MODEL RESPONSE - INDUSTRIAL AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING - Computational work informs public health policies - UW-Madison Engineering
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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING SPRING 2021 NEWSLETTER
INDUSTRIAL AND
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
MODEL
RESPONSE
Computational work informs
public health policies
1
CHAIR’S MESSAGE
FINE
Greetings!
It’s hard to believe that we have been adapting
FELLOWSHIP
ALBERT EARNS AAAS HONOR
to the challenges presented by the COVID-19
pandemic for a full year now. We’ve gone to great Professor Laura
lengths to serve our students from all over the Albert jumps at
world during this trying time, while continuing opportunities to
to pursue our research that creates and applies use her research
industrial engineering knowledge for the public to inform public
good. Our work has kept us busy, and we’re proud of what we’ve achieved, policy and to share
some of which is highlighted for you in this newsletter. her work beyond
Our students never cease to amaze and impress us. ISyE student groups have academic circles.
remained active throughout the pandemic, as evidenced by the numerous Her efforts earned her top recognition
awards various chapters received at their fall conferences. Additionally, from the American Association for the
individuals have been recognized at the very highest levels for their work, Advancement of Science (AAAS), which
like PhD student Renee Greene, who has received the 2021 International elected her a fellow as part of its 2020 class.
Ergonomics Association’s K.U. Smith Student Award.
Albert, who is also a Harvey D. Spangler
Our students aren’t the only ones receiving recognition. Professor Laura Faculty Scholar, received the honor
Albert has been named a fellow of the American Association for the for her distinguished contributions to
Advancement of Science, and Assistant Professor Gabriel Zayas-Caban the application of operations research
received the early career award from the Minority Issues Forum of the methodologies to public policy, and for
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). communicating her research to the public.
The pandemic hasn’t slowed down our world-class faculty in their research, Through her operations research,
either. With active grants across a wide range of research interest areas, she applies optimization approaches
our faculty members are busier than ever. In fact, our department’s faculty to challenges in critical public sector
are currently ranked first in the nation in the Faculty Scholarly Productivity infrastructure, such as homeland security,
Index (FSPI) produced by Academic Analytics. Our operations research and emergency response and cybersecurity.
health systems engineering experts have been called on frequently over the Albert uses Twitter and her blog, Punk
past year to apply their research to pandemic-related challenges, and they Rock Operations Research, to explain her
have contributed significantly to identifying ways to battle the spread and work. She’s also written op-ed pieces in
collateral effects of COVID-19. publications such as The Hill and Fox News
This spring also brings significant changes to the faces in our department. and shared her expertise in numerous
Longtime professor and former department chair Vicki Bier recently retired, media interviews.
and I will be stepping down as chair in a few short months. Professor Laura “It’s important that we look beyond our
Albert will be taking the reins, and I assure you, the department will be in discipline and make a difference in the
extremely good hands under her leadership. world and think about what impact our
We are grateful for your continued interest in, and support of, our research has,” she said in an AAAS
department. I hope that, in the near future, we can be together on campus. member spotlight.
Until then, please feel free to reach out to me by phone or email. I would love The fellowship honor, dating back to 1874,
to connect with you personally. is bestowed annually on members of AAAS
who are nominated by their peers and
On, Wisconsin! recognized for their efforts to advance
science and society.
Jeffrey Linderoth
Harvey D. Spangler Professor and David H. Gustafson Department Chair
linderoth@wisc.edu • 608.890.1931
ENGINEERING
engr.wisc.edu/isye facebook.com/uwisye @uwisye linkedin.com/groups/138818
2
PREDICTIVE
PREVENTION:
Undergrad works to help
diabetic patients in India
For several thousand dollars, diabetic
patients can purchase a mat capable
of thermally imaging their feet to
preemptively detect ulcers and transmit
data for remote monitoring.
The technology is impressive. But the cost
means it’s also out of reach for most patients
and clinics in low-resource settings across
the globe, where diabetes is most prevalent. Jan Wodnicki
“Those kinds of resources are just not
available to many people in India,” says Thor Larson
ISyE undergraduate student Jan Wodnicki,
who’s working on a lower-cost, portable
high prevalence of diabetes in India and ulcers before they break through the skin.
alternative, with India as the focal point.
overwhelming demand at hospitals.” The two took Boutilier’s Machine Learning in
“They’re kind of left out of this ‘big medicine.’”
