Two Industrial Engineering Faculty Members Inducted to the Teaching Academy

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• Two Industrial Engineering Faculty Members Inducted to the Teaching Academy

Ashlea Bennett Milburn and Kelly M. Sullivan were recently inducted to The Teaching Academy of the University of Arkansas.

Milburn joined the faculty of the Department of Industrial Engineering in 2010. She received her doctoral degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, her master’s degree from Virginia Tech and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas.

She received an NSF CAREER Award in 2017 for her research to develop decision-support models that identify scenarios in which the integration of information posted to social-media could improve emergency response. Other research interests include optimization, large-scale heuristics and systems dynamics modeling.

In 2019, Milburn was inducted into the Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering. She earned the Dean’s Award of Excellence in Rising Teaching in 2018. The award recognized her for outstanding teaching evaluation scores and positive feedback from her students. Students praised her dynamic teaching style, engaging in-class conversations and ability to connect course material to real-world applications.

Sullivan joined the Department in 2012. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Florida, his master and bachelor degrees from the University of Arkansas.

Sullivan was the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award in 2018 for his research improving the reliability of wireless ad hoc sensor networks. Whether they are used for detecting terrorist threats, tracking forest fires or observing our ecosystems, sensor networks play a critical role in everyday life, and Sullivan’s research is designed to find out how to keep them running.

His CAREER Award also includes plans for two new honors courses in the College of Engineering. “Being an honors student here was a major reason why I pursued a Ph.D.,” Sullivan said. “It’s your first experience into the research process, and you have a much more in-depth, personalized experience.”

The first course in Sullivan’s proposal is a sophomore-level seminar course that equips students to identify a research topic and faculty mentor. The course brings together students from different disciplines to learn about the research process and gain exposure to interdisciplinary research topics.

The second is a junior-level course in which students will write research proposals seeking real funding. Sullivan said the course plans to target the Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship, or SURF, as well as funding from the University of Arkansas Honors College. A similar program within the industrial engineering department has resulted in an increase in successful grant applications, something Sullivan said he hopes to see college-wide.

With Milburn and Sullivan added to the Teaching Academy, the Department of Industrial Engineering counts five faculty members as members: Letitia Pohl (2016), Manuel Rossetti (2013) and Richard Cassady (2006).

 

About The Teaching Academy of the University of Arkansas: The Teaching Academy is a society committed to excellence in teaching at the University of Arkansas. It was established in 1988 by Dan Ferritor, at that time Chancellor of the University of Arkansas. The Academy’s mission is to advocate and represent teaching interests, promote and stimulate an environment of teaching and learning excellence, and encourage recognition and reward for exceptional teaching.

The Teaching Academy consists of faculty members who have been recognized by their peers, colleges and the university for their excellence in teaching, including excellence in classroom teaching. Other criteria for being selected to the Academy include a professor’s ability to establish a special rapport with students, to instill in them a love for learning, and to encourage them to go beyond the expectations of the classroom and to explore their disciplines for themselves.

The Teaching Academy logo represents a drop of water falling into a pond creating ripples spreading out in all directions, having an effect which can neither be controlled nor predicted. So it is with the effect of outstanding teaching on our students.

The full news story can be found here.

 

January 19, 2022