering.”

• Animesh Garg is a first-year graduate student who comes from a background inmanufacturing, production, and automation. Wanting to pursue his graduate degree, he decided to come to GeorgiaTech’s Stewart School of ISyE “not only because it has been ranked number onefor the last twenty years, but mostly because it has a large faculty who arepioneers in their fields, and I would have so many opportunities to do avariety of research.”  Garg feels thatTech is giving him an unparalled multicultural experience and continues to openmany windows of opportunity for him. “Georgia Tech has given me my wings and is telling me to spread them outand do what I want to do.  I am sure Iwill realize my potential here and come out with flying colors.  With an IE degree, I think I will be able tochose where I want to go.”

Ed Rogers discussed GeorgiaTech’s new 25-year strategic vision and plan that President G.P. “Bud”Peterson launched in August.  The plan,“Designing the Future,” has five main goals and ten Institute-wide initiatives,which can be found in the full report at www.gatech.edu/vision.   An alumnisubcommittee, led by Rogers, was formed to begin discussions on drafting ISyE’sstrategic vision and plan.  Rogersconcluded the meeting with advisory board business updates and wrap ups.

The spring advisory boardmeeting will be held on April 22, 2011.

On October 27^th, Logistics Viewpoint addressed hiring IE’sin their article, “Supply Chain Teams Should Consider Hiring IndustrialEngineers.” Click here to read the article. 

CICMHEannounced the winners at the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA)annual meeting on October 5, 2010. MHIA and CICMHE created the award toencourage the development of, and recognize excellence in, materialhandling-related research. The 2010 award is based on papers published duringthe 2008 and 2009 calendar years.  Bartholdiand Hackman’s paper was published in IIETransactions, Vol. 40 (2008).

 The competition is open to any active researchersand educators in the field of material handling and facility logistics fromengineering, business, and other allied schools or colleges.  MHIA and CICMHE are interested ingroundbreaking papers in a broad sense on material handling in the fields ofmanufacturing, distribution, warehousing, supply chain, and logistics.  A mix of academic and industry judgesevaluate the contributions based on educational value, innovation in researchmethodology, and contribution to the material handling industry. 

 Formore than twenty years, Georgia Tech has fostered international alliances toenhance learning experiences, build research collaborations, and promoteeconomic development. In that same period, the H. Milton Stewart School ofIndustrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) has been ranked the number onegraduate school for industrial and manufacturing engineering by U.S. News and World Reports. Drawing topstudents and faculty from around the world and fostering its own internationalrelationships through operations research to logistics and supply chaininnovation and strategy, ISyE has proven itself a true global academic unit.

Toillustrate this, ISyE tracked some faculty and student activity during a four-monthperiod, from May to August 2010, and found that they moved back and forthbetween six of seven continents – Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, NorthAmerica, and South America.  In that time,ISyE faculty and students conducted applied research projects around the world,participated in a variety of educational opportunities, gave invited keynote presentations,took part in conference leadership roles, and performed outreach that has apositive international health and humanitarian impact.  

 ISyEengaged in numerous ongoing international programs. The Executive Masters inInternational Logistics & Supply Chain Strategy (EMIL-SCS) held itsEuropean residence this summer, visiting the Netherlands, Poland, andGermany.  Professors were in Shanghai toteach the Dual Masters with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.Thirty-two undergraduate students participated in the Beijing/Singapore studyabroad program, along with fifteen students from the National University ofSingapore and twenty-four students in Tsinghua University.  

Increasingly internationalinstitutions are seeking ISyE faculty experts to assist them in developingtheir programs.  For instance, one facultymember traveled to Israel to chair an international review team, commissionedby the Israel Council of Higher Education, to evaluate each of the industrialengineering and management programs at universities and colleges throughoutIsrael. Another was selected to spend a year as the founding department chairfor the industrial engineering department at the University of Science, Technologyand Research in Abu Dhabi.

Whilesome of ISyE’s faculty and students were invited speakers and teachers, otherscollaborated on a variety of research projects and collaborations from supplychain optimization in Australia to a project in Abu Dhabi evaluating renewableand distributed energy options for countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

ISyE,through the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute (SCL), addedPanama to the established networks of Logistics Innovation Centers in LatinAmerica.  The new Georgia Tech PanamaLogistic Innovation & Research Center has three core thrusts -- appliedresearch, education, and competitiveness -- and three primary objectives -- toimprove the logistics performance in Panama, to establish Panama as the tradehub of the Americas, and to increase human capital with regards to logisticscompetency.  The SCL team continued theirresearch as part of the Georgia Tech Trade, Innovation & ProductivityCenter in Costa Rica and began work to add two more centers to the LatinAmerica network – one in Mexico, scheduled to open at the end of this year, andone in Chile, scheduled to be launched in 2011.

Somehighlights on ISyE’s efforts in international health and humanitarian responseinclude teams working in Haiti on debris collection and management issues, inCentral Africa on efforts to distribute five million textbooks to schoolsthroughout the county, in Singapore on issues in hospitals, and in Italyworking with the World Food Programme. 

Asthey engage in these global activities, ISyE faculty gain a broader understandingsurrounding different world issues, which they can covey to their students whoare heading into the global economy.  Thesefaculty not only teach their students what is in the text book, they also tellthem from personal experience how to apply the methodologies, frameworks, andstrategies they teach in the classroom.  ISyEfaculty also bring back a world of personal networks that they share with theirstudents in both classroom lectures and through Skype. This sharing ofknowledge and experience helps students prepare to lead effectively in anincreasingly global marketplace.   Andthose students learning, working, or living in a foreign country gain adistinct advantage, having many opportunities to conduct real-world globalresearch that better positions them to contribute early on to the internationalcompanies that will employ them.

Foran ISyE global tour featuring activities from May through August 2010, read thelist below, which is divided into four sections (Global Logistics; Health &Humanitarian Outreach; International Education and Outreach; and ScholarlyWork, Presentations and Collaboration):

Global Logistics

Continent of Africa

• John Bartholdi, Manhattan Associates Chair of Supply Chain Management and Research Director, The Supply Chain & Logistics Institute, was in Zimbabwe in June as part of a UNICEF effort to distribute five million textbooks to schools throughout the country.

Continent of North America

• H.Donald Ratliff, executive director of the Supply Chain& Logistics Institute (SCL) and UPS and Regents' Professor, and Jaymie Forrest, SCL managing director,traveled to Panama City, Panama, in preparation for the inauguration ceremoniesof the newly established GeorgiaTech-Panama Logistics Innovation & Research Center.  They also began strategic meetings toestablish a third Logistics Innovation Center, this time in Mexico. This centeris scheduled to open at the end of this year.

• H.Donald Ratliff and Jaymit Forrest began two researchprojects as part of the Georgia Tech Trade, Innovation & ProductivityCenter in Costa Rica – the Produce Traceability Initiative and the GlobalProcurement Analysis Global Trade Initiative.  The Produce Traceability Initiative was designed to demonstrate thesignificance of leveraging value chains to facilitate participation of smalland medium sized enterprises, the challenges they face in the food exportmarket, and the need for supporting infrastructure to standardize processes inorder to remain competitive in global markets. The purpose of the Global Procurement Analysis research project was todevelop metrics for the Costa Rica Digital Government Technical Secretary forassessing the implementation of a new system providing a mechanism to assessthe improvements expected as a result of system implementation. The researchfocused on the definition and quantification of key performance indicators,along with summary statistics on government spending. The study also focused onthe potential savings opportunities arising from more efficient procurementprocesses, including price variability analysis.

Continent of South America

• H.Donald Ratliff, executive director of the Supply Chain& Logistics Institute (SCL) and UPS and Regents' Professor, and Jaymie Forrest, SCL managing director, beganwork to establish a fourth Logistics Innovation Center in Chile.  This center is scheduled to be launched in2011.

Health & Humanitarian Outreach

Continent of Asia

• Jim Dai, Edenfield Professor, was in Singapore visiting NUS while working on a hospital project.

Continent of Europe

• Mallory Soldner, a PhD student working with Ozlem Ergun, associate professor and co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, worked as a consultant in Rome, Italy, at the headquarters of the United Nations’ World Food Programme.  Her work was funded through a partnership with the UPS Foundation.

 Continent of North America

• Ozlem Ergun, associate professor and co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, and Julie Swann, associate professor and co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, traveled to Haiti in May to investigate debris collection and removal issues that are blocking the road to recovery in Haiti. Ergun and Swann were joined by ISyE graduate students Jessica Heier Stamm and Kael Stilp, as well as Professor Reginald DesRoches, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE), and CEE graduate student Josh Gresha. The team is currently putting together their findings and will actively begin the process of lobbying for more strategic leadership in this area.

International Education andOutreach

Continent of Asia

• Jane C. Ammons, professor and associate dean of engineering, spent two weeks in Israel in May as chair of an international review team commissioned by the Israel Council of Higher Education to evaluate each of the industrial engineering and management programs at universities and colleges throughout Israel. 
• John Bartholdi, Manhattan Associates Chair of Supply Chain Management and Research Director, The Supply Chain & Logistics Institute, was in residence at the University of Stellenbosch (near Cape Town) in South Africa where he holds an honorary appointment as “Extraordinary Professor of Operations Research” in the Department of Logistics within the Faculty of Economics. Bartholdi will hold the title for the next three years. 
• Shijie Deng, associate professor, was in Shanghai teaching Financial Engineering at Jiao Tong University as part of the GT-SJTU Dual Masters Program.
• Ellis Johnson, Coca Cola Chair and professor, is in Shanghai teaching at Shanghai Jiao Tong University as part of the GT-SJTU Dual Masters Program. Johnson teaches both Deterministic Optimization and Computational Methods.
• Chelsea C. “Chip” White, Schneider National Chair in Transportation and Logistics, is in Abu Dhabi where he is spending the year as the founding department chair for an industrial engineering department at the University of Science, Technology and Research (KUSTAR). While there, White will also help develop a logistics institute similar to ISyE’s Supply Chain & Logistics Institute.
• Chen Zhou, associate chair for undergraduate studies and associate professor, participated in the 9^th Beijing / Singapore summer study abroad program from May until August. Thirty-two ISyE juniors and seniors participated in the program, along with fifteen students from National University of Singapore and twenty-four students in Tsinghua University. Valarie DuRant-Modeste, ISyE academic advisor, was also on-site for two weeks.

 Continent of Europe

• The Supply Chain & Logistics Institute team designed a company-specific executive education program for Coca-Cola Spain that responded to the unique needs of the company and provided them with specific and in-depth knowledge of supply chain engineering and management.
• Julie Swann, associate professor and co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, taught in a humanitarian master's program in Lugano, Switzerland, in August.
• John Vande Vate, professor and executive director of EMIL-SCS, led the 2011 Executive Master’s in International Logistics & Supply Chain Strategy class on its European residence, visiting the Netherlands, Poland and Germany.

 Continent of North America

• Alan Erera, associate professor, was invited to lecture on the topic of "Stochastic and Robust Optimization in Logistics" at the Spring School on Combinatorial Optimization in Logistics held at the University of Montreal in May.
• The Supply Chain & Logistic team launched a master’s program in Panama where students will come to Georgia Tech.  They also developed a professional education Lean Supply Chain Professionals Program in Panama for executives.

• TheSupply Chain & Logistics team,in collaboration with the College of Management, designed an on-line internationalexecutive education curriculum to assist the Coca-Cola Company in developingleaders in the fields of logistics, manufacturing, supply chain and demandmanagement across its base of experts and professionals in the bottling system.

Scholarly Work, Presentations andCollaborations

Continent of Asia

• Jim Dai, Edenfield Professor, participated in two conferences, one in Beijing and another in Tokyo.
• Xiaoming Huo, associate professor, has been working with researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Institute of Image Communication and Information Processing. He co-authored the conference paper, “Image denoising using local tangent space alignment,” for the 2010 Visual Communications and Image Processing in Huang Shan, An Hui, China.
• Alex Shapiro, professor, was an invited speaker at the prestigious Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) held in Hyderabad, India, August 19-27, 2010. Convening once every four years, the ICM is the largest meeting of mathematicians from around the world.
• Sobeil Shayegh, a PhD student being supervised by Valerie Thomas, Anderson Interface Associate Professor of Natural Systems, was in Abu Dhabi for the summer for a project evaluating renewable and distributed energy options for countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. This project is in collaboration with INSEAD, the French business university, and is based at INSEAD’s Abu Dhabi campus.

 Continent of Australia

• Martin Savelsbergh, Schneider Professor, worked in Australia this summer on a project related to optimizing the export coal supply chain. 

 Continent of Europe

• Ton Dieker, assistant professor, spent the month of May at the University of Cambridge where he was a visiting fellow of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, a national and international visitor research institute. While in the UK, Dieker also delivered talks at the University of Warwick and in Edinburgh. Dieker and his student, Xuefeng Gao, who traveled with him, are working on service allocation rules in networks of queues.
• Ozlem Ergun, associate professor and co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, was in Tromsø, Norway, in June for the Seventh Triennial Symposium on Transportation Analysis (TRISTAN), an international scientific conference that provides a high-quality forum for the presentation of mathematical models, methodologies, and computational results, and for the exchange of ideas and scientific discussions on advanced applications and technologies in transportation. Ergun gave a talk titled, “Managing Debris Collection and Disposal Operations,” which she co-authored with Jose Antonio Carbajal; Pinar Keskinocak, professor, co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, and associate director of Research for the Health Systems Institute; Kael Stilp; and Monica Villarreal.
• Pinar Keskinocak presented the “Catchup Scheduling for Childhood Vaccinations” paper at the EURO INFORMS conference in Lisbon, Portugal, in July. The paper won the EURO Excellence in Practice Award 2010.
• Eva Lee, professor and director of the Center for Operations Research in Medicine and Healthcare, was in France and Sicily in June and July presenting talks at two conferences. In June she spoke at the International Workshop on the Role and Impact of Mathematics in Medicine, which was held in Paris. Lee’s talk was titled, "Operations Research in Medicine and HealthCare." In July, Lee gave the keynote talk, titled "Machine Learning Framework for Classification in Medicine and Biology," at the International School of Mathematics’ 52nd Workshop: Nonlinear Optimization, Variational Inequalities and Equilibrium Problems in Erice, Sicily.
• Julie Swann, associate professor and co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, and Pinar Keskinocak participated in the invitation-only Supply Chain Thought Leaders Roundtable in Breda, Netherlands in July.
• Roshan Joseph Vengazhiyil, associate professor, gave an invited presentation titled "Multi-Layer Designs for Computer Experiments" at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics” in Gothenberg, Sweden, from August 9-13, 2010.

 Continent of South America

• John Bartholdi, Manhattan Associates Chair of Supply Chain Management and Research Director, The Supply Chain & Logistics Institute and Greg Andrews, managing director of EMIL-SCS, spoke at the SALA Logistics Conference in Bogota, Columbia, in August.
• Julie Swann, associate professor and co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, attended the ALIO/INFORMS Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in June. Swann gave a talk titled, “Modeling Seasonality and Strain Mutation in a Pandemic Influenza,” which she co-authored with ISyE professor Pinar Keskinocak, professor, co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, and associate director of Research for the Health Systems Institute as well as Bruce Lee from the University of Pittsburgh and  Pengyi Shi from Georgia Tech.

• H.Donald Ratliff, executive director of the Supply Chain& Logistics Institute (SCL) and UPS and Regents' Professor, and Jaymie Forrest, SCL presented to the Inter-American DevelopmentBank and IIRSA committee in Lima, Peru, on the design and development oftraining programs for public sector logistics and hosted a technical discussionon data collection and analysis for regional sector studies in May.

• H. Donald Ratliff collaborated with the WorldBank and forum on creating a new methodology for developing a Logistics Performance Index Global Indicator.

 Continent of North America

• Christos Alexopoulos, associateprofessor, and Dave Goldsman,professor, attended IIE Annual Conference and Expo in Cancún, Mexico, in June,where they received the IIE Transactions' Best Paper Prize inOperations Engineering and Analysis for their paper “Area Variance Estimatorsfor Simulation Using Folded Standardized Time Series.” Alexopoulos and Goldsmanco-authored the paper with their former doctoral student, Claudia Antonini, tenured associate professor at Simón BolívarUniversity in Caracas, Venezuela, and JamesR. Wilson, professor in the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial andSystems Engineering at North Carolina State University.

• Carlo Davila, PhD student, gave a talkin at the Institute of Industrial Engineers Annual Conference in Mexico.

• Joel Sokol, associate professor, attendthe Institute of Industrial Engineers Annual Conference in Mexico and presentedthe talk “A New Paradigm for Higher Quality and More Consistent Senior(Capstone) Design,” which he co-authored with Steve Hackman, associate professor, and Chen Zhou, associate chair for Undergraduate Studies andassociate professor. While there, he received the Award for Excellencein the Teaching of Operations Research. 

• The Supply Chain & Logistic Instituteteam assisted the Cold Chain Secretariat of Panama to develop a cold chainstrategy in June.  They will continue tosupport this initiative throughout the year.

It involves a highly efficient logistics and distribution model, but revisions and continuing education are necessary to keep up with changing business conditions. For help with these, Coca-Cola turned to the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute's (SCL) Executive Education Program offered by the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE).

"Our portfolio is growing, and we are trying to reach more customers by expanding our line of beverages," according to Salvador Cárdenas Escareño, Coca-Cola's commercial leadership supply chain senior manager. "That's why we need to revisit our current service models—to make sure that our portfolio is in place and perfectly executed through our different distribution channels, one store at a time."

The Executive Education Program is "a comprehensive curriculum in supply chain and logistics operation management and technology," according to Jaymie Forrest, SCL managing director. Participants receive a certificate upon completion of the intensive series. In addition to the traditional program model conducted on the Georgia Tech campus, online programs are available. Most recently, Georgia Tech has begun to offer a focused curriculum tailored to a specific company's needs and problems. These customized programs "respond to the unique needs of companies and provide them with specific and in-depth knowledge of supply chain engineering and management, "Forrest explained.

One of the first customized programs was developed for Coca-Cola Mexico and selected Central American bottlers and was held over four weeks spanning late 2008 and early 2009. Another four-week program involving Coca-Cola Mexico was held later in 2009. Aspects of these programs were assembled into a new program held this summer for Coca-Cola bottlers in Spain and Portugal. The education program for Coca-Cola Mexico teaches supply chain management for beverage delivery in conjunction with the implementation of a specific delivery framework that was developed by an outside consulting firm expressly for The Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers.

"We decided to hire an institution that leads in the thinking and development of value-chain processes to defragment the consultant's development process and put it in an educational program for high-potential executives of our bottling system," C´rdenas said. "The Georgia Institute of Technology leads all this thinking on what we were looking for in the demand-driven value-chain execution."

The bilingual, 120-hour program is based in the concepts of demand-driven supply networks as a way to innovate service delivery models. "We cover the fundamentals of demand sensing, demand shaping, and demand response while using the Blue Ocean Strategy framework to find new ways to compete in the market via differentiated service delivery models," said Maria Rey, SCL senior lecturer. "The program has different tracks where students understand the strategic imperative to innovate their service delivery strategies, a competencies track to acquire new knowledge and tools to lead the process, and an applied knowledge track for their experimental projects."

The projects, where students solve a business problem that's specific to their company, is a key part of the program, which is structured around four on-site residences that enable participants to build their innovation experiments progressively. Classes and projects are held typically at a local university or executive education facility. The faculty is drawn from Georgia Tech and local universities. Guest speakers provide perspectives on different industries and geographies on topics such as segmentation, innovation, and project management. "It's a two-way learning process, for program attendees and for the faculty involved," Rey noted. Most important from Coca-Cola Mexico's point of view, the program has a significant bottom-line payoff.

 "We trained and certified fifty-five high-potential executives around the new delivery system," C´rdenas said, "and we have the opportunity to experiment with twenty new service models touching more than 10,000 customers.

"It helped us to change our bottlers' mindset to what  we're looking for: execute the picture of success one perfect store at a time. Now the RTM [route-to-market] is part of the processes within their organizations," he added.

Designing and delivering customized education programs may be one of the most important capabilities of universities now and in the future, said Rey. "Customized executive education sits at the crossroads of consulting and education.

Program designers must understand the needs of the client company and translate a solution for those needs in ways of teaching content and real-life projects that corporate attendees can execute. At the Supply Chain & Logistics Institute, we believe we have a good competency in designing customized executive education programs, and we look forward to creating value for more firms."

Contact custom programs for more information.

Gary Goettling authored this article, which originally appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of Industrial and Systems Engineering: The Alumni Magazine for the Stewart School of ISyE at Georgia Tech

Abayomistarted off as a physics major but soon realized that the curriculum wasn’t forhim. After visiting an optometrist who had a really nice car, Abayomi decidedto try his hand at optometry. “Statistics was a prerequisite for the program,and I loved it,” he added.

Overthe years, Abayomi’s inter­est in statistics continued to grow, and he nowholds a master’s, master’s of philosophy, and a Ph.D. in Probability andStatistics from Columbia University.  Abayomihas also held positions as a visit­ing professor at Duke University and as avis­iting fellow at Stanford University. These days, he is an assistantprofessor in the statistics group at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrialand Systems Engineering.

 Recently,The Whistle sat down with Abayomi fora conversation about research, teaching, and his favorite lunch spot. Here’swhat he shared:

 Explainyour research in statistics in one sentence.

I work with datathat doesn’t match the bell curve and focus on a lot of sustainability-relatedissues.

