SSIE Department celebrates fall 2022 successes
The fall semester at Binghamton University is underway, and the students, faculty and staff from the Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering have been busy with classes, research projects and more.
Research news
Assistant Professor Bing Si is leading research on two grants from the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with her colleagues from the Mayo Clinic and Harvard University: “Towards Precise Phenotype Discovery of Obstructive Sleep Apnea with a Data-Inclusive Multi-Study Analysis” ($242,770) and “Sleep and Cardiometabolic Health in United States Hispanic/Latino Late Adolescents/Young Adults” ($165,418).
A research team including Assistant Professor Neha Patankar has created a power sector model for Europe and a gas network model to analyze multiple feasible pathways to secure full independence from Russian natural gas. Patankar is an operations research analyst with a research focus on energy system and power system modeling.
Associate professors Yong Wang and Sung Hoon Chung were featured in a Watson Review magazine story about Watson College faculty exploring autonomous systems. Highlighted were Wang’s work on autonomous vehicles with the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) in Tamil Nadu, India, and Chung’s research on optimizing traffic flow.
George Klir Professor in Systems Science Luis Rocha, PhD ’97, published a paper in Nature Communications about “Influence maximization in Boolean networks.” Determining the influence of nodes in networks is critical for understanding and controlling real-world systems, and this research develops a method of optimization inspired by the well-studied problem of influence maximization for spreading processes in social networks.
Student news
A feature in the Watson Review looking at the best senior capstone projects for 2021-22 discussed the SSIE team tasked with designing a drone inspection system for solar-energy equipment using software to remotely inspect the quality of solar panels using thermal imaging. The project was funded with a grant from the Avangrid Foundation.
Faculty news
Professor Hiroki Sayama was honored with the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service and the Provost’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Director. A reception in October celebrated his achievements.
Associate Professor Harold Lewis ‘77, MS ‘86, PhD ‘95, retired at the end of the spring semester after 24 years on the Watson College faculty. He will continue to advise a few Watson students along their academic journey and also plans to pursue his interests in genealogy, bond with his young grandson and spend more time on his farm, just over the border in Pennsylvania.
Alumni news
Mohammad Yunus, MS ’00, the senior vice president for manufacturing operations at Texas Instruments (TI) oversees the company’s semiconductor production around the world. That global reach includes wafer fabrication, assembly and testing across 15 worldwide internal manufacturing sites, external manufacturing and product distribution. Earlier this year, he discussed how Binghamton University and Watson College shaped his thinking and career.
Amy Booth ’04, MS ’22, and Anemone Kasasbeh were recognized among the Top 25 Women in Artificial Intelligence by RE•WORK, a female-led company bringing together global leaders in AI. Booth, the director for physician practice transformation and performance analytics at United Health Services, is an alumna of the Master of Science in Systems Science with Health Systems concentration degree program. Kasasbeh is a doctoral student in the industrial and systems engineering program and a former research assistant for the Watson Institute for Systems Excellence (WISE) as well as a data scientist for United Health Services.