Industrial Engineering Students Honored

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Industrial engineering are honored during the awards banquet.

Industrial engineering students received more than $170,000 in scholarships last month during the annual industrial Engineering Student Awards Banquet.

Students, parents, staff, faculty, alumni and corporate partners were on hand to celebrate 56 students who earned scholarships.

The Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering Scholarships provided $100,000 in scholarships. An additional $35,000 was awarded from individual AAIE members, bringing the total scholarship funds from AAIE and AAIE-related accounts to $135,500. The department provided an additional $38,500 in other scholarships for a total of $174,000.

Corporate sponsor Hytrol Conveyors presented the annual Hytrol Challenge Award, given each year to the best team in a competition in the Facility Logistics course. Bob West from Hytrol joined industrial engineering faculty member Tish Pohl, to present the award to the team made up of Alec Hewitt, Carter McDonald and Blake Yates.

Sponsored by the ArcBest Corporation, the Outstanding Freshman Award is presented annually to one freshman engineering student that has declared industrial engineering as a major. The recipient of this award is selected by the faculty and staff of the First-Year Experience Program. Christie Turner and Chris Adkins of ArcBest joined FEP Director Richard Cassady to present the award to Coleman Warren.

Student-sponsored awards:

• Sophomore Scholar Award — Madeline Suellentrop
• John L. Imhoff Distinguished Service Award — Nicole Hayes
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award — Carlos Mendez
• Backbreaker Award — Manuel Rossetti, professor
• Best Teacher Award — Kelly Sullivan, assistant professor
• Resident Raconteur Award — John White, professor
• Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award —Greg Parnell, professor

Department-sponsored awards:

Outstanding Senior – Morgan Hartsell

The Outstanding Senior award is intended to recognize the most outstanding undergraduate industrial engineering student who graduated in fall 2018 or is graduating in either spring or summer 2019. Nominations for this award are sought from faculty to identify students who excel in academic performance, leadership, service, collegiality, ethics and dedication. A winner is then selected among nominees based on faculty vote.

Morgan Hartsell has accumulated a tremendous number of accomplishments throughout her undergraduate studies. She won the Alpha Pi Mu Outstanding Sophomore Award. She was awarded an Honors College Research Grant focused on characterizing truck parking shortages. She completed an honors thesis. She interned with JB Hunt and was selected as a Capstone Project Manager. She won the Miss Arkansas Coed Title. She accomplished all of this while also competing as a student athlete for the UA track and field team. Taking the student component of her title seriously, she was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll and has been recognized for her record-breaking cumulative athletic GPA.

Undergraduate Research Award – Matthew Millis

Each year, one undergraduate student is recognized for their valuable contributions to departmental research efforts. Nominations are sought from faculty describing the student's research contributions, and the recipient is determined by faculty vote.

Matthew has been conducting research to analyze the potential impact of energy storage on the vulnerability of the electric grid. He received a SURF Award in 2018 to support this research, and he will present his findings at the 2019 Industrial and Systems Engineering Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. In addition to demonstrating impressive technical skills in his own research, he provided invaluable mentorship to our junior class of honors students by reviewing and critiquing their SURF proposals. Matthew is advised by assistant professor Kelly Sullivan.

Graduate Research Award — Chelsea Jin

The Graduate Research Award is intended to recognize the graduate student who made the most valuable contributions to departmental research efforts. As with the undergraduate research competition, nominations from faculty describing the graduate student's research contributions are sought for this award, and then the recipient is determined by faculty vote.

Chelsea has been conducting research in the area of additive manufacturing. For example, she has developed a method that applies artificial intelligence to identify defects in objects created by additive manufacturing. In calendar year 2018, submitted a journal paper for peer review, presented at two conferences, had three presentations accepted for upcoming conferences, and organized and chaired a session for the IISE Annual Conference.

Outstanding Graduate Student – Melissa Quinton

The Outstanding Graduate Student award is intended to recognize the most outstanding IE graduate student who is graduating in calendar 2019. Nominations for this award are sought from faculty to identify students who excel in academic performance, leadership, service, collegiality, ethics, and dedication.  The winner is then selected from among the nominees by faculty vote.

In just two short years, Melissa Quinton has served as a research assistant on an industry-funded project, held a Logistics Engineer Internship with J.B. Hunt, and filled a critical teaching role. As the graduate teaching assistant for our senior capstone experience, she met regularly with 13 capstone teams to provide technical advice and administrative support. Last year, she received  the Steven L. Tidwell Memorial Scholarship and she presented her research poster at the 2018 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix. After completing her M.S. degree this May, she will join Walmart as a Data Analyst.