COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
ISyE NEWS DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
SUMMER 2010
customer on hold for a long time
A with a call center support person
probably feels somewhat frustrated.
A call center manager would likely prefer
to avoid this customer response, but the
answer isn’t necessarily as straightforward
as scheduling additional call-takers for the
next day. The
Not-so-risky business: manager has
to balance
New computational the costs of
models will offer additional
employees
decision support with the risk
of customer
dissatisfaction, and without knowing exactly
how many calls to expect the next day, it can
be almost impossible to achieve that balance.
Assistant Professor Jim Luedtke is working
on a new set of tools to help decision-makers
in such settings. He has received a prestigious
CAREER award from the National Science
Foundation and a five-year, $400,000 grant
to research risk modeling and computational
optimization for decision support. “I look at
settings where complex decisions must be
made in the face of uncertain outcomes,”
he says. “I’m studying new models to allow
decision-makers to specify their level of risk.”
Current computational approaches
to decision-making suggest solu-
tions for the best outcome on
average. For example, standard
tools could produce a call center
workforce schedule that results
in a small number of unhappy
customers on an average day.
(Continued on page 2)
www.engr.wisc.edu/ie
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
Celebrating 25 years of quality research
T
he offices of the Center for
Quality and Productivity
Improvement (CQPI) are
housed in the Engineering Centers
Building on the UW-Madison campus,
but the center’s real work
happens in hospitals,
intensive care units
and other healthcare
settings around the
country. Over the
last 25 years,
CQPI has grown
into an interdisci-
plinary research group that applies human
factors and systems engineering principles
to healthcare, computer and information
security and other work processes.
Founded in 1985 by Professor Emeritus
George E.P. Box and the late Professor
William G. Hunter, CQPI was revolutionary
from the start for its emphasis on finding
quality not only in finished products, but
also in the processes leading to products
and services. Initially focused on manufac-
turing quality, CQPI faculty demonstrated
a commitment early on to community
outreach-oriented work. In the 1980s, the
center was involved in setting up the first
quality and productivity assessment in
city government, and, among many other
community projects, center faculty worked
with the Madison Police Department to
find ways to better deliver law enforcement
services to the public.
“CQPI was a huge change in how people
thought about quality and methods for
analyzing and monitoring quality,” says
Procter & Gamble Bascom Professor in
Total Quality Pascale Carayon, who has
been the director of CQPI since 2000.
“The center has become known
throughout the United
States as where people
have developed a lot of
new ideas and
models.”
Each CQPI
director since Box
has steered the center toward different,
important process and quality challenges in
a variety of industries. When Carayon took
over, she guided CQPI toward healthcare-
based issues, which is mainly what the
center now addresses.
Carayon has also overseen the transition
of center personnel from mainly engineering
and statistics researchers to include
experts in healthcare and psychology, as
well as partners from disciplines across
UW-Madison.
Currently, more than 30 interdisciplinary
researchers and graduate students are
affiliated with the center on a variety of
projects. Scientists Peter Hoonakker and
Ann Schoofs Hundt are part of a team
studying the implementation of computerized
provider order entry (CPOE) systems in
hospital intensive care units.
(Continued on back page)
ISyE
1
 www.engr.wisc.edu/ie

THE CHAIR’S MESSAGE Patricia F. Brennan QRM director

DEPARTMENT NEWS
3270 Mechanical Engr. Bldg.
1513 University Avenue
n July 1, I began my Procter & Gamble Bascom

O fourth year and final

six months as chair of the
Madison, WI 53706
pbrennan@engr.wisc.edu
Professor in Total Quality
Pascale Carayon is collaborating
Department of Industrial and Systems Phone: 608/263-1315 with Pediatrics Assistant
Engineering. I want to thank all of you who have Professor Elizabeth Cox on a
been on this journey with me, especially the faculty, research project to implement and evaluate
who supported my vision of an academic chair whose research and teaching program family-centered bedside rounds to improve
continued to thrive while serving as chair. family engagement, leading to improvements
In particular, Professors Jeff Linderoth, Shiyu Zhou, Vicki Bier, Raj Veeramani in quality of care and patient safety. Cox and
and David Zimmerman stepped forward to lead an important initiative and toiled Carayon have been named principal investigator
for thankless hours to insure the department had the resources, self-reflection and co-principal investigator, respectively, on
Passing and intellectual rigor to continue to thrive. Professor Pascale Carayon, as
associate chair, insured the implementation of the student services hub and
a five-year, $2.4 million grant from the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality and a
the guided deliberations about student challenges, timetable oversight and the one-year, $100,000 grant from the National

torch academic affairs cluster. She provided a gentle nudge in the right direction when-
ever I needed it. Carol Anne Krueger, department administrator par excellence,
Patient Safety Foundation.