Action course during the fall 2020 semester,
The idea emerged from the Department of
allowing them to tinker with different
Biomedical Engineering’s undergraduate
methods of data analysis.
design curriculum via alumna Kayla
Huemer (BSBME ’18), who worked on a They’re currently able to identify, with
device prototype as a Fulbright Scholar in roughly 89% accuracy, whether a patient has
India but wanted to incorporate machine developed an ulcer based on thermal imaging
learning for data analysis. data—and hope to push that rate above 95%.
To achieve that—and create
Wodnicki and Larson focused
an automated process to
more on the mechanical design of
quickly generate a risk score
the device during their semester
for each patient—they say
together in the biomedical
they simply need to collect
Wodnicki, a junior from Brookfield, engineering design program.
more data in the field, which
Wisconsin, received a Wisconsin Idea Wodnicki subsequently switched
would allow them to use
Fellowship to support the project, his major, but the two have
more advanced machine
which is a collaboration with biomedical continued the effort and turned
learning techniques broadly
engineering student Thor Larson. It’s a their attention to the data science
known as deep learning to
blend of medical device prototyping and side of the project.
refine their algorithms.
advanced data analysis. They’ve created an app to
The COVID-19 pandemic
“We see it as kind of a rapid triage solution, streamline the data collection
shelved their plans to travel
where instead of having everyone assessed process when taking images,
to India in summer 2020,
by a physician, you would take a picture allowing users to quickly analyze
but they’re hopeful they’ll be
of their feet and they would get some the data. And, with guidance
able to go once conditions
kind of risk score. If they were deemed from ISyE Assistant Professor
improve around the world
low risk, they would be sent back home Justin Boutilier, Wodnicki and
and travel is less restricted.
and if not, they would proceed further Larson have used data from
with clinical examination,” says Wodnicki. Huemer’s work in India to develop “I’ll be ready to when we’re
“The motivation is that there is such a algorithms that can identify able to,” says Wodnicki.
3
RETIRING BIER LEAVES
LEGACY OF RELEVANT
RISK RESEARCH
Midway through graduate school at Since arriving at UW-Madison in 1990 after the COVID-19 pandemic. Welburn started
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vicki working as a risk analyst at a consulting firm working with Bier as an undergraduate
Bier encountered a crisis of confidence. for clients in the nuclear power industry, student and says she was the reason he
The aspiring risk analysis researcher found Bier has tackled current and relevant stayed at UW-Madison to pursue his
herself lacking the inspiration to devour issues such as homeland security resource PhD, even though his focus on economics
the latest journal articles on the inner allocation, the effects of deregulation problems was outside of Bier’s established
workings of algorithms—and worried that on nuclear power safety, and pandemic lines of research.
her disinterest was a warning sign, revealing preparedness.
“She was quite supportive in pushing us to
some personal shortcoming.
“A lot of my interests have been drawn from do the work that we wanted to,” he says.
She stepped away from school for a year, the news,” she says. “I have had an eye for
Bier, who’s supervised 20 PhD students
taking a job at the consulting firm Arthur problems where I thought progress could
in total (plus one still in progress), points
D. Little to work on risk analysis in the be made reasonably quickly, either because
to watching her first PhD advisee, Naceur
chemical and petrochemical industry. not enough people were thinking about
Azaiez (PhD ‘93, now a professor at the
Exploring tangible problems like the something or because I had a different angle
University of Tunis in Tunisia), as one of her
risk of failure at a chemical plant and on how to think about it.”
enduring professional memories.
following high-profile questions about
Former PhD student Jun Zhuang (PhD
nuclear power risk in the news awakened She remembers feeling a sense of
’08), now a professor at the University
a realization in Bier. trepidation after turning down several
at Buffalo, has modeled his own decision
academic jobs while working in consulting.
