Industrial Engineering Professor Inducted into Academy of Distinguished Alumni at Virginia Tech

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Richard Cassady

Richard Cassady, University Professor of industrial engineering and director of the First-Year Engineering Program at the U of A, was recently inducted to the Academy of Distinguished Alumni for the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech.

Cassady has served on the industrial engineering faculty since 2000. He received his Bachelor of Science summa cum laude in 1992 and his doctoral degree in 1996, both from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech.

Cassady is a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, receiving the institute's Holzman Distinguished Educator Award in 2016. He is member of Tau Beta Pi and Alpha Pi Mu, and a past member of the Virginia Tech Industrial and Systems Engineering Advisory Board. An elected member of the U of A's Teaching Academy, he received the 2006 Baum Award, the U of A's most prestigious teaching award. In 2005, he received the inaugural Imhoff Teacher Award, the top teaching award in the College of Engineering. Along with Professor Joel Nachlas, he is a co-author of the textbook, Probability Models in Operations Research.

Cassady's community service is focused on K-12 robotics education. He is a coach of Root Negative One, a FIRST Tech Challenge that has won five state championships in their seven seasons. In 2019, Root Negative One won the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship and was selected to be Team USA for the FIRST Global Challenge in Dubai. For his leadership in robotics education, Cassady received the 2017 Dean's Award of Excellence in Public Service from the U of A College of Engineering.

"We are extremely excited for Richard and his family. Being inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Alumni is recognition of Richard's hard work and dedication to research, teaching and service to students, the profession and society," said Ed Pohl, Industrial Engineering Department head.

University Professor Richard Cassady, back center, with the award-winning robotics team.