SSIE Department celebrates research, faculty and student achievements for 2020-21

The Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science has had a productive academic year in 2020-21, despite the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One major development: All systems science graduate degrees now can be earned entirely online, thanks to approvals from SUNY and the New York State Department of Education.

Research news

• Assistant Professor Changqing Cheng received a $300,000 award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for “EAGER International Type II: Sustainable International Collaboration in Spatiotemporal Modeling of Human Mobility and Contagion Dynamics for COVID-19.” The two-year project is a collaboration with Professors Michael Small from the University of Western Australia and Genki Ichinose from Shizuoka University, Japan.
• Assistant Professor Yong Wang received a $200,000 grant from New York Empire State Development (ESD) on the Smart Cities Innovation Partnership Project titled “Advanced Water Meters in New York State with Jamestown Board of Public Utilities (BPU).” The one-year project is a collaboration with Associate Professor Ziang “John” Zhang from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Associate Professor Chengbin Deng from Harpur College’s Department of Geological Sciences.

Faculty news

• SUNY elevated faculty members Mark Poliks (director of the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing) to the rank of distinguished professor and Daryl Santos (also vice provost for diversity and inclusiveness) to distinguished service professor. Read more here.
• Assistant Professor Changqing Cheng and Zeynep Ertem were selected as the Charles E. Scheidt Faculty Fellows in Atrocity Prevention for 2020-21.

Student news

• PhD student Yiming Che received the Graduate Student Excellence Award in Research for his study of machine learning and data analytics fields for manufacturing and energy production. Che has produced four journal publications since 2018 and has four under review. His work has also examined issues in healthcare, including using machine learning in abnormal heartbeat detection.
• Alumna Hongya Lu received the Distinguished Dissertation Award for “Real-Time Stencil Printing Process Enhancement Using Online Learning and Guided Search Optimization.” Lu’s dissertation was selected based on the level of creativity and originality in the work, the methodological and substantive quality of the research, and the degree to which the research makes an unusually significant contribution to the discipline. Associate Professor Sangwon Yoon served as Hongya’s primary dissertation advisor.

Competition news

At the Simio Simulation and Scheduling Software December 2020 Student Simulation Competition:

• Team SIMIO Squad with members Jun Kataoka (PhD student in systems science) and Jaewoo Kim (MS student in industrial and systems engineering) received second place out of 2,339 students participating in 651 teams from across 53 countries. Team Simio Squad was a group effort advised by professors Sangwon Yoon and Soongeol Kwon.
• In this same competition, Team Mohamed — led by ISE PhD students Mohamed Abdelatty and Mohammed Asiri — were semifinalists under the advisement of Assistant Professor Sung Hoon Chung.

At the IISE Cup Competition 2020:

• PhD students Raghad Hemeimat, Anaam Alzubi and Wenfei Shen tied for third place for their collaboration with UHS Director of Performance Improvement Srikanth (Sri) Poranki and Manager of Performance Excellence and Innovation Rafaela Spence on the project “Innovative process: Patient Risk Assessment Tool for Predicting Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection (CLABSI).”
• PhD candidate Khalid Aram was also a finalist for his team’s work on “Automated Geospatial Analysis Tool to Support Population Health Initiatives,” in collaboration with Navicent Health’s Director of Palliative Care and Healthy Communities Carol Babcock and Chief Analytics and Solutions Officer Tarun Mohan Lal.
• Salih Tutun, PhD ’18, was a finalist with his DNB Analytics team.
• The IBM Corp. team that included Sreekanth Ramakrishnan MS ’05, PhD ’08, won Silver and Excellence Awards.

Alumni news

• Hadassah Mativetsky ’07, MS ’12, was honored by the Binghamton University Alumni Association with the Lois B. DeFleur Distinguished Young Alumnus/a Award for her volunteer service to the University and Watson College as well as her career success as a quality engineer at Universal Instruments Corp.
• Kaustubh Nagarkar, MS ’02, PhD ’05 — now vice president, licensing, GE corporate business development — was recognized with an Alumni Achievement Award from the Alumni Association. He has partnered with Watson College on research projects, organized joint GE-Binghamton symposia and continues to offer guidance to current Watson students.
• Rucha Kulkarni, MS ’17, a supplier quality engineer at Universal Instruments Corp., received a 2020 Hype Award from the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce. The award recognizes those who demonstrate success in their career, industry and in making a positive change in the Greater Binghamton community.
• Sa’d Hamasha, PhD ‘15, an assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at Auburn University, will be the principal investigator for a $42 million U.S. Department of Defense grant through the Defense Electronics Consortium (DEC). The DEC was established by the U.S. Partnership for Assured Electronics to ensure a safe transition of aerospace and defense electronics to lead-free technology. About $7 million is expected to go to Auburn and Hamasha’s research.
• Read how Lokesh Yadagiri, MS ’16, has used his industrial and systems engineering degree during the pandemic as operations manager for Hunt A Killer, a subscription box perfect for true crime fans.