Department Head Welcome

Coming off of a few very challenging years, I am thankful that we are seeing pre-pandemic normalcy in many areas. Students are studying abroad, the hallways of Bell and White Engineering are filled with energy and excitement, new research areas are emerging and we have been able to connect with colleagues from across the nation at a variety of conferences.

Perhaps one of the most noteworthy moments of the year was our successful search endeavor for two new faculty members. We are fortunate to have Brandon Crisel, instructor and Alan Vazquez, assistant professor, joining our team this fall. Brandon comes to us from the First-Year Engineering program in the College of Engineering, so he will be a familiar face to many of our students. Alan is coming to us after serving as an assistant adjunct professor at UCLA. You will learn more about them in this report and I am confident you will hear about their accolades and contributions to the department in future reports too.

In terms of student success, I would be remiss to not mention Coleman Warren. Coleman is a spectacular student whose honors include being the only University of Arkansas undergraduate student to have ever been recognized as both a Truman Scholar and a Rhodes Scholar. Coleman was also named the Industrial Engineering Outstanding Senior, the College of Engineering Outstanding Senior and one of two students recognized with the 2022 Senior Honor citation which recognizes the top two seniors on campus. He also served the university as its 100th student body president while double majoring in Industrial Engineering and Political Science. As if that wasn’t enough, he is the founder and CEO of Simple + Sweet Creamery, which has won several start-up competitions and was even featured on Good Morning America. Remember his name; I am certain you will hear it in the future!

Our faculty, students and staff were able to travel to the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers conference in Seattle this May for the first time in two years. At the conference, Sandra Ekşioğlu was inducted as an IISE Fellow, bringing our total number of IISE fellows to nine. Relative to the number of faculty we have, nine fellows is quite significant! Also at IISE, rising senior Abby Harris received the UPS Scholarship for Female Students and graduate student Hieu Bui received a best paper award for his paper, “Toolpath planning for multi-gantry additive manufacturing.” Overall, it was a great conference!

We remain committed to providing a quality experience to our students. This has become even more evident in recent years as new challenges have faced us. We would not be where we are today without the support of our dedicated alumni and friends. I am very proud of where we are today and I hope you enjoy this report which highlights many of our successes!

All my best,

Edward A. Pohl, Ph.D. Department Head and 21st Century Professor of Industrial Engineering