grew up with me into a cracker-jack team of department leadership. Finally, On April 16, the Human-
Dean Paul Peercy and Associate Deans Steve Cramer, Jerry Kulcinski and Barb Computer Interaction Lab,
McPherson provided their unwavering support for our department and its mission. directed by Computer Sciences
My tenure as chair, I hope, will be remembered as a period of time that our faculty and Industrial and Systems
emerged from a position of individual excellence to an excellent team. They took up the challenge Engineering Assistant Professor
to restructure the qualifying exam, rationalize our workload model and reduce the number of Bilge Mutlu, and the UW-Madison IEEE
committees, while increasing the productivity of faculty work groups known as “clusters.” In Robotics Team hosted a daylong educational
collaboration with our ISyE Advisory Board, the faculty established three goals to guide our growth workshop for K-12 students, teachers, parents
in the next few years: re-invent manufacturing, re-engineer healthcare and innovate ISyE methods. and members of the university. Hosted in
We now have a LinkedIn group, more than 100 students engaged in MentorNet, financial conjunction with National Robotics Week,
growth from our alumni and friends, and more than 200 new BS grads, 150 MS grads and 30 the event was held in the Engineering
PhD grads—good on ya, colleagues, we done good! Centers Building and Bucky Badger made
Please welcome our new department chair, Vicki Bier, who becomes chair in January 2011. an appearance.
Vicki’s leadership team includes Shiyu Zhou

?
as associate chair for graduate studies and
Bentzi Karsh as associate chair for under-
graduate studies.
I am leaving to become theme leader of
the Living Environments Laboratory in the
New computational models
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. I will remain
a full ISyE faculty member and will assume
responsibility for ABET accreditation activities.
I stood on the shoulders of those great
leaders who previously served the department:
Gerald Nadler, Steve Robinson, Dave
Gustafson, Michael Smith, Arne Thesen and
Harry Steudel. May my contributions have the
impact theirs had, my mistakes disappear into
long-forgotten memories of kindly colleagues,
and my work provide as sturdy a foundation
for Vicki, Shiyu and Bentzi as was provided to
me by those who led before!
Patricia Flatley Brennan
RN, PhD, Professor and Chair
(Continued from front page)
However, the schedule may not help the
center be equipped to deal with days that have
an abnormally high number of calls, and there-
fore, an abnormally high number of unhappy
customers. This may be an unacceptable risk
for the manager.
Luedtke is working to develop new algorithms
in a field known as stochastic programming to
specifically address uncertainty in decision-
making settings, while allowing for individual
preferences for risk. These new algorithms,
which will address constraints that limit the
probability of bad outcomes, will offer alterna-
tive solutions to the best-on-average solutions
produced by current models.“When you aren’t
making a decision thousands of times, being
best on average doesn’t matter to you,” explains
Luedtke. “If a decision-maker has just one
shot, she may be willing to give up making a
choice that is best on average to reduce the
risk of being one of the bad outcomes.”
Luedtke’s methods could have a broad
range of applications in fields such as
medicine, business and finance. Physicians
could use the computational tools to help
design effective, individual radiation treatment
plans for cancer patients, and government
agencies could use the tools to choose
cost-effective disease control policies.
Businesses could design effective supply-
chain management and workforce staffing
schedules. Financial planners could help
people develop investment portfolios tailored
to their personal levels of acceptable risk.
Luedtke also is working to increase the
number of decision-makers who use compu-
tational optimization—a priority that fits well

ISyE
2
 The Polygon Engineering Council,
which represents engineering under-
graduate students, recognized Lecturer
Terry Mann and teaching assistant
Jiangxiao Zhu with 2010 Outstanding
Teaching Awards. The awards were
presented at the Polygon spring
banquet on April 25.
Professor Emeritus Rajan
Suri, the founding director
of the UW-Madison Center
for Quick Response
Manufacturing (QRM), has
released a new book about QRM case studies.
