About Industrial Engineering

The Imhoff Legacy

In 1949 plans were announced to offer the Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. At the time, students working on a Bachelor of Arts degree in Industrial Management were given the opportunity to take additional courses to qualify for the new degree. The first students to graduate with the degree graduated in 1950 and 1951.

John L. Imhoff was hired as the first head of the program in 1951. Coming from the industrial engineering option in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Minnesota, he had coordinated the program and was keen to see the program at the University of Arkansas succeed.

An engineering educator for more than 50 years, Imhoff thrived on the global impact potential of the industrial engineering discipline. His vision encompassed the undergraduate, graduate and teaching levels.

He believed that global sharing through educational channels would lead to greater cooperation and understanding. He was very committed to students within the classroom and was passionate about professional student organizations as well as faculty involvement within those organizations.

He encouraged students to travel abroad on work/study programs and to take summer jobs abroad; and he encouraged faculty to bring in speakers who had worked abroad to share their experiences.

In 1966, Imhoff was president of the Alpha Pi Mu Industrial Engineering Honor Society, which hosted the national conference at the University of Arkansas. The meetings were attended by outstanding students from APM chapters around the country and featured talks by Dr. Lillian Gilbreth, the acknowledged “mother of industrial engineering.”

John L. Imhoff Chair in Industrial Engineering

The John L. Imhoff Chair in Industrial Engineering was established in 1989 by Dr. Imhoff’s family, friends, former students and colleagues. The chair serves as means to reward faculty members who embody Dr. Imhoff’s passion for global studies and its importance to student growth in the profession, commitment to student success, enthusiasm for teaching and excellence in research.

The inaugural recipient of the John L. Imhoff Chair in Industrial Engineering was Richard Cassady in 2006.

Previous recipients

2024-2025	Justin Chimka
2023	Xiao Liu
2021-2022	Shengfan Zhang
2019-2020	Kelly Sullivan
2018-2019	Ashlea Milburn
2016-2017	Chase Rainwater
2014-2015	Ed Pohl
2012-2013	Manuel Rossetti
2010-2011	Heather Nachtmann
2008-2009	Ed Pohl
2006-2007	Richard Cassady

 

The John L. Imhoff Global Studies Endowment in the Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering

In October of 1996, donors established the John L. and Lois J. Imhoff Charitable Remainder Unitrust to be used for the benefit of the University of Arkansas. Of the various endowments initiated from that donation was the John L. Imhoff Global Studies Endowment in the Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering.

The purpose of this endowment was to create the John L. Imhoff Global Studies Scholarship for industrial engineering students engaged in overseas for-credit study and work programs. The first scholarship was awarded in 2005 and is awarded twice annually.

John L. and Lois Imhoff

Dr. Imhoff left a lasting legacy in the Department of Industrial Engineering, from serving as the first department head to the various scholarships and endowments that carry his name. The department continues to exemplify the beliefs he espoused of global sharing, a commitment to student growth and success, and an enthusiasm for teaching and excellence in research.

We are so grateful that we have this shared history of Dr. Imhoff, and we are proud to call him a member of the family of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Arkansas.

The Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering (AAIE) jointly with the Department Head organizes a liaison committee that serves in the capacity of an advisory board to the department. The committee is comprised of accomplished professionals from business, industry and academia who bring both an applied perspective and an independent assessment to the industrial engineering program at the University of Arkansas.

The members of the 2024 Liaison Committee are:

Dennis Anderson

Dennis L. Anderson II is Chief Strategy Officer for ArcBest®. With over 20 years of experience in logistics, he leads the company’s strategy management efforts, which include organic and external initiatives to create value. He and his team also focus on sharing the ArcBest story to build positive brand awareness and deep, trusted relationships with external stakeholders. Dennis joined the company in 2003 after beginning his career at Walmart Logistics, a division of Walmart Stores Inc. He also serves on the Brandon Burlsworth Foundation Board, and on the Board of Directors for the United Way of Fort Smith Area. Dennis holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Arkansas and is a member of the Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineers (AAIE).

Stu Garrett, Committee Chair

Stu Garrett specializes in aviation information technology and special systems. He has more than 21 years of experience in enhancing 18 of the world’s 25 largest airports, helping clients find new technology solutions that provide passenger convenience and operational efficiency. He is currently the Business Development Manager, Aviation & Federal at Burns & McDonnell. Stu is also the immediate past-president of the Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineers. Stu received a BSIE degree from the University of Arkansas in 1986.

