Nagi to head Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering

Rakesh Nagi has been named the next head of the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering (ISE) at Illinois.

Nagi served as the chair of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) from 2006 to 2012, where he has taught since 1993. Prior to his years at Buffalo, he was a research associate at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Systems Research and at France’s National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA).

“Rakesh is an accomplished researcher, teacher, and administrator,” said Andreas Cangellaris, dean of the College of Engineering at Illinois. “His research in, and perspective on, the fusion of sensor-based data and human information sources will be a welcome addition to our rapidly growing Big Data efforts. He will make an excellent leader of the ISE department.”

An expert in using location theory to improve production systems, information-based manufacturing, and military application of operations research, Rakesh has consulted on numerous government, military, and industry projects over the past 20 years. His current research interests include sensor networks and level2/level3 data fusion using graph theoretic models. While at Buffalo, he developed courses in agile manufacturing; logistics and supply-chain management; networks, routing and logistics; scheduling theory; and Big Data operations research.

“The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a Top 5 engineering school and has one of the most respected faculties in their areas of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering,” said Nagi, who will also be a Willett Professor in the College of Engineering. “I am looking forward to growing the department in faculty numbers, reputation, academic excellence, research contributions, and societal impact.”

A fellow of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, Rakesh has been recognized with the IIE's Outstanding Young Industrial Engineer Award in Academia, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Milton C. Shaw Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, the University at Buffalo’s “Sustained Achievement Award,” the Business First of Buffalo “40 under Forty” award, and a National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award. He has over 170 papers published in prestigious journals and conference proceedings.
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