Titled It’s About Time: The Competitive
Advantage of Quick Response Manufacturing,
the book illustrates how QRM can help
companies gain market share and compete
with manufacturers in low-wage countries.
The June 2010 issue of Internet
Retailer magazine, which is
widely recognized as the leading
national magazine devoted to
e-commerce, featured an article
about e-commerce related to university
education. The article references e-business
courses taught by Professor Raj Veeramani
and the successful partnership between the
UW E-Business Consortium and industry. Read
more at www.internetretailer.com/2010/05/27/
e-commerce-101.
with the CAREER award emphasis on creative
projects that effectively integrate advanced
research with outreach and education. He
will work with the Wisconsin Center for
Academically Talented Youth to educate
middle and high school students about how
optimization strategies, and advanced math
in general, can solve real-world problems.
Luedtke also will incorporate concepts about
decision-making in the face of uncertainties
into an undergraduate engineering course
and develop a new graduate course about
stochastic programming models and com-
putational tools. These courses will reinforce
critical thinking skills and help students learn
to question the assumptions underlying the
mathematical models. “I want this research
to help decision-makers, but this will only
have an impact if people use the models,”
says Luedtke.
n the early 2000s, Milwaukee-based Phoenix Products was facing a host of
I challenges, including increasingly slow deliveries to customers, out-of-control
inventory and high employee turnover. “We were constantly expediting proj-
ects,” recalls Phoenix Chief Executive Officer Scott Fredrick. “Everything was an emergency
and we weren’t getting anywhere.”
By 2004, the issues had reached a crescendo for the special-purpose lighting equipment
manufacturer. “We had been running overtime every Saturday for a year and a half,” Fredrick
says. “We had to do something.”
QRM Center gives Phoenix products a bright future
A Business Journal of Milwaukee article by Professor Emeritus Rajan Suri
introduced Fredrick to what that something would be. Fredrick attended a
seminar hosted by the UW-Madison Center for Quick Response Manufacturing
(QRM), founded by Suri and currently directed by Associate Professor Ananth
Krishnamurthy (pictured).
Five years and a series of joint projects later, Phoenix and the QRM Center have established
an ongoing partnership with significant results. Phoenix has cut the time needed to produce
one particular lighting system from as many as 14 days to three days, and the sales lead
time for industrial floodlights has been cut by 50 percent. Overall, the company has cut
overtime costs by 75 percent and witnessed a 46-percent increase in inventory turns and a
27-percent increase in revenue per plant hours.
The partnership began in 2005, when graduate students from the QRM Center worked
with Phoenix to evaluate the company’s fabrication processes. Conventional strategies call
for producing parts in big batches because an operator only has to set up a machine once in
order to produce thousands of parts. “But if you only need 200 parts, the extras have to be
stored and can be lost or damaged,” says Fredrick. “Further, the time spent on the extra 800
parts should rather be spent on parts customers actually want now.”
QRM principles advise producing only the 200 needed parts and then sending the parts
to assembly, shaving significant calendar time off the total time needed to manufacture the
product. “The direct cost, which is easily measured, definitely goes up by only producing the
number of parts you need, but the indirect benefits come by making timely deliveries and
winning more business because of it,” says Fredrick.
After the successful fabrication project, Phoenix and the QRM Center partnered again in
2006 to study assembly processes, resulting in major workforce rearrangements. With QRM,
Phoenix grouped employees into larger, more stable cells that oversaw a product
through the entire assembly process. “People became a team with a sense of
ownership over the product, and this was a huge change in psychology,” says
Fredrick. “Absenteeism decreased, and we have much less turnover.”
Phoenix and the QRM Center continued to work together, studying
the company’s material handling and storage strategies in 2007. In
2010, the partnership began a new project to eliminate work stop-
pages in all areas of the company. QRM students have recommend-
ed workflow solutions that could reduce almost 90 percent of all
stoppages, which could save Phoenix as much as four to five hours
of lost labor every day. “QRM was counterintuitive in a lot of ways,”
says Fredrick. “But traditional approaches were making things worse
because those approaches didn’t address the root causes of what was out of balance.”
The successful student projects have turned Fredrick into a strong advocate for QRM.
