Industrial and Systems Engineering

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Project Title #1: Healthcare Cost Transparency Tools
Department:  Industrial and Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Michelle Alvarado, alvarado.m@ufl.edu
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s): Behshad Lahijanian
Terms Available: Summer
Student Level: Junior, Senior, 2 students a term
Prerequisites: Statistics, Interest in healthcare systems engineering and technology
Credit:  0-3credits via EGN 4912
Stipend: None unless selected for SURF
Application Requirements: Resume, UF unofficial transcripts, Statement of research interest, Faculty interview, email one pdf file of requirements to Michelle Alvarado, alvarado.m@ufl.edu
Application Deadline: April 15
Website:
N/A
Project Description: Due to recent U.S. healthcare reform, a number of healthcare cost transparency tools (HCTTs) have become available for patients to view and estimate costs of anticipated health services. This research will systematically a) identify a broad sample of HCTTs across different platforms (web, apps, etc.); 2) evaluate their accessibility (login required), data availability (number of conditions, geographic region), type of information displayed (statistics and integration with provider reviews), and user-friendly features; and 3) provide a case study comparison of the HCTTs for certain health conditions (e.g. knee surgery, labor and delivery).

Project Title #2: University Counseling and Wellness Center Scheduling Project
Department:  Industrial and Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Michelle Alvarado, alvarado.m@ufl.edu
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s): Meserret Karaca 
Terms Available: Fall, Spring, and Summer
Student Level: Sophomore, Junior, Senior; 2 students a term
Prerequisites: This skills are desired, but not required: programming, statistics, simulation, OR 1 and OR 2.
Credit:  0-3credits via EGN 4912
Stipend: None unless selected for University Scholars or SURF
Application Requirements: Basic Online Application, Resume, UF unofficial transcripts, Statement of research interest, Faculty interview, email one pdf file of requirements to Michelle Alvarado, alvarado.m@ufl.edu
Application Deadline: April 1 for Summer and Fall; November 15 for Spring Term.
Website:
N/A
Project Description: The objective of this project is to support scheduling needs at the University of Florida Counseling and Wellness Center (UF-CWC). The UF-CWC has high levels of walk-in demand, some of which are for highly urgent needs and others are for new clients. This project uses methods from machine learning, simulation, and optimization to determine optimal staffing levels at the UF-CWC’s two campus locations.

Project Title #3: Simulation and Scheduling of Mohs Micrographic Surgery
Department:  Industrial and Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Michelle Alvarado, alvarado.m@ufl.edu
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s): Behshad Lahijanian
Terms Available: Summer
Student Level: Junior, Senior, 2 students a term
Prerequisites: Statistics and Simulation
Credit:  0-3credits via EGN 4912
Stipend: None unless selected for SURF
Application Requirements: Resume, UF unofficial transcripts, Statement of research interest, Faculty interview, email one pdf file of requirements to Michelle Alvarado, alvarado.m@ufl.edu
Application Deadline: April 15
Website:
N/A
Project Description: Mohs Micrographic Surgery (MMS) is an iterative surgical method for removing skin cancer. Scheduling MMS is challenging due to the stochastic nature of layered skin removal. We have developed a stochastic sequential scheduling method and simulation model (Arena) of the scheduling and surgical processes. This research project will focus on data collection at a local MMS clinic, analysis of the data, and verification of the simulation model results using the real clinic data.

Project Title #1: Human motion analysis and activity recognition with multiple sensing technologies (multiple projects)
Department:  Industrial and Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Boyi Hu, boyihu@ise.ufl.edu
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s): TBD based on project and availability
Terms Available: Fall, Spring, Summer
Student Level: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, 2-3 students per semester.
Prerequisites:  Projects can be designed per student’s interest and background. Students considering graduate school are especially courage to apply. Desired skills include experiences working with human subjects (patient or aging population), good communication skill, coding fundamentals, basic data processing and statistical analysis experience.
Credit:  0-3credits via EGN 4912
Stipend: None unless selected for University Scholars for the 1st semester; then $12/hour up to 10 hours per week
Application Requirements: Resume, UF unofficial transcripts, statement of research interest, faculty interview, email one pdf file of requirements to Boyi Hu, boyihu@ise.ufl.edu to request an interview
Application Deadline: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis
Website:
N/A
Project Description: My lab works on identifying pathways that influence and improve human health. Our innovative research approach utilizes a systems framework that is driven by design of tools with the goal of improving human well-being and system performance. The primary outcome of much of my research is the prevention of work-related injuries and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). My research study designs are both observational/descriptive and experimental, based in both the laboratory and the real work environment. Current top priorities currently: (a) falling injury prevention for aging population and typical working groups; (b) implementation of wearable sensing technology in healthcare and rehabilitation area.

