UF IS NUMBER 5 AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT 2022
DEPA RTM ENT OF I N DUSTRIAL & SYSTEM S ENG I N EERI NG MAGAZI N E FA LL 2 0 21 IN THIS ISSUE
UF FACULTY BRING AN INDUSTRIAL & SYSTEMS ENGINEERING APPROACH TO AI Four ISE faculty have been conducting research in AI in the areas of data analytics and optimization methods and applications .
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FROM THE CHAIR Dear Friends and Colleagues, This past year and a half has been challenging for UF and our department, as it has for many institutions and organizations across the globe. Despite the difficulties, we have been fortunate to have a committed and resilient team of faculty and staff to continue our mission of ISE research and education. Similarly, our students have demonstrated understanding, patience, resilience, and a commitment to their studies and educational goals. Our feature in this issue showcases current ISE research in AI. The application areas range from automated agriculture to military operations to optimizing treatment plans for healthcare procedures and attempting to resolve localized traffic congestion issues. Related to this research, we are in the process of recruiting two new faculty members to our department with interests in applications of data engineering (AI, machine learning, statistical methods) to quantitative finance/FinTech, blockchain, health and human systems engineering. Our new undergraduate curriculum will be available for students starting this Fall, including an updated core with three emphasis tracks – Data Analytics & Operations Research; Health & Human Systems; Production & Logistics Systems. We have also added two new graduate certificates, including a Systems Engineering Certificate and a Safety Engineering Certificate, which are also both available to students for Fall 2021. I want to congratulate our faculty on their efforts, as our research awards have nearly doubled in two years. In addition, our active awards surpassed $4M in 2021. Finally, our student population has substantially grown. For this fall term, we realized a 66% increase in new on-campus graduate student enrollment from last year, following the largest spring graduating class since the year 2000. Many of these students also participated in undergraduate research with faculty, which has had an increase of nine-fold since 2015. We are proud of these accomplishments of the faculty and our students. We are thankful for the opportunity to continue to provide ISE education to students and new research findings for the ISE profession. We also appreciate your continued interest and connection with the department. We wish you and your families health and safety and please stay in touch. Best regards and GO GATORS!
David Kaber
David Kaber, Ph.D. Department Chair, Dean’s Leadership Professor PAGE 2
FALL 2021
04 FACULTY 06 FEATURE 08 ALUMNI 10 STUDENT DAVID KABER, PH.D. Dean’s Leadership Professor & Department Chair YONGPEI GUAN, PH.D. Associate Chair of Graduate Studies & George E. Rolande G. Willis Professor SERDAR KIRLI, PH.D. Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies & Instructional Professor
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
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TORI BRYAN GRIFFIN Marketing & Communications Specialist & Magazine Editor
The photos in this magazine were taken prior to the global pandemic and are not reflective of the University’s current safety measures.
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FACULTY
Yongpei Guan, Ph.D., was named a 2021 IEEE Fellow.
BOYI HU, PH.D., RECEIVES NSF AWARD Boyi Hu, Ph.D., has received funding from the National Science Foundation in support of his research in human-robot collaboration in the remanufacturing industry. Dr. Hu’s research focuses on creating an integrated framework that utilizes the capabilities of both humans and robots in a safe, complementary, and interactive manner. The framework will elucidate strengths of intelligence and physical capabilities in both humans and robots to compensate for weaknesses. It will advance the disassembly sequence planning and product design process, by considering the uncertainty of involving humans and collaborative robots. In addition, the research team will investigate human behavior and response factors in robot-assisted environments.
XIANG ZHONG, PH.D., RECEIVES AWARD FROM UF INFORMATICS INSTITUTE Xiang Zhong, Ph.D., received funding from the UF Informatics Institute for her research in developing a transfer learning framework that will enhance prediction performance for disease diagnosis and adverse event prevention. Dr. Zhong and her team will develop machine learning algorithms that will borrow knowledge learned from predicting an alternate outcome to increase the efficiency of predicting the target outcome. These robust predictive models can be integrated with hospital decision support systems. This enables shared decision-making between physicians and patients, and will improve patient outcomes while minimizing intervention costs. PAGE 4
Mengyu Li, Ph.D., was named a 2021 Rising Star by the UF Center for Teaching Excellence.
