Kamran Paynabar, assistant professor, has received the 2014 CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. This award, offered through the joint support of CETL and BP America, provides Georgia Tech with the opportunity to highlight excellent teaching and the educational innovation that Junior Faculty bring to campus as they discover new knowledge through their research and choose teaching methods that make their knowledge accessible, applicable, and exciting to the learners they connect with in their classrooms and beyond.

Paynabar joined ISyE in the fall of 2012, and has quickly made his mark in the classroom by connecting with his students.  He has a highly interactive approach to teaching, supported by deep knowledge of his field, which allows him to bring new research findings into the classroom. During his first summer at Georgia Tech, Paynabar was a research mentor in SURE, the Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Engineering/Science program, helping students make the link between undergraduate education and a future in research. This spring, Paynabar has volunteered to advise high school interns from Chamblee Charter High School in the Senior Engineering Capstone (SEC) Experience program.

The very high course instructor opinion survey scores that Paynabar receives are reflected in the comments from students. They say Paynabar has an ability to connect with his students and create an in-class atmosphere in which he helps students understand how what they learn can be applied in the real-world, and not just for an exam.  Students particularly note Paynabar’s respect and attention to the questions of all students as well his approachableness. Students repeatedly described his availability not just as a classroom teacher, but as a generous mentor and friend outside of class as well.

Paynabar received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology and Azad University in 2002 and 2004, respectively, and his Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from The University of Michigan in 2012. He also holds an M.A. in Statistics from The University of Michigan. Paynabar is the recipient of the INFORMS Data Mining Best Student Paper Award, the Best Application Paper Award from IIE Transactions, and the Wilson Prize for the Best Student Paper in Manufacturing. His papers have been published or accepted for publication in IIE Transactions on Quality and Reliability Engineering, Journal of Quality Technology, ASME Transactions-Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, and Quality and Reliability Engineering International Journal.