Project Title #2: Validating the use of wearable technology and machine learning for exposure assessment of workers to uneven surfaces
Department:  Industrial and Systems Engineering, Computer and Information Science and Engineering, & Electrical and Computer Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Boyi Hu, boyihu@ise.ufl.edu
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s): TBD based on project and availability
Terms Available: Fall, Spring, Summer
Student Level: Junior, Senior, 1-2 students per semester.
Prerequisites:  Project details can be developed based on student’s interest and background. Students considering graduate school are especially courage to apply. Prerequisite skills include: 1) at least 1 year of programming experience (Matlab or Python preferred); 2) signal processing fundamentals; 3) machine learning fundamentals
Credit:  0-3credits via EGN 4912
Stipend: $12/hour up to 20 hours per week
Application Requirements: Resume, UF unofficial transcripts, statement of research interest, faculty interview, email one pdf file of requirements to Boyi Hu, boyihu@ise.ufl.edu to request an interview
Application Deadline: N/A
Website:
N/A
Project Description: The two main goals of this pilot project proposal are to: 1) determine if workers’ gait behavior as measured by wearable sensors in real workplace differs significantly on different walking surfaces experienced by typical workers; and, 2) determine if artificial deep learning network algorithms can detect walking surface categories using signals from wearable sensors mounted on workers’ body during typical walking tasks.

Project Title: VA Clinic Process Improvement
Department:  Industrial and Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Xiang Zhong, xiang.zhong@ise.ufl.edu
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s): N/A
Terms Available: Fall, Spring
Student Level: Junior, Senior, 1 student per semester.
Prerequisites: COP 2271 Computer Programming For Engineers, STA 4322 Introduction to Statistics Theory
Credit:  0-3 credits via EGN 4912
Stipend: none unless selected for University Scholars
Application Requirements: Basic online application, resume, UF unofficial transcripts, email one pdf file of requirements to xiang.zhong@ise.ufl.edu to request an interview
Application Deadline: N/A
Website:
N/A
Project Description: The objectives of this project were to model patient flow in Gainesville VA Medical Clinics, evaluate resource utilization rate and waiting times, identify major areas of inefficiency within the VA clinic system, and improve patient flow and the scheduling of resources. A simulation model will be developed, which is capable of transforming inputs into objective data-driven outputs. These objective data-driven outputs can include queue length, clinic utilization rate, and provider utilization rate. Policy makers could use the data to recognize areas of inefficiency within the clinic and exploit those areas with new policies.

Project Title: Human-Aware Path Planning and Avoidance for Better Human-Robot Interaction  
Department:  Industrial and Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Boyi Hu, boyihu@ise.ufl.edu 
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s): Yuhao Chen
Terms Available: Fall, Spring, Summer
Student Level: Junior and Senior
Prerequisites: Familiarity with ROB system; or
Have experience in 3D print prototyping (solidworks etc.); or
Have experience in electronic prototyping; or
Have experience in computer vision (OpenCV, PCL, etc.); or
Have experience in machine learning (prefer TensorFlow with TensorFlow); and
Have passion for cool research projects
Credit:  0-3 credits via EGN 4912
Stipend: none unless selected for University Scholars the 1st semester. Subsequently, based on the performance, $10 per hour up to 10 hours per week. In addition, faculty mentor will assist the mentee in seeking college or federal fellowship (e.g. NSF graduate research fellowship). 
Application Requirements: Resume, UF unofficial transcripts, statement of research interest, faculty interview, and sample work; email one pdf file with all application requirements to Boyi Hu, boyihu@ise.ufl.edu  
Application Deadline: N/A
Website:
N/A
Project Description: The primary aim of the current study is to investigate how mobile robots’ path planning and collision avoidance modes (human-aware or robot-centered) affect human safety perception, perceived workload, job performance, and human-robot collaboration fluency in a mock-up warehouse setting with a fully autonomous robot. With a robot-human ratio of approximately 1:1 and plenty of state-of-the-art Human Factor and Ergonomics research devices, my lab welcomes all talented students to work with me on human-robot interaction projects. 