“I discovered that once I was working on analysis course after Bier’s. Zhuang, along
She’s grateful UW-Madison has proven her
something related to policy, I no longer with fellow PhD graduate Chen Wang (PhD
instincts correct.
felt uninterested,” she recalls. “A lot ‘13, now an associate professor at Tsinghua
of operations research really is about University in China), organized a 2017 “The thing I’ve appreciated most about
efficiency, and that was just never as conference in China to honor Bier’s legacy being here at Wisconsin is the level of
interesting to me. It’s important; it’s good and work in risk and decision analysis. freedom that faculty have to choose
that there are plenty of people doing what they want to work on,” she says. “I
“She’s a lifelong mentor for me,” says
it, but it was not as interesting to me as never felt constrained. There were a lot
Zhuang.
something where I could see a broader of people doing very interesting, eclectic,
societal relevance.” Likewise, alumnus Jon Welburn (BS ’10, interdisciplinary work, and that was really
PhD ’16), now an operations researcher at important to me.”
Bier has carried that fervor for investigating
the policy think tank RAND Corporation,
timely topics with her ever since, including
remains in frequent contact with Bier; in
during her 30-year career as an ISyE
fact, the two are collaborating on a paper
professor at UW-Madison. She retired in
examining systemic risks in the wake of
January 2021.
4
LOCAL LOOK
Alagoz’s region-specific COVID modeling shows
effect of social distancing measures
As the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold in regions across the “Everybody knows, qualitatively, social distancing measures have
United States in spring 2020, governors, mayors and local leaders made a difference, but I think this is one of the most accurate
hoping to quell the spread of the virus turned to the only actionable estimates of how much of a change they really led to,” says Alagoz,
defenses available at the time: They closed schools and businesses, an expert in infectious disease modeling. “In places where you
banned mass gatherings, issued stay-at-home orders and enforced have high population density and a lot of movement in and out of
other social distancing measures. the area, the impact of social distancing is significantly greater,
compared to other places. Wisconsin, for example, implemented
A study led by Proctor and Gamble-Bascom Professor
the same social distancing measures
Oguzhan Alagoz and published in the Annals of Internal
statewide, but the impact was different
Medicine quantified the region-specific impact of social
in Dane County, Milwaukee and other
distancing measures on the COVID-19 caseload in three
areas. Our model actually is able to tell
distinct areas: New York City, the Milwaukee metropolitan
us this quantitative estimate of how
area and Dane County in Wisconsin.
much of a difference we are going to
Using aggregated cell phone mobility data as a way to track see from one region to another.”
how people complied with social distancing policies, Alagoz
The group’s model took into account
and collaborators from the UW-Madison School of Medicine
each region’s demographics, infections
and Public Health created a computational model to simulate
imported from outside the area,
COVID-19 cases based on when social distancing directives
asymptomatic transmission, age-
were implemented and eased, as well as how diligently people
specific adherence to social distancing
adhered to those orders.
rules, and limited availability of testing
The simulation showed social distancing measures wielded Oguzhan Alagoz in the early months of the pandemic.
major influence on case numbers, though the impact varied Alagoz notes that a confluence of those
markedly in different areas, even within the same state. factors drives infection rates in different areas, which demonstrates
According to the researchers’ model, the timing of implementing the need for region-specific modeling and policies.
social distancing measures was particularly crucial in New York, Throughout the pandemic, Alagoz has worked closely with
where the state restricted mass gatherings March 12, 2020, and colleagues in the School of Medicine and Public Health and at
introduced increasingly stringent measures over the following UW Health to develop and refine models to aid health officials in
10 days. Dane County and south-central Wisconsin. He has also shared
However, according to the model, had the state acted one week his efforts with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
earlier, the number of cases in New York City would have been 80% He says the work has been among the most challenging
less (41,366 instead of 203,261) by the end of May; conversely, a experiences of his career.
week’s delay would have increased the caseload nearly seven times,
“We spent five years building a model for hospital-acquired
to more than 1.4 million. The impact of the timing wasn’t as dramatic
infections, two years building a model for tuberculosis
in Dane County, where a one-week delay would have increased its
transmission, and only two weeks to model COVID-19,” he says.
number of cases 36% by the end of July.