 Tellme about your current research.

I’manalyzing data related to environmental hazards and what areas of the world aremost vulnerable. I’malso collaborating with people at Georgia State University’s Law School and theGeorgia Innocence Project to determine factors that can identify the wrongfullycon­victed.

 Whatis your greatest challenge when it comes to teaching, and how have you dealtwith it?

Ifeel like I want to teach to the student that I was. But, I’ve realized thateveryone doesn’t learn the same way, and everyone doesn’t have the same goalsas I did (i.e., they don’t want to go to graduate school).

Afew things I’ve done to address this issue is I’ve tried to slow down howquickly I go through the course material. I also try to be very clear aboutwhat information will be covered on tests, so students know what they should bestudying.

 Whoare your teaching mentors?

MariaMontessori because she wrote about student self-determination, and AndrewGelman because he taught me a few tricks for teaching statistics.

 Whatis your teaching philosophy?

Iwouldn’t assign grades if I didn’t have to. The whole point of grading andtesting is to get students to engage themselves in study. The best classesoccur after tests when every­one has spent time learning the material.

 Whatis one thing all faculty and staff should do while working at Tech?

Swimin the Olympic Pool at the Campus Recreation Center and the pool at the GeorgiaTech Hotel and Conference Center. They’re both impressive.

 Where’sthe best place to grab lunch (on or off campus), and what do you order?

Spoon.I like to order tofu pad king.

 Tellus something unusual about yourself.

Ihave Siberian huskies named “Sasha” and “Trooper” that I rescued using thewebsite www.petfinder.com.

 Ifyou weren’t in your current line of work, what would you be doing?

I’dbe living in Encinitas, California, and I’d have a performance shop where I wouldchange automatic transmissions to manual

Amelia Pavlik, new editor for The Whistle,authored this article, which appeared in the October 25, 2010 issue.

 The 2010 Third-PartyLogistics Study is based on almost 1,900 responses from both shippers andlogistics service providers in regions including North America, Europe,Asia-Pacific and Latin America, and alsoprovides an in-depth look at the life sciences and fast-moving consumer goods(FMCG) industries. Supplemented with a significant number of focus interviewswith industry observers and experts, findings of the web-based survey revealcontinued progress and improvement in the shipper-3PL relationship, with 89percent of shipper respondents overall viewing their 3PL relationships asgenerally successful and 68 percent indicating that 3PLs help provide them withnew and innovative ways to improve operations. However, the report’s findingsshow that shippers continue their tendency to outsource transactional,operational, and repetitive activities and less so those that are strategic,customer-facing, and IT-intensive despite a large proportion of 3PLs offeringmore advanced services.

"Manyshippers regard logistics and supply chain management as key components oftheir overall business success. Increased use of outsourcing and highsatisfaction levels suggest that 3PLs can certainly take some credit forhelping shippers to weather the economic storm,” said C. John Langley Jr., professorof Supply Chain Management at Georgia Tech’s H. Milton Stewart School ofIndustrial and System’s Engineering (ISyE).  “Despite a challenging environment, 3PLs havean opportunity to continue to mature and grow by offering an increasing numberof value-added services for shippers.”

One of thecritical capabilities most highly valued by shippers in their 3PL provider isaccurate reporting and analysis of total landed cost (TLC) – the sum of allcosts associated with making and delivering products to the point where theyproduce revenue. The benefits of solid TLC calculations include more agilityand confidence in decision making, better insight into the financial performanceof products and partners, and improved supply chain visibility. However,despite the relatively high number of shipper respondents reporting anextensive use of TLC (45 percent), the precision and level of detail of thosecalculations differ widely.

Calculatingthe TLC of materials and finished goods is not always an easy task. Difficultyin defining all the factors contributing to total cost, and then obtaining allthe necessary data, can be challenging. Too often, businesses rely on onlypartial data or inaccurate estimates that can lead to incorrect results, with58 percent of 3PLs reporting a hesitance from shippers to share informationwith them. That might be the reason why, despite the high value of TLCcalculations, just 23 percent of 3PL respondents reported providing extensiveTLC analysis to their customers. This level of interaction requires a highlevel of trust, and considerable discussion is required among 3PLs and theircustomers to better understand the factors, roles, and KPIs to be used in a shared end-to-endcalculation effort.

 “TLC enables companies to capture both theobvious and hidden costs associated with product movement, revealing the truecost of sourcing and logistics decisions,” said Dennis Wereldsma, Global TransportationSector Lead, Capgemini. “Transforming from basic to more sophisticated TLCapplication requires C-level leadership, process change, and systemstransformation. However, while TLC is highly important, because of thecomplexities, TLC adoption must be approached as an evolutionary, rather thanrevolutionary process.”

 Spotlight: 3PL in the Life Sciences Industry:

Within theLife Sciences industry, careful and expedient handling is often critical forproduct safety and because of this, control and visibility is essential.Logistics challenges here include product integrity and compliancerequirements, an inherently complex trading partner ecosystem, and demandingcustomer service and cost requirements. Fifty-four percent of life sciencesshippers surveyed felt the complexity of the supply chain model represents asignificant challenge, but 87 percent felt 3PLs could add significant valuehere by linking together the various different parties involved. In addition,62 percent of shippers within the Life Sciences industry cite ensuring productquality as a significant challenge and rank quality procedures highly (70percent) as a service they want 3PLs to provide. Shipment visibility, qualityand compliance procedures, stringent inventory control, temperature controlcapabilities, and security are important steps to ensure product integrity,prevent counterfeiting, and ensure safe delivery, and momentum is movingtowards the use of RFIDtags here. Indeed, around half of shipper and 3PL respondents agree that there isa strong business case for RFID in Life Sciences.

Spotlight: 3PL in the Fast-Moving Consumer GoodsIndustry:

Largevolumes and low margins mean FMCG companies must respond quickly to deliverin-demand, on-trend products to increasingly demanding shoppers. After costreduction, FMCG companies’ biggest priorities for logistics include perfectorder fulfillment (87 percent), rapidly sensing and responding to changes inconsumer demand (83 percent) and shortening new product time-to-market andsupply chain integration (81 percent). Also, as sustainability grows inimportance for consumers, shippers’ interest in strategies such as improvingshipment density and load utilization has also increased. Shippers within theFMCG industry value the role 3PLs play here, as well as with reducing costs anddealing with supply chain disruption, although they are less likely to see 3PLsplaying a key role in shortening new product time-to-market and supply chainintegration. FMCG shippers’ efforts to reduce logistics costs include warehouseand transportation sharing. Two-thirds of those engaging in these strategieshave recognized cost savings but this has been limited, with 58 percent ofrespondents recognizing less than 5 percent cost savings.

“Thedifferences in the priorities reported by shippers in the Life Sciences andFMCG industries show how important it is for 3PL providersto provide industry-specific solutions and to work closely with theircustomers to really understand their needs and provide the best possibleservice, ultimately helping contribute to their overall business success,” said  SvenHoemmken, Global Head of Sales, Panalpina.

 AboutCapgemini

Capgemini,one of the world's foremost providers of consulting, technology, andoutsourcing services, enables its clients to transform and perform throughtechnologies. Capgemini provides its clients with insights and capabilitiesthat boost their freedom to achieve superior results through a unique way ofworking, the Collaborative Business Experience^TM. The Group relieson its global delivery model called Rightshore^®, whichaims to get the right balance of the best talent from multiplelocations, working as one team to create and deliver the optimum solution forclients. Present in more than 30 countries,Capgemini reported 2009 global revenues of EUR 8.4 billion and employs 95,000people worldwide.

Capgemini Consulting is the Global Strategy andTransformation Consulting brand of the Capgemini Group, specializing inadvising and supporting organizations in transforming their business, from thedevelopment of innovative strategy through to execution, with a consistent focuson sustainable results. Capgemini Consulting proposes to leading companies andgovernments a fresh approach which uses innovative methods, technology and thetalents of over 4,000 consultants world-wide.

 About The Georgia Institute ofTechnology

The Georgia Institute of Technology,located in Atlanta, is a leader in supply chain and logistics education.Through its School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the SupplyChain & Logistics Institute, Georgia Tech is committed to servinglogistics educational needs through its degree programs and its comprehensiveprofessional education program. Georgia Tech also conducts a fully accreditedExecutive Masters in International Logistics and Supply Chain Strategy (EMIL-SCS ) program, a Supply Chain Executive Forum, and a Leaders in LogisticsResearch Program and will soon commence a Georgia Tech M.S. Degree in SupplyChain Engineering. Global involvement is facilitated through The LogisticsInstitute Asia Pacific, a program in partnership with the National Universityof Singapore, and the SCL ’s recently developed network of Logistics InnovationCenters in Latin America helping countries to improve logistics performance andfacilitate trade. SCL currently has centers in Costa Rica and Panama and isdeveloping plans for Mexico, Chile, and Brazil.

 About The Panalpina Group

ThePanalpina Group is one of the world’s leading suppliers of forwarding andlogistics services, specializing in end-to-end supply chain managementsolutions and intercontinental air freight and ocean freight shipments. Thanksto its in-depth industry know-how and state-of-the-art IT systems, Panalpinaprovides globally integrated door-to door services tailored to its customers’individual needs. The Panalpina Group operates a close-knit network with some 500branches in over 80 countries. In a further 80 countries, it cooperates closelywith partner companies. Panalpina employs over 14,000 people worldwide.

 Panalpinahas extensive experience with customers in many key industries. With dedicatedexperts in key global markets, Panalpina has the people, products, skills, andcapabilities to meet the demanding needs of its global customers.

 Panalpina’sbusiness is Global Supply Chain Management. Panalpina delivers compellingsolutions that provide value to all customers - every time. Panalpina has apassion for solutions.

 Click here to read the entire study.

Ifyou were not able to attend the lecture or would like to listen to the lectureagain, Dr. Efron’s lecture can be viewed at http://smartech.gatech.edu/handle/1853/35125.

Statingthat some statistical estimates are obtained by direct observation, Efron saidthat sometimes we learn from the experience of others. Efron used severalexamples, including the likelihood of having identical twins, to show how thisworks in practice, indicating some of the surprising theoretical ideas involved.

Startedin 2008, the annual Distinguished Lecture Series brings in highly prominentspeakers who have made a significant contribution to society through researchareas of interest to ISyE faculty and students and to provide a forum for thestudents, faculty, staff, and alumni from the Georgia Tech community tointeract with the distinguished lecturer. The two previous distinguishedlecturers were Dr. William "Bill" Pulleyblank, vice president of the Center for BusinessOptimization at IBM Global Business Services, and Dr. Lawrence"Larry" Wein, professor at the Graduate School of Business atStanford University and a Philip McCord Morse Lecturer.   

For moreinformation, visit: http://www.isye.gatech.edu/news-events/dls/.

The paperdescribes the decision-support tool for constructing catch-up schedulesfor childhood immunization. Theweb-based tool creates a safe and effective catch-up schedule for any missedvaccinations to ensure that a child receives timely coverageagainst vaccine-preventable diseases. The catch-up scheduler is available forfree download from CDC’s website http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/scheduler/catchup.htm.

According to Keskinocak, “ourapproach is unique in methodology, information, strategy, and advice it offersto the user.” The tool is being advocated by the Centers for Disease Controland Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Keskinocak presented the paper ata special session of the EURO INFORMS 2010 conference in Lisbon, Portugal inJuly. EURO is the Association ofEuropean Operational Research Societies within IFORS,the International Federation ofOperational Research Societies.

Withthe goal of recognizing outstanding accomplishments in the practice ofoperations research, the Excellence in Practice Award is given based upon scientific quality; relevance to operational research; originalityin methodology, implementations and/ or field of application; a real impact topractice; and appreciation by the organization involved with the application.

Electionto the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professionaldistinctions accorded to an engineer. The procedure for nominating and electing member and foreignassociate candidates involves a search in all fields of engineering foroutstanding engineers with identifiable contributions or accomplishments in oneor both of the following categories:

• Engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature.
• Pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.

Members,who are recognized by their peers for their professional integrity, havedistinguished themselves in business and academic management, in technicalpositions, as university faculty, and as leaders in government and privateengineering organizations. 

Dukewas named president and chief executiveofficer of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, in February 2009. He joined Wal-Martin 1995 and was named vice chairman in 2005. Since joining Wal-Mart, Duke has gainedbroad experience throughout the company, leading the logistics, distribution,and administration divisions as well as U.S. operations. As vice chairman, Dukehas been actively involved in developing and executing corporate strategy. In2010, Wal-Marttopped Fortune's Global 500list, with 2010 sales of $408 billion, 8,500-plus stores, and 2.1 millionemployees.

Read the article the article within the SENACYT website (in Spanish): http://www.senacyt.gob.pa/loUltimo/index.php?idNoticia=1227

Under an agreement negotiated with the Panama’s National Secretariat ofScience, Technology and Innovation, SCL has established and will operate the Georgia Tech –Panama Logistics Innovation and Research Center located in Panama City, Panama.The center has three core thrusts -- applied research, education, and competitiveness -- and two primary objectives 1) to improve the logistics performance of Panama and 2) to establish Panama as the trade hub of the Americas. The center will establish education programs to increase human capital in logistics with both formal degree programs and through executive education; develop repositories and models to support trade analytics; develop performance, integration and visibility systems; facilitate stronger industry and infrastructure linkages to improve Panama’s competitiveness; provide leadership for the development of a National Logistics Plan and NationalLogistics Council; and provide innovation for logistics leading to new logisticsservices and jobs.

Holding a vision of Panama as a logistics, communications, education, research, and scientific tourism hub, Dr. Dario Solis, former director of research and professor of mechanical and electrical engineering at Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá (UTP)/Technological University of Panama, has been tapped as the center's managing director. Solis' many projects have been strategically and synergistically oriented around efforts to improve national infrastructure in transportation, to exploit Panama's competitive advantage in telecommunications, and to exercise its potential as an academic and research destination. Solis sees this as “a historical opportunity for the country of Panama to develop its huge potential and to become a dominate player in global trade.” He believes this opportunity can generate the resources necessary to improve the quality of life for all Panamanians.

Paying close attention to the center’s development is Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli and Georgia Tech President G. P. “Bud” Peterson, both of whom spoke at the center’s opening program.

"Panama is a natural place for a trade hub,” said Don Ratliff, SCL executive director.  It is well suited for free enterprise growth with convenient air and sea transportation to the rest of Latin America, has an outstanding financial district, and good commercial development infrastructure.

And there's the canal, presently undergoing a multi-billion-dollar expansion. When completed in 2014, the waterway's capacity will be doubled and allow much bigger cargo ships.

"Panama possessive an entrepreneurial spirit and a vision for becoming the trade hub of the Americas," explains Jaymie Forrest, SCL managing director. "Panama is poised for growth and development in the required supporting logistics services.”

A bilingual workforce is another plus, she added, along with Panama's Colon Free Zone, a manufacturing, warehousing, and re-export center that is the second-largest free-trade zone in the world after Hong Kong.

But for all of Panama's hard assets, it lacks the high level of integration necessary for trade-hub status. There is lack of logistics services and supporting infrastructure such as public warehousing, temperature controlled faculties, logistics technology and the human capital experienced in supply chain operations. This is a good opportunity for Georgia Tech to transfer knowledge and apply value.

A value assessment to determine priorities in terms of infrastructure improvement will be one of the center's top orders of business. Ongoing improvements in logistics and the application of relevant new technologies will ensure Panama's competitiveness and build its stature as a trade hub.

Besides the immense economic advantages for Panama, a world-class trade hub, there is also expected to provide new opportunities for U.S. companies serving the logistics industry and, perhaps most importantly, boost American exports.

"We manufacture more products by value than any other country in the world," said Ratliff. "Many of these products are exportable, but they're made by small- and medium-size enterprises that simply don't have the capabilities to export to small countries." Nor is it economically worthwhile for these companies to develop and maintain individual trade relationships with separate Latin American countries representing markets of just four or five million people each, he added.

Typically, government-sponsored trade assistance is limited to marketing anddoes not address logistics needs, transportation, value-added product-supportservices and a host of key elements that constitute the practical demands ofinternational trade. The Panama Center will be designed to meet these needswhile providing, in effect, a single point of access for these smaller markets.

"If we're going to increase exports, which everyone believes is a goodidea, then we have to make it so that exporting to a number of small countriesis the same as exporting to one large country," Ratliff explained.

As the largest research group in the world focused on supply chain andlogistics, SCL is the ideal partner for Panama's trade-hub development. Inrecent years, SCL has leveraged its traditional expertise to embrace issuessurrounding international trade. SCL founded The Logistics Institute (TLI)Asia-Pacific in 1998 at the request of the government to improve logisticseducation. Based in Singapore, the center supports Singapore's Asian trade hubwith research, education, and consulting expertise in global logistics andsupply chain management. The learning’s from TLI-Asia Pacific offers a templatefor Panama in many ways.

In Central America, SCL established a regional presence in 2009 with itsTrade-Chain Innovation and Productivity Center, which opened in Costa Rica tosupport increasing trade exports and improving logistics performance whilesupporting some of the countries strategic initiatives and planninginvestments. In particular this center is focused on food exports and preparingfor the challenges of traceability and meeting the forthcoming US food safetyregulations.

The Panama center is expected to serve as a springboard for logisticsinnovation, education and research throughout the Americas, according toForrest.

SCL's emerging leadership role in international trade also dovetails withGeorgia Tech's 25-year strategic plan, which calls for leveraging Tech's globalengagement as a means of securing a larger international footprint. Logisticswas identified as one of four high-potential industry sectors warrantingparticular emphasis in research and industry partnerships. The other sectorsare energy, healthcare, and transportation.

"What Panama wants to do andwhat we want to do are very compatible," Ratliff said. "They have allthe right pieces -- we'll help bring them all together."

Anative of Georgia, Johnson grew up on a farm near Athens. Though Johnson’sfather initially wanted his sons and daughter to attend the University of Georgia,Johnson’s older brother, Fred, prevailed in coming to Georgia Tech, and Johnsonfollowed in his footsteps. The deciding factor for their father was Tech’sco-op program, which provided the opportunity to pay for college while gainingvaluable work experience.  Johnson,who was initially an aerospace engineering major, spent two quarters as a co-opstudent at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which later becameNASA, at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

Afterchanging his major to math, Johnson was able to piece together a smallscholarship, summer and part-time jobs, parental support, and previous savingsto complete his degree. He excelled as anundergraduate math major and was encouraged to continue his education at theUniversity of California at Berkely. At a summer job between completing hismasters in math and starting his PhD program, Johnson discovered operationsresearch, and that discovery changed the trajectory of his education and career

Though he had gone to UC Berkeley tostudy probability theory, Johnson said that “operations research just seemed tome to be a much better thing for me to do than what I was doing.” So Johnsonchanged his major. He registered for his first OR course, which the director ofthe program was teaching. As it turned out, that director was George Dantzig, aname which meant little to Johnson at the time; however, Johnson soon learnedthat Dantzig was “sort of the leading light” in OR. As that first yearprogressed, a mutual respect developed between the teacher and student, and abond formed between the two that lasted through the remainder of Dantzig’slife.

Crediting Dantzig with setting hiscareer for him, Johnson explains that his first job after completing his PhDwas teaching in the industrial administration program at Yale University. During ajunior faculty sabbatical at ETH [the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology] inZurich, Johnson discernedthat he wanted to go into a research environment rather than return toYale.  Though Dantzig, by then at Stanford University, courtedJohnson to join him at Stanford, Johnson declined, instead accepting an offerhe had received from IBM. However, Johnson explains that had it not been forDantzig, “I wouldn’t have known those people at IBM, and they would not haveknown [of] me.” In the end, that experience gave Johnson the chance to workwith OR luminaries such as Phil Wolfe, Alan Hoffman and Ralph Gomory. 

After nearly a quarter century withIBM, Johnson decided that he wanted to return to Georgia Tech as a member ofits faculty, but in 1990, IBM offered him a prestigious IBM Fellow. Suchappointments entitled Fellows to a five-year period of relative freedom intheir work. Johnson thought, “If I’ve got that kind of freedom, I want tocontinue to work with the software we’ve developed at IBM, but I also want tocome to Georgia Tech and set up a Computational Optimization Center with GeorgeNemhauser,” the A. Russell Chandler III chaired professor in ISyE.

As anIBM employee, Johnson worked with Nemhauser in setting up classes at GeorgiaTech as well as establishing collaborative relationships with users of thesoftware. Then, in 1995, after the five years ended, Johnson retired from IBM andjoined the Georgia Tech faculty as the newly endowed Coca Cola chairedprofessor in ISyE. With that title, Johnson shared the distinction withNemhauser of being the first two endowed chair-holders in ISyE.

 For Johnson, however, returning tohis roots did not just mean returning to Georgia Tech. As a farm boy, Johnson’sroots grow deep in Georgiasoil. When he’s not in Atlanta,or teaching in Georgia-Tech’s Dual Masters program in Shanghai, Johnson is at home on his 100-acrefarm in Madison, Georgia.Appropriately called the 100- Acre Farm, Johnson’s land, eighty-six acres ofwhich has been set aside as a conservation easement,  is situated where the Apalachee River runsinto Lake Oconee. Miles of trails run through woods and alongside creeks andponds. And so that others can enjoy the land, Johnson also established theFarmhouse Inn Bed & Breakfast, which in addition to serving eggs from theirown farm-raised chickens, is also one of the top ten bird watching B&Bs inthe country.