He is a member of the QRM Center Industry Executive Committee and presented Phoenix’s
experiences at the 2009 International Conference on QRM. “If I can help promote QRM in
any way, I will. This is great for UW-Madison, and great for Wisconsin,” he says.
Overall, Krishnamurthy says the partnership is a win-win. “Our industry partners help
us understand important issues faced by Wisconsin manufacturers in today’s competitive
market, and together we work toward finding new solutions to these tough problems and
implementing them,” he says. “We are proud that our research has helped Wisconsin
manufacturers become more competitive and profitable.”
ISyE
3

MEET THE ISYE INDUSTRIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Brian Anciaux (BS ’83) is the
founder and owner of Phoenix,
Arizona-based Cactus Outdoor
Inc., which includes Cactus Bike,
Cactus Adventures and cactusoutdoors.com.
Anciaux obtained his MBA from Arizona State
University in 1988. After working as an
industrial engineer for a public utility and
American Express, he founded a software-
consulting company and RB Health, an online
health store with more than 90,000 customers.
Anciaux launched Cactus Outdoor in 2003. He
has served on the IAB since 2007.
Ronald Askin is the director of the
School of Computing, Informatics
and Decision Systems Engineering
at Arizona State University. He
received his industrial engineering bachelor’s
degree from Lehigh University, followed by
a master’s degree and PhD in ISyE from the
Georgia Institute of Technology in 1979.
His expertise is the application of operations
research and statistical modeling to
manufacturing and logistics systems. He is
a former editor of IIE Transactions on Design
and Manufacturing and a member of the IEE
Board of Trustees. He has served on the IAB
since 2009.
Cynthia Berigan (BS ’83) is a
consultant at Resources Global
Professionals, where she works
with clients to develop and imple-
ment transformational operations and supply
chain management initiatives in the consumer
packaged goods and health care supply
industries. She has held leadership positions
in manufacturing, supply chain and strategy
at Kraft Foods and GE, in addition to consult-
ing with companies of all sizes. She holds an
MBA from the University of Chicago and has
served on the IAB since 2003.
Michael Buseman is the senior
vice president of global manufac-
turing operations at Plexus Corp in
Neenah, Wisconsin. After receiving
his mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree
from South Dakota State University and his
MBA from the College of St. Thomas, he
worked in the electronics industry, first at
MSL and then at Celestica, before joining
ISyE
4
The members of the ISyE Industrial
AAdvisory
message Board (IAB) donate their time
from the ISyE
and efforts to assist the department
Industrial
with ongoingAdvisory
improvement Board Chair
initiatives.
The fellow
boardISyE
meets with faculty, staff
Dear colleagues,
and students
Following youonce a year
will find to of
a list discuss
your
issues and
Industrial formulate
Advisory Board suggestions for
representatives.
Plexus in 2006. He is responsible for the the department.
These In addition,
people unselfishly donatethe board
their time
global leadership role over EA supply chain
andefforts,
and its various committees
assisting hold several
the department with an
and manufacturing operations.
conference
ongoing calls throughout
improvement process. the
Theyear.
board
“During
meets oncemy tenure,
a year I have been
on campus amazed
with faculty,
Mike Ketter (BS ’99, MS ’01) is a senior
staff andopenness
at the students to
of discuss issues and
the department
engineer with the Supplier Development Team
formulate suggestions for the department.
chair, faculty and staff in discussing
at Harley-Davidson Motor Company. Ketter
and his team work with suppliers to improve
ongoing issues, goals and challenges,”
their processes and provide products to says IAB Chair Alan Mast.
Harley-Davidson in a timely and cost-efficient
manner. Ketter also leads the Motor Company
Supplier Flexibility Program. Prior to joining on the UW Foundation Women’s Philanthropy
Harley-Davidson in 2003 as a purchasing Council and Board of Directors, the Carillon
engineer, Ketter held a variety of roles at Beach Assoc. Board of Directors and other civic
John Deere & Company. He holds a lean groups. She has served on the IAB since 2007.