5
KNOWLEDGE RETENTION
Undergraduates sharpen skills while helping rural school district
When recent graduate Bailey Benck worked To identify underlying causes, the students But the students say tackling such a
at a manufacturer in Waukesha, Wisconsin, gathered input from district administration challenging assignment in the course,
as part of a cooperative education and surveyed the full teaching staff. Then, taught by senior lecturer Terry Mann,
program, he found himself applying process using industrial engineering methodologies, has given them enduring lessons to carry
improvement techniques to problems they distilled those responses into unifying forward into their careers.
straight from his industrial engineering themes and set about generating ideas
“If you can get your hands dirty in a
courses. for tactics to address those
real system, especially a nontraditional
issues, balancing what could
But when Benck and three engineering environment, it really puts
be done in a semester with
classmates from ISyE 515: your skills to the test,” says Parks, who also
the potential impact.
Engineering Management of graduated in December 2020. “This is going
Continuous Process Improvement In the end, their to help me in the real world—I won’t say
took on a project during recommendations more than any of my other experiences at
the fall 2020 semester to included new leadership UW, because they’ll all contribute—but this
improve teacher retention and training, school and one’s going to be a key to me succeeding in
recruitment in a rural school district value-defining private or public industry.”
district in central Wisconsin, workshops, goal-setting
Wermuth says the district is already
they discovered a very different activities and streamlined
Bailey Benck implementing some of the students’
way to apply those concepts. internal communications.
suggestions.
Empowering teacher voices to enhance
“In class, we don’t talk about how these
their sense of investment in the district was “The students went above and beyond in
tools can be applied to a school district,”
a common thread. The qualitative nature of providing us information and just a really
says Benck, who graduated in December
the project and the complexities of working different way to look at the problem that’s
2020. “Our project really forced us to
on, as Benck puts it, “one big people- occurring in our district and occurring in a
establish that deep understanding of the
oriented system” necessitated multifaceted lot of other rural districts across the state of
tools we learned and developed, and how
strategies to encourage long-term change. Wisconsin,” says Wermuth. “We’re going to
to use and apply them to a little bit less
change some processes and practices that
traditional situation.” “Culture change work is hard,” adds
we have in the district to allow teachers
Maderal.
Benck and groupmates Joshua Fernandez, more voice in the decision-making.”
Dom Maderal and Reid Parks sharpened
their command of industrial engineering
tools while delivering actionable
recommendations for the Adams-
Friendship School District, which serves
roughly 1,500 students and sits an hour-
and-a-half drive north of the UW-Madison
campus. The project was part of UniverCity
Alliance, a UW-Madison research and
outreach effort that connects faculty, staff
and students to tangible issues facing local
communities.
Teacher retention was a particular issue for
Adams-Friendship in 2018 and 2019, when
the district lost roughly 20% of its teaching
staff each summer. That made it the top
priority for Adams-Friendship District
Administrator Tom Wermuth when he took
over in 2019. A student works during in-person learning at Adams-Friendship Elementary School.
Photo courtesy Adams-Friendship School District.
6
DEPARTMENT NEWS
Faculty News Student News
Proctor and Gamble Duane H. and Dorothy
Bascom Professor M. Bluemke Professor
Oguzhan Alagoz Robert Radwin is
received a $2.4 million leading a project to
grant from the National bolster human and robot
Cancer Institute to apply collaborations in the
mathematical modeling manufacturing sector
to the overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer. He through a $1.5 million grant from the NSF.
is also part of a $9.1 million collaborative
grant from the National Institutes of Recently retired Professor
Health to use simulation modeling Vicki Bier received
to examine precision breast cancer an NSF grant to test
treatments and inform clinical policies. different strategies for
incentivizing preemptive
relocation in areas at risk PhD student Renee Greene was the
for coastal flooding. Bier 2021 recipient of the International
is also serving on a National Academies of Ergonomics Association’s K.U. Smith
Science, Engineering, and Medicine ad hoc Student Award.
committee applying risk analysis to the
threats of nuclear war and terrorism. Our INFORMS student chapter was
selected as a winner of the INFORMS
Professors and Harvey D. Spangler Jane R. and Jack G. 2020 Student Chapter Annual Award
Faculty Scholars Laura Albert and Jim Mandula Assistant at the cum laude level, while our
Luedtke are using a $1.2 million grant Professor Gabriel Zayas- student chapter of the Human Factors
from the National Science Foundation Caban earned an early and Ergonomics Society received the
(NSF) to develop an optimization career award from the organization’s gold status.
framework that can help organizations Minority Issues Forum
effectively and efficiently protect their of the Institute for
information technology systems. Operations Research and the Management
Sciences for his research and service.
