Systems Engineering Professors to Know

Pita Mirchandani is a professor of computing, informatics, and decision systems engineering at Arizona State University, where is research interests focus on optimization, decision-making under uncertainty, real-time control and logistics, and other fields. He was a recipient of the 2007 “Member of the Year Award” by the ITS Arizona Society, and works as the director of the Advanced Traffic and Logistics: Algorithms and Systems Laboratory.

Ronald Askin is a professor within the department of computing, informatics, and decision systems engineering at Arizona State University, where he is also the program director. He has authored more than 120 publications on the application of operations research and statistical methods to the design and analysis of integrated production control systems, and he has been a two-time recipient of the IEE Joint Publishers Book-of-the-Year Award.

Mario Garcia-Sanz is the Milton and Tamar Maltz Professor in Energy Innovation at Case Western Reserve University, where he also works as the director of the Control and Energy Systems Center. He obtained two graduate degrees from the University of Navarra TECNUN in Spain, and largely focuses his research on control and energy innovation, robust and nonlinear control, and other related fields.

M. Cenk Cavusoglu is an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Case Western Reserve University. His interests, among others, include robotics, system, and control theory, and has co-authored a multitude of different publications, including the 2012 published “Estimation of Soft Tissue Mechanical Parameters from Robotic Manipulation Data” in IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.

Imad Al Saeed is a professor of information systems and technology at Colorado Technical University, a program in which he also acts as the director. In addition, he is also a game designer, virtual world creator, and academic leader, and is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the IEEE.

Janet Durgin is a professor of information systems and technology at Colorado Technical University, where she is also a lead faculty member. In addition to being a self-proclaimed cyberculture expert and an equestrian hunter jumper, she has over 12 years of experience as a systems engineering manager for a large U.S. defense contractor, and an additional seven years of experience in academics serving as program chair and graduate instructor.

Ron Sega is the Woodward Professor of Systems Engineering at Colorado State University, where he also serves as the vice president for energy and the environment. As a former astronaut, he flew two missions into space on the shuttle Discovery in 1994, and worked as a payload commander for the third shuttle/Mir docking mission aboard Atlantis in 1996.

Thomas Bradley is the director of the Industrial Assessment Center at Colorado State University, where he is also associated with the Energy Institute and the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratories. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Society of Automotive EngineersThomas Bradley is the director of the Industrial Assessment Center at Colorado State University, where he is also associated with the Energy Institute and the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratories. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Abbas Zaidi is a professor within the department of systems engineering and operations research at George Mason University, where his research interests include modeling and analysis of discrete event systems, semiconductor manufacturing, formal methods for validation and verification of models, and multi-model integration and interoperations. He also currently stands as a senior member of IEEE, and is an elected full member of Sigma Xi.

Arial Sofer is a professor and the chair of the department of systems engineering and operations research at George Mason University. She obtained two degrees in Technion, Israel, and obtained her doctorate at George Washington. Her focuses include optimization, nonlinear programming, airport planning, and others.

Frank Peters is the interim chair of the department of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, in which he also serves as an associate professor. He has “worked with a variety of industries to develop solutions to improve quality and deliverability,” and he has co-authored a handful of publications in different reviewed journals.

Jo Min is an associate professor within the department of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering at Iowa State University, where he also serves as the associate department chair and as the director of undergraduate education. His areas of focus include economic decisions under uncertainties, design of economic systems, and policies, operational and strategic improvement in productivity, and others.

Cihan H. Dagli is a professor of systems engineering and engineering management and of computer and electrical engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He is also the founder and Boeing Coordinator of the Systems Engineering Graduate Program, as well as the director of the Smart Engineering Systems Lab. Furthermore, he is the Senior Investigator in DoD Systems Engineering Research Center-URAC.

Suzanna Long is an associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, where she also serves as the interim chair. Her research interests include strategic management of critical infrastructure systems, disaster restoration of supply chain networks, and organizational analysis.

Hong-Chao Zhang is the E.L. Derr Professor of industrial engineering at Texas Tech University, where he also serves as the interim department chair. His research interests include remanufacturing, sustainable manufacturing, life-cycle assessment, and green manufacturing, among others, and he has an educational background that spans continents, including an undergraduate degree received in Tianjin, China, as well as graduate degrees obtained in Denmark.

Mario Beruvides is the AT&T Professor of Industrial Engineering at Texas Tech University. His research interests include applied ergonomics, measurement, and production and quality systems engineering.

Panos M. Pardalos is a Distinguished Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida, where he also serves as the Paul and Heidi Brown Preeminent Professor in the same field. He is the director of the Center for Applied Optimization, and is a “world leading expert in global and combinatorial optimization.”

Ravindra K. Ahuja is a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Florida, as well as the CEO of Innovative Scheduling. He has helped to create a number of algorithms and innovative models for several airline scheduling, railroad scheduling, and logistics problems that were previously considered intractable.

Barry Horowitz is the Munster Professor of Systems and Information Engineering and department chair at the University of Virginia, where he has retained employment since September 2001. He is also the university research site director for the National Science Foundation sponsored Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, known as WICAT, and he is currently leading a DoD sponsored research effort focused on embedding security solutions into systems.