MHI’s CICMHE Members Research

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The mission of the College Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE) is to increase awareness, understanding, exploration, and development of material handling and logistics through fostering and nurturing high value projects and events.

Take a look at some of the exciting research being done by MHI’s CICMHE Members solving challenges that will benefit the Material Handling Industry using the latest technology and thought leadership.

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Lauren Davis is a professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina A&T. Her research focuses on the development of data-driven decision support tools that improve the performance of humanitarian and for-profit supply chains. Recent projects include the development of models to predict uncertain supply and demand, optimally allocate scarce material and human resources, and determining optimal inventory control policies under uncertainty. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal papers and conference proceedings.

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Manjunath Kamath is an industrial engineering educator with more than 30 years of teaching and research experience. He teaches courses related to queueing theory and applications, probabilistic modeling, facility design, facility location & warehousing, database design, and engineering economic analysis. His research expertise includes performance modeling using queueing approximations with applications to manufacturing systems, supply chains, and warehousing operations, freight movement modeling, capacity planning, and risk assessment.

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Michael Kay did his doctoral studies at NC State’s Center for Robotics and Intelligent Machines and teaches courses in logistics engineering, production system design, and operations research. His research is currently focused on the development of public logistics networks.

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Michael E. Kuhl is a professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology. His research focuses on simulation modeling and analysis including digital twin simulations for material handling and supply chain; and design and development of intelligent material handling systems. Recent project have included AI methods for dispatching AMRs; integration of sensor technologies for AMR localization, navigation, and communication; and human-robot interaction in a warehouse environment.

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Sadan Kulturel‐Konak is a Professor of Management Information Systems and the Director of Flemming Creativity, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (CEED) Center at Penn State Berks. Dr. Kulturel also has a courtesy appointment at Penn State Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. Her research focuses on modeling and optimizing complex systems using hybrid approaches combining heuristics and exact techniques from probability and operations research. The primary application areas of her research include designing and redesigning facilities to provide significant economic benefits. She is also interested in pedagogical research, such as professional skill development in STEM education.

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Steve Lavender is an associate professor in Integrated Systems Engineering and Orthopaedics at The Ohio State University. His research focuses on the development and evaluation of ergonomics interventions. Recent projects include the identification and development of ergonomic interventions for material handling tasks in distribution centers, and patient handling tasks performed by Emergency Medical Service Providers. Other projects have investigated the factors that affect the adoption of ergonomic interventions, biomechanical evaluations of emergency evacuation devices, and development of hospital patient room designs that facilitate the work for all hospital staff members. He has published over 120 research papers in peer-reviewed journals

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Timothy Matis is an Associate Professor of Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering at Texas Tech University. He is the director of the Center for High Reliability Organizations and Processes, and is actively engaged in numerous research and consulting projects. He areas of expertise include probability modeling, computational statistics, machine learning, and organizational safety, with application across a broad array of industrial contexts including supply chain, distribution, logistics, quality, and process improvement.

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Mohammad Mayyas is professor, founder and director of Mechatronics Engineering Technology at Bowling Green State University. Completed his Ph.D in 2007, and Master of Science in 2004 all in mechanical engineering at the University of Texas-Arlington. Dr. Mayyas research area is focused on system modeling and integrated robotics technologies for advanced manufacturing. Recent projects include safe mobile robot navigation, defect classification based on machine vision, and robot gripper design for manufacturability. He has over 35 referred journal and conference articles, secured over $10M grants with most recent funds for industry workforce and curriculum development.

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Shanthi Muthuswamy is a professor in the department of engineering technology at Northern Illinois University. Her research focus is in the area of heuristic optimization, scheduling, facilities planning and process improvement. She worked in the airline and supply chain industry before joining the academia. She has brought in more than a million dollars by collaborating with local companies and hospitals (such as Caterpillar Inc. and Edward-Elmhurst health) on applied research projects. These projects focused on layout design improvements, assembly process flow optimization, patient flow and PT/OT scheduling problems.

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Christine Nguyen is an associate professor in industrial and systems engineering at Northern Illinois University. Her research focuses on developing algorithms and methods to analyze large-scale supply chain and transportation problems. She also works on industry-sponsored projects in the areas of material handling, warehousing, distribution, healthcare, service, and manufacturing. Recent projects include building machine learning models to predict short term rentals, designing facility layouts for distribution centers and warehouses, and improving processes at a package sorting facility.

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Jennifer Pazour is an Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY. Her research and teaching focus on the development and use of mathematical models to guide decision making for logistics and supply chain challenges. She has won institute-wide and national teaching awards and is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award, a Johnson & Johnson Women in STEM2D Scholar, and an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award. She proudly holds three degrees in Industrial Engineering (a B.S. from SDSMT, and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas).

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J. David Porter, a Professor and Associate Head of Graduate Education in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University, received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 1999 and 2000. Dr. Porter’s research focuses on the modeling, and performance evaluation of data collection systems in application domains such as manufacturing, intralogistics, and transportation. His research focuses strongly on the development of quantitative methodologies to understand the impact that the implementation of technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID), radio frequency data communications (RFDC), and Bluetooth have on system performance.

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ALICE E. 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. Dr. Smith’s research focus is analysis, modeling, and optimization of complex systems with emphasis on computation inspired by natural systems with a current focus on logistics including warehousing and drones in last mile delivery. She holds one U.S. patent and several international patents and has authored more than 200 publications which have garnered over 16,000 citations and an H Index of 50 (Google Scholar). She is the editor of the recent book Women in Industrial and Systems Engineering: Key Advances and Perspectives on Emerging Topics (https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783030118655#aboutBook). Dr. Smith has been a principal investigator on over $10 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 18 distinct grants including a CAREER grant and an ADVANCE Leadership grant. She is a four-time Fulbright Fellowship grantee. Dr. Smith is a fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a senior member of the Society of Women Engineers, a member of Tau Beta Pi, and a Registered Professional Engineer. She was named a 2020 Yellowhammer Women of Impact (20 women are honored each year in the State of Alabama https://alabamawomen.org/#2020 ) and was named an INFORMS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Ambassador in 2021. She is a current member of CICMHE and is editor in chief of INFORMS Journal on Computing and an area editor of Computers & Operations Research.

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Fabio Sgarbossa is Full Professor of Industrial Logistics, leader of the Production Management and Logistics Group and responsible of the Logistics 4.0 Lab at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. His research projects focus on traditional topics as design and management of industrial logistics systems, technological innovation, material handling and warehousing, but also new advanced one, as industry 4.0 and 5.0, human centric design, additive manufacturing, hydrogen supply chain. He has published over 150 publications in relevant international journals, and he is Associate Editor for International Journal of Production Research and member of several editorial boards.