Alice E. Smith, faculty member in Auburn University’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has been awarded a Fulbright grant to teach and conduct research at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, in the spring. Smith, whose research and teaching involves modeling and optimizing complex systems, will instruct a series of courses on adaptive optimization and advanced modeling to Turkish graduate students in technical disciplines, including engineering. She also plans to focus her research on gender issues related to engineering academia, for which she has been awarded several National Science Foundation grants. Smith has previously hosted six visiting scholars from Turkey, where industrial engineering is one of the fastest growing technical fields of study.

“Engineering, among all professions, is the most acutely male dominated,” says Smith. “With the world facing a myriad of challenging technical problems, it is imperative to
train more engineers, especially those who are creative and collaborative. Women offer the best source for increasing the number of skilled engineers worldwide.”

[miniflickr photoset_id=72157631953086216&sortby=date-posted-asc&per_page=50]