Doctoral student Matt Drake was selected to attend the 12th Annual Council of Logistics Management Doctoral Symposium in Chicago in September. Held each year before the annual conference, the Symposium invites approximately 20 students from around the world.

Six doctoral students have received $5,000 fellowships from the Atlanta Chapter of ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation. They include: Paul Brook, James Luedtke, Brian Lewis, Jerome O'Neal, Josh Reed, and Ray Popovic. ARCS was founded to encourage students to pursue challenges in science and engineering. The Atlanta Chapter provides scholarships to students from Tech, Emory University, and Morehouse College.

Doctoral student Milind Sohoni received an Honorable Mention in the 2003 George B. Dantzig Dissertation Prize, awarded each year by INFORMS. The prize includes a certificate and $100.

NSF Fellow Helps Determine
Health Care Treatment Options

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently honored ISyE Ph.D. student Paula Edwards, BIE 1995, with a 2003 Graduate Research Fellowship. Each year NSF very selectively awards these prestigious fellowships to recognize and support outstanding research in science and engineering. Edwards' received this award for her proposed research, "Patient Decision Support Systems in Healthcare." Over the next three years, she will be exploring human-computer interaction, cognitive engineering, and decision theoretic aspects of developing web-based patient decision support systems.

The goal of Edwards' research is to design systems to help health care providers and patients work together to decide which treatment options are right for the patient. For example, with diseases like cancer, the treatment options frequently have serious side effects, so it is important that the patient and doctor work together, considering not just the patient's physical health, but also their values and preferences in the treatment decision. Edwards' research will contribute toward developing systems that educate patients about their disease and treatment options and help them work with their doctor to determine which treatment is right for them. "It is an honor to have my research recognized by the NSF," said Edwards, "It shows that there is a real need in the market for systems designed to consider the human, in addition to technical and information, requirements, especially in healthcare."

Edwards performs her research in ISyE's Laboratory for Human-Computer Interaction and Health Care Informatics, co-directed by Dr. Julie Jacko, associate professor of ISyE, and Dr. Fran�ois Sainfort, William W. George Professor of Health Systems and associate dean for Interdisciplinary Programs in the College of Engineering. Dr. Jacko's expertise is focused on human-computer interaction, human aspects of computing, and universal access to electronic information technologies. Dr. Sainfort's expertise focuses on consumer and medical decision making, healthcare informatics, quality assessment and management in healthcare, and evaluation of medical technologies.

Drs. Jacko and Sainfort are co-advising Edwards in her multidisciplinary dissertation research. "Paula's dissertation research crosses traditional boundaries and links two very compelling areas of research: human-computer interaction and medical decision making. Her contributions to these fields will yield unprecedented advances that will translate into new solutions and innovative systems for healthcare delivery," stated Dr. Jacko.

Edwards is currently a second year Ph.D. student concentrating on Human-Integrated Systems. This is not her first experience with Georgia Tech — she earned her undergraduate degree from ISyE in 1995. She worked as an IT consultant designing business intelligence and Internet systems for six years before returning to Georgia Tech to pursue her Ph.D. "My industrial engineering background and my industry experience have given me a unique foundation on which to build my research," she says.

Through her practical experience developing systems in industry and the theoretical and research experience acquired in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, she hopes to begin designing the next generation of decision support systems — systems that put the user first.



• Fall 2003 Engineering Enterprise Table of Contents
• Engineering Enterprise Home Page



Web Site © Copyright 2020 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. and ISyE, Georgia Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher.


Lionheart Publishing, Inc.
34 Hillside Ave
Phone: +44 23 8110 3411 |
E-mail:
Web: www.lionheartpub.com

ISyE / Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0205
|
Web: www.isye.gatech.edu