The Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) hosted its fall advisory board meeting on October 10, 2014. The meeting commenced with the introduction of all advisory board members. We were fortunate to have the new ISyE school chair Edwin Romeijn, (starting in January 2015) join the meeting via skype from Michigan.

Jane Ammons, ISyE school chair, updated the board on ISyE School rankings and activities:

• Number 1 graduate program for 24 consecutive years (2015 Edition of the U. S. News & World Report’s Best Graduate Schools).
• Number 1 undergraduate program for the 20th year (2015 edition of America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report).
• Number 5 supply chain engineering program (2014 Gartner Top U.S. Supply Chain Graduate University Programs).
• Number 5 Statistics & Operational Research program (2014 QS World University Rankings).
• New additions to the ISyE faculty: Martin Salvesbergh, Ben Haaland, Benoit Montreuil, Natashia Boland, Paul Griffin and Edwin Romeijn.
• William W. George Chair Pinar Keskinocak named COE ADVANCE professor.

Dr. Dene Sheheane, VP of Government and Community Relations, discussed with the board how they are working to ensure GT’s strategic priorities receive recognition and support from local and federal government partners. Sheheane went through a typical day and shared capital priorities and b-unit support. He answered the questions and concerns of the board.

Ammons then gave the board a development update on the campaign goal and a summary of objectives for ISyE as well as the other engineering schools.

Dean May gave a college update to the board including research, active learning initiative, faculty construction, and revitalizing undergraduate education. Some highlights included:

• More than 13,000 students and 3,200 degrees were conferred last year.
• In COE, there are 434 faculty members, 96,000 alumni and 150 interdisciplinary centers.
• Georgia Tech is number one in awarding engineering degrees to women.
• COE completed a successful ABET review.
• In 2014 25,872 applications were received and 33% were admitted.
• The average SAT score for COE in 2014 was 1480.

Next up was the ISyE student panel composed of Greg Miller, Alex Morgan, Nidhi Koshy, and Frederick Grimm. Greg Miller is a fourth year ISyE student who wanted to challenge his abilities and provide himself with a variety of opportunities after graduation. He is minoring in computer science. He is involved in Theta Chi, as well as Connect with Tech. He co-oped at Manhattan Associates to develop and implement software for client to monitor and optimize warehouse management, distribution, transportation. Alex Moran is a third year CS and ISyE student. He is a healthcare research assistant at the Health Center and is working on several projects aimed at potentially changing Medicaid and Medicare.  He is a member of the fraternity Sigma Chi, a grader for ISyE 3770 and a GT 1000 team leader. His future plans include studying abroad, continuing to do more research, and landing an internship with Google. Nidhi Koshy is a fourth year ISyE student who was born in India and raised in Tokyo, Japan. She was a liaison for ATL Tamasha and is involved with Lambda Sigma. Her main passion lies in empowering women. She is the Vice President of External Affairs for One Voice Atlanta, a group that educates students about the issue sex trafficking. She has also co-oped at UPS in their transportation department. Frederick Grimm is a fifth year ISyE student. He took advantage of GT’s networking opportunities and became a GT student ambassador, President Scholar fall retreat leader, a GT 1000 teaching assistant, as well as a campus tour guide. He interned at Chainalytics, a supply chain consulting firm, and has dabbled in entrepreneurship, taking home 2^nd place at Inventure. His product, Sucette, is a pacifier that can detect a fever with color change. He is currently working on getting the product to market.

Guy Primus, ISyE advisory board chair, wrapped up the meeting with questions and concerns from the board members.