Karen Hicklin, Ph.D., received funding for research on how the current U.S. racial climate impacts the college experience for black undergraduate engineering students.
FACULTY
UF ISE FACULTY DESIGN AUTOMATED DRIVING SYSTEM FOR PEOPLE WITH COGNITIVE DISABILITIES Three UF ISE faculty received funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation after competing in the Inclusive Design Challenge, which tasked competitors with designing a solution to enable people with disabilities to use automated vehicles (AVs). The winning team consisted of twelve members, including UF ISE faculty Wayne Giang, Ph.D., Sanaz Motamedi, Ph.D., and Boyi Hu, Ph.D., as well as faculty from UF’s Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, UF’s Engineering School of Sustainable Infrastructure & Environment, and the University of Kansas. The proposed system will have the capability to connect the traveler with the automated driving system through a mobile app to accommodate
pre-trip planning. The system will also integrate a traveler monitoring system that detects traveler emotional and cognitive state based on their facial expressions, skeletal motion, and eye movement. These expressions and behaviors will be captured by a webcam as well as a screen-based eye tracker. The data will then be used to evaluate the traveler’s level of alertness. The team will then implement an automated in-vehicle agent that will house a customized playbook of possible interventions defined by the traveler, their caregivers, and their doctors prior to using the automated driving system. This personalized learning model will then be able to provide real-time feedback to travelers in emergency or non-emergency situations.
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FEATURE
Hongcheng Liu, Ph.D.
Panos Pardalos, Ph.D.
UF FACULTY BRING AN INDUSTRIAL & SYSTEMS ENGINEERING APPROACH TO AI
Mostafa Reisi Gahrooei, Ph.D.
Xiaochen Xian, Ph.D.
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FEATURE Many industrial and systems engineering faculty at the University of Florida have been conducting research in AI in the areas of data analytics and optimization methods and applications. There are currently five funded projects focused on AI for data fusion, system informatics, algorithms for AI model development, and deep learning applications. The projects address various domains such as agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and military systems, and healthcare. Professor Hongcheng Liu, Ph.D., received funding from the National Science Foundation to support his research in developing algorithms to improve methods of radiation therapy used in cancer treatments by optimizing the treatment planning process. This new and improved algorithm is expected to be a fundamentally novel integration of derivative-free optimization, high-dimensional statistics, deep learning, and a sampling-based technique to evaluate a stochastic system known as (quasi-) Monte Carlo simulation. If successful, the outcomes of this project could accelerate solutions for RTP, free up time for the practitioners, reduce costs, and potentially allow more patients to be treated in a timely manner. Distinguished Professor, Panos Pardalos, Ph.D., has received funding from both the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Munitions Directorate and the UF Informatics Institute in support of his many AI-related projects. Dr. Pardalos’ first project, which is funded by AFRL, looks to develop deep learning navigation applications with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image data used by unmanned aerial vehicles. This research will impact the future use of autonomous agents in GPS-denied environments. Not only will networks be capable of real-time inference and navigation using SAR image analysis but will also be more accurate than the technology that is currently available. This is possible by applying superresolution concepts that have been shown
to improve the quality of SAR images, which can then be processed to improve navigation methods. With support from the UF Informatics Institute, Dr. Pardalos and Assistant Professor Mostafa Reisi Gahrooei, Ph.D., plan to use small unmanned aerial vehicles with multiple sensors to collect data over vast crop fields. The team will develop multimodal-data-fusionbased AI models that will leverage data sets to accurately predict crop yields that will assist growers in crop health management and yield improvements. Dr. Reisi is also working on an additional AI project in transportation. The research looks to provide a proactive, AI-based framework for monitoring road transportation networks during extreme events. Unlike current methods for monitoring road networks, this new framework will not only monitor real-time traffic data for early detection of changes in traffic before, during and after an extreme event, but will also predict any disruptions in the network that this event may cause. These predictions would be at a road segment level of granularity, which means that while it will consider the entire network, it will predict the exact road that is going to be disrupted. This research will help transform current emergency management systems and will result in more efficient and successful rescue and recovery operations. Assistant Professor Xiaochen Xian, Ph.D., has received funding from Cyber Florida in support of her research in using data analytics and system informatics enhanced anomaly detections and diagnosis for manufacturing infrastructure development. The project has three main goals: to develop stochastic models for network traffic data in order to assess the potential risk of cyber-attacks; integrate cyber and physical data to model the complex structure based on system informatics and; optimally balance between online data acquisition and quick anomaly detection.
