The Inaugural Student Conference hosted by Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering (ISE) provided a platform for graduate students in ISE to present their research via oral presentations or posters, covering various concentrations such as Data Analytics/ Decision and Control Systems/ Design and Manufacturing/ Financial Engineering/ Operations Research/ Human Factors. Additionally, esteemed professors Simge Küçükyavuz and Eric Laber delivered keynote speeches. Küçükyavuz discussed her work on using convex mixed-integer optimization for causal discovery in Bayesian Networks, aiming to learn sparse directed acyclic graph structures from observational data. She addressed computational challenges by proposing an early stopping criterion and enhancing formulations with second-order conic constraints. Laber presented on reinforcement learning for optimizing respondent-driven sampling (RDS), a strategy for studying hidden populations. His adaptive RDS design, based on reinforcement learning, aims to enhance study utility, considering factors like efficiency and treatment dissemination. Simulation experiments indicated significant efficiency gains over traditional RDS procedures. Overall, the conference facilitated knowledge exchange and showcased innovative research in ISE, tackling both theoretical and practical challenges in the field.

The HXRI Lab member Emre presented a poster entitled “A Comprehensive Categorization of Virtual Reality Systems and Interventions on the Quality of Life for Elderly Individuals,” focusing on research conducted as part of the collaborative CREATE VR project with the Human Factors and Aging Lab. The study involved a thorough review of literature to categorize virtual reality (VR) systems tailored for older adults, presenting the findings to the HFES community. In essence, the conferences served as a productive platform for establishing connections among researchers specializing in human factors and healthcare applications.