Penn State IME - Spring 2018 Newsletter

Two years ago, Itunu Lawani and his brother started L&L Foods, a packaged-goods company focused mainly on the Nigerian peanut market, at their kitchen table in Atlanta. Recently, the company emerged as the winner of the Nigerian Economic Summit startup pitching event, taking home a prize of $15,000. And Lawani knows this is just the beginning for the startup. >>

SPRING 2018

FEATURES

Students explore entrepreneurial spirit of Israel over spring break

For the past few decades, Israel has been a hotbed of innovation and technological exploration. The country boasts more than 4,200 startups, the highest per capita in the world, and according to Forbes, more than 250 global companies have research and development labs in Israel today, 80 of which are Fortune 500 companies. What better place, then, for a group of Penn State students in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation minor to travel over spring break? >>

Industrial engineering moves up in graduate program rankings

The industrial engineering graduate program at Penn State is ranked seventh in the latest annual U.S. News & World Report "Best Graduate Schools" rankings. The 2019 edition shows that the IE program moved up one spot from eighth last year amongst its counterparts at other national universities. >>

Alumna finds magic in industrial engineering through career at Disney

Industrial engineering is all about efficiency and innovation, incorporating math and science to create new and improved ways to perform tasks. These tasks are accomplished using a variety of methods. For some, the trick might be instinctual, while others rely on science and equations to get the job done.

But for Penn State alumna Shannon McCully, there is one thing that makes her career in industrial engineering different from all of the others: magic. >>

Scholar part of research team working to improve medical training

Schreyer Scholar and industrial engineering major Rucha Bhide is working with a team of Penn State researchers to find ways for resident physicians to learn central venous catheter placement by analyzing their gaze patterns using a dynamic haptic robotic trainer. >>

Can social media data be used to predict threats or identify fake news?

Can publicly available data from large-scale social media networks be used to help predict catastrophic events within the country's infrastructure, such as threats to national security, the energy system or even the economy? Conrad Tucker, associate professor of engineering design and industrial engineering, has received funding from the U.S. Air Force to investigate whether crowd-sourced data from social media can be used to not only detect threats, but also prevent catastrophic events from happening in the future. >>

Engineers work with Walmart to improve Military Appreciation Tailgate operations

Industrial engineering graduate students are working with one of the world's largest retailers to help improve processes at one of the largest events honoring past and current service members in Central Pennsylvania. >>

New Service Enterprise Engineering Minor to be available at University Park

The Service Enterprise Engineering Initiative at Penn State is proud to announce a minor in service enterprise engineering that will be available to undergraduate students starting in the summer of 2018. Open to all students, but most applicable for those in industrial engineering, health policy administration and human development and family studies, the minor answers a critical need for operational expertise in health care and human service fields. >>

RECOGNITIONS & AWARDS

Soyster named 2018 Outstanding Engineering Alumnus >>
Leight awarded S. Balachandran Service Scholarship >>
Manogharan and Basu receive seed grant to improve the fit and longevity of orthopedic implants by producing the parts out of titanium using additive manufacturing >>
Tucker helps "engineer" win as guest football coach >>
Purdum oversees first-place capstone design project team >>

ALUMNI UPDATES

Seong Wook Hwang ('16 Ph.D.) named assistant professor in the College of Business Management at Hongik University in Korea >>
Jayme Fullerton ('04 IE) was guest speaker as part of National Engineers Week at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus >>
Susan O. Schall ('82 IE, '86 M.S., '88 Ph.D.) recognized for dedication to industrial engineering >>
Iris Rivero ('96 IE, 98 M.S., '02 Ph.D.) organized National Science Foundation-funded workshop that brought together female academics from across the country to learn about emerging areas in advanced manufacturing >>

Alumni are encouraged to submit updates to [email protected].

NEWS FROM PSIMES

The latest news and announcements from the Penn State Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Society.

PSIMES and the IME department are hosting a networking event April 25 at Precision Custom Components in York, Pennsylvania. The event is open to alumni and friends of the IME department. >>
Beginning in summer 2018, PSIMES is implementing a job shadow program for current industrial engineering students within the IME department. The alumni group is looking to team up with organizations in and around Pennsylvania that are willing to allow current students to spend time on site, learning about a particular job. >>