ISE News and Events

There is inherent tension between meeting customer service expectation and minimizing inventory investment. ISE Emeritus Faculty Tom Willemain, also co-founder and Senior VP for Research at Smart Software, describes in his recent article in American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) magazine, the use of data to better characterize customer demand, and optimize the inventory management. Prof.
An invention "US 7177798 B2 Natural Language Interface Using Constrained Intermediate Dictionary of Results" by ISE professor, Cheng Hsu, and his former graduate student, Veera Boonjing, is at the center of a patent infringement case brought by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Marathon Patent Group over the technology used in the iPhone's Siri app. This case was settled in early June for $24.9M to be shared between Rensselaer and Marathon.
ISE Faculty Jennifer Pazour and co-authors Debjit Roy and Rene De Koster received an honorable mention designation in the IIE Transactions Focused Issue on Design and Manufacturing Best Applications Paper Award Competition for 2016. This award is selected by an examining committee from all papers published from July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015, issues 46:7 through 47:6. The paper may be downloaded from IIE: Roy, Debjit, Jennifer A. Pazour, and René De Koster.
ISE faculty Jennifer Pazour has been selected as a 2016 Early-Career Research Fellow by the Gulf Research Program. Early-Career Research Fellowships recognize professionals at the critical pretenure phase of their careers for exceptional leadership, past performance, and potential for future contributions to improving oil system safety, human health and well being, or environmental protection.
ISE Associate Professor Tom Sharkey has been named the recipient of the 2016 IISE Operations Research Teaching Award . This award recognizes Professor's Sharkey's development and deployment of the Virtual Office Hour (see Tutorial webpage with links to youtube videos at http://homepages.rpi.edu/~sharkt/ORMVideos.html). This is a highly competitive award with many outstanding nominees. Professor Sharkey will be recognized in the 2016 IISE Annual Conference & Expo May 21-24, 2016 in Anaheim, Calif.

Institute News

An innovative testing platform that more closely mimics what cancer encounters in the body may allow for more precise, personalized therapies by enabling the rapid study of multiple therapeutic combinations against tumor cells. The platform, which uses a three-dimensional environment to more closely mirror a tumor microenvironment, is demonstrated in research published in Communications Biology.
A number of vulnerabilities, known collectively as deep learning adversaries, hold artificial intelligence (AI) back from its full potential in applications like improving medical imaging quality and computer-aided diagnosis.
Accurate predictive simulations of the electrochemical reactions that power solar fuel generators, fuel cells, and batteries could advance these technologies through improved material design, and by preventing detrimental electrochemical processes, such as corrosion. However, electrochemical reactions are so complex that current computational tools can only model a fraction of all relevant factors at one time — with limited accuracy. This leaves researchers reliant on the trial and error of significant and expensive experimentation.
A new model, based on control theory, uses publicly available data to predict the minimal non-pharmaceutical intervention needed to control COVID-19 based on the vaccination rate in 381 metropolitan statistical areas — cities and their surrounding communities — across the country.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants throughout New York City and elsewhere use bespoke outdoor structures to offer safer dining experiences for their customers. However, many of these installations do not adequately protect servers, physically separate diners, provide thermal comfort, or easily disassemble if street maintenance is needed.