manufacturing certificate from the University
of Michigan and received his Six Sigma Green Alan Mast (BS ’75) is a water
Belt and Black Belt certification, as well as a treatment systems engineer with
Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and quick Hellenbrand Water. Mast also
response manufacturing training certification. owns two water conditioning outlet
operations and specializes in water treatment
Ed Kopetsky (BS ’78, MS ’81) is the applications, design, equipment selection
chief information officer at Lucile and implementation. He earned an MBA from
Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Marquette University in 1981. Mast has served
Alto, California. Kopetsky is an on the IAB since 2007 and as chair
experienced healthcare executive with expertise of the IAB since 2008. “It is interesting to
in integrated delivery systems, information see how the program has progressed over
technology planning and implementation, the years and exciting to be part of the
operations process and cost improvement, ongoing improvement process,” he says.
and consulting. Prior to joining Packard
Children’s in 2009, Kopetsky was a partner Mark Ronnie (BS ’83) is a client
at IBM Global Business Services, executive executive for IBM, responsible
vice president at Healthlink, and a senior vice for public sector business in
president and CIO at Centura Health and Sharp Wisconsin. He has worked at IBM
Healthcare. He has contributed nationally and for 28 years in a variety of technical and
locally to numerous professional organizations, leadership roles. He is active with several
including the College of Healthcare Information groups that focus on getting kids interested
Management Executives and the Microsoft in technical study, and he has served on the
Healthcare Users Group. IAB since 2007. “The IAB is a great group of
individuals whose advice and comments are
Jane Mandula (BS ’86) is the taken seriously by the ISyE leadership team,”
vice president of finance and he says. “We see the time that we invest being
MIS for GenTran Corporation, an valued and our advice being acted on.”
electrical products manufacturer
founded by her father. After graduation from Jeffrey Roznowski (BS ’80) is the
UW-Madison, Mandula moved to Silicon Valley director and co-founder of the
to work for ROLM Systems and later, IBM and Wisconsin Wireless Association, a
Siemens. She earned a certificate in telecom- faculty member at the Milwaukee
munications from the University of California, School of Engineering and an independent
Berkeley and an MBA from Santa Clara Uni- telecommunications consultant. He has 30
versity before joining Deloitte & Touche as a years of experience in telecommunications,
management consultant in 1990. In 1999, she wireless and technology companies and
joined Georgia-based GenTran. Mandula serves start-ups, as well as considerable experience
in finance, sales, marketing, public relations,
regulatory and training. Roznowski received
his MBA from UW-Milwaukee in 1985 and
serves on four civic boards in addition to the
IAB, which he joined in 2002.
Matthew Rudolph (BS ’88) is a
consulting partner with IBM Global
Business Services and leads a
global portfolio of consulting
engagements for medical device manufacturers.
He is also the electronics industry lead for the
IBM application innovation services line. He
has served on the IAB since 2007, bringing
10 years of experience working with a variety
of medical device clients from a variety of
consulting engagements.
Vinod Sahney (PhD ’70) retired in
February 2010 from his position
as senior vice president and chief
strategy office at Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Massachusetts. An expert in health-
care strategic planning and management,
Sahney is an adjunct professor at Harvard
and has served on the Harvard University
Executive Program Faculty for 33 years. Prior
to Blue Cross Blue Shield, Sahney worked as
senior vice president and chief strategy officer
at the Henry Ford Health System in Michigan.
He is a founding member of the Board of
Directors of the Institute for Health Care
Improvement and serves on boards at various
universities and health care institutes. He has
been elected to the Institute of Medicine and
the National Academy of Engineering.
David Weber (BS ’79) is the director
of corporate and foundation
relations in the Office of External
Relations at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Sloan School of Man-
agement. After graduating from UW-Madison,
Weber spent almost a decade in manufacturing
positions at GM before joining MIT in 1986.
His current position focuses on engaging
companies with MIT, and he has worked with
high-profile CEOs around the world. He has
received an MBA from MIT, as well as a
master’s degree in education from Harvard.
He serves on the Board for Junior Achievement
of Eastern Massachusetts, in addition to having
served on the IAB since its founding.
Alliance brings
e-business best practices
to Wisconsin manufacturers
T
he UW-Madison E-Business Institute (UWEBI) and the Wisconsin Manufacturing
Extension Partnership (WMEP) have announced a strategic alliance that will enable
Wisconsin manufacturers to share collective knowledge and lessons learned regarding
e-business technologies and best practices.
The partnership aims to enhance the competitiveness of small to midsize manufacturers in
Wisconsin by leveraging best practices in multichannel and web marketing, customer relation-
ship management, information technology strategy and information security, radio-frequency
identification, and supply chain management. This alliance will support educational and
collaborative offerings in the form of peer group meetings, webinars, conferences, white papers
and reports about successful use of e-business technologies and practices.  
