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ISE Charts New Mission with Global Reach

Industrial & Systems Engineering boasts more than an expanded name. Its mission also is expanding, geographically and across disciplines that might seem surprising at first glance. ISE’s work now extends all the way to Mozambique, on Africa’s southeast coast, thanks to a collaboration with the UW Global Health program in the School of Public Health and Health Alliance International (HAI), an affiliated nonprofit organization.

HAI received a seven-year $10 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to work with the Mozambican Ministry of Health to strengthen primary health care in a region hard hit by the AIDS epidemic, poverty, and other challenges. Project teams will work in Sofala Province in central Mozambique, where fewer than ten doctors serve more than 1.6 million people — most living without running water and electricity.

“ISE is contributing expertise in three main areas,” said department chair Richard Storch. “We’re looking at ways to help district health care managers improve the productivity of hospital clinics and health care centers, the logistics for delivering drugs and supplies, and the allocation of health care providers.”

As the economy has shifted in recent decades, the field of industrial engineering has been moving away from a manufacturing focus to a service industry focus. Coincident with the rising concern over the efficiency, quality, equity, and cost of America’s health care system, health systems engineering is becoming a major specialty area of research and teaching.

With grant funding, ISE is developing a Center for Health Systems Engineering Best Practices that will concentrate in three areas: (1) major urban hospitals starting with UW Medical Center and Children’s Hospital, (2) the Mozambique project, and (3) U.S. inner city public health clinics and clinics serving remote rural areas.

In addition to Storch, participating ISE faculty include Zelda Zabinsky, Christina Mastrangelo, and Archis Ghate. Initially, the center will fund the work of two graduate research assistants, with a longer term plan to hire a center director and two new junior faculty who specialize in health systems engineering.

“We are probably one of the few industrial engineering programs working in the global arena,” Storch said. “It’s tremendously exciting because we are tapping into a growing strength in the Seattle area and at the UW. We are already attracting engineering students who want to pursue careers in global health.”

Molecular Engineering Building Groundbreaking
October 9, 3:30 to 4 p.m.

Dean Matt O’Donnell and Vice Provost Phyllis Wise lead the ceremony at Grant Circle near Gerberding Hall, just north of the building site on Stevens Way. Join us to cheer the symbolic construction launch of the 160,000-square-foot facility. It will house interdisciplinary laboratories, faculty offices, meeting rooms, and space for graduate students.

Lamborghini Laboratory Dedication

Aeronautics & Astronautics dedicated the Automobili Lamborghini Advanced Composite Structures Laboratory on October 6. Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. provided generous support for the laboratory, established in late 2007 with the reopening of Guggenheim Hall. The ACSL, directed by Assistant Professor Paolo Feraboli, hosts research activities focused on the safety and certification of composite aircraft structures.

Read more about the lab: Seattle Times blog, seattlepi.com article, uwnews.org article, and more.