September 2024 Newsletter
School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence
Part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.
This week, in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, we received our most recent undergraduate program rankings from U.S. News & World Report . While we are extremely proud of our rankings overall, we are especially excited about the placement of our industrial engineering program. In these first results, USNWR placed the SCAI undergraduate industrial engineering as the #17 ranked program in the nation.
For us, this news comes at a very special time. We are in the midst of celebrating the 65th anniversary of our program. Superbly led by chair Feng Ju , guided by pioneers such as Douglas C. Montgomery and featuring more recent additions, Paul Grogan and Bing Si , our program aspires to put the excellence of our faculty team to the best use. More on this milestone below.
In honor of our special anniversary and the new recognition, we’ve put together a few recent highlights from the industrial engineering team.
Celebrating 65 years of industrial engineering: The first research lab was built with … illegal pinball parts?
In 1959, then-ASU President Grady Gammage tapped Purdue University’s Carroll B. Gambrell to chair a new industrial engineering department. Gambrell’s philosophy was simple: The best teachers create the best students. From the beginning, our mission has been to select excellent faculty members and connect them with the resources needed to graduate greatness and conduct rich research.
While the new chair was successful in attracting a world-class faculty, the early program was cash-strapped and constantly low on funds. In 1963, through a chance downtown meeting with then-Arizona Secretary of State Wesley Bolin, Gambrell learned that the state was in possession of a number of pinball machines confiscated in law enforcement raids. In many cities, pinball was illegal during the 1940s, 50s and 60s due to the game’s perceived connection with gambling.?
Gambrell arranged to have the machines transferred to ASU. The The Arizona Republic | azcentral.com | La Voz complained about the transfer, probably thinking it was a bad idea to place skilled engineers in charge of the banned machines as they would almost certainly be able to get them working again. But the machines’ sophisticated internal components allowed the faculty members to devise and run experiments. Doctoral students built a force platform as part of human engineering courses, with future Iowa State University Professor Keith Adams using the platform to complete his dissertation.
Source: ASU Celebrating 40 Years of Industrial Engineering Marvels 1959-1999
Ali Kucukozyigit wins prestigious service award
Nearly every industry needs leaders with sharp technical skills, knowledge of manufacturing and strong business acumen to guide large teams through complex industrial scenarios. Enterprise needs engineering management.
Ali K. , an assistant teaching professor of industrial engineering in SCAI, has received the Frank Woodbury Special Service Award from the American Society for Engineering Management for his role in raising awareness of engineering management programs and advancing the society’s national and international goals.
“To be successful today, companies must be able to swiftly adapt both to advances in technology and changes in customer needs,” Kucukozyigit says. “This adds another layer to an already challenging business dynamic. Good managers are essential, and this is where the engineering management role becomes important.”
Read more:
Meet our team at INFORMS
We’re excited to attend the 2024 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle, where more than 6,000 members, including students, prospective employers, academic professionals and industry experts will collaborate on key topics in operations research.
Attending on behalf of SCAI:
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Our team members will chair sessions, present papers and attend poster events. Research areas include large format additive manufacturing, food supply chains, advanced satellite scheduling, transportation solutions and more.
If you are also attending, we hope you’ll connect with our team.
Learn more about the conference:
Industrial engineers support student athletes and give back to community
Our industrial engineering faculty members are on the ball! Douglas C. Montgomery, Cheryl Jennings and Daniel McCarville were honored as Members of the Game by the Sun Devil Club at the September 7th Sun Devils Football game against Mississippi State. McCarville’s partner, industrial engineering consultant and ASU alum Lisa Custer, rounded out the honorees.
Through the Sun Devil Club, the SCAI faculty members seek to invest in the future of ASU student-athletes. The four fans are enthusiastic supporters of Sun Devil Sports and the club works to provide scholarships and other assistance to ensure students get a great education, even as they work hard on the field.
New faculty spotlight: Meet Deniz Berfin Karakoc
To ensure our students have access to the highest quality learning programs and advance our research missions, this fall, our industrial engineering program welcomed four new tenure-track faculty members to the team. Hailing from top academic programs from all over the country, the group brings a diverse set of research interests and capabilities to the school.
Deniz Berfin Karakoc joins SCAI as an assistant professor in industrial engineering. She was awarded her doctoral degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and was an invited attendee at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Rising Stars early career workshop at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She will play a key part in the rapid growth of our industrial engineering program.
A rising leader in the study of agri-food flow networks, Berfin Karakoc looks to find solutions to issues related to food insecurity.
“The ultimate goal of my research is to provide practical, implementable strategies that make food affordable and available for everyone — at all times,” she says.
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