“This new partnership will enable Wisconsin manufacturers to benefit from the proven
services of the UW E-Business Institute, which has a very successful industry consortium with
more than 60 corporate members,” says College of Engineering Dean Paul Peercy. “Manufac-
turing is a vital part of the Wisconsin economy and e-business practices represent a significant
growth opportunity.”
Employing e-business technology and practices in sales, marketing, customer service and
supply chain collaboration is increasingly essential for manufacturers striving to achieve opera-
tional excellence, says UWEBI Director and Professor Raj Veeramani (pictured).
“There is a common misconception that e-business is relevant only for companies that sell
products via the web—that is simply not true,” he says. “As IT continues to permeate more
companies and transform traditional business processes into IT-enabled ones, every business
is becoming an e-business.”   
Helping manufacturers could have a broad effect on the state. According to WMEP, manu-
facturing contributes almost $49 billion to the Wisconsin economy, employing around 434,000
workers. “This skill and knowledge transfer among small to midsize manufacturers will support
improved profitability, stronger growth and higher overall business performance for these
businesses in Wisconsin,” says WMEP Executive Director Mike Klonsinski.    
UWEBI is a campus-wide UW-Madison initiative conducting multi-
disciplinary research on e-business strategies, emerging information
technologies and innovative business practices that can help enhance
the competitiveness of Wisconsin industry. 
WMEP is a private, nonprofit consulting organization committed to
the growth and success of Wisconsin manufacturers. WMEP is a leader
in bringing best next-generation manufacturing practices to Wisconsin
firms to help them achieve world-class performance through innovation
and transformation. During the past five years, WMEP-assisted
manufacturers reported a $977 million economic impact with almost
8,000 jobs created or retained. WMEP receives financial support from the
Wisconsin Department of Commerce and partners with many public
and private organizations to serve Wisconsin manufacturers.
ISyE
5
STUDENT NEWS

W
hile on a bus headed to an Institute of and Associate Professor Jeffrey Linderoth
Industrial Engineers (IEE) conference served as a technical paper competition judge.
in 2008, students Kyle Brown and Professors Patricia Flatley Brennan, John D.
Matthew Kopetsky, then president of the UW- Lee and Leyuan Shi, along with Associate
Madison IIE chapter, tossed around the idea of Professors Ben-Tzion Karsh and Ananth
volunteering to plan the 2010 conference. Krishnamurthy, gave presentations about
Nervous but confident in the ability of their
members to come together, the pair took UW-Madison IIE chapter their research at the conference.
“Overall, it feels just awesome to know
the plunge and committed to hosting.
Almost 720 days and countless hours hosts 2010 Regional Conference that we planned an event that not only
bettered our chapter but brought our
of preparation later, Kopetsky and Brown department together as a whole by sparking
were right: The team of 14 ISyE students who planned the conference—dubbing themselves increased interaction between our students and
the “dream team”—hosted a successful and memorable regional conference attended by faculty,” says Kopetsky.
191 students and faculty from 10 Midwest universities, as well as IIE alumni and sponsors. “Ultimately, Kyle and I hope we inspired all
Held February 18-21 at the Concourse Hotel in Madison, the conference included interactive of the people who attended to be as passionate
workshops that the student team closely designed with presenters and sponsors. Tom Best about IIE as we are. You don’t devote two years
(BS ’06, MS ’07) led a particularly successful workshop by preparing an extensive hospital case to this if you don’t really value the organization
study for students to practice tackling operations problems and priorities. as part of your college education.”
The team also lined up several social events for the conference attendees, including an industrial
engineering trivia contest, gift certificates to various State Street businesses and even a pig roast
at the Essen Haus. “One of our goals was to share not only industrial engineering knowledge, but
our city’s culture and what it’s like to be a student here,” says Kopetsky, now a graduate student.
The UW-Madison IIE chapter is very active with around 100 student members and a robust
community of IIE alumni who stay involved with the campus chapter. UW-Madison holds
regional IIE conferences fairly regularly—the chapter last hosted in 2004—and the students say
they are consistently asked to plan the event again.
The economic recession took hold while the team was fund-raising for the event, but the
students were still able to raise more than $15,500 from a variety of industry partners.
