Message from the Chair

It is an honor to lead the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Our trajectory has been fundamentally shaped by a historic $25 million investment over the last two decades. This extraordinary generosity from Daniel Epstein, Founder of ConAm Management Corporation, not only made us USC's first named academic department in 2002 but has also accelerated our research and teaching to new heights. That momentum continues with an ambitious renovation at University Park Campus. By the end of 2026, our entire department will move into modern, centralized, state-of-the-art facilities. Join us as we unveil a first look at this exciting new chapter.

This year we were proud to launch a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary PhD certificate in Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research, supported by a $2.9 million National Research Traineeship (NRT) grant from the National Science Foundation. The new program is a collaboration with the Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science, under the leadership of Phebe Vayanos and Bistra Dilkina.

Epstein Department faculty this year hosted two major international conferences in Los Angeles. Jong-Shi Pang and Meisam Razaviyayn chaired the 2025 International Conference on Continuous Optimization on the USC campus. Meanwhile, Qiang Huang chaired the IEEE 21st International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering in Los Angeles.

Our annual ISE Alumni Mixer this year celebrated the career of 2025 Distinguished Alum Zohreh Khademi, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft.

We also congratulate Daniel Epstein, who is a 2025 Half Century Trojan honoree.

New Faculty

We are excited to welcome four exceptional new faculty hires to our department.

Karthyek Murthy joined us at the start of this year as an assistant professor with expertise in risk analytics and operations research.

We also welcome our new WiSE Gabilan Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering Karmel S. Shehadeh whose work focuses on data-driven optimization under uncertainty and (mixed) integer programming.

Alfredo Torrico is an assistant professor who joins us from Cornell University. He harnesses applied modeling and methodological tools from optimization, game theory, and algorithm design to analyze challenges in urban settings.

Finally, Shengbo Wang joins the department as an assistant professor, bringing expertise in applied probability, machine learning, and simulation.

Faculty Achievements

Our faculty had many noteworthy accomplishments during the past year. I am proud of the Epstein Department's impressive performance at the recent INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, with associate professor Andrés Gómez, along with Alper Atumturk, being awarded the prestigious INFORMS Computing Society Prize. Meanwhile, Karmel S. Shehadeh was the 2025 recipient of the Chuck ReVelle Rising Star Award and Shengbo Wang was honored at the event with a Best Student Paper award by the INFORMS Applied Probability Society.

Ali Abbas was honored as an IEEE Systems Council Distinguished Lecturer. William H. Keck Professor of Engineering Carl Kesselman was honored by HPC Wire as one of their 35 Legends of 2025 for his pioneering work in grid computing.

Andrés Gómez was also this year announced as the inaugural holder of the Epstein Family Early Career Chair in Industrial and Systems Engineering, a well-deserved honor.

USC also recently hosted the inaugural AI Summit, where Phebe Vayanos discussed how USC's Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society is developing AI solutions for societal challenges.

Student Achievements

This year, we also celebrate the outstanding achievements of our talented cohort of students.

Our Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers student chapter was honored by the IISE national leadership with a 2025 Gold Award for chapter performance. Earlier this year, the chapter hosted a fantastic 2025 IISE Western Regional Conference at USC's University Park Campus.

Ph.D. student Citina Liang won the Milt Weinstein Award from the Society for Medical Decision Making for her Disease Modeling research. Graduate student Julien Yu was this year awarded the Meritorious Paper Award from the INFORMS Journal on Computing.

Undergraduate ISE students Andrew Keefer and Tyler Milliren won the Southern California ITE Student Traffic Bowl at Cal Poly Pomona.

SprintRay, a leading 3D printing supplier for dental professionals, co-founded by two USC Viterbi alumni, recently won the prestigious 2025 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Greater Los Angeles.

Please enjoy more highlights from our past year, featured in our newsletter. Like USC as a whole, our commitment to excellence is evident in our cutting-edge curriculum, world-class faculty, and exceptional students.

Maged Dessouky, Tryon Chair in Industrial and Systems Engineering, Professor and Chair