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January 9, 2026

2018-19 awards and accolades for Systems Science and Engineering Department

SSIE Chair Mohammad T. Khasawneh was promoted to SUNY distinguished professor. SSIE Chair Mohammad T. Khasawneh was promoted to SUNY distinguished professor.
SSIE Chair Mohammad T. Khasawneh was promoted to SUNY distinguished professor. Image Credit: Jonathan Cohen.
October 10, 2019

The Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering at Binghamton University’s Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science won many accolades and honors during the 2018-19 academic year. Here is just a sample.

  • Department chair Mohammad Khasawneh was recognized as a diplomate of the Society for Health Systems (SHS), a division of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE).
  • Professor Mark Poliks, who is technical director of the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM), won the Technology Champion & Leadership in Education Award from FlexTech.
  • Professor Hiroki Sayama received an award for Best Paper of the Decade from the International Society of Artificial Life (ISAL).
  • Assistant Professor Sang Won Yoon won a Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.
  • Erin Hornbeck, assistant to the SSIE department chair, won a Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service.
  • Sayama was appointed chief editor of Complexity, one of the highest-ranked journals in the area of complexity.
  • PhD student Lida Haghnegahdar was selected to participate at the 4th Annual STEM Faculty Launch Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute from Oct. 4-5, 2018.
  • Haghnegahdar also was chosen to receive an ASSIST Travel Grant, enabling attendance at the ASSIST programming day at the American Indian Science and Engineering Society National Conference held Oct. 3, 2018.
  • Haghnegahdar also was selected to participate in the SHPE Faculty Development Symposium held Nov. 8, 2018.
  • PhD student Jack Lombardi received the 2018 S3iP Distinguished Dissertation Award.
  • Haghnegahdar was selected to participate in the 2018 INFORMS doctoral student colloquium.
  • Assistant Professor Soongeol Kwon received the INFORMS ENRE Young Researcher Award at the 2018 INFORMS Annual Meeting.
  • PhD student Haifeng Wang received the Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research (ISE).
  • Undergraduates Lucy Benack, Megan Drake and Michael Rutigliano received scholarships to attend the Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference (HSPIC). Benack was the 2019 Peck Scholar.
  • Assistant professors Bing Si, Ali Khoshkhoo, Jia Deng and Fuda Ning were accepted to the IISE New Faculty Colloquium.
  • Undergraduate Jed Fink attended the U.S. Naval Academy Leadership Conference as part of an interdisciplinary Watson team.
  • Assistant Professor Changqing Cheng had a featured article in the February 2019 edition of IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering.
  • Sayama was invited as a guest scientist of the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Germany.
  • PhD student Emad Alenany received second place in the BU Datathon and was selected the best presentation.
  • PhD students Abdulrahman Shamsan and Mehmet Yildrim were selected to participate in the 2019 IISE Doctoral Colloquium.
  • Yildirim was selected as a finalist for the 2019 the Data Analytics & Information Systems (DAIS) Division of the IISE Best Paper Award for “k-prototype Clustering Algorithm for Segmentation of Primary Care Patients.”
  • Haghnegahdar was selected as a finalist for the 2019 the Energy Systems Division of the IISE Best Paper Award.
  • Kwon and PhD student Awnalisa Walker co-authored the IISE Energy System (ES) Division Best Paper Award.
  • Students Sura Mansi, Anuja Bhide, Ingyu Lee and Narasimha Prasath Krishnan received first place in the ISERC Mobile App Competition under the advisement of Yoon.
  • Students Rachel O’Connor, Thomas Krewson and Michael Rutigliano received third place in the Integrated Science Education and Research Centre Arena Competition under the advisement of Yoon.
  • Binghamton University’s IISE student chapter received its fourth gold award in a row (2016-19).