 Bringing his worlds together, for thepast three summers Johnson has hosted Chinese exchange students at his farm andshown them Madison’ssouthern charm. Though, as Johnson explains, it’s the student’s choice abouthow to spend their time, many like to make this trip to Madison.

Offering students the opportunity fora shared learning experience is consistent with Johnson’s teachingphilosophy.  One of the things Johnsoncares about is collaboration. “I use the analogy of a tapestry,“ he explains.“You’ve got threads, and some of the threads break, and it weakens the wholething.” Continuing, Johnson says that he tells his students: “Don’t be thethread that breaks; be the thread that fills in and makes it work.”

The thread that runs continuouslythrough Johnson’s own tapestry brought him back to Georgia.Though coming home was an important consideration for Johnson, the real tug wasbeing at Georgia Tech and holding the Coca Cola chair.  In Johnson’s experience, Tech is a positiveplace, and there’s a degree of flexibility in making things happen that isunusual for a state school. According to Johnson, people know what they aredoing, they know what they have to do, and they feel they can do it. At the endof the day, Johnson said, “It just makes me feel better to be here.”

http://www.aircargoworld.com/Magazine/Features/Change-the-only-sustainable-goal

Georgia Institute of Technology ranks7th among public universities in the 2011 edition. Georgia Tech has ranked inthe top 10 of public universities for more than a decade.

Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering moved up one spot in the undergraduaterankings to fourth for engineering programs at universities where the highestdegree is a Ph.D.

While the Stewart School maintained its top ranking, Aerospace Engineeringranked second in its discipline.  Mechanical Engineering moved up one spotto join Biomedical Engineering, and Civil Engineering with all rankedthird.  Electrical and Environmental Engineering both ranked 5th amongtheir peers.

For the first time, U.S.News & World Report polled high school guidance counselors.  GeorgiaTech ranked 2nd among public institutions, tied with the University of NorthCarolina-Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan. In rankings including bothpublic and private universities, Georgia Tech tied for 22nd with BostonCollege, Emory University, Rice University, University of North Carolina-ChapelHill, University of Southern California, University of Michigan and WashingtonUniversity-St. Louis.

The next day the class heard from Professor Owen Darbishire,from Pembroke College in Oxford, who lectured on different labor and employmentmodels in the US, EU, and Japan with a focus on the different constraints theyimpose and opportunities they create.  Following Darbishire’s presentation, JeannyWildi-Yune, managing director of the recently launched Kuehne LogisticsUniversity in Hamburg, provided an overview of the new program.

After two intense days of theory, the class had their firstbus trip and site visit to the Rotterdam Port Authority where they received apresentation on intermodal and rail connections and toured the ECT DeltaContainer Terminal.  On their last day inCologne, theclass visited Kraftverkehr Nagel, a German family-owned food-logistics company.  The company presented on over-the-road transportation and coldchain in Europe. Focusing on the competitive landscape, the presentationincluded national carriers and European players and the influences of Centraland Eastern European (CEE) competitors.

That eveningthe class flew to Munich, where they met with Norbert Jungmichel from SystainConsulting, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Otto Group, a major Germanretailer.  Jungmichel discussed environmental issues in thesupply chain, such as the extent to which customers are willing to pay more formore sustainable products and services, as well as the lack of a singleinternational standard for measuring carbon footprint and the uncertainty andcomplexity this imposes on investment and sourcing decisions.

Later that afternoonthe class traveled to Audi in Ingolstadt, where they learned aboutAudi’s order-to-delivery process and were treated to a tour of the plant. Theirvisit included an open discussion of in-bound logistics with examples fromlocal sequenced suppliers, as well as suppliers in CEE and North Africa and asdistant as Asia and America.

Many of the evenings and weekend days were spent watchingthe World Cup.  This was especiallyenjoyable with a class from all parts of the world.  After a weekend of soccer, the class traveledto Krakow, Poland, where they re-visited Dr. Staab for a review of theirprevious session and a discussion of the financial crisis, sovereign debtissues, as well as other political and economic issues.  

From there the class took a bus to Krakowski ParkTechnologiczny, a company that supportstechnological and entrepreneurial development of Małopolska Region and promotesinnovativeness and new technologies. While there, the class met with two additional companies: UPM,one of the world’s leading forest products groups, which discussed theirbusiness processes for outsourcing, and Sabre Holdings, a merchandising andretailer of travel products that provides distribution and technology solutionsfor the travel industry, which discussed their latest in research anddevelopment.

Their final site visit was taken by train to WSK "PZL –Rzeszów," one of the leading players in the Central Europe aerospaceindustry. They presented an overviewof one of the most remarkable stories of enterprise transformation andleadership – the evolution and restructuring of WSK"PLZ-Rzeszów" S.A from the “Solidarity” movement of 1980 and thesubsequent break with Soviet Union through today.   They also discussed the development of theAviation Valley in southeastern Poland. 

The next destination for the EMIL-SCS Class of 2011 isResidence III in Latin America.  The class will be traveling from September 10– 24, 2010. 

 For more on the EMIL-SCS Program, contact ErinHowlette at erin.howlette@isye.gatech.eduor visit http://www.emil.gatech.edu/.

Wadsworth served in the U.S. Army in WorldWar II and the Korean Conflict. He was a U.S. delegate and subcommittee chairto the International Standards Organization and the American National StandardsInstitute. He authored or co-authored several textbooks and served as editor ofthe Journal of Quality Technology. Wadsworthreceived numerous awards and medals, including the American Society forQuality's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, and he was a Fellowof the American Statistical Association.

Wadsworth is survived by his wife of fifty-nineyears, Irene Hawkins Wadsworth; son, Harrison Morton Wadsworth, III, and hiswife Toni Wadsworth; daughter, Alice Eleanor Wadsworth; and grandchildren,Renee Wadsworth, Harrison Morton Wadsworth, IV, William Wadsworth, HarrisonRitchie, Benjamin Lunsford, Matthew Lunsford, and Alison Lunsford.

For those wishing to honor Wadsworth,his family has requested that contributions be made to the Leukemia andLymphoma Society, P.O. Box 4072, Pittsfield, MA 01202.

The National Institute of Allergy andInfectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health awarded a five-year,$15.5 million grant to the Emory Vaccine Center at Yerkes National PrimateResearch Center in Atlanta. Scientists in the new Center will employ the modern analytictools of systems biology to understand the immune responses vaccines stimulatein humans and will use this knowledge to guide design of vaccines against HIV,malaria and other global pandemics

Bali Pulendran, theCharles Howard Candler professor in the Department of Pathology and LaboratoryMedicine at Emory University, the Emory VaccineCenter, and Yerkes Research Center, is principal investigator of the center.Rafi Ahmed, director of the Emory Vaccine Center and a Georgia ResearchAlliance Eminent Scholar, will serve as co-principal investigator.

Lee and otherresearchers at the center will address a major challenge thus far in thedevelopment of vaccines – that the effectiveness of vaccination can only beascertained after vaccinated individuals have been exposed to infection. Tostudy vaccine-induced immunity in humans, they will use a multidisciplinaryapproach Pulendran developed, which involves immunology, genomics andbioinformatics to predict the immunity of a vaccine without exposingindividuals to infection.

Researchers working in the new Center forSystems Vaccinology will determine whether Pulendran’s approach can be used topredict the effectiveness of other vaccines, including common vaccines againstinfluenza, pneumococcal disease and shingles. The ability to successfullypredict the immunity and efficacy of vaccines would facilitate the rapidevaluation of new and emerging vaccines and the identification of individualswho are unlikely to be protected by a vaccine.

The team’s initial work will focus on twomajor projects on innate immunity and adaptive immunity that ultimately willfacilitate vaccine development in several ways: (1) by enabling a strategy toprospectively predict the immunogenicity of vaccines; (2) by offering new andfundamental insights into the genes, cells and networks that orchestratevaccine-induced immunity in the young and elderly; and (3) by facilitating thegeneration of an open access database of vaccine-induced molecular signatures.

The Center’sinterdisciplinary team comprises researchers and clinicians in areas as diverseas immunology, vaccinology, clinical medicine, computational modeling, andmathematics. In addition to Lee, the team includes Nick Haining (Dana FarberCancer Institute, Boston), Shankar Subramaniam (University of California, SanDiego), Alex Sette (La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, La Jolla),Mark Mulligan (Hope Clinic, Emory Vaccine Center,; and Myron Levine and AdrianaWeinberg (University of Colorado, Denver).

Lee,along with Haining and Subramaniam, co-direct the "Genomics andComputational Biology" core of the initiative. The Core will provideexpertise, analysis, and experimental platforms to systematically interrogatethe immune response to the inactivated trivalent influenza vaccine, thepneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine, and the live attenuated varicella-zostervaccine. Two major goals in this Core involve development of geneexpression-based predictors of vaccine response in humans and use of genomic techniquesas discovery tools to better understand the innate and adaptive immune responseto vaccines.

Support for the firstyear of the Center initiative will come from the American Recovery andReinvestment Act (ARRA).

Under an agreement negotiated with the Panamaniangovernment, SCL will establish and operate a Logistics Innovation and ResearchCenter (PLIC) in Panama by the fall of this year. The center's activities willbe built around three main areas: applied research, education andcompetitiveness.

The center will gather data pertaining tologistics and trade and develop analytics to facilitate showing the value andcapabilities of Panama. This knowledge base will also drive educationalprogramming in logistics for students and professionals. In addition, thecenter will facilitate stronger industry and infrastructure linkages, leadingto new logistics services and jobs.

With its strategic location, multi-modaltransportation access, and deep-water ports situated on each coast,"Panama is a natural place for a trade hub," said SCL Executive DirectorDon Ratliff. "It is well suited for free enterprise growth with convenientair and sea transportation to the rest of Latin America, has an outstandingfinancial district, and good commercial development infrastructure.”

And there's the canal, presently undergoing amulti-billion-dollar expansion. When completed in 2014, the waterway's capacitywill be doubled and allow much bigger cargo ships.

"There's a lot of entrepreneurial spirit inPanama," said Jaymie Forrest, SCL's managing director.  "Panama is poised for economic growth inthe area of logistics and supporting services.”

A bilingual workforce is another plus, she added,along with Panama's Colon Free Zone, a manufacturing, warehousing, andre-export center that is the second-largest free-trade zone in the world afterHong Kong.

But for all of Panama's hard assets, it lacks thehigh level of integration necessary for trade-hub status. There is lack oflogistics services and supporting infrastructure such as public warehousing,temperature controlled faculties, logistics technology and the human capitalexperienced in supply chain operations. This is a good opportunity for GeorgiaTech to transfer knowledge and apply value.

A value assessment to determine priorities interms of infrastructure improvement will be one of the center's top orders ofbusiness. Ongoing improvements in logistics and the application of relevant newtechnologies will ensure Panama's competitiveness and build its stature as atrade hub.

Besides the immense economic advantages forPanama, a world-class trade hub, there is also expected to provide newopportunities for U.S. companies serving the logistics industry and, perhapsmost importantly, boost American exports.

"We manufacture more products by value thanany other country in the world," said Ratliff. "Many of theseproducts are exportable, but they're made by small- and medium-size enterprisesthat simply don't have the capabilities to export to small countries." Noris it economically worthwhile for these companies to develop and maintainindividual trade relationships with separate Latin American countriesrepresenting markets of just four or five million people each, he added.

Typically, government-sponsored trade assistanceis limited to marketing and does not address logistics needs, transportation,value-added product-support services and a host of other topics that constitutethe practical demands of international trade. The Panama Center will bedesigned to meet these needs while providing, in effect, a single point ofaccess for these smaller markets.

"If we're going to increase exports, whicheveryone believes is a good idea, then we have to make it so that exporting toa number of small countries is the same as exporting to one largecountry," Ratliff explained.

As the largest research group in the world focusedon supply chain and logistics, SCL is the ideal partner for Panama's trade-hubdevelopment. In recent years, SCL has leveraged its traditional expertise toembrace issues surrounding international trade.  SCL founded The Logistics Institute (TLI)Asia-Pacific in 1998 at the request of the government to improve logisticseducation. Based in Singapore, the center supports Singapore's Asian trade hubwith research, education, and consulting expertise in global logistics andsupply chain management. The learning’s from TLI-Asia Pacific offers a templatefor Panama in many ways.

In Central America, SCL established a regionalpresence in 2009 with its Trade-Chain Innovation and Productivity Center, whichopened in Costa Rica to support increasing trade exports and improvinglogistics performance while supporting some of the countries strategic initiativesand planning investments.

The Panama center is expected to serve as a springboardfor logistics innovation and research throughout the Americas, according toForrest.

SCL's emerging leadership role in internationaltrade also dovetails with Georgia Tech's 25-year strategic plan, which callsfor leveraging Tech's global engagement as a means of securing a largerinternational footprint. Logistics was identified as one of four high-potentialindustry sectors warranting particular emphasis in research and industrypartnerships. The other sectors are energy, healthcare, and transportation.

"What Panama wants to do and what we want todo are very compatible," Ratliff said. "They have all the right parts-- we'll help bring them all together."

 “I am grateful that Mike Thomas has agreed to take on the responsibility of leading the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering as interim school chair in order to assure a smooth transition through the upcoming search for a new school chair,” said Don Giddens, Dean of the College of Engineering. “I know that his faculty colleagues will work closely with him to ensure that we maintain and build on the momentum ISyE has established. We are incredibly fortunate to have a person of this caliber step in to this position.”

Thomas has extensive knowledge of ISyE teaching and research initiatives and has a good rapport with the faculty, staff, and students in ISyE and across campus. “When Mike was ISyE school chair, he brought in and retained key faculty members and placed an emphasis on developing a strong research program that helped propel the Stewart School to the role of national prominence it maintains today,” said White. “We are delighted to have him back with us.”

Thomas also strengthened connections with ISyE alumni. His efforts brought ISyE its first endowed chair, the A. Russell Chandler III Chair, which he later used to attract George Nemhauser, one of the premier operations research faculty in the Unites States, to Georgia Tech. Thomas also recruited ISyE’s second endowed chair, the Coca-Cola Chair, held then and now by Ellis Johnson. And it was during his tenure that the ISyE Alumni Advisory Board was formed to help guide the Stewart School.

 In 1989, Thomas joined the President’s office at Georgia Tech as acting executive vice president, responsible for overseeing Tech's academic restructuring, which resulted in the formation of three new colleges and numerous new degree programs. In addition, he helped to oversee the implementation of many of these degree programs; created new promotion, tenure and reappointment standards; and managed the Institute's budgeting process. In 1996 his title was changed to Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, overseeing all academic and most administrative areas. Thomas retired in 2002, but came out of retirement soon thereafter to serve as interim chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering while a search was underway for a new chair.

Thomas received a BSChE and MSChE from the University of Texas-Austin. In 1965, he received his Ph.D. in operations research from Johns Hopkins University. He was also president of the Operations Research Society (now INFORMS) and elected as a fellow of INFORMS and AIIE.

 Mike and his wife Pat have five children: Michelle Barber, Kevin Gue (MS OR 1992, DR IE 1995), Teresa Genoway, Kathee Pappa and Rebecca MacLean. The Thomas’ also have twenty-two grandchildren, one of whom graduated from Tech with a degree in Mechanical Engineering this past May, and one who will be entering in the fall, also pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

 Professor Vigor Yang, chair of the Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, is chairing a search committee that has been charged with actively soliciting candidates; evaluating qualifications; and through a screening and interview process, recommending finalists for the position. According to Dean Giddens, this will be an international search to select the best possible person for this important position.

 Factors like cost and consumer appeal affect most decisionsabout making and buying products.  Industrial ecology introduces anotherperspective. A bag of potato chips, according to Thomas, involves decisionsabout growing potatoes, the materials to make the bag, and where the waste fromthe potatoes and bag goes.  She clarified, "Consumption andproduction affect not just the immediate use of products but have a past and afuture.  Products do not appear out of nothing and they do not disappearwhen we throw them away."

>> Read more:.

 Of the sixteen students that comprise the class, twenty-fivepercent are from Europe, twenty-five percent are from Latin America, sixpercent are from Asia, and forty-four percent are from the United States.  The EMIL-SCS program views the class diversity as a benefit to the program and the class itself as students face the globallogistics and supply chain issues they are expected to encounter during theirEMIL-SCS journey.

 Residence I, which some EMIL-SCS alumni affectionately referto as the “boot camp” residence, was taught by several members of Georgia Techfaculty and adjunct faculty with expertise in specific logistics and supplychain strategy areas pertinent to the industries the student body represents.

 During week one, theclass received instruction from Stephen Timme and Ed Frazelle, adjunct professorsin the  H. Milton Stewart School ofIndustrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), and Martin Savelsbergh and John Vande Vate, ISyE professors. Timme, co-founderand CEO/president of FinListics^® Solutions, taught Supply ChainFinance, and Frazelle, founding director of the Supply Chain & LogisticsInstitute (SCL) at Georgia Tech and president and CEO of Logistics ResourcesInternational, guided the class through an intense and interactive Supply ChainStrategy workshop. Savelsbergh and John Vande Vate introduced the class toAnalytics.

 Balancing coursework with play, the class met over theweekend for a Braves game.   This madefor great fun since one of the students from Jakarta, Indonesia, had neverheard of baseball (though he is an avid NASCAR fan).  The class bonded instantly upon meeting eachother and enjoyed their first outing together. The EMIL-SCS experience will provide the class with many moreopportunities to socialize during the eighteen-month program.

 Week two brought its share of theoretical intensity. ISyE Associate Professor AntonKleywegt led the session on Revenue Management, and College of Management Associate Professor Mark Ferguson taught thesession on Inventory Management.  Thenext session of the week was an overview of the 3PL industry taught by JohnLangley, ISyE professor and director of Supply Chain Executive Programs. 

Just as the students were becoming a bitoverwhelmed, relief was offered.  At thebeginning of the residence, the class had been asked to complete the #1 Wall Street Journaland #1 BusinessWeek bestseller StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment.  This best-selling book and individualizedpersonal assessment provides an in-depth look at a person’s strengths and howto best utilize those strengths within the workplace.  Upon completion of the assessment, the classwas joined by Karla Brandau from Improving Human Capital, LLC, for a fun andthought-provoking session on how to understand and focus on individualstrengths, making the student more powerful and promotable. 

 The final chapter of the residence was to form the GlobalSupply Chain Project teams..With the guidance of EMIL-SCS executive director, JohnVande Vate, and managing director, Greg Andrews, the class formed five teamsthat range in industries from retail to 3PL’s. When the class meets again for Residence II, the Global Project Teamswill provide project updates now that their projects have begun to take shape.

The class will meet again from June 13 through the 24, 2010,for Residence II in Europe.  While there,the class will visit Cologne and Munich, Germany, during week one and completethe residence in Krakow, Poland.  TheEMIL-SCS program is excited about the newest members of the EMIL-SCS family andeagerly anticipates the next eighteen months while they take on the uniqueEMIL-SCS academic and socialization experience. 

Cool Insights will feature thoughts from the faculty, staff,and partners of the new IFC Center on various aspects of food chain.

Thefirst column, which apprears in the April/May issue, features thoughts from Don Ratliff, executive director ofIFC, on the increasing necessity of the integrated food chains.

Readthe column: http://www.foodlogistics.com/print/Food-Logistics/The-Increasing-Necessity-For-Integrated-Food-Chains/1$3685

Viewthe entire magazine: http://foodlogistics.epubxpress.com/

Cool Insights will feature thoughts from the faculty, staff, and partners of the new IFC Center on various aspects of food chain.

The first column, which apprears in the April/May issue, features thoughts from Don Ratliff, executive director of IFC, on the increasing necessity of the integrated food chains.

Read the column: http://www.foodlogistics.com/print/Food-Logistics/The-Increasing-Necessity-For-Integrated-Food-Chains/1$3685.

View the entire magazine: http://foodlogistics.epubxpress.com/.

In Engineeringthe System of Healthcare Delivery, Rouse and co-editor Denis Cortese, formerCEO of the Mayo Clinic, together with a team of highly regarded thoughtleaders, advocate a complete re-thinking of healthcare from a systemsperspective – an engineering approach to healthcare – and they then describehow to set about it.

The authors argue that as the United Statescontinues to debate reform of its healthcare system, providing health insurancefor all without improving the delivery system will not improve the currentproblems of access, affordability, and quality. They maintain that the U.S.healthcare system, while having many excellent components, has evolvedhaphazardly over time.  And although ithas not failed entirely, like any system where attention is paid to individualcomponents at the expense of the system as a whole, it can never hope tosucceed. Above all, they point out that the U.S. system does not provide high-valuehealthcare; it has the highest costs in the world, and yet many other countrieshave lower infant mortality rates and better life expectancy.

Engineeringthe System of Healthcare Delivery covers a wide range ofsubjects, including health care costs and economics, barriers to change,integrated health systems, electronic records and computer-based patientsupport as well as patient safety and palliative and chronic care.

The mission of the TennenbaumInstitute is the creation and dissemination of information, knowledge, andskills to enable fundamental changes of complex organizational systems. Thebook series on Enterprise Systems is one of the ways TI facilitates thedissemination of knowledge created by its many partners in academia, industry,and government as well as the Institute’s faculty and staff. TI’s research andeducation addresses a rich mixture of concepts, principle, models, methods, andtools applicable to a wide range of enterprise domains. Two domains ofparticular emphasis at TI are healthcare delivery and global manufacturing. Researchand education in these two domains are enhanced by strong partnerships withleading companies and agencies in these domains, as well as thought leadersfrom many organizations.

