Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering News

2006 IME News

Annual End of the Year Dinner, 2006

On December 8, faculty, staff, current students, alumni, and friends of the department gathered at the Celestial Cafe in Exeter, RI to celebrate the end of the year and the success that it had held. A social hour was followed by dinner, during which several prizes were raffled off. The attendees enjoyed so much the evening that there was even karaoke and dancing at the end. The dinner is a much anticipated event of the year.

"Student of the Year"

Aaron Clark, an MS student in IME, has won the "Student of the Year" award for URI and will be recognized in the upcoming TRB meeting at Washington, DC. Aaron is currently working under Dr. Jay Wang's supervision on a project "Assisting Elder Drivers' Comprehension of Dynamic Message Sign Messages" funded by URITC and NETC since January 2006. He has made good contribution to the project and is the first author of a paper presented in the GU-8 conference hosted by URI in October. The award includes a $1,000 cash, an award certificate, and travel expenses to the TRB meeting in Washington, DC in January 2007. Please join us to congratulate Aaron on his great achievement.

Undergrad Welcome Picnic

Last Friday September 22nd, 2006 students and professors from the IME department gathered at Tuckertown Park to have an Undergrad Welcome Picnic. Students had the opportunity to meet new classmates and have fun with them in various activities and games. After these activities, together Faculty with their families and students enjoyed of a delicious meal provided in part from the Faculty and from students who volunteered to cook on the grill at the park. For some pictures of the event, click HERE.

Internship in France

August 22nd, 2006 - Sarah Gabryluk finished up her internship with Hutchinson in July. She left a good impresion with her work, being recognized by her immediate supervisor and the division head.

Summer Research Interns
As in previous years, this summer the IME Department hosted one of the Eisenhower Program's intern students. His name is Kelvin Santiago and he came from the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez. This program is sponsored by the URI Transportation Center and the Eisenhower Fellowship Program. He conducted research work related to URITC funded projects under the supervision of professors from the College of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences. His research subject was "Using Variable Message Signs for a Hurricane Response Scenario". For some pictures of his presentation, please click here.

IIE Annual Conference

The IIE Annual Conference will take place in Orlando, Florida from May 20th - May 24th, 2006. Some IME Graduate Students, Siamak Hesar and Pejman Hassanzadeh, will not only participate in the event, but present papers too. A small description and some details are summarized below.

Title: A Human Factors Study on Graphic-Aided Dynamic Message Signs
Authors: Jyh-Hone Wang and Siamak Hesar
Sponsors: URI Transportation Center and Rhode Island Department of Transportation.
Description: This paper describes a human factors study that examines the effects of graphic-aided dynamic message signs (DMSs) on drivers’ comprehension of sign messages. Extensive textual messages displayed on overhead-mounted full-size DMSs could be difficult for drivers to comprehend while driving at highway speed. Since graphics are considered more user-friendly than texts, this study explored the use of graphics on DMSs and assessed its effects on human drivers. A questionnaire survey was given and a lab simulation was carried out to measure drivers’ responses to the test DMS messages. Results of the lab simulation were reported here with a drawn conclusion.

2006 Diversity Award Recipients

Oudom (Odie) Maknoxa is a senior majoring in Industrial Engineering. He is being honored for his commitment to educating the campus community about the complexity of thought and the level of skills required to understand and appreciate breakdancing. According to him, "breakdancing elevates your soul, body and mind". As President of the URI Breakdancing Crew, he has elevated awareness of breakdancing and hiphop culture on campus by organizing seminars and lectures, by training students in moves, such as the "flair", the "windmill", the "six step", and the "up rock".

Last Wednesday May 3rd, 2006 students and professors from the IME department gathered on the Student Lounge to have an End of Semester Potluck Luncheon. As the IME department has students and professors from different countries the variety of food was huge. The IME faculty, staff and students, along with their friends and family, had a delicious lunch trying food from Thailand, Iran, Mexico, US, China, Germany, Turkey among others. For some pictures of the event, click HERE.

IIE Region 1 University Conference, 2006

On March 24-26, 2006, SUNY- Buffalo will be hosting the Region 1 Conference. No definite plans have been made yet, but tentative plans are in the works to attend this conference as well. For more information about the conference itself, check the conference website.

URI Career Night

On March 23rd, 2006 at 6:00 pm in the University Club, the URI Career Night will be taking place with our traditional dinner and speakers. The speakers, Gary D'Orsi and Dr. Linda Riley will talk about careers in Industrial Engineering. Gary will also be covering "How to create a career portfolio". Carmeris Cabrera, our recent graduate, will talk about her experience working at Texas Instruments in Fall River, MA. For pictures of the event, click here.