From the Chair

Greetings from the Clemson IE Department. I hope everyone is having a great fall season! We’ve already had many highlights to celebrate for the faculty, students and department as a whole! In early September, Clemson’s undergraduate IE program moved up five spaces to a ranking of 16th in the nation (11th among public universities) in the 2023 U.S. News and World Report. This accomplishment reflects the tireless efforts of our entire department. This issue highlights faculty and students who are demonstrating how Clemson IE strives for excellence in both our academic programs and research activity.

Clemson IE faculty are making an impact in many ways and across research areas that include supply chain optimization, scheduling and logistics; human-computer interaction and ergonomics; and naturalistic decision-making. We specifically highlight the accomplishments of Kapil Chalil Madathil, who won this year’s William C. Howell Young Investigator award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), which is one of his profession’s most prestigious awards for early-career researchers. Chalil Madathil’s research is helping improve emergency medical service in underserved rural communities and helping find new ways to keep young adults from engaging in potentially harmful internet challenges. We also highlight Yongjia Song, who is leading ground-breaking research with a team to create a tool for emergency management officials that will better track hurricane patterns. Song has also been awarded a grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to study topics related to contested logistics. Looking forward to spring 2023, Jackie Cha and Sudeep Hegde will be serving as faculty fellows and developing collaborative partnerships between Clemson University and Prisma Health in the area of health-related human factors engineering. Cha and Hegde will have an inside look by working in the healthcare environment several days each week at Prisma Health, and this wouldn’t be possible without the CUSHR Faculty Fellowships program.

In addition to these major faculty achievements, we have several student-related highlights. We offered an IE-focused study abroad program for the first time ever, with the opportunity to travel to France. In all, there were 22 students, a majority of whom were IE majors, and they learned about modeling methods and logistics applications. While abroad, the students explored the host city of Clermont-Ferrand, while also traveling and experiencing European culture. Clemson IE continues to expand its student population, which includes the notable Kemonte Yow, who previously was a linebacker for the Army Black Knights and is now a master’s student in our department. For Kemonte, his work at Clemson will be an opportunity to build his skills and become better equipped to live out the values he learned growing up, which includes a research focus on tackling human trafficking.

Our student organizations have also been busy. The 2021-22 Clemson INFORMS student chapter, advised by Emily Tucker, was also selected as a Cum Laude chapter. This achievement will be recognized during the Student Award Ceremony at the 2022 INFORMS Annual Meeting. Our student chapter of the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE) also earned a Gold Award for the 2021-22 academic year.

For additional information about our department and updated faculty and student achievements, please visit our website at ie.clemson.edu and follow our social media channels. I would like to congratulate the faculty, staff and students for their efforts and perseverance in improving the Clemson IE department, and I look forward to what the future holds after such an unprecedented year of achievements and recognition worldwide.