Focus

Keeping pace with IIE in the March 2013 issue of Industrial Engineer 

Before and after Annual

San Juan offers conference attendees plenty; IIE offers special hotel rates
It’s apt that this year’s IIE Annual Conference and Expo is being held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After all, Puerto Rico means rich port in Spanish and is the original name of San Juan, the oldest city in the United States, according to Welcome.topuertorico.org. Christopher Columbus named the island San Juan Batista during his second voyage to the Americas in 1493. 

Somewhere along the way, confusion reigned and Puerto Rico became the name of the island and San Juan became the name of the city. But there will be no confusion at the conference, where attendees will find inspiring speakers, noteworthy sessions and pre-conference workshops that can earn participants continuing education units, along with networking galore to help industrial engineers and IE types find out how others in the field solved problems.

A rich port, indeed.

Of course, there’s plenty to do for the aspiring conference-goer who wants to arrive early or stay late. IIE offers special rates at the Caribe Hilton starting three days before the conference and ending three days after.

The conference will be held May 18-22. For more information and registration, visit www.iienet.org/annual.

Click here to view more photos and learn some history about the city of San Juan.

IEs in Asia

Abstract deadline for international conference is March 18
The deadline to submit abstracts for the IIE Asian Conference 2013 is March 18. Those accepted will be notified by March 18, and full paper submission and early-bird registration ends May 18.

This year’s conference is July 18-20 in Taipei, Taiwan, and is sponsored by the Department of Industrial Management at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.

All publications will be peer-reviewed and acceptance will be based on a paper’s contribution to theory, research and/or its implications for industrial engineering practice. Keynote speakers are Gregory H. Watson, IIE’s senior vice president, international, and Jianjun Shie and Ben Wang of Georgia Tech.

For more information, abstract submission and registration, visit http://iiea.conf.tw/.

Helping others and the field

Humanitarian researcher is New Face of Engineering
Mallory Soldner has a number of awards and honors on her resumé, but she said being picked by IIE for National Engineers Week’s New Faces of Engineering is a particularly nice one. 

"It’s one that means a lot to me because it really helps to shine a light professionally for the next generation of engineers and all the different things that we can do," the Georgia Tech Ph.D. student said. "Industrial engineering is not as well-known as some of the other fields. We’re changing that slowly over time. But it’s really an honor to be able to showcase some of the work that we’re doing at Georgia Tech."

Soldner works as a research analyst for the U.N. World Food Programme. She and the other New Faces of Engineering representatives were featured in an ad in USA Today during Engineers Week, which was Feb. 17-23. The National Engineers Week Foundation sponsors the program, which highlights the rich contributions of engineers who are 30 years old or younger and have been in the field for five years or less.

Industrial engineering’s ability to deploy in a wide variety of fields is one aspect that drew Soldner into the occupation. Her first industrial engineering course introduced her to optimization and traditional applications, like manufacturing, but also to newer ways to use IE tools, such as supply chain and healthcare.

"It’s really the holistic approach to understanding what makes a system work that attracted me to IE," she said. "And so once you have that understanding and if you focus on what your objectives are going to be, I just like the overall systematic approach to making improvements."

So becoming involved in the humanitarian supply community has been a treat, Soldner says. Georgia Tech’s Health and Humanitarian Logistics Center works with organizations worldwide to optimize their operations and supply chains. One of the center’s conferences introduced her to people in the World Food Programme, the largest humanitarian organization in the world.

WFP was at a point where officials wanted a Ph.D. student to spend more time getting to know the organization, understanding what it truly requires and undertaking research more applicable to its needs. Soldner said she arrived at just the right time.

Since the summer of 2010, she has been working for WFP on and off. The back and forth allows her time for Ph.D. research while being quite involved in the program’s project for supply chain optimization. WFP delivers all food aid for the United Nations, and during broader emergencies it heads the organization’s logistics cluster. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the program was in charge of logistics operations on behalf of the entire humanitarian community, Soldner said.

"They’re definitely a large organization that has a complicated supply chain, so it’s been challenging," she said. "But it’s really rewarding because that’s a newer area of research and focus for industrial engineering and operations research."

She doesn’t know if that will be her chosen field in the future, as she has a couple of years left on her Ph.D. She plans to keep the doors open to whatever interesting opportunities come her way. She does encourage other young engineers to apply for the New Faces of Engineering program.

"First, it’s an honor to represent your field of engineering, whichever one you happen to be from," she said. "And it’s certainly something to aspire to in that it brings visibility to the field of engineering and helps others understand it’s really interesting applications."

Share lean and Six Sigma knowledge

ELSS 2013 conference abstract deadline is April 8
The abstract deadline to present at the Engineering Lean and Six Sigma Conference 2013 is April 8. The conference is scheduled for Sept. 23-25 at the Crowne Plaza at Ravinia in Atlanta.

Attendees came away from last year’s conference impressed at the amount of networking and learning available, and many found plenty of things to follow up on after hearing presentations.

For abstract submission details and instructions, visit www.xcdsystem.com/lss. For conference information and registration, go to www.iienet.org/leansixsigma.

Webinars lead way to ergonomics

AEC 2013 is scheduled for this month in Dallas
Time is running short to make plans to attend the 16th annual Applied Ergonomics Conference, scheduled for March 18-21 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas.

This year’s ergo extravaganza offers facility tours, networking events, pre-conference workshops, student activities, the highly anticipated Ergo Cup competition and dozens of sessions that allow practitioners to learn from other practitioners.

IIE has offered several webinars leading up to the event. A key one at 2 p.m. March 7 is “AEC First-time Attendee Orientation.” Susan Murphey and Mike Lampl will provide new attendees with all the information necessary to navigate around AEC.

For registration and more information, go to www.appliedergoconference.org/webinars, where you also can access recordings and presentations from the previous webinars in the AEC series. For conference details and registration, visit www.appliedergoconference.org.

Kudos

Celebrating member achievements 

	Soundar Kumara, Allen E. and Allen M. Pearce Chaired Professor of Industrial Engineering at Penn State University, has been named a fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
	Andres Ciambotti is now adjunct professor at the Management Science School of the Universidad Abierta Interamericana in Rosario, Argentina.
	Retired Maj. Gen. Ron Johnson, a former senior vice president of referee operations for the NBA, has been named a professor of practice in Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and named managing director of the school’s Tennenbaum Institute.
	Jean Ann Larson is now president of J.A. Larson and Associates. She previously was with Children’s Medical Center in Dallas.

SHARE YOUR ACHIEVEMENT
Let your peers know about hirings, promotions, awards, appointments and other notable accomplishments. Send Kudos items to Michael Hughes at mhughes@iienet.org.