Recognized by the organizers as a top researcher in his field, Erera conducts research primarily on transportation and logistics systems planning and control, with a focus both on innovative modeling and solution methodologies, and on challenging application areas including dynamic and stochastic vehicle routing and scheduling, robust asset management, logistics service network design, integrating security and efficiency in logistics systems, and highway traffic network analysis.

The Spring School on Combinatorial Optimization in Logistics draws students and researchers interested in the area of Combinatorial Optimization, in particular the latest advances in mixed-integer programming and its applications to various classes of problems arising in logistics, including network design, vehicle routing, routing/scheduling, routing/inventory, and location/routing, among others. For more inforamtion about the Spring School, visit the website at https://symposia.cirrelt.ca/COLogistics2010/en.

>> Listen to the entire segment: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wabe/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1656579/Atlanta/Ga.Tech.Professors..Students.Gauge.Debris.Cleanup.in.Haiti.

The announcement letterstated that the awards committee selected the paper fromjournal issues for the one-year period from July 2008 through June 2009.  IIETransactions is the flagship journal of the Institute of IndustrialEngineers (IIE).  The Best Paper Awards are beingpresented at the Honors and Awards Banquet during the IIEAnnual Conference and Expo in Cancún, Mexico, June5–9, 2010. 

The survey, which takes 15 minutes to complete, is being conducted exclusively using the Internet and can be accessed through the following link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DNBRRTZ

All participants are eligible to receive an advance copy of the 3PL Study final report prior to its general release in September of this year.

Click here http://www.scl.gatech.edu/ for more information about Georgia Tech's Supply Chain and Logistics Institute.

The Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, a unit of the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute (SCL) and a part of the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech, organized the conference, which had as its main objectives to articulate challenges and successes in preparing for and responding to health and humanitarian crises, including disasters and long-term development, particularly on issues related to logistics.

An impressive gathering of participants from Canada, Croatia, Germany, India, Iraq, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States came together with an ambitious mission: to encourage learning and collaboration within and across institutions; promote system-wide improvements in organizations and the sector as a whole; identify important research issues; and establish priorities for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), corporations, and the government in terms of strategies, policies and investments.

Representatives from the humanitarian sector, government and military, NGOs, foundations and private industry, and academia presented diverse perspectives in health and humanitarian challenges through keynote addresses, panel discussions, focused workshops, lunchtime group discussions, and interactive poster sessions (with over forty-five posters covering a broad set of research topics and applications).

Drawing on the success of last year's inaugural conference and from participants' feedback, ISyE professors Ozlem Ergun, Pinar Keskinocak, and Julie Swann, conference co-chairs and co-directors of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, expanded this year's conference from one day to one and a half days, adding a second keynote presentation and a third workshop.

Keskinocak, who is also the associate director for research of the Health Systems Institute, describes the conference as having been very "intense," with attendees being engaged in various ways during the entire time. "The panels provided a great overview of various topics," Keskinocak explains, "and the post-conference workshops allowed the attendees to go deeper in some of the topics, interact more closely, and exchange ideas with each other and the workshop presenters."

Panel discussions covered long-term development and sustainability; education, community preparedness, and capacity building; improving public health; and disaster preparedness, response, and post-disaster operations. Recognizing that global health is an area of great interest, the conference organizers added the public health panel this year and will continue to expand the Center activities in this area moving forward.

Those attending this year's conference were almost unanimous in their enthusiasm for the event and particularly liked the panels, citing the diversity of representatives and organizations and the different perspectives on a variety of topics.

The agencies, organizations, and businesses represented on the panels include governmental organizations (the Department of Homeland Security, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USAID Food for Peace), nongovernmental organizations (CARE-USA, Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres, Focus Humanitarian Assistance, the Salvation Army, the World Food Programme), industry (Emergency Visions, Sterling Solutions, United Parcel Service, Walmart), academia (Disaster Resilience Academy of Tulane University, New England Center for Emergency Preparedness), and others (Clinton Foundation, U. S, Army Corps of Engineers).

Some of the perspectives covered within the panels include why collaboration matters, how to foster disaster-resilient communities, emergency management in the private sector, how disaster response can be a disaster within a disaster, warehousing for faster response, improving supply chains to meet people in need, and improving global health.

Public health and disaster management were two themes picked up in the keynote addresses. The first of the keynote speakers was Rear Admiral Scott Deitchman, associate director for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response with the National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Rear Admiral Deitchman spoke about both the CDC's role in global health, highlighting the newly established Center for Global health, and shared insights from his own experience in Haiti.

Armond Mascelli, vice president for Disaster Services, Operations, with the American Red Cross, presented the conference's second keynote. Mascelli spoke about the spectrum of disasters, which range from emergencies to catastrophic events, and how to better position supply chain technology with NGOs engaged is disaster relief.

The continuous thread throughout the conference was the ongoing poster presentations, which gave individuals and groups a venue for sharing and discussing their research, projects, and activities in health and humanitarian applications.

Following the official conclusion of the conference, attendees were given the option of participating in one of three focused workshops that took place the afternoon of the second day. These workshops covered in greater detail pre-planning and response to large-scale domestic events, dynamic decision-making during emergencies, and preparedness and response in humanitarian logistics.

Already looking forward to next year's conference, the three co-chairs are encouraged by the momentum the conference has gained among participating organizations and countries. Those participating this year have stated that not only would they return next year, but they would also recommend the conference to others. This can only be good news for Ergun, Keskinocak, and Swann, who are striving, through the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, to improve communications between NGOs, governments and private industry and present them with the research and practical applications to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations.

The Center's goal is to improve health and humanitarian logistics and ultimately the human condition by system transformation and organization effectiveness through education, outreach, and solutions. The Conference on Health and Humanitarian Logistics is moving the organizers further in realizing that goal.

The Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics received support through the following conference sponsors: UPS Foundation, Kuehne+Nagel, Coca Cola Company, Focus Humanitarian Assistance, and several units from Georgia Tech including the Distance Learning and Professional Education Program, H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, Health Systems Institute, College of Engineering, and College of Computing.

To learn more about the Conference presentations and workshops and to view videos of the panels, speakers and workshops, visit: http://www.scl.gatech.edu/humlog2010.
To learn more about ISyE's work in health and humanitarian logistics, visit:
http://humanitarian.gatech.edu.

The two-day biannual forum began with a joint meeting between the SCEF and the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals' (CSCMP) Atlanta Roundtable. John Langley, professor of supply chain management at Georgia Tech and faculty director of the Georgia Tech Supply Chain Executive Forum, joined Ben Cubitt of RockTenn and president of the Atlanta CSCMP in giving the Forum's opening remarks. The remainder of the day was divided between keynote presentations and a panel session focused on the theme of "Supply Chain Innovation."

Robert Martichenko, CEO of LeanCor, provided the Forum's first keynote address, speaking about building discipline for innovation in the lean supply chain. Among the points he made in his presentation, Martichenko said that lean leaders lead from principles. "From principles," he said, "they ask questions, make observations, reflect, challenge thinking, teach, coach, and aid in the development of tools and processes to create value, solve problems, and grow people."

Principles of the lean supply chain, according to Martichecko, include making customer consumption visible, reducing lead times, using pull systems, creating velocity and reducing variation, collaborating and focusing on process discipline, and measuring and managing Total Cost of Fulfillment.

Two other presentations included technology-based presentations made by Scott Blatnica, director of Spend Management at Ariba, and Eddie Capel, EVP with Manhattan Associates.

Brian Hancock, VP - Supply Chain with Whirlpool Corporation, gave the closing keynote presentation to the joint SCEF-CSCMP session. In this presentation, "Supply Chain Innovation: Transforming Your Supply Chain," Hancock discussed the challenges faced in managing supply chain activities at Whirlpool, catalysts for improvement, and the overall commitment of Whirlpool to sustainability. His concluding comments suggested that the traditional "functional" views limit the "end-to-end" performance of supply chains and that "leadership takes an end-to-end orientation emphasizing demand-pull, synchronization and lean operations."

On the second day, when the theme of the SCEF-only sessions evolved to "Rethinking and Rebuilding Supply Chains," Langley asked participants to consider the following key questions:
*What is supply chain innovation and what can companies do to become more involved in supply chain innovation?
*How does one "re-think' supply chains, and what are the roles of transportation and technology in rethinking supply chains?
*What are some good customer-related examples of how to rethink and rebuild supply chains?
*How can we transform supply chains through shared services?
*What are the roles that can be played by technology providers in rethinking and rebuilding supply chains?
*How cans supply chains become more demand-driver?
*What can supply chain executives do to live more positively in the supply chain?

The meeting then proceeded with keynote and major presentations. Jim Kellso, senior supply chain master with Intel, gave the day's first keynote address. In a presentation titled "Innovation and Operational Excellence in the Supply Chain," Kellso presented details regarding Intel's "Just Say Yes" initiative. The four pillars of this initiative are improved responsiveness, forecast accuracy, inventory reduction, and better delivery performance. Intel's recent expansion of this initiative included transitioning to standard metrics, employing VMI innovatively (with an equivalent focus on non-VMI customers), reducing order (backlog) horizons, enhancing demand processes, and simplifying the planning process. As a result of these initiatives, Intel's Customer Delight Scores went up by 17 percent between 2006 and 2008, and its Supply Chain Delight Score improved by 40 percent. Summarizing what this means, Kellso explained that Intel has improved CPU responsiveness by 300 percent in two years while reducing inventory; that "Just Say Yes" has resulted in significant and tangible business benefits; and that the scope of the innovations has covered people/culture, process, metrics, and tools.

Chris Gaffney, president of Coca-Cola Supply, presented the afternoon keynote, which was divided into two parts: "The Journey to Demand Driven" and "Living Positively in the Supply Chain." A demand-driven supply chain, according to Gaffney, is a customer-centric supply chain. "By adapting to make what we sell, rather than sell what we make," Gaffney explained, "supply chains can finally realize the goal of having their products arrive on the doorsteps of retailers and customers at exactly the right time and in exactly the right volume." Continuing, Gaffney said that in a demand driven system, consumer demand triggers all activities in the value chain with clearly defined connection points to eliminate waste, reduce variation, and compress lead time.

In the second part of his presentation, on a more personal note, Gaffney addressed issues of leadership, citing individuals and works that have helped shape him not just in business, but in all domains of his life - work, home, community, and self. In concluding his remarks, Gaffney listed three ways to be a good supply chain citizen in the community:
*Give back to education to grow the next generation of supply chain professionals.
*Give back to industry to support the advancement of supply chain management.
*Advocate with elected officials for efficiency and infrastructure.

Major presentation sessions punctuated the two keynote addresses. George Abernathy, executive vice president and chief operating officer with Transplace, and Richard Douglass, global industry executive for Manufacturing and Logistics at Sterling Commerce, provided insightful presentations and then participated in a panel session focusing on "Strategic Rethinking of Supply Chains." Charlie Chesnutt, senior vice president of Technology and Process Improvement for Genuine Parts Corporation, and Jeff Cashman, senior vice president with Manhattan Associates, participated in a technology client-provider session focused on "Transforming Supply Chains through Shared Services."

The Supply Chain Executive Forum experienced a great turnout of members for the Spring 2010 meeting and is looking forward to the Fall 2010 meeting scheduled for October 6-7, 2010. Click here http://www.scl.gatech.edu/professional-education/scef/ for more information about SCEF.

CBSmoneywatch.com - March 15, 2010
Those probability models are where the really mathy folks have made their mark on this process. These guys rate teams according to scoreboard data: wins and losses, home court advantage, opponents' strength, and in some cases, margin of victory. Two of the most popular, which Poologic incorporates, are Jeff Sagarin's and Joel Sokol's. Sagarin, an M.I.T. grad, has been publishing ratings in various sports in USA Today since 1985, and you can see his college basketball picks here. Sokol, a Georgia Tech professor, makes his calculations based on a different formula, LRMC, which stands for logistic regression and Markov Chain. Sokol says he's analyzed data from 10 years of NCAA tournaments and "it's statistically significant that our system predicts more winners." Play around with that function, marvel at the brainpower behind them, and choose what you like. Read more>>>

New York Times - March 16, 2010
The affliction is common at this time of year, perhaps even epidemic. It is short-lived, by necessity, but can seriously sap productivity, energy, the ability to focus on anything but the empty bracket staring back at you on the computer screen... For the math-inclined, there is the system developed by three Georgia Tech professors, called LRMC. Read more>>

ESPN - March 16, 2010
Georgia Tech professor Joel Sokel (ISYE) shares his methodology for predicting Final Four teams. View the segment at the following link:
http://bit.ly/9dZaD0

Atlanta Business Chronicle - March 17, 2010
A computer ranking system by three Georgia Tech professors predicts Kansas will face Duke in this year's NCAA basketball final with Kansas emerging as the victor. The computer ranking system -- LRMC (Logistic Regression Markov Chain) -- says this year's NCAA Final Four match-ups will be Kansas vs. Syracuse and Duke vs. West Virginia with Kansas taking the title. "There are several upsets predicted in the earlier rounds," said Joel Sokol, operations research professor in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. "Among others, San Diego State, Utah State, Murray State and Brigham Young could be surprises. Read more>>

Science of Better - January 14, 2010
Interview with Professor Pinar Keskinocak, Professor Julie Swann, Georgia Institute of Technology... As the Haitian earthquake tragedy unfolds, the challenge of using the very best humanitarian logistics

Atlanta Journal Constitution - January 14, 2010
...The cost of ripple effects in the economy could easily surpass the direct costs of the storm, said Ozlem Ergun, co-director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics at Georgia Tech. "You're closing down the schools, you're not only sending the children home, you're also causing one of the parents to stay at home, causing loss of productivity for business," Ergun said. "Also, you're not going out to eat, you're not going out to really buy something, you're really causing a lot of revenue loss." Read more>>>

TCBmag.com - February 17, 2010
Cash for trash? It's in the works. Smart Trash, a waste-recycling system now in development at Georgia Tech, uses UPC codes to scan discards

En-Genius.net - February 21, 2010
Smart Trash may sound like an oxymoron but, if my friend Dr. Valerie Thomas has her way, it will be the term that transforms e-waste from a costly problem to a profit center. The basic idea behind Smart Trash is simple

US News & World Report - February 25, 2010
U.S.News & World Report's World's Best Universities rankings, based on the QS World University Rankings, identified these to be the world's top universities in 2009. 1 MIT 2. University of California, Berkeley 3 Stanford University 4 University of Cambridge, UK 5 California Institute of Technology (Caltech) 6 University of Tokyo 6 Imperial College London 8 University of Toronto 9 Carnegie Mellon University 10 ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) 11 University of Oxford 12 Georgia Institute of Technology.

Read more>>>>

Mello, who recently retired from his position as chief operating officer forDaVita, the largest independent provider of dialysis services in the UnitedStates, has been a leader in the healthcare industry throughout his career. Whilea student at Georgia Tech, Mello worked as a paramedic at nearby Grady Hospitalto help cover the costs of his education. Since then, he has gone on to anillustrious career. In addition to DaVita, Mello has served in key managementpositions with MedPartners Inc. and Vivra Asthma & Allergy Inc. Understandingthe need for increased research and intellectual scholarship concerning thesystems-based approach to healthcare delivery, the Mellos have generouslysupported initiatives at Georgia Tech, including the establishment of aprofessorship in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and SystemsEngineering in support of health systems.

According to the award citation, the Mello’s “philanthropicinvestment will have an enormous impact on the Institute and its role indefining the technological future of the rapidly changing healthcareprofession. “

A member of the College of Engineering’s Academy ofDistinguished Engineering Alumni, Mello also provides volunteer leadership andservice to the Institute through his involvement with the ISyE advisory board.

"As one of the nation’s premier research universities”the citation continues, “Georgia Tech is educating the technological workforceof the twenty-first century and conducting research that drives innovation.Thanks to the support of principal benefactors like Mr. and Mrs. Mello, GeorgiaTech continues to reach new heights, building upon academic strengths and addressingthe challenges facing our region, our nation, and the world. It is withprofound gratitude that the Georgia Institute of Technology honors Virginia C.and Joseph C. Mello as members of the exceptional fellowship of The HillSociety. “

Members of The Hill Society are a critical part of theInstitute's effort to continue the growth of its reputation for excellence andto provide an exemplary education to students from the state, nation, andworld.

Atlanta (November 19, 2009) - The 2010 class in the Executive Master's in International Logistics & Supply Chain Strategy (EMIL-SCS) Program completed its fourth and much anticipated Latin American residence in early September, spending two weeks studying in Costa Rica, Panama and Brazil. With an in-depth look at distribution facilities, infrastructure, intermodal transportation, government and finance, the 2010 EMIL-SCS class experienced a first-hand exploration into the regional supply chains throughout Latin America and the role of that region in the global supply chain.

Beginning its residency in Costa Rica's capital city of San Jose, the class received a rich introduction to Latin America and a geopolitical and economic overview of the region from Patrice Franko, Grossman Professor of Economics and International Studies at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

While in San Jose, the class made a site visit to Intel Corporation, where they learned about Intel's economic footprint in Costa Rica and its motivation for manufacturing there, site competitiveness, and logistics challenges faced over the ten years in Costa Rica and progress made during the same timeframe. Additionally the students toured the Intel Innovation Center, an opportunity very few outsiders have the privilege to experience.

John Bartholdi, Manhattan Associates Chair of Supply Chain Management at the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, lectured on warehouse distribution facilities and presented a case study on Dos Pinos, a production, processing, and distribution company of dairy products headquartered in San Jose. The students were challenged with providing direct feedback and input to Dos Pinos for improving their processes of matching supply to demand. The class visited the Dos Pinos distribution center to observe the operational issues within the facility and joined the Dos Pinos logistics management team for a discussion on enterprise resource planning and SAP. The site visit ended with a sampling of Dos Pinos ice cream.

The class ended the Costa Rican segment of its residency meeting with Costa Rica Investment and Development (CINDE). A private, nonprofit apolitical organization, CINDE endeavors to advance the country's social and economic development by promoting foreign direct investment into the country.

From Costa Rica, the class proceeded to Panama City, Panama. The focus of the intense two-day trip to Panama was to visit and tour the Manzanillo International Terminal and Logistics Park in Colon, Panama; meet with the Colon Import & Export company, a third-party warehouse service provider located in the Colon Free Trade Zone; and visit and tour the Panama Canal Authority. While at the Panama Canal, the students learned the history of building the Panama Canal, future plans to expand the canal, and the supply chain challenges the canal faces on a daily basis due to increased manufacturing in Mexico, GDP growth in South America, and partnerships with steamship lines. Although the program has visited the Panama Canal many times, the 2010 class was the first to have the experience of crossing the canal on foot by walking across the Miraflores Locks.

Leaving Panama, the class moved on to Porto Alegre, Brazil. Beginning its visit with a Brazilian soccer game, the class resumed its curriculum with a corporate visit to Springer/Carrier, a United Technologies Company. The class met with the supply chain team and discussed the flow of raw materials into Brazil, specifically focusing on the distribution of finished goods in support of Brazil's domestic demand, distribution of goods exported to South and Central America, navigating through the Brazilian tax structure, and security issues in transporting Carrier products.

Following its visit to Springer/Carrier, the class toured the largest General Motors subsidiary in South America and the third largest in the world. Class discussions focused on the differences between United States and South American plants utilizing VMI and sub-assemblies in the manufacturing process over traditional automotive assembly. From General Motors, the class made its last stop in Porto Alegre at John Deere Montenegro. The discussion there centered on John Deere's supply chain network and South American strategy, highlighting its carbon footprint reduction within an ECO-friendly manufacturing plant.

Winding down its Latin American residence, the class made its last stop in Campinas, Brazil. An alumnus of the 2009 EMIL-SCS class hosted the program at Dell Hortolandia for a site visit and discussion of Dell's logistics issues and opportunities working with customs in Brazil, outbound shipping to other countries within Latin America and to non-Latin American regions, and ocean/air inbound and outbound shipments.

Following the Dell tour and presentation, the class met with Dr. Lars Sanchez, professor in Transportation Engineering at UNICAMP and INSPER in Brazil. Dr. Sanchez's presentation dove deep into the overall logistical challenges throughout Brazil. The day concluded with Baxter Healthcare, which reviewed lessons and case studies about tax strategies in Brazil.

The class concluded its 2010 Latin American residence with both a lecture and site visit. Maria Rey, founder and executive director of the Atlanta-based Center for Emerging Logistics and Supply Chains and adjunct faculty in the EMIL-SCS program, spoke to the class about logistics and supply chain management in Latin America, with a specific focus on infrastructure needs and understanding the Latin American consumer. Following Rey's lecture, the class toured Viracopos/Campinas Airport Infraero, a customs bonded import-export facility. As a major hub, Viracopos utilizes express lanes for courier traffic, which are exceptionally quick and less-bureaucratic for Brazilian standards.

The fifth and final residence for the 2010 EMIL-SCS class beings February 28, 2010, in Monterrey, Mexico, and runs through March 12, 2010, wrapping up in Atlanta. Applications for the 2011 class are being accepted through January 4, 2010.

