Clemson University Industrial Engineering

Clemson IE is excited to announce that President Jim Clements of Clemson University and President Mark O'Halla of Prisma Health officially opened the new Center for Human Factors in Health Care at Prisma Health on November 7, 2024. Over the past two years, Drs. Kevin Taaffe and Divya Srinivasan have worked closely with Dr. Windsor Sherrill (CUSHR) and Clemson leadership, along with Drs. Jon Gleason, Desmond Kelly, and Robert Morgan of Prisma Health to help us reach this exciting milestone. The Center will be directed by Dr. Cullen Jackson, Clinical Professor in Industrial Engineering. Dr. Steven Foster, a recent PhD graduate from our department, will assist Dr. Jackson as a Clinical Human Factors Implementation Specialist. Both Drs. Jackson and Foster will facilitate research and project-based collaborations between human factors researchers at Clemson and clinicians in the Prisma Health system. The event was attended by Provost Jones, our Dean, Dr. Anand Gramopadhye, and a number of IE faculty members including Drs. Taaffe, Srinivasan, Jackie Cha, Sudeep Hegde, David Neyens and Tugce Isik.

Congratulations to Timothy Wilson on receiving the Student Award for Excellence at the 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) ATE PI Conference in Washington, DC! Tim was one of only 48 students nationwide to earn this honor. At the conference, he presented his research conducted within the IE department under the mentorship of Dr. Kapil Chalil Madathil. This work builds on Tim's Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) project completed over the summer, which explores the potential application of AI and Extended Reality systems in aviation maintenance.

The South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance (SCMA) has elected Kevin Brown, Senior Vice President of Global Operations for the Textile Division at Milliken & Company, as the chair of the organization’s Board of Directors. The election took place earlier this year at SCMA’s annual meeting. Kevin Brown currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Global Operations for the Textile Division at Milliken & Company, where he oversees Manufacturing, Sourcing, and Supply Chain across the firm’s 26 textile manufacturing sites worldwide, leading a team of over 4,000 employees. As he steps into his 30th year with the company in 2025, Kevin takes pride in working towards enhancing Milliken’s comprehensive lean-based, continuous improvement program applied across their global network. His journey with Milliken began in 1995 as a Process Engineer at the Enterprise Plant. Over the years, he has held various leadership roles, including his time as the Nonwovens Commercial Director and multiple plant leadership positions. Throughout his tenure, Kevin has been instrumental in driving cost improvements, ensuring better safety measures, and fostering diversified product development both domestically and internationally. Kevin is a proud alumnus of Clemson University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering in 1994. He served as Vice President of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers for the SC Chapter and has served as a member and past chairman of Clemson University’s Industrial Engineering Advisory Board, contributing to his long-standing relationship with the University. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/eTG6Ac_Z

The 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting took place in Seattle, WA this year. Attendees were able to listen to speakers, attend workshops, and network with others in the field. Dr. Thomas Sharkey was one of the keynote speakers at the event with his talk on "The Importance of Lived Experience for Better, Smarter O.R. Models to Disrupt Sex Trafficking" Congratulations Dr. Sharkey!

Congratulations to all of our poster competition winners! 1st Place: Rahul Narasimhan "Evaluation of Back-Support Exoskeletons for Manual Material Handling Tasks" 2nd Place: Alec Gonzales "From Experts to Novices: Decision-Making Strategies During Simulated Minimally Invasive Surgical Tasks" 3rd Place: Durwa Chavan "Identifying the Gaps Between the Current Aviation Maintenace Education and Workforce Requirements"

Happy Homecoming from Clemson IE! ?? On Thursday, October 17th, our Advisory Board had the pleasure of having dinner with a few of our IE students. The students were able to ask questions and gain insight from our experienced board members. Thank you to our board members and students for attending! On Friday, October 18th, 24 IE students entered our annual poster competition and were able to present their research among faculty, staff, and peers! Thank you to all of our students who participated! Also on Friday, students, faculty and staff were invited to attend our annual Homecoming social. We greatly enjoyed seeing everyone together to celebrate our Homecoming traditions!

Emily Tucker, PhD has received a $400k National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21 grant as PI for the project titled “Understanding and Visualizing Emergency Department Clinician Well-Being and Strain.” ? The research aims to study how factors (systems, personal, and contextual) may contribute to burnout in emergency department clinicians and develop tools to mitigate in real-time. ? The project is in collaboration with researchers at Prisma Health Emergency Medicine and Clemson Biostatistics, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, and Computing.

Attention IE students! ?? Due to inclement weather caused by Hurricane Helene, the IE department made the decision to postpone all homecoming events. The updated dates for our IE homecoming events are as follows: Annual Poster Competition: ?? Friday, October 18th 2-3 p.m. ??Freeman Hall Corridor Homecoming Social: ?? Friday, October 18th 3-5 p.m. ??Freeman Hall Atrium We hope to see you there!