Pinar Keskinocak is the H. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart School Chair and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. She is also co-founder and director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems. Previously, she served as the College of Engineering ADVANCE Professor and as interim associate dean for faculty development and scholarship. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, she worked at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. She received her Ph.D. in Operations Research from Carnegie Mellon University, and her M.S. and B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University.
Keskinocak's research focuses on the applications of operations research and management science with societal impact, particularly health and humanitarian applications, supply chain management, and logistics/transportation. Her recent work has addressed infectious disease modeling (including Covid-19, malaria, Guinea worm, pandemic flu), evaluating intervention strategies, and resource allocation; catch-up scheduling for vaccinations; hospital operations management; disaster preparedness and response (e.g., prepositioning inventory); debris management; centralized and decentralized price and lead time decisions. She has worked on projects with companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and healthcare providers, including American Red Cross, CARE, Carter Center, CDC, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University, and Intel Corporation.
She is an INFORMS Fellow and currently serves as the president of INFORMS. Previously she served as the Secretary of INFORMS, a department editor for Operations Research (Policy Modeling and Public Sector area), associate editor for Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and INFORMS Vice President of Membership and Professional Recognition. She is the co-founder and past-president of INFORMS Section on Public Programs, Service, and Needs, and the president of the INFORMS Health Applications Society.
Health systems; humanitarian systems; modeling; simulation; analytics and machine learning; Research and Management Science; Health and Humanitarian Applications; Supply Chain Management; Auctions/Pricing; Due Date/Lead-Time Decisions; Production Planning/Scheduling; Logistics/Transportation
Ruth Kanfer is a psychologist and professor at Georgia Institute of Technology in the area of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She is best known for her research in the fields of motivation, goal setting, self-regulation, job search, adult learning, and future of work. Kanfer has received numerous awards for her research contributions including the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution in Applied Research in 1989, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) William R. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award in 2006 and the SIOP Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award in 2007. Ruth Kanfer has authored influential papers on a variety of topics including the interaction of cognitive abilities and motivation on performance, the influence of personality and motivation on job search and employment, and a review chapter on motivation in an organizational setting.
Work & Organizational Psychology; Motivation; Goal Setting; Self-Regulation Adult Learning; Work & Aging; Work Transitions
Kala Jordan, research scientist at the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT), brings a wealth of academic achievement and professional expertise to her role. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology with a specialized focus on cellular, molecular, and developmental biology, coupled with a master of science in health informatics, Kala's educational background underscores her multidisciplinary approach to research. Her professional endeavors are underscored by a diverse spectrum of research interests, spanning from healthcare system innovation, STEM education, and data analysis. At present, Kala is immersed in supporting the AI Institute for Collaborative Assistance and Responsive Interaction for Networked Groups (AI-CARING) project. In this capacity, she spearheads studies aimed at bolstering the development of personalized collaborative AI systems tailored to enhance the quality of life for older adults. In addition to her pivotal role within the AI-CARING project, Kala actively contributes to STEM @ GTRI’s rural education initiative. Here, she assumes a multifaceted role, providing direct instruction and contributing to curriculum development in various facets of computer science for high school students. Through, her multifaceted research efforts and educational outreach, Kala Jordan exemplifies a consummate professional dedicated to leveraging cutting-edge technology and empirical insights to address pressing societal challenges and empower individuals through education and innovation.
Brian D. Jones is a senior research engineer at Georgia Tech, where since 1993, he has developed interactive applications for use in informal learning environments, on smartphones, and in the home. In 2008, Mr. Jones was named director of the Aware Home Research Initiative (AHRI), a group of Georgia Tech faculty and students researching the next generation of technologies and applications to support residents in their homes. In this capacity, Mr. Jones is working to build new research and industry partnerships as well as enable faculty and students to innovate new technologies for the home that will improve the lives of residents. As part of this effort, he oversees the Aware Home Living Lab, a facility on campus designed to provide an authentic home environment and supporting technology infrastructure for Georgia Tech faculty and students interested in researching a variety of applications in the home.
Mr. Jones’ primary research interests are in the area of design and development of technologies to improve health and well-being and enable healthy aging and increased independence. His current research projects are considering the role of the connected home as a support in the lives of older adults and people with disabilities; exploring options for measuring gait speed in various clinic and home settings as a proxy for frailty, and designing a SmartBathroom for understanding bathroom transfers of people with lower-body functional limitations.
As a logical extension of the Aware Home as a resource for technology development, Mr. Jones collaborated with researchers in the Georgia Tech Research Institute, to establish Georgia Tech HomeLab to provide a pool of over 600 individuals age 50 and older willing to participate in research projects and evaluate industry products in their homes.
In 2007, Mr. Jones joined with other research faculty at Georgia Tech to form the Design and Technology for Healthy Aging (DATHA) initiative. This effort is aimed at bringing together researchers, students, state and local organizations, and industry with a common interest of providing our older adult population with the communities and technologies they need to successfully age in place.
Mr. Jones serves on the staff of the Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) at Georgia Tech, strategizing how Georgia Tech research in empowered personal health can align with industry interests to provide more significant societal impact.
Mr. Jones holds both a Bachelor's degree (BEE `93) and a Master's of Science degree (MSEE `96) from Georgia Tech in Electrical Engineering.
Jeremy Johnson is a research scientist with IPaT where he has been working since 1999. Jeremy’s interests include ubiquitous computing, augmented reality, human-computer interaction, computer audio, sound design and creative applications of computing to the arts. At IMTC he contributes his skill as a software engineer to guide software development projects through the full software life cycle, from requirements gathering to deployment.
Ubiquitous Computing; Augmented Reality; Human-Computer Interaction; Computer Audio; Sound Design
Omer T. Inan received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2004, 2005, and 2009, respectively.
He worked at ALZA Corporation in 2006 in the Drug Device Research and Development Group. From 2007-2013, he was chief engineer at Countryman Associates, Inc., designing and developing several high-end professional audio products. From 2009-2013, he was a visiting scholar in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford. In 2013, he joined the School of ECE at Georgia Tech as an assistant professor.
Inan is generally interested in designing clinically relevant medical devices and systems, and translating them from the lab to patient care applications. One strong focus of his research is in developing new technologies for monitoring chronic diseases at home, such as heart failure.
He and his wife were both varsity athletes at Stanford, competing in the discus and javelin throw events respectively.
Medical devices for clinically-relevant applicationsNon-invasive physiological monitoringHome monitoring of chronic diseaseCardiomechanical signalsMedical instrumentation
Hyde is an associate professor in the School of History and Sociology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a quantitative scholar whose main research areas are stratification and inequality, urban sociology, work and occupations, climate and disaster resilience, and immigration. He is currently conducting research on the effects of race/ethnicity and immigration status on homeownership, social and demographic change in Clarkston, GA (known as the most diverse square mile in America), and Principal Investigator for the Youth Advocacy for Resilience to Disasters Program research project funded by the National Science Foundation's Civic Innovation Challenge. He has also been principal investigator for a National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) grant. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at the University of Connecticut and has published research articles in journals like Social Science Research, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Social Currents, Environmental Sociology, Social Indicators Research, City & Community, and Sociological Perspectives. Hyde serves as a Georgia Tech Institute for People and Technology initiative lead for research activities related to responsible and ethical technologies.