For more information contact:
Barbara Christopher, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Contact Barbara Christopher bchristopher@isye.gatech.edu
404.385.3102

The sun never sets on the global supply chain. Advanced education programs at a variety of universities offer logistics professionals a world tour unlike any other . . .Got the travel bug? Read on for a sampling of some global education programs. GEORGIA TECH... For the working professionals who enroll in the Executive Masters in International Logistics (EMIL) program at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, the whole world is a classroom. Greg Andrews earned his EMIL degree in 2005 while employed as director of global logistics for a telecommunications firm in the southeastern United States. Today, he serves as managing director of the 18-month graduate program sponsored by Georgia Tech's H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering... Graduate and executive education programs at TLI-Asia Pacific are similar to programs offered at Georgia Tech's Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, says Harvey Donaldson, the Institute's director and associate chair of industry and international studies at the Stewart School. Students who complete the master's program earn two degrees, one from NUS and one from Georgia Tech.

http://www.inboundlogistics.com/articles/features/0209_feature01.shtml

Atlanta (January 4, 2010) - In lieu of a traditional master's thesis, students enrolled in Georgia Tech's Executive Master's in International Logistics and Supply Chain Strategy (EMIL-SCS) undertake a Global Supply Chain Project to fulfill the requirements of this eighteen-month residence-based program. Participants use this project as an opportunity to gain knowledge through the academic curriculum and apply those resources to a critical supply chain concern specific to their sponsoring companies.

The sixteen students in the 2009 EMIL-SCS class, which graduated in August of 2009, made full use of the program's resources in designing and completing their global projects, extending beyond their current scope of responsibility and realizing significant savings for their companies. Forming teams comprising from one to five people, the students completed six projects, described below:

Demand Planning and Inventory Visibility across Europe

This project's objectives were to identify waste in the value chain; establish clear and simple metrics for measuring process efficiency in logistics; improve, standardize, automate, and increase the frequency of forecasting process; and establish better integration and visibility between distribution and factories. Through these objectives, the project reduced warehouse costs by $65 million (35%), increased inventory turns from 4.3T to 5.0T, increased service rate from 85% to 91%, and reduced part lead time and administration order process from 127 days to 73 days.

Demand Planning for a Major Commodity and Retail Channel in the Caribbean

The focus of this project was to ensure a strong liaison between demand and supply through a robust (but simple) demand planning process, reducing finished goods inventory by at least 10%, while maintaining at least 90% fill rate level. Divided into three phases, the project focused on SKU rationalization, the demand planning process, and supplier collaboration, respectively. Phase I yielded a 3.5% reduction in the number of SKUs across all the product categories. Phase II yielded inventory reductions of 15% and the elimination of warehouse rental for additional savings. Phase III, although still in development, has a potential to reduce inventories by an additional 10%.

Implementation and Roll-Out of a Demand and Inventory Planning System at a Major Convenience Store Retail Chain

In this project, the company must identify ways to increase the per-store revenue and at the same time reach efficiencies across the supply chain in order to reduce operational costs. Project design and implementation includes the evaluation of the Retek-Oracle Replenishment and Forecasting modules, a total investment of $10 million. In Phase I of the implementation, the level of lost sales decreased more than 50% and product availability at the store level increased more than 65%. Depending on certain categories, revenue is expected to increase 4% to 6% at the store level. The payback period of the project will be approximately three years.

Low Cost Supply Chain Project

The objective was to develop a business model to profitably deliver low-cost products at price points that target customers can afford through analysis of the benefits of a redesigned, Low Cost Supply Chain (LCSC) model versus the current state. The cost savings resulting from this project was $221 million over five years, or $124 million on a discounted (net present value) basis. The primary reasons for the cost savings are reductions in inventory purchasing costs (19% of the savings) and inventory carrying costs (79% of the savings). Inventory carrying costs and inventory purchasing costs were reduced by almost 80%.

Optimal Sourcing Strategy in Latin America

The company's current supply chain for key countries in Latin America is based on sourcing product out of the United States and Asia. The company has been moving from the single-channel, single-sourced, configure-to-order model to a multi-channel, multi-source model that will provide much greater flexibility and convenience to customers at different price points. With this transition and the availability of new sources and new supply chain capabilities, the question is to determine the optimal supply chain strategy to satisfy the customer needs in key Latin American countries-Colombia, Argentina, and Chile. The recommendations of the project have the potential to achieve approximately $5 to $10 million in annualized savings over current status and to reduce cycle time for several destination countries by one to three days.

Supply Chain Network Optimization Project

The company currently outsources about 70% of its products to Asia and builds 30% in-house domestically in the United States. The project evaluates five separate finished goods assemblies, using a total landed cost model to determine the optimal geographic areas for sourcing and manufacturing against internal and local options. The model included dynamic conditions for currency fluctuation, volatile fuel prices, and variable labor conditions across the geographic areas to better achieve a solid understanding of the total landed-cost of the assembly. As a result of the project, the range of savings based on probability is $1.5 million and $1.9 million and the most probable total cost opportunity for implementing this optimized scenario is approximately $1.5 million annually.

As the 2010 EMIL-SCS class anticipates its fifth and final residence in March 2010, the 2011 class is currently forming, with an expected start date in spring 2010. To learn more about the EMIL-SCS program or read more about the 2009 Global Supply Chain projects, visit the EMIL-SCS website at www.emil.gatech.edu.

For more information contact:
Barbara Christopher, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Contact Barbara Christopher bchristopher@isye.gatech.edu
404.385.3102

 With the top teams all being outstanding,Chen Zhou, associate professor and associate chair of undergraduate programs,stated that the overall quality was amazing and that the selection process wasdifficult.

ISyE Senior Design, which Zhousays has become known for its quality, challenge and rewards, has worked withorganizations ranging from local startups to Fortune 100 companies tointernational humanitarian organizations. The impact of Senior Design projectshas been felt not only in the Atlanta area, but across the country and as faraway as Europe, Africa, and Asia. The average team is able to use its IE skillsto create hundreds of thousands of dollars in value for the company they workwith.

 For UPS, team members, AnishBhatt, Justin Chmielewski, Nupur Patel, Rathin Ramesh, Nik Reddy, Ryan Smith,Zoheb Virani, and Ian Yancey, with faculty advisor Alex Shapiro, redesignedUPS’ warranty policy. Currently UPS spends $330,000 more than it recovers fromits warranty system each year, and the team’s goal was to shift the focus frommaximum dollars recovered to maximum net return. By using sophisticated dataanalysis and model building the team developed a drastically different approachto the warranty policy which, if implemented, could save UPS up to $1.8 millionper year.

 Finalists in the competition were theSenior Design teams who worked with BurgerKing® Restaurant Operations, Radiant Systems, and Norfolk Southern Corporation.

Workingon a project titled "Process Improvement of Burger King® Restaurant Operations",team members Jennifer LaPerre, Matthew Powers, Jared Trammell Sears, StephenSpicher,PatrickSugar, and Kristen Vila, under the guidance of faculty advisor Craig Tovey,addressed three areas of improvement for Burger King®: determining the optimalnumber of point-of-sale units, eliminating excessive labor hours, and reducingwait times in the drive-thru. The team developed the following three projectdeliverables: a stochastic model, a labor scheduling integer program, and aseries of simulations. These resulted in a potential cost savings of over $6 nillion annually.

With guidance from faculty advisor Xiaoming Huo, team members Dillon Blakes, Josh Click, IanCraig, Randy Darnowsky, Joel Feyereisen, Kristina Kaylen, Jesse Kent, andMackenzie Weber developed a redesign project for Radiant Systems FieldServices. The team recommended a facility layout redesign and an inventorymanagement tool for their Radiant Systems’ field services division. Intensivedata collection, a thorough simulation, labor optimization analysis, and robustsensitivity analysis resulted in reduced overtime, transfer/walking time, andlinestock stockouts. Project deliverables will save Radiant Systems, the leadingglobal manufacturer ofpoint-of-saleproducts, $1.28 million over the three- year lifetime of the project.

ShabbirAhmed, associate professor and advisor to the Fall 2009 Senior Design winners,advised David Chen, Susan Curry, Aldren Lobo, Yatong Lu, Tom Minderman, MatthewThornton,and Sheng-Bo Zhu on their projected titled “Optimization of Locomotive FuelingPolicy for Norfolk Southern Corporation.” The team worked with Norfolk SouthernRailway to optimize its locomotive fueling policy. Implementation of asimulation-based optimization model gave an immediate value added of $8 millionannually. The team recommended futurechanges, which will allow Norfolk Southern to increase its potential savings to $29 million.

All three teams gave presentations of their work onWednesday, May 5, 2010, to a room filled with faculty, company sponsors,students and parents.

For more information on the senior design program,or if you are interested in sponsoring a student team, please visit http://www.isye.gatech.edu/seniordesign/.

In his opening remarks, Lofgren discussed the search forISyE’s new chair.  As many of you mayknow by now, Chip White announced his intention to step down asschool chair at the end of his five-year term, effective June 30, 2010.  College of Engineering Dean Giddens hasinitiated a search for the new chair by establishing a search committee toactively solicit candidates, evaluate qualifications, and, through a screeningand interview process, recommend finalists for the position.  An interim chair will be announced mostlikely by the end of May with the new chair expected to be on board within ayear.

Lofgren also introduced the new advisory board membernominees and confirmed their appointments for the 2010 – 2014 term.  The new board members are: David Bailey (IE1969), Robert "Bpb" Martin (IE 1969), Phillip J. Scott (IE 1969), John A. White III(IE 1992), and Charlene Zalesky (1977).  EdRogers (IE 1982, MS IL 2002) succeeds outgoing chair Chris Lofgren, whoserved from 2008 – 2010.

Lofgren expressed his gratitude for working with the boardand for Georgia Tech in general.  “GeorgiaTech is a special place,” he said.  “Whatmakes it so special is the people.  Forthose new on the advisory board, you will develop great friendships that willbe lasting and spectacular.  It has beenan honor to work with so many phenomenal individuals.”

After Lofgren’s opening remarks, White updated the board onthe Stewart School’s continuing successes and upcoming challenges as thenation’s largest and highest ranked industrial engineering program.  For an unprecedented twentieth consecutiveyear, U.S. News & World Report hasranked ISyE as the number one graduate program for industrial and manufacturingengineering in the nation.  The undergraduateprogram has been ranked number one every year but one by U.S. News & World Report.  The National Research Council hasranked the faculty number one with ranking done once every ten years.  ISyE has the highest quality faculty at boththe senior and junior levels, including five NAE members and eleven endowedchairs.

In discussing how ISyE is doing, White noted that budgets are tight andvigilance is required.  However, ISyE isusing the economic downturn as an opportunity to renew and strengthen itsprograms and plans to exit the downturn stronger than when we entered it,relative to our peers.  ISyE has madeexcellent progress with the new emerging directions in areas of significantreal-world importance as in health and humanitarian logistics; medicalOR/biostats; energy, environment, and sustainability; as well as in finance andsecurity.   Our current internationalpresence is growing including our programs in Shanghai, Singapore, and CostaRica with other international possibilities in the works.  

Nancy Sandlin, ISyE director of development, reported onISyE’s fundraising efforts to date.  Someof the development needs discussed were support for faculty and students, ISyEDistinguished Lecture (naming gift), Senior Design program, WorkforceCommunications Lab, Humanitarian Logistics, Executive Masters in InternationalLogistics & Supply Chain Strategy, external alumni events, and generalunrestricted support.   She also revieweda way to support the future of Georgia Tech by making a will provision to theGeorgia Tech Foundation where you may leave a percentage of the remainder ofyour estate or a fixed amount to support the future of ISyE.

Professor Pinar Keskinocak presented the group with anupdate on the efforts of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, whichis housed in ISyE’s Supply Chain & Logistics Institute.  The mission of the Center is to improvehealth and humanitarian logistics and ultimately the human condition by systemtransformation and organization effectiveness through education, outreach, andsolutions.  The opportunities inhumanitarian response and world health are vast.  Constrained recourses, uncertainty in demandand supply, and many other variables in these settings make quantitativeanalysis and mathematical modeling excellent tools for decision support.   Learn more about this important work at:http://www.scl.gatech.edu/research/humanitarian/.

Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies Chen Zhoudiscussed the strengths of the undergraduate program.  He also presented a refinement in theacademic tracks within the undergraduate curriculum.   They are moving from six tracks to five,consolidating the tracks to increase depth and breadth of studies.  The new tracks are Supply Chain Engineering,Economics and Financial Systems, Operations Research, Quality and Statistics,and General.

Professor Valerie Thomas presented an update on ISyE’s workin energy and sustainability.  Thomasstated that through this work ISyE faculty and student will develop newapproaches to sustainability challenges, using and expanding the methods ofindustrial and systems engineering.  ISyE will contribute to the understanding of sustainability challengesat the national and international level and is the premier locationfor energy and sustainability training for industrial engineers.   ISyE also has as a goal to be the leadingindustrial engineering program for energy and sustainability education, at theundergraduate, masters, and PhD levels.  To learn more about Thomas and this vital work visit:  http://www2.isye.gatech.edu/people/faculty/Valerie_Thomas/index.php.

Harvey Donaldson, SCL managing director and associate chairof Industry and International Programs, brought the board up to date on the newproposed MS in Supply Chain Engineering.  This new MS in Supply Chain Engineering has been approved by GeorgiaTech and is awaiting final approval by the University System of Georgia’s Boardof Regents. 

Jaymie Forrest, director of business development at the SupplyChain & Logistics Center, discussed the recent creation of the IntegratedFood Chain Center (IFC).  IFC will focuson cold chain management of perishable goods, researching food safety(compliance), product quality (monitor & control), performance (analytics),and technology (showcase).   She alsoreported on our Latin American initiatives including TLI-Asia Pacific inSingapore, the Trade, Innovation & Productivity in Costa Rica, as well asother proposed centers throughout Latin America.  To learn more on these efforts visit: http://www.scl.gatech.edu/.

As the meeting drew to a close, Lofgren thanked LarryBradner (former chair 2006-2008) for guiding him in his role as advisory board chair.  White then expressed his deepappreciation to Lofgren for serving as ISyE’s advisory board chair for the lastfour years.  Lofgren then passed thegavel to Ed Rogers, who will serve a one-year term as ISyE’s new advisory board chair.

Before concluding the meeting, Joe Mello (IE 1980) waspresented the Hill Society Award for his leadership in the healthcare industry. Mello’s Hill Society Award citation read:

“Throughout hiscareer, Joseph C. Mello, IE 1980, has been a leader in the healthcare industry.While a student at Georgia Tech, he worked as a paramedic at nearby GradyHospital to help cover the costs of his education. Since then, he has gone onto an illustrious career, serving in key management positions at MedPartnersInc. and Vivra Asthma & Allergy Inc. In 2000, Mr. Mello was named chiefoperating officer of DaVita, the largest independent provider of dialysisservices in the United States. Understanding the need for increased researchand intellectual scholarship concerning the systems-based approach tohealthcare delivery, Mr. and Mrs. Mello have generously supported initiativesat Georgia Tech. They have demonstrated their commitment to the Institute withthe establishment of a professorship in the H. Milton Stewart School ofIndustrial and Systems Engineering in support of health systems. Their philanthropicinvestment will have an enormous impact on the Institute and its role indefining the technological future of the rapidly changing healthcareprofession. A member of the College of Engineering’s Academy of DistinguishedEngineering Alumni, Mr. Mello also provides volunteer leadership and service tothe Institute through his involvement with the H. Milton Stewart School ofIndustrial and Systems Engineering Advisory Board.

 "As one of the nation’spremier research universities, Georgia Tech is educating the technologicalworkforce of the twenty-first century and conducting research that drivesinnovation. Thanks to the support of principal benefactors like Mr. and Mrs.Mello, Georgia Tech continues to reach new heights, building upon academicstrengths and addressing the challenges facing our region, our nation, and theworld. It is with profound gratitude that the Georgia Institute of Technologyhonors Virginia C. and Joseph C. Mello as members of the exceptional fellowshipof The Hill Society. “

The fall advisory board meeting will be held in October;dates to be announced.

To learn more about thiswell-traveled industrial engineering student, continue reading the interviewthat follows.

ISyE: Whatother advice do you have for students about working or studying abroad?

EM:Make friends. Build as many high-quality and lasting relationships as you can.The people that you meet and work with will have a tremendous impact on yourexperience.  Get rid of any stereotypethat you may have by developing firsthand knowledge of your own. 

ISyE: Whatdoes it mean to be an ambassador of the co-op and work abroad programs?

EM:Being an ambassador of the co-op and work abroad programs is another enrichingpart of the professional practice experience here at Georgia Tech.  As a recent work abroad participate, it’s great to have theopportunity to share my experiences with other students who are preparing for ajourney of their own.  Other studentsfind it very beneficial to ask me questions or hear about my work aboardterm.  These opportunities also give methe chance to reminisce.  Learning and growing from people and different culturesis a passion that I have been able to nurture through my study and work abroad experiences at Georgia Tech.  I’m excited anytime I have the opportunity to assist the Work Abroad Program continue thevaluable contribution that it provide students.

ISyE: Iunderstand that you wanted to participate in the co-op and work abroad programto gain work and international experience. Why is that important to you and howdoes that impact your major?

EM:I believe that developing relevant work experience through the co-op programhas been a crucial part of my education. Moreover, participating in the workabroad program has allowed meto develop a greater appreciationfor cross-cultural exposure and exploration. These experiencesare important because theyafforded me the opportunity to learn industrial engineering through significant practical work experienceinmultinational environments.

ISyE: Whatmotivated you to want to work abroad?

EM:Working in another country had always been a goal of mine. I wanted to experiencethe type of cultural immersion that a work abroad experience provides.

ISyE: Tellme about your work abroad experience. What were your responsibilities? 

EM: As a work abroad co-op, I worked inthe Electronic Pressure Measurement Innovation group in WIKA Germany.  I led a team of threeprofessionals to research and determine how to implement flexible circuitryinto a current manufacturing operation. During my term, I was responsible for:

• Designingconcepts for connecting a flexible printed circuit board to the three differenttypes of sensors used for industrial electronic transmitters
• Generatinga flexible circuitry-sensor connection method to incorporate the new technologyinto the existing manufacturing processes
• Negotiatingwith potential suppliers to fabricate flexible substrate designs which resultedin samples that could be tested in manufacturing operations
• Developingtesting criterion for examining the connection methods

ISyE: Whatwas one of the most valuable life lessons you learned from working with WIKA?

EM:The most valuable life lesson I learned from my work experience with WIKA isthe importance of collaboration.  I foundthat teamwork and engaging my co-workers was the most rewarding part of myexperience. From a professional stand point, I was able to reduce my learningcurve through teaming up with others. In a personal sense, I will always valuethe friendships that I was able to develop from my time in Germany.

ISyE: Didyou speak German or did you learn it there?

EM:I did not speak German prior to my work abroad term; however I did take a class,and I learned some German abroad.

ISyE: Hadyou lived or traveled abroad prior to coming to Tech, and if so, when andwhere?

EM:When I was a child, I lived in Germany for three years. In that time I traveledto France, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Ialso travel to Jamaica, where my father was born and raised, as well as Panama,where my mother was born and raised.

As a student at Tech, I had the opportunity toparticipate in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology study abroadprogram for the fall semester of 2007. During that semester, I was able totravel extensively throughout southeastern China.

ISyE: Asan IE major, what is your specific area of interest?

EM:One of the great things about IE is that is it very diverse. With that said, Ifind all the areas interesting. I find supply chain engineering andhuman-integrated systems to be the most appealing areas of industrial engineering.

ISyE: Whenwill you graduate, and what are your plans following graduation?

EM:I plan to be working in industry when I graduate in August. Within three tofive year of work experience, I will return to school to complete an MBAprogram.

ISyE: Whatdo you read for pleasure, and what are you reading now?

EM:I enjoy reading biographies and self development books, but I usually findmyself reading multiple books at the same time. I am currently reading The Conversation by Hill Harper, The Play of Your Life by ColleenSabatino, and Strength Finder 2.0 byTom Rath.

ISyE: Whatis the best piece of advice you’ve received and from whom?

EM:This question reminds me of a book I read, TheBig Picture by Ben Carson M.D. One of the best pieces of advice I havereceived is [from this book]:

Even though Imay develop my ability to the highest levels, there is only so much I can do. Ihave to have a plan of action, I have to be able to articulate the plan, and Ineed the skills to execute it. But there is always more help available. Once Ido my best, I can trust GOD for the rest. . . .

The survey, which takes 15 minutes to complete, is beingconducted exclusively using the Internet and can be accessed by clicking  here.

All participants are eligible to receive an advance copy of the 3PL Study finalreport prior to its general release in September of this year.

Click here for more information about Georgia Tech’s Supply Chain and Logistics Institute.

Sokol was nominated in recognition of his outstandingteaching in the required core Engineering Optimization course and the follow‐on Advanced Optimization elective.

DaveCoit, IIE OR division president, stated that the award committee was impressedwith the innovative techniques Sokol developed to facilitate better learningexperiences for his students. Colt went on to state that the selection processfor the 2010 IIE OR Teaching Award was an extremely difficult process. “Therewere more nominees than there has ever been and the quality of the nominationpackages was uniformly excellent. “

Ozlem Ergun, ISyE associate professor who nominated Sokolfor the award, said in her nomination letter that the “Engineering Optimizationclass Dr. Sokol teaches is one that I have also taught. From all I have seenand heard from students who took the class when he taught it, it is clear thatDr. Sokol is the ‘gold standard’ for teaching Engineering Optimization.” Ergunsaid that is not just her opinion, but also the opinion of the ISyE faculty atlarge.

In addition to the IIE award, Sokol  is also the recipientof some of Georgia Tech's highest awards for teaching, including  the Class of 1934 Outstanding Innovative Useof Educational Technology Award 2010, the Class of 1940 W. Howard Ector Outstanding Teaching Award 2008,  and the CETL/BP Junior Faculty TeachingExcellence Award 2006.

