Lesley Strawderman was selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering’s fourth Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) symposium to be held Oct. 14-17 in Irvine, CA. The program will focus on innovations in the context, curriculum, and delivery of engineering education. See story at link.
Dr. Sandra Eksioglu was selected to receive a Bagley College of Engineering Hearin Faculty Excellence Award. This award recognizes outstanding contributions of both academic and research faculty with an emphasis on economic impact in the State of Mississippi.
The Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) Student Chapter received the Bronze Award for Outstanding Student Chapter. This is the second year in a row they have received the award. Dr. Strawderman is the new faculty advisor for the chapter.
Beginning with this semester, Dr. Lesley Strawderman will be serving as the Undergraduate Coordinator for the department and Dr. Kari Babski-Reeves will be serving as the Graduate Coordinator.
The MSU student chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) will receive formal recognition at the HFES national meeting to be held in Boston, MA October 22-26, 2012 for their activities in 2011. The national office awards student chapters different levels of recognition depending upon a number of factors including activity, and they must be rated as excellent in two categories. For the second year in a row, the MSU student chapter received a Bronze level award. Co-advisors Dr. Lesley Strawderman and Dr. Kari-Babski-Reeves are extremely proud of this accomplishment and students interested in joining the MSU HFES student chapter should contact Drs. Strawderman or Babski-Reeves.
Dr. Burak Eksioglu, Associate Professor of Industrial and System Engineering, has been awarded a $3.5M grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to establish a Tier 1 University Transportation Center (UTC).
After a very competitive selection process, USDOT awarded ten Tier 1 UTCs, each of which will try to advance U.S. technology and expertise in the many disciplines comprising transportation through research, education, and technology transfer. The theme of the UTC at MSU will be to promote the development of an integrated, economically competitive, efficient, safe, secure, and sustainable national intermodal transportation network by integrating all transportation modes for both freight and passenger mobility.
The U.S. is the world leader in the efficient transport of goods because of its extensive combination of public, private, and natural resources on the land, including rail and road, and its use of inland waterways and aviation. The overall effectiveness of the national transportation system can further be improved with an increased emphasis on intermodal connectivity and the rational utilization of all available modes of transportation. Moreover, the continued economic preeminence of the U.S. depends upon, among other things, a highly competitive, safe, secure, and sustainable intermodal transportation system. From a unimodal perspective, the U.S. has developed one of the best freight rail and surface freight systems, shipping terminals, and aviation systems in the world. Passenger transport systems are making great strides. However, because each mode of transportation evolved independently, they are not well integrated and thus lack connectivity. As a result, transferring passengers and freight from one mode to another is difficult and often economically inefficient. Furthermore, some modes are over-utilized, and create delays and hazards, while other modes suffer excess capacity because they are under-utilized. This unbalanced and inefficient use of modal assets results in highway and airport congestion, air pollution, and excessive costs to passengers, in general, and businesses, in particular.
Dr. Eksioglu will be working with investigators from the University of Denver, University of Mississippi, Louisiana State University, and Hampton University to achieve the goals of the UTC.
More information can be found at the following web sites:
http://www.rita.dot.gov/press_room/press_releases/rita_001_12/html/rita_001_12.html
http://utc.dot.gov/about/grant_recipients/html/2012_grant_recipients.html
The IIE chapter at Mississippi State has been recognized with the Bronze Award for the year 2010-2011 by the IIE headquarters. Nibeer Dewan, president for 2010-2011, wants to thank everyone for showing their support and working hard to get this recognition. He challenges Adam Collins, president for 2011-2012, to go for the gold this year.
The MSU student chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) received formal recognition at the HFES national meeting to be held in Las Vegas, NV September 19-23 for their activities in 2010. The national office awards student chapters different levels of recognition depending upon a number of factors including activity. In the first year as a nationally recognized chapter, the MSU student chapter received a Bronze level award. Some of the activities the student group was involved in included outreach through a presentation at a local high school during national ergonomics month, a guest lecture and workshop in collaboration with the Starkville Greater Development Office, and social activities such as a summer potluck and lunch-n-bowl. Co-advisors Dr. Lesley Strawderman and Dr. Kari-Babski-Reeves are extremely proud of this accomplishment. Students interested in joining the MSU HFES student chapter should contact Drs. Strawderman or Babski-Reeves.
Royce Bowden, professor and head of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE), with more than 23 years experience as a faculty member will become associate dean for academic affairs in the Bagley College of Engineering (BCoE). He assumes his new role September 16, 2011. Professor John Usher will take the wheel as interim head of Industrial and Systems Engineering in Bowden’s absence.
“Dr. Bowden brings exceptional experience in not only faculty matters but also undergraduate affairs and accreditation,” explained Sarah Rajala, dean of the BCoE. “With this background he will be a valuable member of our team as we continue to move the college forward, and I am excited to welcome him to this new leadership role.”
Since coming to MSU in 1988, Bowden has moved up the ranks of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering from instructor to being named full professor in 2002. He has served as department head since 2005. In that time, the department’s undergraduate and graduate enrollment increased by 55 and 93 percent respectively, earning a spot in U.S. News and World Report’s graduate school rankings for the first time in its history.
His other leadership roles at the university have included director of MSU’s National Center for Intermodal Transportation, co-coordinator of the Remote Sensing Technologies Center’s transportation focus area, and director of the Simulation and Advanced Computation Laboratory. He is a three-time winner of the Hearin-Hess Distinguished Professor award and was a Hearin Eminent Scholar of the college from 2003-05 until becoming a department head. He has authored numerous research papers and two simulation books. The systems optimization techniques developed through his research have been adopted in commercial software and academic textbooks used in engineering education globally.
Bowden has earned numerous commendations for his work with MSU student groups and his volunteer efforts with the Boy Scouts of America. He has been an industrial engineering program evaluator for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology since 2007. He is also a member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the Council of Industrial Engineering Academic Department Heads, and the American Society for Engineering Education.
He earned master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial engineering from Mississippi State University. Prior to attending Mississippi State, he worked in manufacturing engineering position with Texas Instruments and Martin Marietta Aerospace.
Composed of eight academic departments, the Bagley College of Engineering is Mississippi State’s third largest college. It currently ranks 34th among all engineering colleges nationally in research and development expenditures according to the National Science Foundation.
For more information about the BCoE, visit www.bagley.msstate.edu.
The fall unofficial enrollment numbers are in, and ISE continues to expand both its undergraduate and graduate programs. Our total enrollment grew this fall by 5.62% compared to the university’s 3.97% increase. The fall ISE enrollment numbers are 178 B.S., 33 M.S., and 52 Ph.D., for a total of 263 students. Good thing, this economy needs ISE to pull it through!