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Department Head's Welcome

Dear SIE Friends:
 
On behalf of the SIE department, welcome to the 2015 SIE newsletter. I hope all of you have had another great year. The SIE department has had a productive year and I’d like to share some of our many achievements and activities.
 
We recruited an outstanding faculty member in the areas of stochastic optimization and distributed/networked systems, Pavlo Krokhmal, who will join us in December 2015. Mike O’Brien, a former director of logistics at Verizon Wireless, and Babak Haji joined our faculty in August 2015, as did undergraduate advisor Danielle Embry. This year we will recruit up to four tenure-track faculty members with an anticipated start date of August 2016.
 
We now have more than 210 undergraduate students and over 100 graduate students. In 2015 we awarded 67 BS, 32 MS and 10 PhD degrees. I would like to congratulate Mingyang Li, who joined University of South Florida as an assistant professor. Our faculty and students have been doing lots of exciting, high-profile research that has received much prestigious scholarly and leadership recognition. Congratulations to Larry Head on his promotion to full professor, and to Ricardo Valerdi on his Distinguished Visiting Fellowship at UK Royal Academy of Engineering. I encourage you to read this newsletter for more details about the exciting things happening in SIE.
 
Homecoming this year is October 23-24, and SIE events include a graduate student poster presentation, barbecue, and Industry Advisory Committee meeting. I am proud to announce that SIE alumnus Kurt DelBene (BS/IE 1982), executive vice president of corporate strategy and planning at Microsoft, will receive the 2015 Alumnus of the Year award and give a keynote speech at the Engineers Breakfast.
 
It is with deep sadness that I inform you that Professors Emeritus Duane Dietrich (SIE faculty 1970-1999) and Lucien Duckstein (SIE faculty 1962-1997) passed away on May 16 and July 29, respectively. They will be greatly missed by many SIE professors, staff members and former students at UA.
 
We would love to hear your ideas and suggestions about how we can maintain and enhance our excellence in teaching, research and partnership. Needless to say, the Wildcats football and basketball teams will have another great season, so please visit UA for a game and to meet old friends and new members.
 
I am looking forward to seeing you and to hearing from you soon. Go Cats!


 
Welcome Pavlo Krokhmal

The University of Arizona Systems and Industrial Engineering Department is proud to announce Pavlo Krokhmal is joining our Faculty.

He is a recipient of the AFOSR Young Investigator Award, National Research Council Senior Research Associateship Award, and several AFOSR Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship Awards.

He is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of Optimization Letters.

Read more about Pavlo here

 
Welcome Michael O'Brien
 
Mike returns to the department as a faculty member after spending 19 years in leadership positions at Verizon Wireless and Intel. Mike earned his Systems Engineering B.S. in 1993 and his Industrial Engineering M.S. in 1996.

Welcome Mike!

Read more about Mike here
Babak Haji Joins the Team
 
Babak Haji joined SIE as a visiting assistant professor. Babak earned his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California in May 2015. His dissertation was on queuing loss systems with skill based servers and discriminating arrivals.

Welcome Babak!

Read more about Babak here
New Undergraduate Advisor

SIE is excited to welcome our new undergraduate
academic advisor, Danielle Embry! 
 
Danielle comes to us from the UA School of Information and has been advising on campus for almost ten years.  She is currently finishing up a Master of Education from NAU and looks forward to supporting our students' success in the department.
 
Jian Liu Elected President-Elect
 
Jian Liu, has been elected as the President-Elect of Quality Control and Reliability Engineering Division of IIE.
His role started June 1.

 
Congratulations!
Mingyang LiCongratulations Dr. Li
 
Mingyang Li (advisee of Jian Liu) graduated from our Ph.D. program in the department of Systems and Industrial Engineering in May 2015.

In August 2015, he started his academic career and joined the department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering at the University of South Florida as an assistant professor.

                                                       Read more about Mingyang here
SIE Grad to 'Pilot' OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft

It is not every day you get to drive a Spacecraft!

"Daniel Wibben (advisee of Roberto Furfaro), who spent his undergraduate and graduate years as a member of the team planning the OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission, was hired by an Arizona-based space navigation company to help steer the spacecraft to the asteroid Bennu and back."
 
 
Promotion
 
Larry Head was recently promoted to Full Professor.

Larry received his Ph.D. degree in Systems and Industrial Engineering from the University of Arizona in 1989. He has over 25 years of research and development experience in adaptive traffic signal control, signal priority, and traffic management.

