News & Events
Dr. Azita Hirsa proudly hosted PREFACE 2026 session introducing rising high school juniors and seniors to Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer.
Through presentations, videos, and interactive small-group activities, students explored how ISE brings together people, technology, data, and decision-making to solve real-world problems. The highly engaged students also learned about the many academic and career opportunities available through ISE.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researchers will contribute to two projects selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for Phase I awards under the inaugural Genesis Mission, a national initiative designed to accelerate scientific discovery through artificial intelligence.
Zachary Lafrance is a recent graduate in the Industrial and Management Engineering (IME) and Economics double major, who graduated this May. From an early age, Zachary demonstrated a natural curiosity for how systems and devices functioned, often taking things apart and rebuilding them. This hands-on mindset, combined with RPI’s strong reputation in STEM and its proximity to home, made RPI a natural choice.
Recently several of our faculty and students attended the IISE (Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers) Annual Conference in Arlington, TX where many of them presented their research. Pictured here is (from left to right) Nikita Amin, Jiayu Liu, Junfeng Wu, Dr. Yinan Wang, Dr. Jen Pazour, Jason Dodge, Carlos Morel Figueroa, Akshya Ravi, Dr. Emily Liu, John Nichols, and Batuhan Celik.
Carlos Morel Figueroa presented Order Picking in a Dense Storage System with Movable Racks at the recent IISE (Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers) Annual Conference in Arlington, TX. This joint research was conducted with Dr. Fabio Sgarbossa, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Dr. Jennifer Pazour, RPI.
Congratulations to all the graduates, award winners, and families of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department. The 2026 Graduation Dinner Banquet at Pat’s Barn marks an incredible milestone, celebrating years of dedication, academic excellence, and rigorous problem-solving. This event brought together graduating students, families, friends, faculty, staff, and distinguished members of the ISE Industry Advisory Council to honor the achievements, academic success, and resiliency of the Class of 2026.
John Nichols has been awarded an ADAC-ARCTIC Fellowship. This program engages student interns with DHS Center of Excellence projects, providing technical and professional development during the school year and 10-week internships during the summer.
IME students (Henry, Cayla, and Nayeli), as part of a multidisciplinary capstone team, received the Design Lab Performance Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement for their work on the Eaton Distribution Center Layout Optimization project.
Students present their capstone project, "Distribution Center Layout Optimization," to the RPI community.