Along with their sponsors, the team also credits the ISyE faculty for the success of this year’s Student Josh Thornton (right) won the best
conference. Professor Raj Veeramani advised the students throughout the planning process, paper award at the conference.

Undergraduate student Mitchelle Lyle won
first place for the best oral presentation and
second place for her poster presentation at the
Technical Research Exhibition Competition,
held at a fall regional conference of the National
Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Lyle, who
works in the UW-Madison Human-Computer
Interaction Lab, won the awards for a paper
titled “The relationship between user trust in
websites and usability.” The paper is based on
research Lyle conducted while participating in
the College of Engineering Summer Under-
graduate Research Experience. Her paper was
included in the 2010 NSBE national convention
technical proceedings in Toronto, Canada.
Graduate student Shannon Roberts received
a prestigious National Science Foundation
Graduate Research Fellowship, which comes
with a three-year annual stipend of $30,000
along with a $10,500 cost-of-education
allowance for tuition and fees and a one-time
$1,000 international travel allowance. The
coveted fellowship recognizes and supports
outstanding graduate students in NSF-
supported science, technology, engineering
and mathematics disciplines. Roberts is
part of the Graduate Engineering Research
Scholars program, which has produced six
NSF fellows in the last three years.
PhD student Debjit Roy was awarded first
prize for the best paper in the 2010 Wunsch
Materials Handling Prize. Offered by the
Engineering Professional Development
Technical Communication Program, the award
recognizes innovative materials papers with
prizes of up to $1,000. Roy submitted a paper
titled “Magic shelves: boosting e-retail sales
by reducing order picking inefficiencies.” The
paper explores how a mobile shelves-based order
picking system eliminates the inefficiencies
present in traditional order-picking systems
and boosts e-retail delivery times.
PhD student Rupa Valdez received a dissertation
grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality. The grant provides a $35,000
stipend and recognizes Valdez’s work at the
national level. The objective of her dissertation is
to reduce racial and ethnic healthcare disparities
through the creation of new, culturally
responsive approaches to health information
technologies (health IT). Valdez aims to create
a foundation for culturally informed consumer
health IT design strategy via an approach that
draws on anthropological and systems
engineering methods to systematically assess
culturally-diverse patients’ daily routines of
health information communication.

ISyE
6
 Beyond the classroom
T O
his spring, the Wisconsin
women’s basketball team
wrapped up one of its most
successful seasons in program history
with a third-place finish in the Big Ten
and its first NCAA appearance since 2002.
The Badgers’ 21 victories this season ties
for the second-most in UW-Madison
history. The roster included ISyE senior
Teah Gant, who was featured in a Feb. 28
The Cap Times (Madison) article. This
profile is an edited version of the article.
Teah Gant
As a member of the Chicago Hoops
Express Amateur Athletic Program while in high school, Gant had at-
tracted attention from a variety of Big Ten programs. Her top priority
was to find a school that had an engineering program and was within
comfortable driving distance for her mother, Kim, to be able to come
to games.
“Having my mom be able to come and watch my games, that
was definitely No. 1 on my list,” says Gant. “She’s just been a great
influence in my life. Just seeing her go through what she’s had to in
order to raise me and my brothers on her own gave me the strength
to know I can get through anything.
“Having her here every game and taking her life to come and
support me, there’s nothing more I can say about that. She’s just a
wonderful person.”
Gant, who is from Oswego, Illinois, wasn’t keen at first on the idea
of UW-Madison because four of her former AAU teammates were
already on the team. “I kind of wanted to go somewhere I didn’t know
people; I don’t know why,” Gant recalls. “In the end, knowing them
helped me adjust faster. When I came here for my visit, they offered
me right away and I didn’t think that was
going to happen. But I committed because
there wasn’t any need for me to visit any
other schools.”
Head Coach Lisa Stone says Gant’s
patience was a team asset. “She’s never
been one to get caught up in too much
drama or anything else, she’s just been
even-keeled.”
Her teammates agree.
“When we’re on the court Teah brings
out the calmness in me,” says teammate
Rae Lin D’Alie. “She’s always laughing at
me when I’m all hyper and she’ll go, ‘chill,
chill.’ Then at times I’ll go, ‘Let’s go Teah,
let’s get up,’ and she’ll get all intense.”
