UTA IIE Student Chapter Holds Joint Meeting with DFW Chapter

IIE Outstanding Senior, Rachel Machbitz, and Outstanding Junior, Cynthia Rodriguez, Awards Winners

As part of the Engineers Week Activities, the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) UTA Student Chapter held a joint meeting with the DFW Professional Chapter on Tuesday, February 18. Students were able to enjoy some slices of pizza and also had the opportunity to network with IE professionals. Guest speaker, Dr. Joseph Michels, presented the benefits of getting a Professional Engineering license. Dr. Michels is himself a licensed engineer who works with the international management/engineering consulting firm of Solomon Bruce Consulting LLC. Michels has extensive experience with businesses as well as non-profit and governmental organizations and is an active member of the local community. He serves as Co-Chair of the Young Engineers Committee and is a member of the Rotary Club of Fort Worth. In 2012, he was awarded the Montana Ambassador of the Year Award.

In addition to the guest speaker, winners of the annual Outstanding IIE scholarship were announced. Rachel Machbitz won for Outstanding Senior, and Cynthia Rodriguez, earned the Outstanding Junior Award. Congratulations to the both of them.

Even though the outstanding student scholarships were awarded, there are plenty of IIE events scheduled this semester. If you or anyone you know is interested in joining IIE, the professional organization for industrial engineers, you can join here.

Special Thanks to:
Marco Torres, IIE Outreach Director
for providing information and photo for this blog post

Warehouse Management System Software Certification Weekend Class

Dr. Jones has negotiated a discount for UT Arlington students to attend training for CIS Logistics Execution Suites including WMS, Inventory and Delivery Software.  The company has also committed to selecting an intern from those at UTA who attend and pass the certification exam.  For more information on UTA’s partnership with CIS, a global Logistics execution system provider and integration services, read CIS’s press release announcing our new partnership.

1. Certification on WMS software Inbound Process will be available on Saturday, March 1st 2014.
2. Certification on WMS outbound processes will be available on Saturday, March 8th 2014.
3. To qualify for internships and job opportunities attendance and passing of exams is mandatory

The training will be held on the UTA Campus.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Donavan Wheatfall at 972.739.6054, email at dwheatfall@CISorg.com or register online at http://www.cisorg.com/Registration/Certification.cshtml

Featured Alumni: Dr. Kaushik Gorahava

Some of you may remember Kaushik Gorahava from his time at UT Arlington as a student and a teaching assistant. Below is his reflection on his research and experience at UT Arlington:

I completed my Ph.D. from the Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering department at The University of Texas at Arlington in summer 2013. After having worked as an Industrial Engineer in India’s manufacturing industry for more than three years, I came to the USA in August 2007 to pursue further studies. I completed my M.S. in Industrial Engineering degree in 2009 and took many advanced Statistics, Optimization, and Mathematical Modeling courses in the Industrial Engineering and Mathematics department, respectively.

As a project in the Stochastic Processes course, I reviewed and analyzed a Stochastic Model for using Ring Vaccination for smallpox control. The project was well received in the class and motivated me to pursue further research at the interface of Systems Science and Epidemiology. Under the guidance of my mentors, I developed my broad research area, optimization in neglected public health issues, for my Ph.D. dissertation. In fall 2009, I started my Ph.D. in the Center On Stochastic, Modeling, Optimization, and Statistics (COSMOS) laboratory, under the guidance of Dr. Jay Rosenberger, an expert in Optimization. I was also mentored by my dissertation co-adviser, Dr. Anuj Mubayi, an applied mathematical scientist working at the intersection of epidemiology and social networks.

Being from India, a developing country, I had observed first-hand the suffering caused by disease and poverty. I noticed an urgent need for improvement in public health policies, especially the basic ones. I chose to work on improving one of the basic control measures for a neglected infectious disease, Leishmaniasis, which mostly affects poverty stricken communities and is the second deadliest vector-borne disease in the world. Leishmaniasis spreads to humans by the bite of an infected sandfly. Bihar’s Public Health Department has limited financial resources and can spray insecticide at a limited number of sites. My research aimed to address questions on optimal insecticide allocation for conducting a spray campaign. My dissertation research involved building and analyzing optimization models. The mathematical models were built by considering factors affecting disease transmission and metrics to help the Public Health Department make better decisions. The results of my dissertation study recommended an improved and long-lasting insecticide spray campaign policy for Bihar’s Public Health Department.

I also enjoyed training and teaching individuals, a set of skills which I acquired through my experience as a Teaching Assistant at the Industrial Engineering department during my doctoral studies. During my graduate studies, I mentored some undergraduate and master’s students. I am an independent researcher now and aim to work at the interface of System Dynamics Engineering and Medical Sciences.

Written by Dr. Kaushik Gorahava
IMSE Alumni

Dr. Gorahava graduated in 2013 with a  PhD in Industrial Engineering and currently works as a Systems Analyst for Horizon Technologies Inc.