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Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
UPCOMING EVENTS & DEPARTMENTAL NEWS
Presentation Days were held on Monday, April 28 and Wednesday, April 30 in the Robert G. Carson Memorial Conference Room, 401 Daniels Hall, on the NCSU campus. 1st place awards were selected in three (3) project areas out of ten (10) project teams.
Full Story
Dr. Constance Lightner, a 2000 alumna of the Operations Research Program at NC State, was recently selected to receive the prestigious UNC Board of Governors Award for Teaching Excellence. She was supervised by NCSU ISE professor Dr. Shu-Cherng Fang.
More about Dr. Lightner
The department congratulates Clarence Smith, who was recently appointed by Governor Easley to the NC Board of Refrigeration Examiners. For the official news release click here.
Department is recognized in ISE student Jessica Jeppsson's debut piece in the "Emerging Technologies" section of IE Magazine. Click here to view a PDF version of the article.
Alumnus Dr. Rajendra Kumar Pachauri visits NCSU for the 2008 Emerging Issues Forum.
Pup's surgery could help humans
Professor Ola Harrysson works with the College of Veterinary Science to develop a titanium plate for "Pez" that may be a breakthrough in future surgery...for humans!
# 80
Who says curiosity kills the cat?
George Bailey, a pet cat, was born without the lower half of his hind legs. But the industrial and systems engineers in our department are an inquisitive lot, and soon they came up with a groundbreaking new approach to help – they created an artificial limb that would be permanently attached to the bone in the cat’s leg. Rapid prototyping technology was used to create a three-dimensional model of George Bailey’s deformed limbs, an all-new approach using osseointegration for prosthetic limbs for animals was developed, and the first-of-its-kind surgery went well. For George, this meant he could happily jump and play with his housemates.
# 81
Sawing wood
The crosscut operation in a wood processing rough mill is a labor-intensive proposition, with the potential for a lot of wasted effort and a lot of wasted wood – both precious commodities these days. With conveyor belts, positioning devices and wood chips flying, it would appear to be nigh impossible to design a method that’s automatic, controlled by software. Except that we’ve already made a whole lot of progress, and we fully expect that our research will soon pay off in reduced manufacturing costs and significantly less wood consumption.
# 83
How do industrial engineers make life better?
Let us count the ways. They make the workplace safer. They improve product quality. They streamline production and operations. They preserve resources. They improve product safety. They help bring new technologies to market. They increase worker and machine efficiency. They improve customer service. They increase productivity. They reduce waste. They help our day-to-day lives run more smoothly. They improve highway safety. They make new technologies more affordable. They improve product design. And the list goes on.
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Smooth operators
Back in the early 20th century, two of the discipline's earliest practitioners applied their learning – and the beneficial effects are still being felt today. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth determined that doctors were wasting too much time (often while the patient was bleeding) searching for the right instrument. Believing that there must be a standardized way to operate in all hospitals, they went to work to develop it. The resulting training procedure for doctors, nurses, technicians and other healthcare professionals reduced operating times and increased survival rates.
Research
Gaining knowledge that can change the world
The NC State College of Engineering ranks sixth in the U.S. in industry-sponsored research. Sponsored research funding for 2006/2007 is projected to total just over $4 million, with a number of formal and informal research entities associated with the department. The research workgroups and centers span the breadth of the field of industrial and systems engineering and include the following:
Biomedical Research
Medical imaging, computer aided design (CAD) and rapid prototyping (RP) technologies are used to develop and fabricate custom medical implants, prosthetic devices and medical instruments. RP technologies are also used to produce biomedical models to help surgeons with complicated interventions, and to design and produce custom biopolymer scaffolds to be used for tissue engineering of bones and organs.
Ergonomics Research
Applied industrial ergonomics, including basic biomechanics and cognitive ergonomics, occupational ergonomics consulting, training programs, and cost-effective ergonomic solutions for corporations and individuals.
The Ergonomics Center of North Carolina. ISE faculty work closely with trained ergonomists, engineers, mathematicians and exercise physiologists at the Center on both theoretical and applied research. They conduct product and process evaluations and find answers to a broad range of questions relating to ergonomics and biomechanics.
NC State Ergonomics Lab. Examples of research being conducted in our lab by ISE faculty and students include: Comparison of Physiological and Secondary Task Measures for Triggering Adaptive Automation, for the NASA Langley Research Center; Development of a Stochastic Model of Trunk Muscle Activity; Automation-state Changes and Sensory Cueing in Complex Systems Control, for the Office of Naval Research Human Systems Science and Technology Department; and Telepresence in Teleoperations, for the National Science Foundation.
Manufacturing Research
Basic and applied research, to advance modern manufacturing system technology, conducted on manufacturing systems including manufacturing processes, CAD/CAM, CIM, robotics, automation, logistics, mechatronics and concurrent engineering.
The Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing Group. ISE faculty working in this group develop new prototyping processes, adaptive slicing algorithms, as well as use of CAD/CAM software and rapid tooling equipment. An Electron Beam Melting (EBM) machine—the only one in the country—is capable of fabricating fully functional 3D metal parts of virtually any geometric shape within hours of their design, offering enormous potential for space exploration, biomedicine and the manufacturing industry.
Furniture Manufacturing and Management Center. Research projects focus on demand-activated manufacturing, world class manufacturing techniques, mass customization, environmental regulatory compliance, workplace safety, utilization of raw materials, and more.
Operations Research
Scientific methodology is used to study systems whose design or operation requires human decision making. Observation and modeling provide diagnostic capabilities, while analysis and synthesis are used for prescriptive functions. Areas of research include entropy optimization, linear and nonlinear programming, Markov chains and queuing theory, and simulation.
Fuzzy and Neural Group. ISE faculty in this group study fuzzy logic theory and neural networks with applications to operations research and industrial engineering.
The Meta-Heuristic Research and Applications Group. ISE faculty explore the efficiency of meta-heuristics for solving hard search problems of operations research and industrial engineering.
For a complete list of the department's current research projects, see the College of Engineering's Industrial Engineering Research Projects.
Getting better all the time
Our research campus of the future is the Centennial Campus http://centennial.ncsu.edu and it is unlike any other campus or research park in the U.S. It’s a research and advanced technology community where university, industry and government partners interact in multidisciplinary programs directed toward the solution of contemporary problems.
With more than 1,300 acres, Centennial Campus includes 2.7 million sq. ft. of space constructed in 25 major buildings; three additional buildings are under construction, totaling 500,000 square feet, with five more projects approved for construction totaling 660,000 square feet
Centennial Campus currently serves 1,350 University faculty, staff and post-docs; 3,400 university students; and 1,600 corporate and government employees. Once completed, we expect Centennial Campus to handle 12,500 university faculty, staff, post-docs and students, along with 12,500 corporate and government employees.