UB - University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Born in China, Zhang completed her BS and MS at Xiamen University before coming to UB to pursue her Ph.D. She decided that IE was her calling after taking a class in Operations Research (OR), a course in linear programming. "OR is such an elegant art," she enthuses. Zhang won the 2006-2007 Material Handling Education Foundation Scholarship for her work on congestion in a factory site.

The NSF-funded project is a study of movement and congestion that can result in inefficiency and potential safety hazards. The project employs both deterministic and stochastic analytical programming models to determine how changes to the system, such as rerouting traffic flow, might improve overall performance in the factory.

The project forms the basis for Zhang's dissertation, in which she plans to develop a computer simulation to verify the analytical models. To code those results, she'll be using a computer program she's written herself.

Zhang says she wants to work in the industry when she graduates so that she can work on "real-life problems." She comments, "You feel a real sense of achievement when you deal with this kind of problem. It's real, not abstract." Zhang recently attended the 2006 IIE Research Conference and won the Best Paper Award for her paper, "Workflow Congestion in a Facility Layout."

Zhang says that "the best thing about this department is all of the interdisciplinary topics that can be explored in research." She explains, "There are a lot of applications for the research going on in this department." She mentions that the department is recognized especially for the homeland security research that's being done, and for the fact that it's been done in a way that combines different approaches within IE.

One of the great strengths of the department, she says, is the opportunity to work on projects with industry, not just from a research standpoint but also from a professional perspective: "I learned how to communicate with clients, to help them define the problems" as well as solve them, she says. Another strength she emphasizes is the faculty: "The professors are so accessible. Whenever you stop by and knock on the door, they are always willing to give you their time. The working environment is so friendly." Plus, she adds, they "have a great passion for research, which inspires you to get excited about your own work here." The faculty also takes advising very seriously, says Zhang: "whenever there are opportunities, they make sure to help you take advantage of them."

The exciting thing about IE, says Zhang is that "other engineers play with materials. We are playing with ideas; our job is to come up with better ideas and then implement them." Zhang's ideal job would be to be an OR analyst for an airline company.