Sokol's researchinterests include operations research and its application in a wide variety ofareas, from logistics, manufacturing, and network design to biology, sociallogistics, and sports modeling. His research has won the EURO ManagementScience Strategic Innovation Prize, and his LRMC method (predictive modelingfor the NCAA basketball tournament) has been featured in the New York Times and on CNN and ESPN.

Sokolshares this honor with co-recipient Amy Cohn of the University of Michigan. Thetwo professors will receive their awards at the OR Division Town Hall Meetingduring the IIE Annual Conference in Cancun, Mexico, June 5 - 9, 2010.

The Center for Health andHumanitarian Logistics, a unit of the Supply Chain andLogistics Institute (SCL) and a part of the H. Milton Stewart School ofIndustrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech, organized theconference, which had as its main objectives to articulate challenges andsuccesses in preparing for and responding to health and humanitarian crises,including disasters and long-term development, particularly on issues relatedto logistics.

An impressive gathering of participants from Canada,Croatia, Germany, India, Iraq, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa,Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States came together with anambitious mission: to encourage learning and collaboration within and acrossinstitutions; promote system-wide improvements in organizations and the sectoras a whole; identify important research issues; and establish priorities for nongovernmentalorganizations (NGOs), corporations, and the government in terms of strategies,policies and investments.

Representativesfromthe humanitarian sector, government and military, NGOs, foundations and privateindustry, and academia presented diverse perspectives in health andhumanitarian challenges through keynote addresses, panel discussions, focused workshops,lunchtime group discussions, and interactive poster sessions (with over 45posters covering a broad set of research topics and applications).

Drawing on the success of lastyear’s inaugural conference and from participants’ feedback, ISyEprofessors Ozlem Ergun, Pinar Keskinocak, and Julie Swann, conference co-chairsand co-directors of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics, expanded this year’s conference fromone day to one and a half days, adding a second keynote presentation and a thirdworkshop.

Keskinocak,who is also the associate director for research of the Health SystemsInstitute, describesthe conference as having been very "intense," with attendees beingengaged in various ways during the entire time. “The panels provided a greatoverview of various topics,” Keskinocak explains, “and the post-conferenceworkshops allowed the attendees to go deeper in some of the topics, interactmore closely, and exchange ideas with each other and the workshop presenters.”

Panel discussions covered long-term development andsustainability; education, community preparedness, and capacity building; improvingpublic health; and disaster preparedness, response, and post-disasteroperations. Recognizing that globalhealth is an area of great interest, the conference organizersadded the public health panel this year and will continue to expand the Centeractivities in this area moving forward.

Those attending this year’s conference were almostunanimous in their enthusiasm for the event and particularly liked the panels,citing the diversity of representatives and organizations and the differentperspectives on a variety of topics.

The agencies, organizations, and businessesrepresented on the panels include governmental organizations (the Department ofHomeland Security, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USAID Food forPeace), nongovernmental organizations (CARE-USA, Doctors WithoutBorders/Medecins Sans Frontieres, Focus Humanitarian Assistance, the SalvationArmy, the World Food Programme), industry (Emergency Visions, SterlingSolutions, United Parcel Service, Walmart), academia (Disaster ResilienceAcademy of Tulane University, New England Center for Emergency Preparedness),and others (Clinton Foundation, U. S, Army Corps of Engineers).

Some of the perspectives covered within the panelsinclude why collaboration matters, how to foster disaster-resilientcommunities, emergency management in the private sector, how disaster responsecan be a disaster within a disaster, warehousing for faster response, improvingsupply chains to meet people in need, and improving global health.

Public health and disaster management were twothemes picked up in the keynote addresses. The first of the keynote speakerswas Rear Admiral Scott Deitchman, associate director for Terrorism Preparednessand Emergency Response with the National Center for Environmental Health andthe Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Rear Admiral Deitchmanspoke about both the CDC’s role in global health, highlighting the newlyestablished Center for Global health, and shared insights from his ownexperience in Haiti.

Armond Mascelli, vice president for DisasterServices, Operations, with the American Red Cross, presented the conference’ssecond keynote. Mascelli spoke about the spectrum of disasters, which rangefrom emergencies to catastrophic events, and how to better position supplychain technology with NGOs engaged is disaster relief.

The continuous thread throughout the conference wasthe ongoing poster presentations, which gave individuals and groups a venue forsharing and discussing their research, projects, and activities in health andhumanitarian applications.

Following the official conclusion of the conference,attendees were given the option of participating in one of three focusedworkshops that took place the afternoon of the second day. These workshops coveredin greater detail pre-planning and response to large-scale domestic events,dynamic decision-making during emergencies, and preparedness and response inhumanitarian logistics.

Already looking forward to next year’s conference,the three co-chairs are encouraged by the momentum the conference has gainedamong participating organizations and countries. Those participating this yearhave stated that not only would they return next year, but they would alsorecommend the conference to others. This can only be good news for Ergun, Keskinocak,and Swann, who are striving, through the Center for Health and HumanitarianLogistics, to improve communications between NGOs, governments and privateindustry and present them with the research and practical applications toimprove the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. The Center’s goalis to improve health and humanitarian logistics and ultimately the humancondition by system transformation and organization effectiveness througheducation, outreach, and solutions. The Conference on Health and HumanitarianLogistics is moving the organizers further in realizing that goal.

The Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics received support through the following conference sponsors: UPS Foundation, Kuehne+Nagel,  Coca Cola Company, Focus Humanitarian Assistance, and several units from Georgia Tech including the Distance Learning and Professional Education Program, H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, Health Systems Institute, College of Engineering, and College of Computing.

To learn more about the Conference presentations andworkshops and to view videos of the panels, speakers and workshops, visit: http://www.scl.gatech.edu/humlog2010.

To learn more about ISyE's work in health and humanitarianlogistics, visit:
http://humanitarian.gatech.edu.

"We are delighted to welcome our newest membersto the ISyE Advisory Board. Their commitment and dedication to the StewartSchool is extremely valuable to ISyE's continued success," said Chelsea C.White, III, ISyE school chair.

The new board members bring decades of experience intheir respective areas of expertise. Retiring from BASF after thirty-threeyears, David Bailey consults much ofthe year, assisting manufacturing sites in finding and applying effectivebusiness process solutions for their planning and supply issues in complexlocal and global environments. RobertMartin has over thirty years of financial, general management, andconsulting experience, both in the U.S. and internationally. He is currently apartner with the Interlochen Group, a boutique financial advisory firm, whichdoes interim chief financial officer and financial project work. In 1983, Phillip Scott helped found and thenserved as a chief operating officer for Paging Network, which became thelargest paging company in the United States. Scott returned to Atlanta in 1993,where he purchased Southern Ideal Door, a company he continues to own andoperate. John A. White III, who has morethan twenty years consulting experience, is the president of Fortna, Inc., aleading provider of supply chain solutions. At Fortna, White is responsible forU.S. and Canadian operations and personnel as well as participating in allstrategic matters for the firm outside of North America. Charlene Zalesky has fifteen years experience as an internal andexternal consultant in health care, manufacturing, banking, and public waterservice industries.  Consulting withcompanies such as Clorox, Citibank, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of NorthernCalifornia and East Bay Municipal Utility District, Zalesky’s work has focusedon traditional IE applications of work simplification, cost-benefit analysis,facility design, staffing, project management and organizationaldevelopment.  

Ed Rogers, who remains onthe board as chair, has twenty-eight years of experience in industrialengineering, management consulting, program management, business processredesign, operations improvement and strategic planning. He is a globalstrategy manager with UPS’s corporate strategy group and is responsible forglobal scenario planning, enterprise strategic planning, and the company’ssustainability strategy.

To find out more about these interestingnew advisory board members, continue reading their individual biographies.

DavidBailey (IE 1969) worked for BASF for thirty-three years,retiring in 2003.  His last position waswith the company’s internal supply chain consulting team.  Since retiring, Bailey continues to work withthe consulting team much of each year. His primary area of interest is assisting manufacturing sites in findingand applying effective business process solutions for their planning and supplyissues in complex local and global environments.  Earlier in his career, Bailey used appliedsimulation techniques to define and confirm design parameters for automaticpalletizing systems and complex wire guided material transport systems.  He has written customized planning andscheduling tools for a number of manufacturing processes.

RobertD. (Bob) Martin (IE 1969) has over thirty years of financial, general management, andconsulting experience, both in the U.S. and internationally.   He has worked in publiccompanies (divisions and on corporate staffs), had active roles withglobal equity investors, and consulted with businesses, large andstart-ups.  Industries with which he hasbeen associated include consumer products, sports, apparel and textiles, andcasualty insurance.

Martin is a partner with the InterlochenGroup, a boutique financial advisory firm, which does interim chief financialofficer (CFO) and financial project work. He was senior vice president andchief financial officer of Russell Athletic Corporation from 2000 to 2004 andwas the International Division senior vice president and CFO of SunbeamCorporation from 1999 to 2000. He held various positions at Sara Lee ApparelGroup from 1977 to 1999, including divisional chief  financial officer, vice president, andgeneral manager, and was CFO of the European Apparel Group (fifteen divisionsacross Europe and South Africa), headquartered in Paris, France, from 1990 to1998.

In addition to his bachelor ofIndustrial Engineering from Georgia Tech, Martin earned an MBA from theUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Chemical Corps from 1970 to 1972,during which time he received the Army Commendation Medal. He serves as anadvisory board member for the International Center of Executive Options, is amember of Financial Executives International, and was a member of BusinessExecutives for National Security.  He is on the Board of Trustees of a Georgia Tech-related 501-C-3organization and has assisted at ISyE. Martin has been inducted in Georgia Tech’s Academy ofDistinguished Engineering Alumni.

Martin has two children. a son and a daughter, and twograndchildren.   He and his wife Shereelive in Smyrna, Georgia.

Ed Rogers (IE 1982, MS IL2002) is a global strategy manager with UPS’s corporate strategy group.  He is responsible for global scenarioplanning, enterprise strategic planning, and the company’s sustainabilitystrategy. Rogers has twenty-eight years of experience in industrialengineering, management consulting, program management, business processredesign, operations improvement and strategic planning.

Rogers joinedthe UPS corporate engineering group in Atlanta in 1994, helping to establish aninternal consulting group, a process reengineering team, and a programmanagement group.  After rotating throughspecial assignments in the Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia districts, Rogers becamethe Industrial Engineering manager for the Gulf South district in 1999, wherehe led the operational planning, productivity improvement, service qualityenhancement, and technology support for that district’s $200 million annualbusiness.  In 2002 he returned toheadquarters to join the corporate strategy group.

Prior to UPS,Rogers served four years as a U.S. Air Force officer, managing programs tomodernize the defense manufacturing industry. Then for eight years he was an engineering management consultant, firstwith BDM International and later with Coopers & Lybrand Consulting where heconsulted on a variety of manufacturing and logistics systems improvementprojects for more than twenty clients, including UPS.

Rogersaffiliations include the Institute of Industrial Engineers and the Council ofSupply Chain Management Professionals.

PhillipScott (IE 1969) served in the U.S. Air Force as aLogistics Officer after graduating from Georgia Tech with his bachelor’s degreein Industrial Engineering in 1970.  Hewent on to earn an MBA from Claremont Graduate School in 1972.

 Scott heldseveral management positions with AT&T before joining Gencom, Inc., apaging company in Atlanta as vice president and general manager.  Scott moved to Dallas, Texas, in 1983 as oneof the early founders and then chief operating officer of Paging Network. Thecompany grew to become the largest paging company in the U.S. and went publicin 1991.  Scott returned to Atlanta in1993 to pursue other interests and investments. He purchased Southern Ideal Door in 1994 and continues to own andoperate it.

Scott has served on the Alexander-Tharpe Fund Boardand on the Board of Trustees of the Tech Alumni Association.

JohnA. White III (IE 1992) is the president of Fortna, Inc., aleading provider of supply chain solutions. Fortna designs, implements, andsupports business solutions to optimize its client’s supply chain.

At Fortna, White is responsible for U.S.and Canadian operations and personnel as well asparticipating in all strategic mattersfor the firm outside of North America. White has over twenty years ofconsulting experience with the top tier consulting firms as well as working fora leading software provider in supply chain management strategy, supplierrelationship management, and price and revenue optimization.

Prior to Fortna, White was a managing officerand vice president of Supply Chain Management with Cap Gemini, LLC.  Prior to Cap Gemini, White served in a numberof senior executive management positions includingManugistics, Inc., as the group vice president of Strategic Consulting Services and SupplierRelationship Management, and Accenture, where he was a senior manager in their StrategicServices Supply Chain Management Practice.

White is a past president of the Atlantachapter of the Warehousing Education and ResearchCouncil and a past advisory board memberof the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute’s Leaders in Logistics. He is amember of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, the Board ofTrustees for the United Methodist Children’s Home, and the Board of Advisorsfor wRatings. White is a frequent speaker and contributor on the subjects ofsupply chain strategy, supply chain planning, global supply chain operations,supplier relationship management, fulfillment strategy, and warehouse anddistribution design.

In addition to his bachelor’s in IndustrialEngineering, White holds an Accelerated Executive MBA certificate from the J.L.Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

CharleneZalesky (IE 1977), who specialized in Health Systems, hasfifteen years experience as an internal and external consultant in health care,manufacturing, banking, and public water service industries.  Consulting with companies such as Clorox,Citibank, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Northern California and East BayMunicipal Utility District, Zalesky’s work has focused on traditional IEapplications of work simplification, cost-benefit analysis, facility design,staffing, project management and organizational development.   She established Employee Involvement Teamsin all of these organizations and Multidisciplinary Productivity CoachingProgram at Clorox.

The subject areas of Zalesky’s publications andconference presentations have included emergency room staffing using queuinganalysis, nurse staffing models, keeping emergency rooms open, use of employeeinvolvement teams in problem solving, and company-wide cost reduction andproductivity improvement programs.

Zalesky currently lives outside of Houston, Texas,with her husband Rick (CE 1978) and daughter Zola.  Their son, Zack, is a sophomore co-op studentin Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. Zalesky has spent 20 years working with a number of non-profit andeducational agencies as consultant, volunteer, educator, board member, andboard president.  She spends much of hertime working with high school students and mentoring and educating parents ofteens.

Since 1990, with the magazine's inaugural issue of therankings, the School has been named number one 21 times; in only 1991 was itranked number two. That makes 21 number one rankings in 22 years!

The College of Engineering (COE), which houses ISyE, has retainedits status as the fourth-ranking graduate program overall for engineering forthe sixth consecutive year.

"We are pleased to report that once again theH. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) is rankedfirst in industrial and manufacturing engineering in the annual U.S. News& World Report America’s Best Graduate School guide," saidChelsea C. White III, ISyE School Chair. “Although we are aware of the issuessurrounding such rankings, we take pride in the fact that our hard work anddedication to excellence in education and research continues to be recognizedby our peers.”

Eachyear, the publication collects data from educational institutions and ranks thenation's top programs in each discipline using indicators such as program size,external reputation, student selectivity, faculty honors, and researchactivity. This year, 192 of 198 schools surveyed provided data, with GeorgiaTech coming out on top once again.

Eight other COE programs have again ranked in thetop ten, including biomedical (No. 2), civil (No. 3), aerospace (No. 4),environmental (No. 5), electrical (No. 6), mechanical (No. 6), nuclear (No. 8)and materials (No. 8). Of particular note, the civil engineering program movedup to No. 3 from last year’s No. 6 ranking.

"As the UN reports $2.3 billion in aid to Haiti, including over $500 million from the US, speakers at last month's Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) conference on humanitarian logistics said some aid isn't helpful.

"The Center for Health and Humanitarian Logistics [which sponsored the conference], a unit of the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute of Georgia Tech, was founded in 2007 with the goal of improving the human condition through advanced science and technology. The recent conference included attendees from Canada, Croatia, Germany, India, Iraq, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom."

Read the entire article at: http://www.aircargoworld.com/Magazine/World-News/April-10-Americas/Logistics-data-key-to-humanitarian-aid

”You couldn’t write a casehistory or a template much better in terms of how you can create a program andenhance it any better than by following the recipe that Jeff did, “states R.Gary Parker, ISyE professor and associate chair for graduate studies. “But throughthe strength of his own personality, will, and established reputation, Jeff putit together, and this is what you get.”

What Georgia Tech has gotten is the elevation of ISyE’s engineeringstatistics program to world-class standing as evidenced by an extraordinaryfive National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awards among the first fivefaculty Wu hired into the existing program.

Wu joined the Georgia Tech faculty followinga search initiated by then ISyE chair Bill Rouse. With an unfilled Coca Colachair in 2001, Rouse queried a lot of the ISyE faculty, asking them if theycould hire only one senior, well-known person in any area, where would it makethe most difference. “The notion,” explains Rouse, “was to pick a group wherewe could invest and rapidly advance their credibility.” And the consensus wasstatistics.

A member of the National Academy ofEngineering and former head of the statistics program at the University ofMichigan, Wu is a well-known entity in engineering statistics, and he had avery clear vision of what he wanted to do once he got here.

Coming to a school strong in science andengineering, Wu wanted to build statistics research that would allow forinteraction and collaboration with engineers and scientists and informationtechnology. He envisioned a diversified faculty where every member of thestatistics group would collaborate and do joint work with other groups acrossdisciplines.

“I was given a mandate,” Wu explains, “to trysomething no one had tried before, namely building a strong statistics andquality program within engineering.”

To fulfill that mandate, Wu asked for and wasgranted five assistant professor slots to be filled one a year over five years.Using his network of professional colleagues internationally allowed Wu to getto know some of the people he brought in before he hired them and to a level ofdepth where he could identify significant talent.

Within three years, Wu had filled the fivepositions, hiring Roshan Joseph Vengazihiyil, Ming Yuan, Nagi Gebraeel, YajunMei, and Nicoleta Serban, all of whom have received the NSF CAREER Award.

 “These CAREER awards arekind of rare to begin with, “explains Chip White, H. Milton and Carolyn J.Stewart Chair and Schneider National Chair in Transportation and Logistics .“Tohave the insight to be able to identify junior faculty capable of successfulCAREER award winners is phenomenal.”

But, White points out that significant talentcan flounder unless it is properly mentored, and according to his colleagues,Wu is the consummate mentor. Wu deflects that credit, pointing instead to theGeorgia Tech, College of Engineering and ISyE environments as well as thestudents themselves and their work. Nonetheless, Wu has worked incredibly hardto take the talent he was able to identify and turn them into really remarkableresearchers. “He’s definitely tilted the playing field in their favor,” Whitestates, “and that is what we want to do for young faculty.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           According to both White and Parker, Wu alsounderstands that the right environment for high-quality faculty includeshigh-quality PhD students. To be able to execute his vision, Wu would need toplay a role in identifying good potential doctoral students and recruiting atthat level as well.

“They go hand in hand, “ adds White.“High-quality faculty, high-quality doctoral students. The combination, ifeverything goes well, results in some really terrific synergies.”

Working closely with Parker, Wu has been ableto attract to ISyE’s statistic’s program PhD applicants from around the worlddespite ISyE not yet having a dedicated PhD degree in statistics. Statistics isa specialization within Industrial Engineering (IE), and PhDs are awarded inIE. Though there is conversation about establishing a PhD in statistics, a fewyears away at best, one does not currently exist. That fact has not discouragedsome of the best candidates from applying to Georgia Tech. And Wu has been veryeffective at making sure the statistics program is recognized. According toWhite, Wu has been very good in that regard because he is so well-connected.  

And that has paid off.  Tirthankar Dasgupta, who received his PhD in2007 and is now assistant professor in the department of statistics at Harvard,cites two reasons for his decision to come to ISyE, the first being “theopportunity . . . to work under the supervision of Professor Jeff Wu, a trueicon in the field of engineering statistics, and second, the fact that this wasthe top-ranked Industrial Engineering department in America having severaleminent scholars amongst the faculty.”

With his most recent hire of Kobi Abayomi,Wu’s program has grown to fourteen (not counting the group of seven or eightprobabilists in ISyE), which rivals the size of stand-alone statisticsdepartments at other universities. And the boundaries in Wu’s program are veryclear. “Of all the sub disciplines in ISyE,” states Parker, “it is probably thenearest sub group that really exists in a very, very defined way.” For the mostpart, the professors in ISyE’s statistics program teach only in statistics, andthey attract students who come directly to work with them in terms of PhDs. “Soit is extraordinary to have a group that has all the credentials, has thenumbers, and the extraordinary stature of a stand-alone statistics department.” 

From an historical perspective, Parkerexplains that over the years, there had been several task-force level effortsput together to look into establishing a stand-alone statistics department atGeorgia Tech, but those efforts never led anywhere. Ultimately, there were twounits on campus that covered the interests in statistics: the school ofmathematics and ISyE. Over time, however, a shift started to occur where thestaffing of statistics started to draw down in math as interest in ISyE went inthe other direction.

It was becoming clear that ISyEhad a lot of interest with PhD applicants who had very serious statisticsbackgrounds and wanted more applied statistics. “We had some youngstatisticians that had just been hired,” says Parker, “a couple of seniorpeople who were coming more from the culture of statistics. Their PhDs were instatistics from some of the top programs in the country (e.g.,Wisconsin).”  So, the signs were there,but there still hadn’t been a big commitment, and that is where Wu entered in.

