September  2020                                                                                                 Newsletter 
Message from the Division President

Dear fellow QCRE members,
Welcome to IISE's Quality Control and Reliability Engineering (QCRE) division. It is a great honor to serve as the division president, and as such facilitate key division activities geared toward membership experience, outreach, and growth. Together with the board of directors, we strive for improving the services to the division. In that regard, we have defined several new initiatives this year to extend the benefits to the fellow members, including Membership Development: to devise strategies for members promotion and membership growth, Outreach Improvement: to improve public relation and communication within QCRE, and Industry Engagement: to expand industry relation and improve presence and impact.

If you are a new member of IISE or our QCRE division, you have made a great decision to join this network of colleagues, experts, and resources. Among the many benefits that you gain from your membership, you will find networking opportunities to connect with like-minded professionals within your field and volunteer opportunities that allow you to shape the QCRE division and IISE. You will also have access to 12 issues of Industrial Engineer magazine, the opportunity to expand your skills when you access IISE's online resources and webinars, the ability to grow your professional network, as well as access to IISE's member directory, which is an easy way to find colleagues and subject matter experts.

We highly encourage all members to participate in our division's activities and contribute to the success of the division. Together we shape the future of our division. This can be done by joining various committees, participating in division events, and attending conferences and webinars, just to name a few opportunities. You are encouraged to develop your leadership skills and grow your network even more, by taking advantage of IISE's numerous volunteer opportunities that can be found on the IISE website.

If have any suggestions or would like to participate in any of the division's new or ongoing initiatives, including conference planning, newsletters, and webinars, please do not hesitate to contact us. We would love for you to participate and have the opportunity to get to know you better. 

Sincerely,

Adel Alaeddini, Ph.D.
IISE QCRE Division President
Annual Conference & Expo 2020 is Now ALL - Virtual!
The 2020 IISE Annual Conference & Expo has been rescheduled to Nov. 1 - Nov. 3, 2020, and it is now going to a virtual-only format. More details and updates are currently available on the conference website at https://www.iise.org/Annual/. The QCRE Division of IISE will be sponsoring the QCRE Track at the 2020 IISE Annual Conference & Expo.
 
Look forward to seeing you online for the Annual Virtual Conference & Expo on Nov. 1- Nov. 3, 2020.
Division Election Board Results 
Based on the recent election results, QCRE di
vision welcomes the following three new officers.
President-elect: Linkan Bian, Mississippi State University
Bio: Dr. Linkan Bian is the Thomas B. & Terri L. Nusz Associate Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Mississippi State University. He received his Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2013 and a B.S. degree in applied mathematics from Beijing University. Dr. Bian's research interests focus on the analytics of Big Data generated from complex engineering systems. Methodology of his research includes areas such as, data mining, surrogate modeling, statistics optimization, and uncertainty quantification. His research has been applied to areas including additive manufacturing, reliability/maintenance, supply chains, cybersecurity, and other engineering systems. He has received federal funding from NSF, NIH, DoD, and DoE, as well as industrial companies. Dr. Bian has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers that appear in prestigious journals such as IISE Transactions, ASME Journals, Additive Manufacturing, Rapid Prototyping, IEEE Transactions, and other journals. Dr. Bian's work has been widely recognized in the IISE professional communities. He received the Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the IISE Manufacturing and Design division, as well as multiple Best Paper Awards from IISE.

Board director: Chen Kan, University of Texas at Arlington
Bio: Dr. Chen Kan is an Assistant Professor of Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering at University of Texas at Arlington. He earned his Ph.D. in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, M.S. in the Industrial and Management Systems Engineering from the University of South Florida, and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing. Dr. Kan's research interests include 1) sensor-based modeling and monitoring of advanced manufacturing systems for quality control and operational improvement, and 2) integrating engineering knowledge with data science methods for the identification of disease patterns and monitoring of disease progression to support personalized medical decisions. He has served as a board director of IISE Data Analytics & Information Systems Division 2018-2020 and track/session chairs in INFORMS and IISE annual meetings. He is a member of INFORMS, IISE, and IEEE.

Board director: Mingyang Li, University of South Florida
Bio: Dr. Mingyang Li is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial & Management Systems Engineering at the University of South Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Systems & Industrial Engineering and his M.S. in Statistics from the University of Arizona in 2015 and 2013, respectively. He also received his M.S. in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering from the University of Iowa in 2010 and his B.S. in Control Science & Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2008. His research interests include reliability and quality assurance, Bayesian data analytics and system informatics. Dr. Li is a member of INFORMS, IISE and ASQ.

