NC STATE UNIVERSITY
SPRING/SUMMER 2008
EDWARD P. FinS DEPARTMENT OF
INDUSTRIAL AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
Looking Toward the Future
The Edward R Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering seeks to lead the profession by
providing tomorrow's leaders. That's why we're continuously adding to the breadth of our program
through endowed professorships, doctoral fellowships, international programs, interdisciplinary
collaboration and innovative scholarship. Not only are we developing revolutionary ideas in traditional
areas, we are pioneering breakthroughs in new ones. We hope you'll continue to read on to learn how
we are affecting change for the country and the world.
RICHARD BERNHARD AND STEPHEN ROBERTS ELECTED FELLOWS OF HE
This spring, Professors Richard H. Bernhard and Stephen D. Roberts were elected Fellows of the
Institute of Industrial Engineers, joining 15 of their colleagues at NC State.
Professor Bernhard has served with distinction on the faculty of the Department of Industrial
Engineering and Operations Research at Cornell University (1961-1969) and on the faculty of the
Department of IE at NC State (1969-present). He has published a series of articles on the theoretical
foundations of economic analysis for capital investments that are widely recognized as landmarks in
the literature. In addition to making major contributions to the basic theory of industrial engineering in
the areas of engineering economic analysis and mathematical programming, Professor Bernhard has
made pioneering applications of that theory to such diverse problems as environmental emissions
control, municipal garbage-truck replacement, and university examination scheduling.
In all his professional activities, Professor Bernhard has served as a highly effective ambassadorfor
the field of IE, thereby advancing the status and prestige of the discipline. In 1995, he received the
Wellington Award from the Engineering Economy Division of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (HE)
for his outstanding technical contributions and service to the field of engineering economic analysis
and to the larger field of industrial engineering. He has served on the selection committee for the
Wellington Award since 2005, and this year is the chair of the committee.
Professor Roberts has served with distinction on the faculties of the Department of Industrial and
Systems Engineering at the University of Florida (1968-1972); the School of Industrial Engineering at
Purdue University (1972-1990); the Department of Internal Medicine at Indiana University (1972-1990);
and the Edward R Fitts Department of ISE at NC State (1990-present). Professor Roberts's research
interests are focused primarily in the areas of simulation modeling methodology (for which he is
widely recognized as one of the world's foremost authorities) and its applications to medical decision¬
making. Much of Professor Roberts' research effort over the past three decades has been devoted to
the development of process-interaction and object-oriented simulation languages such as INSIGHT
and YANSL, and these languages are among the most powerful and elegant of their type.
Over the past four decades, Professor Roberts has also published a series of articles on medical
decision-making that are widely recognized as seminal contributions to the literature and his most
recent work has focused on colorectal cancer and the use of simulation models to develop improved
screening methodsfor early detection of this disease. In May 2004, Dan Cubbage completed his
master's thesis titled, "Simulation of Colorectal Cancer: The Natural History of the Disease" under
Professor Roberts' supervision; and in May 2005, Dan received the Graduate Research Award
(Second Place) from HE for this work. In December 2004, Ali Tafazzoli Yazdi completed his master's
thesis titled, "A Comparison of Screening Methods for Colorectal Cancer" under Professor Roberts'
supervision; and in May 2006, Ali received HE Graduate Research Award (Second Place). #
m m v l
i p-
г
News Nuggets:
Welcome Aboard
Tlx department is pleased to announce that
Distinguished Alumnus Tim Scronce is the
newest member of our 1ST. Advisoty Hoard.
Tim is president and CTO of Telworx
Communications, a distributor to the
wireless, wireline and government telecommu¬
nications sectors. Prior to acquiring Telworx
in 2005, he was president and COO of
Blue R hino Corporation, the leading propane
tank, exchange company in America. In
addition, Tim held executive level positions
at Diageo as well as management positions
with Continental Baking Company and
Frito-Lay. Tim received his B.S.I.E.
degree from NC State in 1987 and recently
completed an MBA from the University of
Phoenix. Tim currently serves as a director
of the NC State Engineering Foundation
and lx and his wife, Sandra, have endowed
a scholarship in the College of Textiles in
honor of Tim's father.
HE Conference Spotlight Sessions
The department Itosted a morning breakfast
reception at the HE Annual Conference and
Expo 2008 (held in Vancouver) to help
celebrate the field of ISE and showcase the
unique approach we 're taking at NC State.
We also held a panel session on “The Role
of Academic Advisory Boards In the
Success of IE Programs” that explored
the inner workings of advisoy boards via
discussions with some of our field’s most
forward thinkers.
