SSIE Department highlights faculty, student achievements for fall 2021
The fall semester is underway at Binghamton University, and the faculty, students and staff from the Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering have been hard at work with research and instruction.
Research news
Assistant Professor Zeynep Ertem published a paper in the journal Decision Support Systems with colleagues Özgür Araz (associate professor at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln) and Mayteé Cruz-Aponte (assistant professor at the University of Puerto Rico – Cayey) to assess the effectiveness of early social-distancing measures in communities with different population characteristics, such as urban vs. rural areas. The research concludes that social-distancing strategies implemented early in a pandemic result in smaller death tolls, but lead to relatively larger second waves. Conversely, social-distancing strategies implemented later result in higher initial death tolls but relatively smaller second waves.
Faculty news
A piece in this year’s Watson Review magazine focused on women engineering faculty members. Assistant Professor Bing Si was interviewed about her experiences.
Luis Rocha, PhD ’97, officially has started as the George Klir Professor for Systems Science. It is Watson College’s first named professorship and honors Klir’s groundbreaking work in complex systems throughout his career at Binghamton University from 1969 to 2007.
Student news
Two senior projects were highlighted in Binghamton University stories earlier this year. One team worked to help automate Binghamton University’s transportation and parking services through the use of drones. Team members have been modifying coding software to maneuver the drones down lines of parked cars and to utilize the drone’s cameras to scan and read license plates. After that, the scanned plates can be checked against the list of registered vehicles.
The other project brought together an SSIE student with three from the Department of Biomedical Engineering to explore the use of 3D printing technology to create orthoses for those recovering from injuries of the proximal interphalangeal joint (PIPj). The “hinge” joint in the fingers is one of the most common hand injuries, especially among athletes. Jane Bear-Lehman, professor and founding director of the new Division of Occupational Therapy at Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences, served as faculty advisor, along with Assistant Professor Jia Deng from SSIE. This project was featured on the cover of the September 2021 edition of ISE Magazine.
Despite the COVID-19 challenges, SSIE students won top honors at several international simulation modeling competitions in 2020 and 2021. The competitions provide a unique opportunity for students to put the skills they develop in the classroom to the test. Groups of undergraduate and graduate students come together each year for a variety of modeling and simulation competitions where teams are given a problem based on real-world issues.
Alumni news
Eduardo Gomez ’21 was interviewed as part of Commencement celebrations for the Class of 2021. He returned to Binghamton this fall to earn his master’s degree through Watson’s 4+1 program.