Congratulations to Dr. Lauren Bateman! She defended her Ph.D. thesis, entitled "The Role of Organizational Structures in International Humanitarian Response," on Dec. 8, 2023.
Dr. Bateman Defends Ph.D. thesis
News
Lab Attends CESUN Conference
Gralla lab students Zaid Kbah (left), Katie Gilligan (third from left), and Lauren Bateman (right), along with Erica Gralla (third from right), attended the International Engineering Systems Symposium, CESUN 2023, at Northwestern University, 6-7 November 2023. Lauren and Katie gave presentations and Zaid presented a poster. Erica was the technical program chair for the conference. They were part of a large delegation of EMSE students and faculty. Congratulations to Lauren, whose presentation was awarded "Best Presentation for Impact"!
Attending POMS 2023
Erica Gralla and PhD student Lauren Bateman attended POMS 2023 in Orlando, FL in May 2023. Lauren presented her work on "Pushing the limits: changing organizational structures in IFRC’s humanitarian response operations." Erica and her colleague Maria Besiou presented their work on “The impact of humanitarian operations research: a critical review, challenges, and opportunities,” which was a Finalist for the POMS College of Humanitarian Operations and Crisis Management Best Paper Award! Erica also wrapped up her term as President of the College.
Senior Design Team wins Best Paper Award and presents to WMATA leadership
Senior design team Eliese Ottinger, Kaveena Patel, Islay Van Dusen, and Alejandro Medina Mora, advised by Erica Gralla, along with WMATA's Adam Jachimowicz and senior design professors Joost Santos and Eric Dano, presented their project to leaders at the Washington metro system: the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). They also won the Best Paper Award for the Decision Analysis Track at the 2023 IEEE Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium! They developed a simulation to help WMATA determine the best locations for emergency response personnel, in order to minimize response times throughout the sprawling metro system. The model relies on historical emergency incident data and traffic information to project response times from various locations, and demonstrates the potential for significant response time improvements by relocating or adding new response bases.
Lewis Boss and Megan Peters defended their PhD theses
In a very exciting two weeks for our lab, Lewis Boss and Megan Peters both defended their PhD theses! Lewis's topic was "Exploring the Influence of Decentralization in System Architecture." Megan's topic was "Smallholder Market Systems: Understanding System Behavior and the Role of Relationships." We are all thrilled to celebrate with them!
Gralla elected President of POMS College of Humanitarian Operations and Crisis Management
Erica Gralla was elected the President of the College of Humanitarian Operations and Crisis Management (HOCM) of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS). It is one of the premiere venues for sharing work in humanitarian operations. Her term runs from 2021-2023. She is looking forward to continuing the great work of previous boards in making HOCM such a productive and welcoming venue for humanitarian operations researchers.
Best Paper in Decision Sciences Journal
On of our papers has been awarded the Best Paper Award in Decision Sciences Journal. The paper was written by Erica Gralla with Julia Moline of FEMA and Jarrod Goentzel of MIT, and is entitled “Approaches for Locating and Staffing FEMA’s Disaster Recovery Centers.” It describes two approaches for determining where and how many centers should be opened to serve a disaster-affected population, and how to adjust staffing over time as needs change.
Prof. Gralla and Prof. Szajnfarber win Best Paper Award
Prof. Gralla and her colleague Prof. Zoe Szajnfarber were awarded the "Best Paper Award in Systems Engineering Journal, 2017" for their paper:
Z. Szajnfarber and E. Gralla (2017). "Qualitative methods for engineering systems: why we need them and how to use them" Systems Engineering, 20(6), pp. 697-511.
The award was presented at the INCOSE meeting in June 2018.
Undergraduate senior design team wins “Best in Systems” award
Undergraduate senior design team Jillian d'Arrigo, Shelby Grumer, and Kai Friesecke won the "Best in Systems" award for their senior design project in 2018. The team was advised by Prof. Gralla, along with Profs Abeledo and Barbera and others. Their project involved scheduling staff for FEMA's National Response Coordination Center.
Undergraduate senior design team visits CDC
An undergraduate senior design team working with the Centers for Disease Control visited their headquarters in Atlanta, GA. Two members of the team were able to join, along with Prof. Gralla: Alyson Fintzy and Jillian Miles. The team was advised by Prof. Gralla along with other professors in the department.