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ALUMNI
UF ISE ALUM EXPLAINS WHAT MOTIVATES HIM TO GIVE BACK
UF ISE ALUM HONORED AS 2021 GATOR100 AWARDEE
UF ISE alum, Carlos del Sol (BSIE ’72) has dedicated years of time and service to both the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering. “I fully recognize that without the engineering education I received at UF, I would not have reached my professional success. This is what motivates me to give back. I also recognize that mentors have been extremely influential in my career. So, one of my goals in my retirement is to share my experience and expertise with other individuals, including students, and faculty and staff, and to help them achieve their personal and professional goals,” Mr. del Sol said. del Sol has served as a guest instructor for the UF Engineering Leadership Institute for many years and has given many seminars on leadership development and how to take essential steps to achieve a successful career. In addition to mentoring students, del Sol has also served on the Dean’s Advisory Board and the ISE Advisory board, where he is currently the chair.
Alumni from the University of Florida have created and guided some of the most innovative and profitable businesses in the nation and the world. Each year, the UF Alumni Association, in partnership with the UF Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center recognizes these amazing entrepreneurs with the Gator100 Awards. Congratulations to Scott Ellyson (BSISE ‘93) who made the list for leading one of the world’s Fastest Growing Gator Companies! Ellyson is CEO and co-founder of East West Manufacturing, where he has played a pivotal role in the company’s growth. Managing projects from design to delivery, East West takes a concept, turns it into a design, manufactures the product to worldclass standards and handles the entire logistics process for delivery to customers. In addition to overseeing East West’s global operations, Ellyson is well recognized in the global manufacturing and distribution industry and is very active in the company’s acquisition efforts.
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ALUMNI
UF ISE ALUM BREAKS DOWN CAREER BARRIERS WITH MOTIVATION FROM THOSE CLOSEST TO HER The road to success isn’t always easy, but Consuela Smith (MSISE ’11) finds inspiration in the little things to continue to strive for greatness. Smith attended the UF Outreach Engineering Management (OEM) Program. Completing this program was one of the many challenges Smith faced while moving up in her career. Balancing a full-time job, raising a family, and consecutively pursuing two master’s degrees wasn’t an easy feat. Despite juggling multiple roles, Smith knew that hard work and dedication were required to achieve success in everything she did, including her career. Smith’s tenacious spirit isn’t the only thing that motivates her. No matter what goal she’s pursuing, there is always one voice that remains constant in the back of her mind. Smith’s mother, who passed away in 2014, was one of her biggest inspirations throughout her life. Smith’s mother had an entrepreneurial spirit, one that she tried to instill in Smith from a young age. This mindset has allowed Smith to get involved in her community to not only help others to achieve their own success but to also gain more experience in mentoring
and leadership. She works with many nonprofit organizations, where she gets the opportunity to step into a leadership role and set a vision of her own. Through volunteering, Smith is learning new skills that she can apply to her current position at L3Harris. Overall, Smith is optimistic about the future of her career as well as the engineering discipline as a whole.