Read more about Larry here
 
UA’s First Distinguished Visiting Fellow at UK Royal Academy of Engineering

Ricardo Valerdi, associate professor of Systems and Industrial Engineering at the University of Arizona, is a 2014-2015 Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the United Kingdom’s Royal Academy of Engineering. He is the first faculty member from the University of Arizona to receive this honor.

Read more about Ricardo Valerdi's honor in Arizona Engineer.

Photo courtesy of Arizona Engineer
In Memoriam

 
HOMECOMING 101!
Celebrate The University of Arizona's 101 Homecoming!
Join us for Homecoming Weekend October 23 and 24!
Two days of fun, friends and of course football!

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23

 
8am-10am-- ANNUAL HOMECOMING ENGINEERS' BREAKFAST
with Special Guest Kurt DelBene, (BS/IE ’82),
Featured Speaker and 2015 Alumnus of the Year
RSVP at http://engineering.arizona.edu/alumni/homecoming

10:30am-- SIE GRADUATE POSTER PRESENTATION

11:15am to 1pm-- SIE HOMECOMING BBQ

So, grab your favorite UA gear and join the fun!
Bear Down!

For the complete list of Homecoming Fun, click here


Photo courtesy of alumni.arizona.edu

SIE STUDENTS ARE IN THE NEWS
Tommy Ryan
Captain Tommy Ryan (MS 2015) had the honor on throwing out the
1st pitch at a UA Softball Game against Oregon. Tommy is now teaching at United States Military Academy (West Point) "Systems Modeling and Design" SE 350.

Andrea Vilarasau (UA golfer) (BS 2015) excelled on the links and in the classroom. UA News did a nice article on her. You can read it here.

Edgar Rivera-Morales (BS 2013) continues to fly high.
He got 7th place in the high jump at the 2015 Pam American Games.

Luis Rivera Morales (BS 2010) got 9th place in the long jump at the
2015 Pam American Games.

Photo courtesy of Ricardo Valerdi

A. Wayne Wymore Award for Excellence in
Systems and Industrial Engineering

SIE Senior Elisa Duarte is the Spring 2015 recipient of the
A. Wayne Wymore Award for Excellence
in Systems and Industrial Engineering.
 
Senior Design Winner!
 
SIE Senior Elisa Duarte and her team won
The Raytheon Sensintel Award for Best Overall Design, First Prize
at the 2015 Senior Design Day!

Read about their project, Senior Design Day and
the complete list of winners here.
 

(Elisa Duarte is second from the left)
NEW SIE SHIRTS ARE IN!
Represent your UA spirit along with
SIE and EM pride with a stylish red polo.

Polos are available in
Men's or Women's Sizes $30
     2XL-3XL $35
Women's V neck shirts are $20
(plus shipping)

Please contact Mia Schnaible at
(520) 621-6551 for details.
SUPPORT SYSTEMS AND INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Did you know that your donations to The University of Arizona
can go directly to
the Systems and Industrial Engineering Department?
If you designate SIE in your donation,
your donation comes to SIE where we will put it to good use.
 
To donate online:
Click on the secure online link
https://www2.uafoundation.org/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?pid=330
And please designate Systems and Industrial Engineering
to ensure SIE receives your contributions.

Prefer to send a check?
Make your check payable to:
University of Arizona Foundation
with Systems and Industrial Engineering
on the memo line.

Please state if there is a certain area you would like your contributions to go, such as scholarships, funding programs and resources, etc.

Designating just Systems and Industrial Engineering
is fine if you do not have a preference.

And mail to:
University of Arizona
Systems and Industrial Engineering
1127 E. James E Rogers Way 
Tucson, Arizona 85721
 

Employer Match - Multiply the impact of your gift!
Many employers will match charitable contributions made by their employees and employee spouses or retirees.
Find out if your company has a matching gift policy by visiting the
University of Arizona Foundation Matching Gift Page.


Together, we can continue to make Systems and Industrial Engineering soar!
Share Your Joy!
Please share your updates with us-
new jobs, promotions, journal articles, weddings, babies, and adventures for our next SIE Newsletter. 
Please send your joy to Mia Schnaible
mias@email.arizona.edu
And include your name, graduation year, degree and contact info.
Stay in touch throughout the year!
Systems and Industrial Engineering shares news through the year on our website and Facebook sites.

Please check out our:
SIE website
SIE Facebook page
SIE LinkedIn Page

Dr. Young-Jun Son is available by email son@sie.arizona.edu
or by calling (520) 626-9530
Copyright © 2015 Systems & Industrial Engineering, University of Arizona, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
University of Arizona
Systems and Industrial Engineering
1127 E. James E Rogers Way 
Tucson, Arizona 85721


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