Each spring, the Department of Industrial Engineering honors outstanding students at the annual Industrial Engineering Student Awards Banquet. This special event brings together faculty, students, staff and alumni in celebration of student achievement and academic excellence. The event was hosted on the evening of April 24 at the Fayetteville Town Center.

During the evening, the department presented its most prestigious awards, and the Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering awarded scholarships. This year, the value of scholarships provided by members of the academy was $144,500. The department was fortunate to award an additional $55,291 in other scholarships and $52,000 in Imhoff Global Studies Scholarships, bringing total scholarship dollars to a record-breaking $251,791.

DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS

The Outstanding Senior and Outstanding Graduate Student awards recognize top industrial engineering undergraduate and graduate students. The winners are selected by faculty vote based on excellence in academic performance, leadership, service, collegiality, ethics and dedication. The Graduate Research Award is also selected by faculty vote and recognizes the graduate student who made the most valuable contribution to departmental research in 2024.

Maryam Aghamohammad

Maryam Aghamohammad was selected as Outstanding Graduate Student for 2024. Aghamohammad received a B.S. in mathematics and M.S. in industrial engineering from Shahed University and Sharif University of Technology in Iran, respectively. After working as a product manager in industry for six years, she chose to pursue a Ph.D. in the department, supported by the National Science Foundation and the Maritime Transportation Research and Education Center (MarTREC).

She has published three conference papers and given five research presentations including those at the Institute for Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE), the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and the Winter Simulation Conference.

Aghamohammad was the recipient of the IISE John L. Imhoff Scholarship in 2024, which is one of the most prestigious scholarships for industrial and systems engineering students. She will soon begin a role as a senior data scientist at Walmart Global Tech.

Nick Uhorchak

The 2024 Graduate Research Award was presented to Nick Uhorchak. With his adviser, professor Sandra Eksioglu, Uhorchak has conducted research in data-driven optimization.

His research focuses on developing optimization models and solution approaches to support scheduling of tenders for pediatric vaccines in developing countries.

During 2024, Uhorchak published a paper in the Proceedings of IISE Annual Conference and published a book chapter in the Encyclopedia in Operations Management. He also presented his work at the IISE Annual Conference, the INFORMS Annual Meeting and at the Arkansas Bioinformatics Consortium.

Caleb Mallett

Caleb Mallett, who was named Outstanding Senior, will graduate with honors and a minor in engineering management.

With five semesters of experience as a teaching assistant, he has become a trusted mentor, frequently sought after for his student help sessions.

An accomplished researcher, his work earned a top 10 placement in the 2024 IISE South-Central Regional Conference Paper Contest and was presented at the IISE Annual Expo in May 2024.

HONORS GRADUATES

The Honors Graduate Award is intended to recognize industrial engineering students who are on track to complete all honors requirements, including honors coursework and an honors thesis by the end of spring 2025. Honors program coordinator, Associate Professor Kelly Sullivan, presented the awards. The following students received this honor:

• Caleb Mallett: Minimizing Uncovered Triples: An Integer Programming Approach to College Football Conference Scheduling, co-advised by Associate Professor Kelly Sullivan and Assistant Professor Rob Curry.
• Han Siew: Developing 3D-Printed Packaging to Protect Biodegradable Sensors Used for Large-scale, Efficient Water Quality Monitoring, advised by Professor Haitao Liao.

INDUSTRY-SPONSORED AWARDS

Each year, the ArcBest Corporation sponsors the Outstanding First-Year Industrial Engineering Student Award. This award is presented to one first-year engineering student who has declared industrial engineering as a major and is selected by the faculty and staff of the First-Year Engineering Program.

Sam Jeffcoat and Abby Harris from ArcBest presented the award to Emmerson Brown.

Corporate sponsor Hytrol Conveyors presents the annual Hytrol Challenge Award. The award is presented to the top performing students in the industrial engineering logistics courses. Tish Pohl, associate department head and teaching professor, along with representatives from Hytrol Will Mangrum and Christy Valentine, presented the award to Jack Hannan and Trey Merreighn.

STUDENT-SPONSORED AWARDS

In addition to the faculty-selected awards, the student body also presents several annual awards across a variety of categories.

The INFORMS Student Group presented the Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award to Professor Heather Nachtmann. Nachtmann exemplifies what it means to be an advisor — someone who listens, encourages, challenges and believes in the potential of her students.

Student group Alpha Pi Mu presented the Sophomore Scholar Award to Riley Eck, recognizing outstanding academic achievement, with input from faculty who teach sophomore-level courses.

In addition, Mackenzie Johnston received the Imhoff Distinguished Service Award, which goes to an Alpha Pi Mu member and recognizes their service and contributions to the Arkansas Alpha Chapter of Alpha Pi Mu.

The student chapter of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers sponsors the Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant, the Backbreaker Award, the Best Teacher Award and the Resident Raconteur Award.

The recipients were:

• Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant: Hasan Md Shahriar
• Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Assistant: Omar Qedan
• Backbreaker Award: Brandon Crisel, instructor
• Resident Raconteur Award: David Paulus, professor of practice
• Best Teacher Award: Brandon Crisel, instructor

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About the Department of Industrial Engineering: The Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Arkansas was founded in 1950, led by department head John L. Imhoff who believed deeply in the global impact of industrial engineering. Today, the department averages over 200 undergraduate students and over 40 doctoral and master's students. In addition, the department has three online master's degrees: the Master of Science in Operations Management, Master of Science in Engineering Management and Master of Science in Operations Analytics. These three programs alone enroll over 600 students each academic year. To learn more about the Department of Industrial Engineering please visit our website.