Ilyas Iyoob

Dr. Ilyas Iyoob is chief data scientist and distinguished engineer at IBM-Kyndryl.  He pioneered the seamless interaction between machine learning and operations research in the fields of autonomous computing, fintech, and blockchain.  As a successful entrepreneur at Gravitant, a start-up focused on optimizing the cloud journey, he helped build and sell the company to IBM in 2016.  Dr. Iyoob currently advises over a dozen venture funded companies and serves on the faculty of the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.  He has earned a number of patents and industry recognition for cloud intelligence and was awarded the prestigious World Mechanics prize by the University of London in 2001.  He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Arkansas and a Ph.D. in operations research from the University of Texas at Austin.

Bill Klimack

Dr. Klimack is bp’s Decision Quality Manager. A retired U.S. Army Colonel, he was the Director of the Operations Research and Systems Engineering Programs, the Operations Research Center of Excellence, and served as interim Head of the Department of Systems Engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Following his Army career, he worked as a consultant supporting the federal government, oil and gas, and the pharmaceutical sectors. He worked at Chevron 2012-2020 as the Decision Analysis Job Family Manager. More recently he led the University of Oklahoma’s MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering.  He has a BS in chemical engineering from Lehigh University, a MS in applied mathematics from Johns Hopkins University, a MMAS from the US Army Command and Staff College, and PhD in operations research from the US Air Force Institute of Technology. He is a Certified System Engineering Professional, a licensed Professional Engineer, a Certified Analytics Professional. and a Fellow of the Society of Decision Professionals, the National Speleological Society, and the Explorers Club. 

Michele Lezama

Michele Lezama is President and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc., a non-profit research-based organization that provides collegiate scholarships and upskill training to promising talent. Prior to NACME she served as a graduate initiatives strategist at Purdue University’s Minority Engineering Program (MEP) and at the University of Notre Dame she served as executive director of The National GEM Consortium (GEM). Prior to GEM, Lezama served as Executive Director of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Under Lezama’s leadership, NSBE received the 2003 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring awarded by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology. Before focusing on the non-profit sector, Lezama was the Director of Satellite Scrambling Operations at Home Box Office (HBO) and she was Associate Director of Broadcast Operations and System Integration at CBS television. Prior to Lezama’s media career she was an engineer with IBM in New York. Lezama earned her BS in Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University (NACME Scholar) and both her MS in Industrial Engineering (GEM Fellow) and MBA in Finance and Accounting (Toigo Fellow) from Columbia University.

Douglas Mettenburg

Mr.  Mettenburg is VP Engineering & Technology, J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. He finished his BS in Industrial Engineering at Iowa State University in 1998 and pursued a MS degree in Industrial Engineering at University of Arkansas after 6 years of industry work. He graduated from the U of A in 2007. Mr. Mettenburg has over 20 years of Transportation and Supply Chain experience in developing transportation and supply chain solutions. Doug’s work experience includes software development, third party logistics, and supply chain consulting. As a member of the J.B. Hunt Transport, he is responsible for the Operation research team, Data Science team, Data Engineering, and Business Intelligence.  

Mandy Robinson

Mrs. Robinson is a VP Engineering & Technology, J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. After finishing her BS in Industrial Engineering at the University of Arkansas in 2004, she began her career in the Business Skills Rotation Program at The Boeing Company in St. Louis, MO. For the first 12 years of her career, she held many roles within Boeing including Contracts & Pricing and leading a Weapons International Program Management Office. In 2016, she moved back to Northwest Arkansas and join J.B. Hunt as a Program Manager for the J.B. Hunt 360 Platform. Since joining J.B. Hunt she has spent time leading a Data Science team and is currently a Relationship Leader ensuring the Business Executive teams are realizing the value of their technology investment. She is currently serving as the President of the Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering. 

Yisha Xiang

Dr. Yisha Xiang is the associate professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Houston. Her current research and teaching interests involve data-driven decision-making under uncertainty and statistical machine learning. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, including a CAREER grant, and industry. She has published articles in refereed journals, such as INFORMS journal on computing, IISE Transactions, European Journal of Operational Research, and Naval Research Logistics. She was the recipient of the P.K. McElroy award, Stan Oftshun award, and Doug Ogden award for best papers at the Reliability and Maintainability Symposium. Dr. Xiang received her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Nanjing University of Aero. & Astro., China, and M.S and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from University of Arkansas. She serves as an Associate Editor for IISE Transactions and IEEE Transactions Automation Science and Engineering. She also currently serves as President of the IISE Quality Control and Reliability Engineering Division and Chair of the INFORMS Quality, Statistics, and Reliability Section.  She is a member of IISE and INFORMS.