“THERE IS MUCH MORE AWARENESS OF DIVERSITY, AND THERE IS AN EXTREME VALUE IN THE MANY PERSPECTIVES THAT BLACK WOMEN HAVE IN TECHNOLOGY AND IN LEADERSHIP,” SHE SAID. “BLACK WOMEN ARE DOING AMAZING THINGS, WHICH IS OPENING UP DOORS AND CREATING SPACE FOR ME, AS WELL AS OTHERS TO SUCCEED.”
Just as her mother did for her, Smith hopes to inspire the future generation of engineers and remind them to continue to work hard to reach their full potential.
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STUDENT
UF OEM STUDENT NAMED PRESIDENT OF VALENCIA COLLEGE Kathleen Plinske, Ed.D., has been named Valencia College’s next president. Dr. Plinske is the first woman to serve in the role. Dr. Plinske’s determination to provide quality education to students extends beyond the Valencia College campus and into K-12 schools in her community. She spearheaded the “Got College?” initiative, a program that set out to increase the college-going rate among high school students in Osceola County. The program sends student ambassadors from Valencia College to local schools to talk to young students about college experiences. Students are also brought to the Valencia campuses for tours and they are provided with admissions and financial aid guidance through bilingual information sessions. Dr. Plinske, who previously served as Valencia College’s executive vice president and provost, as well as the campus president for the Osceola, Lake Nona and Poinciana Campuses, assumed the position of Valencia College president in July of 2021. Dr. Plinkse was also selected as a student speaker for the Spring 2021 commencement ceremony.
UF ISE STUDENT AWARDS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS UF ISE student Georges Obayi was named to the UF Hall of Fame 2021 Class. Since 1921, the UF Hall of Fame is the highest recognition given to student leaders who have shown superior leadership and achievement through their campus activities.
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UF ISE student Blake Studer was selected as a student speaker for the Spring 2021 undergraduate commencement ceremony. Studer was as an Engineering Ambassador for three years, serving as leadership chair, recruitment chair, and president.
STUDENT
UF ISE AMBASSADORS MAKE THEIR MARK DESPITE A CHALLENGING YEAR The UF ISE Ambassadors is a student organization with a mission of supporting the growth and improvement of the department through collaborations with faculty, administration, students, and alumni. The organization works on a variety of different projects throughout the academic year, such as teaching sections of the Introduction to Engineering course, leading tours for prospective faculty and students, and hosting forums to connect students, faculty and alumni. The ISE Ambassadors plan and manage the ISE Career Fair, an annual event to provide networking opportunities for ISE students. Due to the global pandemic, the Ambassadors pivoted and planned a week-long virtual career fair that offered recruiting sessions and career enrichment workshops with top companies. In addition to planning events, the ISE Ambassadors also work to recruit
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prospective students. They scripted and directed a recruitment video that they sent to high school science programs throughout Florida to introduce students to the ISE discipline. They have also organized an orientation for students who have expressed an interest in choosing ISE as their major. The group organized multiple weekend events with information sessions and campus tours for future students and their families. Going forward, the ISE Ambassadors are working on a number of projects. These include a research showcase that will provide ISE students with research opportunities, alumni chats that will connect ISE alumni with students so they can learn about the industries and opportunities available to them in the workforce, as well as faculty and student events such as coffee chats and a new faculty cooking show series, allowing ISE students to get to know department faculty.
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BY THE NUMBERS
#12
477
BEST PUBLIC INDUSTRIAL & SYSTEMS ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM 2022 U.S. News & World Report
30%
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
#14
BEST PUBLIC INDUSTRIAL & SYSTEMS ENGINEERING GRADUATE PROGRAM 2022 U.S. News & World Report
UNDERREPRESENTED GROUPS
$4.13M
222
In active research awards
GRADUATE STUDENTS
40%
77.5% WOMEN STUDENTS
22
FACULTY
85%
More female faculty than average ISE Department
16
TENURE/ TENURE TRACK
14
OF ALL UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS COMPLETE TWO INTERNSHIPS BEFORE GRADUATION
NEW HIRES IN LAST 3 YEARS
