John Connelly and Amelia Musselman, Ph.D. students in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISyE), have each have been awarded an ARCS Scholars Award from Georgia Tech. According to the ARCS Atlanta website, ARCS awardees are selected by their respective schools and meet the ARCS Foundation’s high standards of academic excellence.

Connelly, who received an ARCS Scholar Award in the amount of $7,500, is a first-time ARCS award recipient. His research focuses on efficiently solving time-dependent integer programming problems, both in theory and in practice.  He is seeking to improve a theoretical framework used to solve these problems, and, in parallel, is working with an airline to implement a time-discretized model to address workforce challenges they are facing.

“I was drawn to the ISyE department due to the range and depth of research areas I would be able to explore,” he said. “The possibility to pursue both my interests in advancing fundamental theory as well having the opportunity to implement ideas in practice was very attractive. The fact that Georgia Tech was located in such an amazing city as Atlanta was simply an added bonus.”

Connelly’s anticipated graduation date is spring 2020.

The Roche/ARCS Foundation Award in the amount of $7,500 represents the second ARCS award for Musselman, who plans to finish her dissertation early next summer.

Her research interest focuses on applied optimization, in particular as it relates to renewable energy and national security challenges. For her dissertation, she is studying three problems in these areas. Two of these problems are related to electricity development: One focuses on challenges specific to sub-Saharan Africa, and the other addresses the impacts of wind variability. The third project she is working on involves selecting resources to defend against the illicit transport of nuclear material.

“I've always been interested in research problems that I hope will have some positive societal impact,” Musselman said. “Receiving the ARCS award twice now has encouraged me that other people care about what I'm doing and think it's meaningful as well.”