Alumni News
Associate Professor Kaibo We honored two outstanding alumni
Liu is using grants from the Harvey D. Spangler as part of the college’s annual awards.
U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Professor
and 3M to apply a machine Nicole Werner landed a Jeffrey J. Rotsch
learning technique called grant from the National (BS ’72), retired
transfer learning to Institute on Aging president of
nuclear reactor safety and to further develop worldwide
maintenance and industrial manufacturing CareVirtue, a web and sales at General
production systems, respectively. He mobile app, to support family caregivers Mills, received
also received a grant from the U.S. Army of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. a Distinguished
Engineering Research and Development Achievement
Center to develop new artificial Award for his
Professor Raj Veeramani
intelligence methods and tools to improve work driving
received the E-Business
predictive maintenance of smart and global business success in the
Chair Professorship.
connected systems. Liu won the Institute consumer foods industry.
Veeramani is executive
of Industrial and Systems Engineers’
director of the UW
Innovations in Education Award. James Tamplin
E-Business Institute and
(BS ’06, MS ’07),
UW E-Business Consortium,
David H. Gustafson founder partner
connecting the university with industry.
Department Chair and at Founder
Harvey D. Spangler Collective
Assistant Professor and executive
Professor Jeff Linderoth
Justin Boutilier was board member
earned a grant through
named the Charles at Covid Act
the American Family
Ringrose Assistant Now, received
Funding Initiative to
Professor, supporting an Early Career
apply integer programming methods to
his work applying Award for his efforts transforming
create algorithms that could be used
optimization and mobile app development as cofounder
to solve mixture matrix completion
machine learning techniques to global of the startup Firebase.
problems. Professor Jim Luedtke is a
health challenges.
co-principal investigator.
7
engr.wisc.edu/isye
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
1513 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706
Mintz makes machine learning work
for personalized healthcare
Leave it to an optimization researcher who technology, to refine drug dosing plans in “The thing that I find interesting is how do
specializes in healthcare to use county-level intensive care units, and to better model the machine learning and optimization impact
COVID-19 data to meticulously plot out a different variations of Parkinson’s disease. people? How can we use them to impact
move from Atlanta to Madison, Wisconsin. people for good? How do we understand the
As a PhD student at the University of
That’s precisely what Yonatan Mintz did negative effects they have?” he says. “I feel
California, Berkeley, he developed the
ahead of his drive north in late summer 2020. like this is where I can make the most impact:
algorithm behind a fitness app that learned
these problems of human-sensitive machine
Mintz, who joined ISyE as an assistant users’ exercise and food preferences and then
learning and optimization and making sure
professor after two years as a created goals suited to them. In
that these algorithms work for us instead of
postdoctoral fellow at Georgia a randomized controlled trial,
the other way around.”
Tech, applies optimization and the app outperformed Fitbit in
machine learning methods to spurring users to exercise more.
tailor healthcare interventions
Mintz plans to continue creating
to individuals. He says ISyE’s
models to promote health and
strengths in optimization and
wellness via mobile apps and
health systems engineering,
wearable technology. He’s also
paired with its long track
developing an algorithm to
record of collaboration with
inform individualized dosing
medical researchers across the
Yonatan Mintz strategies for the blood thinner
UW-Madison campus, makes it
heparin. His work on Parkinson’s
an ideal home for his work.
disease involves both a model to predict
Mintz’s research portfolio includes leveraging different manifestations of the disease and
patient data to hone personalized health methods to more clearly explain the factors
and wellness solutions through wearable behind a diagnosis.
8
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