We would also like to thank the leaving board members, Dr. Pingfeng Wang (immediate past president), Dr. Chitta Ranjan (board director) for their past service to the division.
Call for Participation: Best Student Poster Competition 2020
The QCRE division of IISE is inviting QCRE student members to participate in the Best Student Poster Competition at IISE Annual Conference 2020. The Best Student Poster Competition will be held during the general poster presentation. All posters will enter the competition automatically. A winner will be selected by a panel of judges and awarded a certificate. If interested, please use the following link to register: QCRE Best Student Poster Competition Registration
Participation in the best student poster competition session is free of charge. For inquiries and registration, please contact the chair of Best Student Poster Competition Dr. Yisha Xiang at yisha.xiang@ttu.edu.
Call for Participation: Student  Introduction and Interaction Session
The QCRE division of IISE is inviting QCRE student members to participate in the Student Introduction and Interaction Session at IISE Annual Conference 2020. This session is designed for QCRE student members to build their professional network, show up their talents, and learn from invited guests. Each student will be given three minutes to deliver a brief speech about his/her research interests and accomplishments. Senior QCRE members will be invited to discuss QCRE opportunities for students, job market preparation (academic vs. industry), and interact with the attendees.
Participation in this session is free of charge. Students who are on the job market and/or have poster presentations will be given higher priority. For inquiries and registration, please contact the chair of the Student Introduction and Interaction Session Dr. Hongyue Sun at hongyues@buffalo.edu.
QCRE Member Spotlight - Kamran Paynabar
In each issue of the QCRE newsletter, we feature one outstanding QCRE member who has
demonstrated excellence in the QCRE related fields, and the member can be from academia, industry or a student.
In this issue of the QCRE newsletter, we feature one outstanding member, Dr. Kamran Paynabar, who is the Fouts Family Early Career Professor and Associate Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Iran 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. His research interests comprise both applied and methodological aspects of machine-learning and statistical modeling integrated with engineering principles. He is a recipient of the INFORMS Data Mining Best Student Paper Award, the Best Application Paper Award from IIE Transactions, the Best QSR refereed paper from INFORMS, and the Best Paper Award from POMS. He has been recognized with the Georgia Tech campus level 2014 CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award and the Provost Teaching and Learning Fellowship. He served as the chair of QSR of INFORMS, and the president of QCRE of IISE.

Here is Dr. Kamran Paynabar's Story with QCRE.

 

What is your current position and role?
 

     I am the Fouts Family Early Career Professor and Associate Professor in the H. Milton          Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech.


What are your experiences with QCRE division at IISE?

I was honored to serve as a QCRE board member 2013 - 2019, President of QCRE division in 2017-18, Co-chair and co-organizer of QCRE Track at IISE annual conference in 2016, 2017, and 2019. Chair and organizer of QCRE Best Student Paper Competition at IISE annual conference in 2014.

How these experiences have helped you in preparing yourself for your career?

Serving the QCRE community has certainly helped me advance my career in different aspects including enhancing my leadership skills, improving my teamwork capabilities, expanding the network of friends and colleagues, and learning from respected QCRE board members that I served with.

What are the achievements you are proudest of?

During my time at QCRE, we established different committees including membership, webinars, industry, and conference to serve our community more effectively. I am glad to see that these committees are still active under the new QCRE leadership and hope they thrive in the future.

Any suggestions to future fellow students?

I suggest the students who are interested in the quality and reliability area to get more involved in QCRE activities by serving as a student board member or by becoming volunteers in different QCRE committees. This will provide them with excellent opportunities to not only serve the community but also get a chance to work with faculty in a setting other than the classroom.
Have you visited our Crisis Resource Community?  
 
We hope our IISE members and customers are staying safe and following guidelines during 
these trying times. The IISE CEO Don Greene has said, "IISE's mission is to serve those who solve the critical and complex problems of the world. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is certainly one of those problems and together, we can get through this while helping others around the globe."
 
We have opened the Crisis Resource Community on the IISE Connect member engagement platform that will give us a designated online place to share potential solutions and responses to some of the immediate challenges being faced by our colleagues, customers, students, faculty, family and friends from around the world. 
 
Please visit this community and start participating. If you need a refresher, check out the Connect Help/FAQs. Consider including the following in your posts and blogs:
  • Give a brief overview of your organization.
  • Describe your current reality. (What impact is this unprecedented situation having on you and your organization?)
  • Include a challenge, opportunity, problem, solution, etc.
The Connect App is Here! 

Logging into Connect in now a click away. 
To find your App - Go to the Apple App Store.

iPhone search here.


Download the "MemberCentric" app (as shown in the top left of picture)
  • Open the App and Search for IISE
  • Log in
Have you Signed Up for Mentor Match in Connect? 

IISE has launched a Mentor Match program. This unique online networking and career development tool helps you find, connect and share experiences with others. Your mentor or mentee can be in the same city or on the other side of the world. Both mentors and mentees fill out a profile to which both parties can search for a match. Once connected they're able to communicate and develop a mentorship. Read more here to participate in this program. 
 
Contact Kathy Gamboa  if you have any questions regarding this exciting mentor program.
Call for Entries to the Division's Quarterly Newsletter

The division is publishing its quarterly newsletters and hereby soliciting news entries. This is a great opportunity to showcase interesting yet impactful researches, professional practices and educational efforts within the division. The solicited story will go into the following blocks in the newsletter: Research on the News, Practical Applications, and Education and Outreach. It would be great if you could:
(1)  Prepare your story write-up within 300 words (write it in plain language for diverse audiences);
(2)  Provide a nice picture together with the story;
(3)  Provide a link (if possible) to a detail version of the story (hyperlink to your project public webpage, etc.).

Please email your information and materials to Dr. Chenang Liu and your entry will appear in the next available division newsletter.
PDF version of our newsletters are available for our members on the IISE Connect (QCRE division Library folder), as well as our Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/iise.qcre/.

Have you considered a corporate membership? If not, why? Companies large and small enjoy the benefits. Include your entire team and receive all the benefits of individual membership, plus lowest rates to attend the Conferences and much more.
 
Contact Doug Long, IISE Global Director for Strategic Alliances for more details.