Women in Industrial and Systems Engineering

This book presents a diversity of innovative and impactful research in the field of industrial and systems engineering (ISE) led by women investigators.  After a Foreword by Margaret L. Brandeau, an eminent woman scholar in the field, the book is divided into the following sections:  Analytics, Education, Health, Logistics, and Production.  Also included is a comprehensive biography on the historic luminary of industrial engineering, Lillian Moeller Gilbreth.  Each chapter presents an opportunity to learn about the impact of the field of industrial and systems engineering and women’s important contributions to it. Topics range from big data analysis, to improving cancer treatment, to sustainability in product design, to teamwork in engineering education. A total of 24 topics touch on many of the challenges facing the world today and these solutions by women researchers are valuable for their technical innovation and excellence and their non-traditional perspective. Found within each author’s biography are their motivations for entering the field and how they view their contributions, providing inspiration and guidance to those entering industrial engineering.

Dr. Alice Smith is the Joe W. Forehand/Accenture Distinguished Professor of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at Auburn University, where she served as Department Chair from 1999-2011. She also has a joint appointment with the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. Previously, she was on the faculty of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh from 1991-99, which she joined after industrial experience with Southwestern Bell Corporation. Dr. Smith has degrees from Rice University, Saint Louis University and Missouri University of Science and Technology. She holds one U.S. patent and several international patents and has authored more than 200 publications which have garnered over 3,300 citations and an H Index of 25 (ISI Web of Science) and over 11,000 citations and an H Index of 49 (Google Scholar). 

Dr. Smith is Editor in Chief of INFORMS Journal on Computing and an Area Editor of Computers & Operations Research. Dr. Smith has been a principal investigator on over $8.5 million of sponsored research with funding by NASA, U.S. Department of Defense, Missile Defense Agency, National Security Agency, NIST, U.S. Department of Transportation, Lockheed Martin, Adtranz (now Bombardier Transportation), the Ben Franklin Technology Center of Western Pennsylvania and U.S. National Science Foundation, from which she has been awarded 17 grants including a CAREER grant in 1995 and an ADVANCE Leadership grant in 2001. Dr. Smith is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a senior member of the Society of Women Engineers, a member of Tau Beta Pi and the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), and a Registered Professional Engineer in Alabama and Pennsylvania.  She is a three time Fulbright Scholar (in Turkey, Colombia and Chile).