Parker says that he thinks it would becompletely fair to say that Wu changed the dynamic, changed the culture. “Hewent after young people who he hand-picked and just kicked it up a wholedifferent notch from where it had been, “ Parker explains, adding that he’spretty sure that there is no place with ISyE’s reputation that exists this way.

“Georgia Tech is possibly the only place where the statisticsprogram is within the school of industrial engineering.” states Roshan JosephVengazhiyil, associate professor and one of Wu’s five initial hires. This is attractiveto Vengazhiyil because his research interests are in engineering statistics. “Ifelt that my efforts would be most appreciated in this place.” For Vengazhiyil,working within an engineering school rather than in a department of statisticsgives him better exposure to the latest developments and trends in engineeringand provides him better opportunities to collaborate with the engineers.

And that collaboration was partof Wu’s vision, which is being realized. The tentacles that spread out fromWu’s group vis a vis research activities strengthen that bond within ISyE andacross campus. Examples of its success include Nicoleta Serban’s collaborationwith Bill Rouse and the Tennenbaum Institute on health care, Yajun Mei’scollaboration with the Georgia Tech Research Institute on indoor air quality, MingYuan’s revolutionary bioinformatics techniques to successfully addressquestions related to aging and diabetes and Nagi Gebraeel’s new degradation labin the Manufacturing Research Center. White reflects that these links into otherdepartments help ISyE extend its contribution to another school, and vice versa.“That helps to promote the synergies that you want to see in a university.”

And Parker agrees that ISyE’s programis often recognized as the statistics program for Georgia Tech. When otherschools have a statistics issue, they frequently come to ISyE for that, and theInstitute Graduate Committee, on which Parker served for years, is likely to referpetitioners to ISyE if they are proposing a statistics course that duplicateswhat is already being taught there. In fact, Parker states, the committee has oftensaid, “’You have a stat department in engineering; it’s called ISyE.’ Andthat’s a very powerful thing.”

For a full listing of theStatistic / Quality Group faculty, the breadth of their research and the scopeof their work, visit their website at http://www2.isye.gatech.edu/statistics/index.php.

ISyE: Tell me whatthe Tau Beta Pi Cup award means to you.

AS: Receiving thisaward is extremely humbling. I am tremendously honored. I have so much respectfor all Tech students, which makes the receipt of this award all the more overwhelming. Receiving the TauBeta Pi Cup award also serves as a charge for me moving forward; I hope to liveup to the expectations of continued growth and excellence in the future, andrepresent Georgia Tech well as an alumna.

ISyE : Whatpiqued your interest in becoming an industrial engineer? (Were you alwaysinterested in ISyE?)

AS: When I visitedGeorgia Tech in the spring of my senior year of high school, my host, an ISyEstudent herself, introduced me to Industrial Engineering. I had always knownthat I wanted to pursue a degree heavy in mathematics, but one with a practicalcomponent to it as well. Industrial Engineering seemed like the perfect fit –and I was right!

ISyE : FavoriteISyE course and why?

AS: My favoriteISyE course was Senior Design. Everything came together for me that semester, and I enjoyedthe overlaying of the various concepts I had learned in different classespreceding Senior Design. I also very much enjoyed the teamwork involved inworking on my project and how we were able to solve real world problems.

ISyE : FavoriteISyE professor and why?

AS: My favoriteISyE professor was my ISyE 2028 professor, Dr. Nagi Gebraeel. Although Dr. Gebraeelwas relatively new to GT when I took his class back in Fall 2007, he wasextremely personable during lecture, taught the material effectively, andalways greeted students with a wave when we see him around campus.

ISyE : Researchinterests?

AS: I have alwaysbeen interested in research in the Health Systems area. Although I am notpre-med, I am drawn to the medical field, and I would like to learn more abouthow Industrial Engineering can be applied to concepts such as diseasetreatment.

ISyE : Biggestachievement?

AS: My biggestachievement was being elected undergraduate student body president last spring.

ISyE : Tell meabout your role in SGA and some of your accomplishments?

AS: As SGA presidentthis academic year, I served a dual role: I coordinated the activities of theexecutive branch of student government, and I also served as the primary voiceof the student body to the Georgia Tech administration and others external toTech. Although serving as president has kept me exceptionally busy throughoutthe final year of my undergraduate education, it has been the most exciting,challenging, and rewarding experience of my life thus far. Throughout mytenure, I have been able to meet with legislators to discuss budget issues,serve as a student representative on Tech’s Strategic Planning SteeringCommittee, help pass a reformed Dead Week policy, organize a GT White Out Footballgame, oversee the development of a new campus portal, launch a new SGA web site,and advocate for better faculty-student relations.

ISyE : Othernon-academic interests?

AS: I love to learnnew languages! I can speak French, English, and Lithuanian fluently, and havetaken Spanish and German classes. I am an avid Georgia Tech Yellow Jacketssports fan, love to travel, and most of all enjoy spending time with myfriends.

ISyE : Prospectivecareer goals?

AS: I am workingfor Deloitte Consulting starting in July; in Fall 2012, I will attend Harvard Business School.Long term, I hope to either end up in the medical field in hospital management,or working for the Department of Education.

ISyE : Last bookyou read for pleasure?

AS: Pelican Brief by John Grisham

ISyE : What’s inyour mp3 player?

AS: Too many songsto count! Some of my favorite songs include:

•“Tiny Dancer” by Elton John

•“Night Moves” by Bob Seger

•“When You Say Nothing at All” by Alison Krauss

ISyE : Favoritespot on campus?

AS: Although I havespent countless hours in the SGA office and in the library, my favorite spot oncampus is Tech Tower. A true symbol of my undergraduate education, the Towerrepresents the rich history of the Institute and its commitment to academicexcellence. The sight of this particular building will alwaysremind me of the legacy I am a part of as a Yellow Jacket.

ISyE : Bestpiece of advice you ever received?

AS: This is not apiece of advice so much as a quote that I truly believe in: “Never doubt that asmall group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, itis the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

 Charles L. Harris(IE 1981), Robert D. Martin (IE 1969),Stephen M. Mitchell (IE 1965, MS IE 1967),and Thomas J. O’Brien (IE 1981) wereinducted into the College of Engineering Academy of Distinguished EngineeringAlumni.  This award recognizes alumni whohave made significant contributions to the profession, field, Institute, orsociety at-large. Candidates are highly placed executives and are activelyinvolved in engineering or management, industry, academia or government.

 The annual AlumniAwards Induction Ceremony was held on March 19, 2010,  at the Georgia TechHotel and Conference Center.   TheAwards Ceremony was created in 1994 under the leadership of then Dean Dr. JohnA. White. It was done in order to highlight the accomplishments of engineeringstudents and emphasize the reputation of the COE. White passed the torch on toDean Jean-Lou Chameau and today, Dean Don Giddens continues the tradition. Eachyear, the COE recognizes select alumni who have contributed to the profession,advanced their careers and enhanced the lives of others personally andprofessionally.

 More about ISyE’saward recipients:

 Charles L. Harris, IE 1981 – Partner, Accenture

Harris was born and raised in Atlanta. Upon graduatingGeorgia Tech, he worked for Arthur Anderson, now Accenture. After returningfrom an assignment in Paris, Harris was assignedto NASA in Huntsville, AL, designing and implementing a singleplatform accounting and financial management system for NASA operationsnationwide.

 Robert D. Martin, IE 1969 – CFO Consultant, InterlochenGroup

Martin has over 30 years of financial, general managementand consulting experience both nationally and internationally. He is currentlya partner with Interlochen Group, a boutique financial advisory firm, but hiscareer includes working for Russell Athletic Corp., Sumbeam Corp., and Sara LeeCorp. Martin earned a BS in industrial engineering (IE) from Tech and an MBAfrom the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He was lieutenant in the USArmy Chemical Corps.

 Stephen M. Mitchell,IE 1965, MS IE 1967 – CEO andPresident, Sertec Corporation

Mitchell has led Sertec for 15 years as CEO, taking it froman idea to being the leader in incident data intake and management. Mitchellhas not only built Sertec into a successful, debt-free company, he has also ledthree others, and won the WalMart “Vendor of the Year” Award with Norcom, Inc.Mitchell has a BS and MS in IE from Tech, where he served as a trustee and is aregistered Professional Engineer.

 Thomas J. O’Brien, IE 1981 – President and CEO, Axion Biosystems

O’Brien is the CEO of Axion Biosystems, an early stagestart-up company based on proprietary electronics and unique micro-fabricationtechnology invented in the neuroengineering laboratory in biomedicalengineering and licensed from Tech. O’Brian has successfully led a privateplacement raising $1 million in capital and managed the effort to secure $1.3million in state and federal funds. He has held a number of senior executivepositions in public and private companies in the US and overseas. After graduatingwith highest honors at Tech, O’Brien received an MBA from the University of Chicago.He is a donor to Georgia Tech and a member of the Wallace H. Coulter DepartmentBiomedical Engineering Advisory Board.

AsEMIL-SCS looks toward its second decade with two new co-chairs -- GeneLong, a director in Deloitte’s Strategy & Operations consulting practice,and Richard L. “Dick”Hunter, a retired Dell executive -- the program acknowledges Kellso’s years ofservice and for sending18 Intel executives through the program to date.

 Reflecting on theprogram’s first decade, Kellso said that there are three key accomplishments ofwhich he is most proud:

• The development of a robust process that is repeatable year to year and maintains quality (continuously improving) and relevance (constantly changing) to meet the times

• The consistent participation of many key companies over the years

• The movement of the program from an international logistics focus to additionally a true supply chain strategy focus

With GeorgiaTech recognized as the “undisputed number one” in industrial engineering, Kellsopoints out that the advantages of the EMIL-SCS program is its internationalresidences that provide opportunities for those who have never been overseas orat least have never operated in the supply chain activities overseas a chanceto see, understand, and get a true flavor of the differences in operation,culture, and key issues from one geographic region to the next.  According to Kellso, this is manifested intwo ways:  the actual time overseas,which Kellso sees as a great learning opportunity, and the international flavorof the participants, which Kellso says provides a daily opportunity to gainmultiple perspectives for the attendees as they go through the classes. Thisdiversity allows students to learn a great deal from one another in addition toclass material and to build a network of close contacts that would not bepossible any other way. Further, Kellso states that “the opportunity to engagein this program; get a full, regular master’s degree from Georgia Tech; andonly be gone from your job for five, two-week sessions is truly unique in theeducation industry.”

Kellso’senthusiasm for the program underpins his commitment.  With eighteen of its executives havingcompleted the program thus far, Intel has consistently had its EMIL-SCSgraduates perform very well after their engagement in the program. “The realkey,” Kellso states, “is that most of our EMIL-SCS graduates have continued tothrive in our highly competitive environment and have had their careersenhanced by their engagement with EMIL.” Kellso explains the program furthereducates, refines rough edges, and provides cross-organizational andcross-geographic exposure so that the candidates selected can fulfill theirpromise of success.

 As anexample of fulfilling one’s promise of success, Kellso cites one Intelexecutive who started in Materials (purchasing). She moved to Transportationand participated in the EMIL-SCS program, from which she received, according toKellso, “very good grounding and cross-geographic experience.” She then movedback to Materials and was named a -Supply Chain Master. After being selected towork on a highly visible strategic program, she moved back to the Planning andLogistics group to lead the next round of implementation of a totally newsupply chain for Intel.  Kellso states,“this is certainly a success story by any measure.”

 Generally,Kellso said that employees who go through the program immediately bringpractical skills back to the company, including modeling, financial analysis,understanding of international trade practices, and a heightened familiaritywith how different companies solve common problems. These are all insights thatthe students can bring immediately back to their work. “Furthermore, the actualproject that they do is a tactical benefit during and immediately after theprogram concludes.”

 Theproject to which Kellso is referring is the hands-on Global Supply Chainproject, which students complete in lieu of a traditional master’s thesis. As Kellsodescribes it, the difference between the Global Project and a traditionalmaster’s thesis is that there are typically students from several companiesworking together to collectively solve a real- world problem. This brings anintelligence and diversity of backgrounds that cannot be gained in a singlethesis or even in a project comprising a single company.  The results are always richer with multiplecompany backgrounds and capabilities represented.

 Lookingahead, Kellso said that he hopes to see the EMIL-SCS program  achieve general recognition as a supply chainprogram for executives, not simply a logistics program.  Although the program has done this to a largedegree with its curriculum, Kellso said that he looks forward to EMIL-SCSachieving this status in world-wide recognition and perception of the program.“Hopefully what will happen,” Kellso adds, “is that the program will thrive andbecome the ‘gold standard’ program for supply chain executives.”

 Though Kellsohas stepped down as chair, he maintains a strong support for the program andanticipates continued involvement with EMIL-SCS through the advisory board andteaching.

Ann Marie was a lifelong friend of the Stewart School of ISyE and a strong advocate for education.   She often stressed the importance of learning, stating "No one can ever take an education away from you." She and her husband Paul learned hard lessons of resilience as they migrated to the United States from Nazi Germany in 1938. In fact, her continued learning has allowed her to reinvent herself as mother and wife, methods analyst, import/export manager, Tech faculty wife, college student, gerontology expert, and author.

In 1942, Anne Marie and Paul enrolled in Georgia Tech's evening school to study a new field called industrial engineering. Under the War Manpower Act, Anne Marie studied industrial engineering at Tech for two years while working for companies such as Sears, Lockheed, and Rich's department store.   Paul joined ISyE's faculty in 1948, becoming a Fulbright professor and rising to international prominence in the field. Anne Marie later earned a master's in sociology with a minor in gerontology from Georgia State then returned to Tech in 1987 to study psychology.

Among her numerous achievements, Anne Marie helped start the nation's largest Life Enrichment Center for seniors in DeKalb County, work that led to the Georgia Senate naming her 1999's Distinguished Senior Georgian. She has represented DeKalb and Rockdale counties at a White House Council on Aging and has served as a representative on aging issues to Germany. In the 90's, she established the Paul Eaton Scholarship to support undergraduate students in the Industrial and Systems Engineering School at Georgia Tech.

In 2002, Anne Marie wrote a book on successful aging titled, Anything in Life is a Challenge, based on her own aging process and to assist other still-functioning elderly to understand that "old age is a stage of life just as any other stage in which one can be productive, learn, and pursue numerous goals based on ability, talents, experience, and desires." In the book's last chapter as Anne contemplated medical treatment, she summarized her life:  "During my long life I have learned that there is always some positive thought of escape attached towards the solution of a very difficult problem. I got to thinking that I had a spectacular life behind me.  Actually I had two lives, so different from each other."

A memorial service will be held on April 9, 2010, at 11:00 a.m.. at Oak Grove Methodist Church.  Visitation will follow the service. Anne Marie is survived by a daughter, Clairelis Baxter of Athens; two sons, Charles Eaton of Greer, S.C., and Goetz Eaton of Anderson, S.C.; 11 grandchildren; and 22 great-grandchildren.

Finally, the food logistics industry will have a research and resource center to utilize for questions about and solutions to every aspect of managing and monitoring the food cold supply chain. The Georgia Tech Integrated Food Chain Center, formed by the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute (SCL) and by Sterling Solutions LLC, will be housed within the SCL in Atlanta. The Center – integrating academia with seasoned industry experts – will launch this May and will operate as an international center for applicable knowledge in the fragile cold chain.

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

During the first week, the residence focused on the four walls of manufacturing, the logistics infrastructure, cross-border logistics, NAFTA-US-Mexico trade agreements, and a look at Maquiladora manufacturing and sourcing strategies for Mexico.  They particularly focused on the recent move towards near-shoring and re-shoring as key strategies to lower supply chain costs. The students began the residence with a deep dive into Factory Physics techniques with the objective of removing constraints, improving throughput, and improving productivity.  The course was taught by Dr. Mark Spearman, founder, president, and chief executive officer of Factory Physics, Inc.

EMIL-SCS alumnus Maria Rey (MS IL 2002), executive director, Latin American Logistics Center, provided two half-days of instruction, as well as organizing and facilitating a full-day panel discussion. On her first day of instruction, Rey provided a close look into the Mexican consumer, current geopolitical issues influencing and shaping logistics and supply chain management in Mexico, the current economic climate in Mexico with special attention on near-shoring and the migration of manufacturing back into Mexico, Mexico’s role in Central and South America, and risks and promises of doing business in Mexico.  On day two, Rey discussed the scope, implemented areas, and pending issues of the NAFTA Agreement, and she also reviewed the benefits of Maquiladoras and the challenges within cross-border supply chains.  

For the day-long panel, ten speakers joined Rey in analyzing a beverage supply chain in Mexico focusing on Coca-Cola.  The panelists examined the company’s supply chain strategies from PET packaging, to bottlers, to distribution and the logistics necessary to meet consumer demand in Mexico.

Also while in Mexico, the class heard from Eduardo Aspero, general director with Pacer International, who discussed the rail and intermodal industry in Mexico, and Armando Beltrán, vice-president-general manager for Schneider National, Mexico, who discussed trucking in Mexico.  Both speakers focused on how NAFTA, safety concerns, cross- boarder operations, and government regulations impacted doing business in Mexico.

Jorge Fares (MS IL 2009), supply chain manager of Oxxo (the largest convenience store chain in Mexico), walked the class through distribution and fulfillment in the retail consumables market in Mexico.  The students saw this firsthand with a tour of the distribution center.  Another EMIL-SCS alumnus, Gabriela Toro (MS IL 2005), distribution supply chain manager with Sunbeam, provided a close look into distribution and warehousing, models within Mexico, and the strategies used to overcome and navigate the import restrictions and penalties associated with importing raw material and finished goods into Mexico from Asia.

With this week behind the Class of 2010, the students were a week away from completing their EMIL-SCS program requirements. The next and largest hurdle was to present their Global Projects to the EMIL-SCS staff and advisory board, which they did on days three and four of the second week.  In lieu of a traditional master's thesis, the student executives use this project as an opportunity to gain knowledge through the EMIL-SCS academic curriculum garnered over the eighteen months of the program and apply those resources to a critical supply chain initiative within their respective sponsoring companies.   

Additionally, the students received instruction from Shijie Deng, associate professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, who provided the students with a general introduction into the concepts of risk management in the financial and operational aspects of logistics and supply chain management.  Jim Kellso, supply chain strategist with Intel Corporation and former EMIL-SCS advisory board chair, gave a presentation on supply chain innovation, optimization/customer alignment, and transformation.  Tom Dadmun, vice-president, project management with Adtran shared his experience with supply chain corporate alignment initiatives, supply chain optimization, and engineering.

The final site visit for the class was to Norfolk Southern Intermodal yard in Austell, Georgia, to discuss intermodal trends in the U.S.  Dave Beasley, division terminal manager for Norfolk Southern, led the terminal tour and operations overview.  Aaron Katrancha, assistant manager, national accounts, intermodal marketing, led a discussion on the current state of the rail industry in the U.S. and role of Norfolk Southern’s involvement with development of railroads in emerging markets, capacity and volume constraint issues, capital investment plans for relief efforts, security concerns, and green-sustainability initiatives that are currently underway.

Joe Peppard, Professor of Information Systems, and Lee Marston, a research fellow, both with the Information Systems Research Centre at the Cranfield University School of Management, gave a review of supply chain technology, highlighting how to build IT/SCM organizational capability, IT-enabled SCM innovation, and the future of logistics and SCM technology.

This group will meet once more on May 7, 2010, to participate in spring commencement and receive their degrees from Georgia Tech.  The EMIL-SCS program is extremely proud of the newest group of alumni and is excited about their future, as well as the continued networking and partnership opportunities with both the alumni and their sponsoring companies.  

For more about the EMIL-SCS program, visit their website at http://www.emil.gatech.edu/.

The article, “Treating Cancer: Researchers Develop andImprove Techniques for Attacking Cancer,” features the research of Shabbir Ahmed, Eva Lee, Martin Savelsbergh,and Ming Yuan

Ahmed and Savelsberg, along with graduate studentHalil Ozan Gozbasi, areimproving intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment plans tominimize damage to critical organs. This type of treatment plan is challengingbecause some organs move. In her research, Leeis addressing motion issues, specifically with liver and lung cancer patients,to develop treatment plans that account for breathing, motion, and shapechanges throughout the treatment regime. In another project, Lee isincorporating biological information into treatment planning for prostatecancer, IMRT and brachytherapy – the placement of radioactive “seeds” inside atumor. Ming Yuan, a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar, isusing computational and mathematical approaches to analyze how gene expressionevolves over time in individuals with breast cancer and whether these patternscan predict treatment outcome. In another project, Yuan is collaborating with two University of Wisconsin professorsto conduct expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) studies, the analysis of whichallows the researchers to identify genomic hot spots that regulate genetranscription and expression on a genome-wide scale.

Click here/to read the entire article. To read the previous two reports in the series,click here for the first report, titled “Understanding the Origins of Cancer: ScientistsInvestigate the Molecular Changes that Lead to Disease,” and click here for the second report, titled “Diagnosing Cancer: Researchers Pursue ManyDirections Toward Early Detection and Diagnosis.”

TheNSF offers this prestigious award as part of the Faculty Early CareerDevelopment (CAREER) Program in support of junior faculty who exemplify therole of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, andthe integration of education and research within the context of the mission oftheir organizations.