Gant plans to pursue her master’s degree in industrial engineering
at UW-Madison with an emphasis on ergonomics. “I think I’m just
going to be a spectator now,” says Gant of her future basketball plans.
“Basketball has been my life for longer than I can remember. It’s
been a great opportunity, but I’m ready to move on to other things. I’ll
still play at the SERF, but I want to see what else I can do in my life.”
Read the original article at http://tinyurl.com/2g76hyr.
n March 25, undergraduate
student William Hochschild
joined more than 30 former U.S.
Senate pages and staffers in Washington,
D.C., for a luncheon with a very special
host: President Barack Obama.
While in high school, Hochschild joined
the competitive Senate Page Program.
Each year, the program receives more than
15,000 applications for approximately 30
spots, and applicants are appointed and
sponsored by a member of Congress.
Pages live in Washington, D.C., for one William Hochschild
or two academic semesters and must
balance school with a demanding work schedule at the Congressional
complex. Duties include delivering correspondence and legislative
materials, preparing the Senate chamber for sessions, and carrying
bills and amendments.
Hochschild, who is from Burlington, Wisconsin, and was sponsored
by U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, spent the fall semester of his junior year
of high school in the program. It’s common for senators to hire former
pages, and when he returned to Wisconsin, Hochschild accepted an
unpaid position with then-U.S. Senator Barack Obama in Chicago,
which is closer to Burlington than is Madison.
Initially, Hochschild performed mainly office-related duties, but he
sensed Obama would become very successful. “I wanted to be tied to
something big,” he says.
That “something big” came when Obama announced his presidential
candidacy and began assigning his staffers to research issues central
to his campaign. Hochschild was part of a team that looked at the
constitutionality of Obama’s proposed healthcare legislation. He
helped analyze and interpret previous Supreme Court cases dealing
with social welfare issues, such as Medicare and Social Security.
He continued working for the Obama campaign until the start
of the 2008 academic year, by which time he was a student at
UW-Madison. “The research experience shaped where I am today,”
says Hochschild, who is currently a student assistant in the UW
Radio-Frequency Identification Laboratory.
He appreciated the opportunity in March to reunite with some of
his fellow former pages and see his former boss. Though he has
attended many state functions with dignitaries and celebrities, he
says there was something special about seeing Obama as president.
“It was extremely nice for the president to take time out of his day
to recognize people who worked for him,” he says. “It hit me, this is
the president, and the political nerdiness in me came out. I was in
awe and was very excited.”
Hochschild has political aspirations of his own and says a degree
in industrial engineering will give him a unique background for a
political career. “Politics is my true passion, and I picked ISyE due to
the fact that, in politics, there are a lot of lawyers who don’t necessarily
understand the business aspects of governing,” he says. “ISyE looks
at the business of being more efficient and running more effectively,
and we need that in a politician. ISyE is also about making sure what
you’re doing is ethically responsible.”
Hochschild has his eye on the 2012 Wisconsin State Assembly
race, which will take place shortly after his college graduation.
ISyE
7
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CQPI researchers and students celebrate the center’s anniversary at an event on April 30.

(Continued from front page)
As a technology designed to offer
clinical-decision support, CPOE
is used to reduce medical errors.
For example, computerized orders
help avoid dispensing errors that can come
from misreading handwritten physician orders.
The technology can increase patient
safety, but CPOE also is changing clinical
workflows—and those changes can have
unintended consequences. One example is
antibiotic ordering; while CPOE cuts down on
the amount of time to order these medications,
it doesn’t address delays in the process of
actually administering the medication to
Celebrating 25 years
of quality research
patients. CQPI researchers are studying how
to adapt workflows to take full advantage of
the technology and, more generally, how to
implement CPOE most effectively in individual
hospitals.
In addition to various healthcare-related
projects, including projects funded by the
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality,
National Institutes of Health and U.S.
Department of Defense, among other national
agencies, CQPI researchers are applying
human factors engineering to computer
security. “The process is the same,”
says Hoonakker, comparing the CQPI
healthcare and security projects.
“We talk to people about the reasons
behind what people do. So how should
engineers develop systems that take human
capabilities and limitations into account?”
Ultimately, Carayon says the center’s basic
idea of looking at process challenges means
the center will never run out of problems to
study in collaboration with partners from
many industries. “Quality and process
improvement is something that is needed
everywhere,” she says.

ISyE
8