Project Title #2: Nonprofit Decision Analytics
Department:  Industrial and Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Aleksandr Kazachkov, akazachkov@ufl.edu
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s): 
Terms Available: Fall, Spring, Summer
Student Level: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, or Senior; 2 Students per Term
Prerequisites: Understanding of analysis of algorithms, experience with linear or integer optimization preferred but not necessary. Python or Julia programming experience helpful.
Credit:  0-3 credits via EGN 4912
Stipend: none unless selected for University Scholars
Application Requirements: Resume, UF Unofficial Transcripts, and Faculty Interview; To request an interview, email one pdf file with all application requirements to akazachkov@ufl.edu.
Application Deadline: March 1 for the summer term, July 15 for fall term, and November 1 for spring term
Website:
akazachk.github.io
Project Description: There is an opportunity to partner with a local Gainesville nonprofit to explore improvements to their operational efficiency and/or analyze the fairness of their current allocation or logistics strategies. This would begin with a data-gathering phase and a cost-benefit of analysis of technological interventions compared to the organization’s existing approach. A key focus of this work is to investigate if there exist better policies to improve allocations over time. Another avenue is exploring the nonprofit’s responses when facing disaster scenarios. 

Project Title #1: Inclusive Design of Automated Vehicles for Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairments
Department:  Industrial and Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Wayne Giang, wayne.giang@ise.ufl.edu
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s): Mahtab Eskandar, m.eskandar@ufl.edu
Terms Available: Fall, Spring, Summer
Student Level: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, or Senior; 2 Students per Term
Prerequisites: none, tasks may differ based on previous experience and courses taken
Credit:  0-3 credits via EGN 4912
Stipend: none unless selected for University Scholars
Application Requirements: Basic online application, resume, UF Unofficial Transcripts, and Faculty Interview; To request an interview, email one pdf file with all application to Dr. Wayne Giang (wayne.giang@ise.ufl.edu) with an email title “Inclusive AV Design Undergraduate Research Application” 
Application Deadline: Rolling
Website:
N/A
Project Description: Automated vehicles have the potential to be a great resource to improve independence and quality of life for individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who may no longer be able to drive themselves anymore or feel unsafe doing so. However, current automated vehicles may be especially difficult for those with MCI to use due to how they change the driving task and the complexities of the systems. In this project, you will be assisting with the design and evaluation of an inclusive automated vehicle of the future focused on supporting those with MCI. In this project you will learn skills about human factors engineering, cognitive science, human-computer interaction, and user experience design.

Project Title #2: Human factors data analysis of Advanced Driver Assistance System usage by individuals with Parkinson’s Disease
Department:  Industrial and Systems Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Wayne Giang, wayne.giang@ise.ufl.edu
Ph.D. Student Mentor(s): N/A
Terms Available: Fall, Spring, Summer
Student Level: Sophomore, Junior, or Senior; 2 Students per Term
Prerequisites: programming (any), statistics (good to have)
Credit:  0-3 credits via EGN 4912
Stipend: none unless selected for University Scholars
Application Requirements: Basic online application, resume, UF Unofficial Transcripts, and Faculty Interview; To request an interview, email one pdf file with all application to Dr. Wayne Giang (wayne.giang@ise.ufl.edu) with the title “PD AV Undergrad Student Application” 
Application Deadline: Rolling
Website:
N/A
Project Description: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), such as adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assist, and In-Vehicle information Systems (IVIS), such as blind spot monitors, are new safety features that has potential benefits for driver safety, particularly for older adults or individuals with medical conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD). In this project, we are evaluating whether individuals with PD have improved driving performance when using ADAS and IVIS technologies in an on-road study. A variety of data (video, vehicle telemetry, experimenter notes) are collected as part of this study. We are looking for students who are interested in helping with the organization, data cleaning, and data analysis of this data to answer human factors questions about ADAS and IVIS usage (i.e., how do individuals with PD benefit from these technologies, how well do individuals with PD understand these systems, and what can we change about the human-machine interface to improve the usability of these systems?). You will learn skills in human factors engineering, statistics, R, Python, computer vision and machine learning as part of this project.