“Nicoletais a promising and innovative researcher in the emerging and important area ofresearch into the use of statistical modeling techniques in the service sector”states Jeff Wu, ISyE professor and Coca Chair in Engineering Statistics. “Inparticular, she is looking into the development of novel spatio-temporalmodeling of service distribution equity with applications to financial andhealthcare industries. ISyE is proud of having such talented young researchersamong its ranks. “

ProfessorSerban is the fifth NSF CAREER Award winner in the statistics/quality group atthe Stewart School of ISyE in the last four years. She joins the ranks ofprofessors Roshan Vengazhiyil, Nagi Gebraeel; and Ming Yuan, who received theaward in 2006, 2007 and 2009, respectively, and Professor Yajun Mei, who alsoreceived the award this year. 

ProfessorSerban received her B.S. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Theoretical Statisticsand Stochastic Processes from the University of Bucharest. She went on to earnher Ph.D. in Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. Before joining GeorgiaTech,  Professor Serban's researchfocused on nonparametric statistical methods motivated by recent applications fromproteomics and genomics. Her current research focuses on multiple functionalestimation and clustering with applications to industrial performance, servicesite location, socio-economics and NMR biomolecular studies.

Inaddition to the NSF CARRER Award, Professor Serban has also received thefollowing honors and awards:

• Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow, CETL, Georgia Institute of Technology. 2007

• New Researcher Fellowship, Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute 2007-08

• David Byar Young Investigator Award, ASA Biometrics Section, 2004

• Biopharm Honorable Mention Paper Award, ASA Biopharmaceutical Section 2004

• Biopharm Student Paper Award, ASA Biopharmaceutical Section 2003

 The NSF offers this prestigiousaward as part of the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program insupport of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars throughoutstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education andresearch within the context of the mission of their organizations.

JeffWu, Coca-Cola Chair in Engineering Statistics at IsyE, states that “Yajunbelongs to a select group of young statisticians who excel in esoteric (andelegant) theory such as sequential analysis as well as significant applicationssuch as decentralized sensor network. ISyE is proud of having such talentedyoung researchers among its ranks.”

 Professor Mei is the fourth NSFCAREER Award winner in the statistics/quality group at the Stewart School ofISyE in the last four years. He joins the ranks of professors RoshanVengazhiyil, Nagi Gebraeel; and Ming Yuan, who received the award in 2006, 2007and 2009, respectively.

 Professor Mei’s research interests include change-pointproblems and sequential analysis in Mathematical Statistics; sensor networksand information theory in Engineering; and longitudinal data analysis, randomeffects models, and clinical trials in Biostatistics.

 He received a B.S. in Mathematics from Peking University inP.R. China, and a PhD in Mathematics with a minor in Electrical Engineeringfrom the California Institute of Technology. Mei also worked as a Postdoc inBiostatistics for two years in the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center inSeattle, WA.

Dr. Frazelle will lead participants through an inventory optimization evaluation, teaching them how to maximize financial performance of inventory and increase service at the same time.

Focusing on world-class inventory planning and management, a variety of professionals would benefit from this course: executives and managers of supply chain, logistics, and distribution; inventory managers/directors; warehousing, material handling, and material management personnel; industrial engineers; operations and facility managers; key personnel committed to improving inventory management; and systems analyst, among others.

To register for this event, visit: http://www.scl.gatech.edu/webinar

 Theevent, scheduled for February 22, 2010, is the sixth in the Department ofCommerce’s series of SustainableManufacturing American Regional Tours (SMARTs). Those attending will havean opportunity to network with other local businesses and together:

• gain a basic understanding of conducting a company self-assessment in order to eliminate waste from their business operations by lowering energy, materials and other costs
• learn the importance of looking throughout their supply chain to cut costs by removing waste and uncertainty
• learn how to partner with service providers to make better supply chain strategy decisions

 Theone-day event, to be held at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources from 8a.m. until 5:30  p.m. is divided intomorning and afternoon sessions.

 Duringthe morning session, attendees will hear firsthand accounts from companies thathave enhanced their competitiveness through improvements to environmentalperformance, service providers that work with manufacturers throughout thesupply chain to improve efficiency and sustainability, and federal and stateresource providers that can help companies get started.

 Theafternoon session will consist of site visits to two local manufacturingfacilities that are leaders in sustainability, including one to Interface, the worldwide leader in design, production andsales of environmentally responsible modular carpet and a recognizedleader in the area of industrial ecology. Attendees will be able to see howthese companies have incorporated sustainable principles into theirmanufacturing processes and in their relationships with their supply chains.

 RobertMartichenko, PhD, SCL senior lecturer of SCL’s newly initiated lean supplychain professional certificate series (www.scl.gatech.edu/lean) will present the keynoteaddress. 

 ChipWhite, PhD, School Chair of the H. Milton School of Industrial and SystemsEngineering, will moderate one of the panel discussions, titled “ExternalFactors to increase Efficiency in Your Supply Chain.” 

 Thoseinterested in attending this free event can register for either the morningsession (click here ) orthe full day (click here).

For more information abouat the event contact:

Morgan Barr

(202) 482-3704

www.manufacturing.gov/sustainability

NLDC was created to provide an educational conference for senior supply chain executives to hear from key industry speakers. With 2010 promising to be yet another challenging year for supply chain professionals, executives in all industries are looking for ways to reduce costs, optimize inventory, increase returns on assets, and improve service. With that in mind, the 6th annual NLDC features the brightest minds in supply chain logistics prepared to share experiences and information that can help forge a stronger supply chain that can successfully adapt in a dynamic world.

The conference's executive presentations and programming feature real-world case studies, leading technology solutions, and strategies for supply chain success. Presentation topics include:

• Retail Supply Chain Transformation
• Optimizing Inventory Productivity
• Automation in Multi-Channel Order Fulfillment
• Operational Excellence & Labor Management
• Supply Chain Excellence
• Lean Six Sigma Transformation
• Innovative Technology in Logistics and Distribution
• Global Port Traffic: What a Difference a Year Makes

To learn more about the conference and to register, visit the conference website at http://www.nldc2010.com/.

 Originally from Sandusky, Ohio, Bob Lehrerstarted his engineering education at the University of Cincinnati. Like so manyengineering professors of the time, Lehrer joined the military during World WarII and was stationed at Purdue University in 1943 as part of the Navy’s V-12College Training Program. After the war, Lehrer returned to Purdue, where hecompleted his graduate degrees and went on to teach at Purdue and Oregon State University, before joining the GeorgiaTech faculty in 1950. Frank F. “Colonel” Groseclose, IndustrialEngineering (IE) School chair from 1946 to 1966, hired Lehrer, who became oneof fifteen faculty in the school at that time. Groseclose soon put Lehrer incharge of the graduate program; however, the Ph.D. program was slow in starting,and in 1957, Lehrer left for Northwestern University to establish a doctoralprogram in Industrial Engineering. Four years later, Lehrer moved his family toMexico for one year at therequest of the United Nations Educational, Social, and Cultural Organization(UNESCO). As his year began to wind down, Groseclose asked Lehrer to return tothe School as associate director. The Ph.D. program was now up and running.Lehrer returned to Atlanta in 1963, and Groseclose handed him the reins in1966. He served as Chair until 1978.

During his tenure as chair of the School, Lehreris credited with modernizing the Industrial Engineering program and with addingthe word “Systems” to the School’s name, reflecting in full the School’sphilosophy. In an article in the Fall 2005 issue of Engineering Enterprise; however, Lehrer stated that he believed hisnumber one legacy was the strength of the faculty he hired. Some of his hiresstill involved with the School include Austin Esogbue; R. Gary Parker, associate chair forGraduate Studies; and Leon McGinnis, Eugene C. Gwaltney Chair in ManufacturingSystems.

According to McGinnis, Lehrer was “oneof the first IE department heads to embrace the quantitative side of IE, byhiring some really good young OR [operational research] people like MikeShetty, John Jarvis [School chair from1989 to 2001], and Mo Bazaara. But he also understood the need forbalance in developing a faculty with strong representation from the engineeringside of IE, like Jim Apple and John White, and the human side of IE, like AlanPorter and Terry Connolly. Bob left an indelible mark, not just on us, but onGeorgia Tech and on the profession.”

 AboutLehrer’s hires, R. Gary Parker, states that “these were people who brought toISyE a perspective that facilitated our upward movement among the ranks of moreserious
IE/OR academic programs.”

 Lehrer was a member of: Phi Delta Theta, Tau Beta Pi, Phi KappaPhi, and Alpha Pi Mu. He was the author of five books translated into sevenlanguages and was editor-in chief of the Journalof Industrial Engineering. Among his awards and honors, Lehrer was therecipient of the Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Industrial Engineering Award, IE'shighest award as well as being the first recipient of the Distinguished AlumnusAward in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University (1964). He was namedOutstanding Industrial Engineer in 1997.

 Lehrer is survived by Pat, his wife of 64 years; daughter andson-in-law, Joan and Hunter Hess; his brother, Dr. Richard Lehrer of Florida;his sister-in-law, Janice Lehrer of Hilton Head, S.C.; and fifteen nieces andnephews. A private family service was held on Friday, January 29, 2010, at St.Luke's Episcopal Church. Memorials in his memory may be sent to The Residenceand Endowment Fund, Canterbury Court, 3750 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA.30319.

 “We are pleased to be the recipient of such cutting-edge software,” states Chip White, H. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart chair of ISyE, “and we will certainly put it to good use in a variety of classes and research activities involving simulation and stochastic processes.”

Simio Academic Edition is fully capable software with no model size limits and includes discrete and continuous modeling, object library development, and 3D animation.

 “The faculty at Georgia Tech is committed to providing the best environment for their students to learn simulation,” said Dr. Dennis Pegden, Founder and CEO of Simio. “We are honored to provide them with the best software available to teach their students.”

Users of the software will be able to model systems using intelligent objects and the software’s direct connection to Google’s 3D Warehouse – two features unique to Simio.

The intelligent objects are built by modelers and then may be reused in multiple modeling projects. These objects can be stored in libraries and easily shared. Simio’s connection to Google’s 3D Warehouse gives access to a free online library of thousands of graphic objects  – providing students with the ability to solve real-world problems in visually-rich environments.

With this grant, Georgia Tech joins over a 100 universities across the globe to join Simio’s academic program, which offers Simio’s 3D modeling software to schools at no charge.

Simio LLC, a private company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,  is dedicated to delivering leading edge solutions for the design, emulation, and scheduling of complex systems.

ProfessorsNesterov and Nemirovski have a long history of collaboration. For the pasttwenty-five years they have joined forces to work on various projects, such asthe book they co-authored, Interior-Point PolynomialAlgorithms for Convex Programming, which develops the theory ofself-concordant functions to unify global complexity results obtained forconvex optimization problems including linear, second-order cone and semi-definiteprogramming.  Tomany scholars this book is considered the most important contribution tooptimization theory and applications in the last twenty years.

Professor Nesterov is the recipient of several awards andhonors. Among those are the George B. Dantzig Prize and the John Von NeumanPrize, awarded also to Ellis Johnson, Coca-Cola Chaired professor in ISyE, andProfessor Nemirovski. The Dantzig Prize, awarded jointly by the MathematicalProgramming Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, isawarded for original research, which by its originality, breadth and scope, ishaving a major impact on the field of mathematical programming.  The John von Neuman Prize is awarded annuallyto a scholar (or scholars in the case of joint work) who has made fundamental,sustained contributions to theory in operations research and the managementsciences.

Additionally, Professor Nesterov, along with Professor Shapiro,has been invited to speak at the upcoming prestigious International Congress ofMathematicians (ICM) to be held in Hyderabad, India, August 19-27, 2010. Conveningonce every four years, the ICM is the largest meeting of mathematicians fromaround the world. Professors Shapiro and Nesterov join ISyE professorsNemirovski, William Cook, Chandler Family Chair, as well as courtesy appointedProfessor Robin Thomas from the School of Mathematics , as among the few toreceive this exceptionally prestigious honor.

According to R. Gary Parker, ISyE professor and associatechair for Graduate Studies, very few invited talks are awarded at the ICM, andit is very rare for faculty in such departments as “industrial engineering” oreven “operations research” to receive such an honor. “Remarkably,” statesParker, ISyE “has three sitting faculty who have been so honored and fourcounting courtesy appointed Professor Robin Thomas.”

In addition to the textbook he co-authored with Professor Nemirovski,Professor Nesterov co-authored a subsequent paper, which introduced the theoryof self-scaled cones to unify the theory of primal-dual algorithms for thesesame problem classes. Nesterov is also the author of the monograph IntroductoryLectures on Convex Optimization, which develops state-of-the-art theory ata level appropriate for introductory graduate courses. In recent work he hasobtained improved results on the global convergence of a regularized Newton’smethod for unconstrained optimization and established a theory of smoothing thatallows for the applicability of optimal first-order methods to large-scaleproblems with nondifferentiable objectives.

Professor Nesterov will be visiting Georgia Tech through April 2010.

Dey joins the ranks of other ISyE faculty who have received the award,including Shabbir Ahmed in 2002 and 2005; Jiangang  (Jim) Dai in 2003; William “Bill” Rouse in2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008; and Bert Zwart in 2008.

Having worked as a research fellow at the Center for Operations Research andEconometrics (CORE) of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, Dey’sresearch interests are in the areas of large-scale optimization, mixed integerprogramming, and applications of discrete optimization.

One of the problems she examined for UPS involves how to design a delivery network to move ground shipments from their origins to their destinations in a cost-efficient manner that satisfies promised delivery time commitments. This is a problem that has become increasingly challenging for companies such as UPS, as more customers are opting for the shorter delivery times that many ground freight companies now offer. At the same time, completely redesigning a company's delivery network based on these new delivery times is a very expensive proposition.

Campbell and co-authors Barrett Thomas (also at the University of Iowa) and Hui Chen (a former PhD student at Iowa and now a senior analyst at Northwest Airlines) have focused on a version of the problem where none of the hubs move, since the hubs would be the most expensive part of the network to change. Each "connection" represents a truck and a driver carrying ground freight from one hub to another. From each hub, there may be connections going to a single hub or to many other hubs. The number of connections has a significant impact on cost (as a truck and a driver represent a substantial investment) and on the ability to satisfy all promised delivery time commitments. Thus, Campbell, Thomas, and Chen specifically examine how to find the best possible set of connections that satisfy delivery time commitments given a limit on the total number of connections that may be used.

For many potential scenarios, there is not a feasible network that satisfies all delivery time commitments, so they measure the amount of violation of these commitments and seek to minimize either the maximum violation or the total sum of violations. For the maximum violation version of the problem, they have developed algorithms that solve several versions of the problem exactly. For the total sum version, exact solutions are not possible, but the authors have created some clever heuristics that capitalize on the solution structure.

In their computational experiments based on different ground networks in the United States, they found the solutions to problems with lower budgets always took on the appearance of connecting each hub to a "superhighway" going across the country. As budgets increase, the superhighway remains, but with additional connections added. This solution structure reveals the importance of having high-flow lanes and prioritizing movement of freight on these lanes to promote service quality and customer satisfaction.

Campbell received a prestigious NSF CAREER grant in 2003 and was awarded a Hesse Fellowship at the University of Iowa in 2004. She was named an associate editor of Transportation Science in 2007 and has authored twenty journal articles and four book chapters.

This article fist appeared in the Fall 2009 issue of Industrial & Systems Engineering, the alumni magazine of the Stewart School of ISyE.

Rather than use its own fleet for the FTL shipments from warehouses to hubs, UPS subcontracted each lane to an FTL carrier. Carriers would bid for the right to carry shipments on each lane, with UPS awarding lanes to the low bidders or, in some cases, to incumbent carriers with strong performance records. The resulting shipment network used a hodgepodge of almost 50 carriers, including national, local, and niche carriers of different sizes and varying reliability.

In practice, UPS found its Direct Ship network to be unwieldy. Managing and coordinating almost 50 different shippers was difficult, and the on-time service performance on some of the lanes was worse than UPS's 98% target.

In the spring of 2008, UPS desired to re-bid its network and reassign lanes to carriers, and they turned to ISyE Senior Design for assistance. A team of six ISyE undergraduate students comprised of Katie Buckler, Carlanna Cunningham, Jay Hennington, Kevin Kitchens, Patrick Odneal, and Richard Ward worked with UPS to provide not just a new selection of carriers but also a new way of approaching the entire process of choosing a carrier for each lane. While still hoping to minimize the total network cost, UPS had several characteristics they wanted in a new carrier assignment:
(1)Fewer total carriers, preferably 8-10 of the largest and most reliable.
(2)Balanced assignments of lanes to carriers with respect to mileage and revenue.
(3)98% or higher on-time service for the largest 25 Direct Ship customers.

At the same time, the ISyE Senior Design team realized that UPS might pay more than necessary to its carriers by bidding out each lane separately. For example, a carrier bidding on lanes from Atlanta to Chicago and Chicago to Atlanta might run the risk of winning just one of the two and having to deadhead drivers on the return trip. To mitigate that risk, the carrier would need to place a higher bid on each lane. But if the carrier were allowed to place a bid for the pair of lanes together, the risk would be removed and the price UPS pays could be lower. More generally, carriers would mix-and-match combinations of lanes that fit best within their networks, offering UPS lower prices in return for the benefit of getting exactly the set of lanes they want. Called combinatorial (or combinational) bidding, these types of auctions have been used in many areas from transportation lane assignments to cell phone frequency sales, resulting in millions of dollars in benefits.

With this design in mind, the ISyE Senior Design team created a user-friendly tool for UPS to run its auctions. The Java-based tool reads auction and carrier data from UPS's Excel files and gives UPS the opportunity to add custom restrictions, define tolerances for mileage and revenue balance, and create differing total-carrier and service-level scenarios. Then, it creates and solves an optimization problem to find the lowest-cost carrier assignments that satisfy UPS's desired characteristics.

In addition to providing a single solution based on each of UPS's scenario inputs, the tool also does what-if sensitivity analysis to point out which bids would be most valuable for negotiation and on which lanes it might be very valuable for UPS to accept a small niche carrier's bid.

Overall, based on the bids received by UPS in 2007, the ISyE Senior Design team's approach was able to save UPS about $1.3 million per year in carrier costs, while reducing the number of carriers in the Direct Ship network from 46 to 8, balancing mileage and revenue among the carriers, and increasing the service level above the desired 98%.

For questions or to become involved in the Senior Design program, contact Joel Sokol at joel.sokol@isye.gatech.edu or visit www.isye.gatech.edu/seniordesign.

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2009 issue of Industrial & Systems Engineering, the alumni magazine for the Stewart School of ISyE.

When it comes to moving finished goods and intermediate products between continents to consumers and businesses, the dominant mode of transportation is containerized ocean cargo. In fact, since the early 1990s, the use of container shipments worldwide has grown more than three times the rate of the global GDP. Despite the recent economic downturn that has significantly cooled international trade, it is likely that ocean container cargo will continue to be important for years to come.

Researchers within the Stewart School have been active in ocean cargo research throughout the past decade. In this article, we highlight two recent research efforts supported by both the National Science Foundation and the Singapore Economic Development Board.

Professor Ozlem Ergun and Richa Agarwal (PhD IE 2007) recently completed a set of work culminating in Agarwal's thesis, "Network Design and Alliance Formation for Liner Shipping." Today's large ocean carriers, like Maersk, Hapag Lloyd, and NOL, face challenging problems in service network design, the task of determining which routes or services to operate and at what frequencies and how to assign ships to these services. An important new challenge is that most transoceanic routes today are operated jointly by a number of different carriers working together within an alliance. Thus, the research also focuses on how to jointly plan the operations of multiple collaborative carriers, including how to allocate the capacity of different services among carriers.

To solve these problems, Agarwal and Ergun developed a new integrated optimization model to solve the ship scheduling problem and the cargo routing problem simultaneously -- the first such model to incorporate transshipment ports (where cargo is transferred from one service to another). Since the model is too large to be solved directly with commercial optimization solvers, the team developed various customized heuristic and exact solution approaches and demonstrated their applicability on realistically sized problems.

In the second part of the study, Agarwal and Ergun focused specifically on alliance formation among liner carriers, using techniques from optimization and algorithmic game theory to propose an approach to design a collaborative service network. To manage interactions among participating carriers, their approach determines appropriate prices for capacity exchange between carriers to induce participants to follow an optimal collaborative strategy.

Professor Alan Erera and Aykagan Ak (PhD IE 2008) have recently studied another important aspect of ocean container operations: scheduling problems at seaports. Ak's thesis, "Berth and Quay Crane Scheduling: Problems, Models, and Solution Methods," is an integrated study that investigates how to optimally plan ship loading and unloading operations at container seaports. Managing berthing space and the large dockside quay cranes that are used to service vessels is a critical operational challenge; efficiency gains here allow ports to maximize container throughput while meeting the service requirements of carriers.

Berth allocation is the problem of determining where to moor a sequence of arriving vessels over time, while quay crane allocation and scheduling problems focus on which quay cranes to assign to berthed vessels. At large modern seaports, it is possible to simultaneously berth multiple vessels of varying lengths along long linear berthing areas with a shared set of cranes, which can be moved from one vessel to another (without passing each other) at any time, thus leading to very complex scheduling problems.

Ak's work was among the first to consider joint planning of berth allocation and quay crane scheduling, and he developed very fast solution heuristics based on tabu search to quickly find near-optimal solutions to these problems. His methods are currently being used as part of a large research effort focused on risk mitigation at U.S. seaports to simulate how port operators might re-optimize operations if cranes or berth sections are damaged.

Professors Alan Erera and Ozlem Ergun prepared this article fo the Fall 2009 issue of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the alumni magazine for the Stewart School of ISyE.