Batta receives IISE award for technical innovation in industrial engineering

Rajan Batta talking to a woman.

Rajan Batta's work in the area of hazmat logistics was recognized by IIES with the Technical Innovation in Industrial Engineering Award.

by Jane Stoyle Welch

Published August 17, 2016 This content is archived.

Rajan Batta, SUNY Distinguished Professor in UB’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Diversity in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, received the 2016 Award for Technical Innovation in Industrial Engineering from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE).

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According to the IISE website,  the award “honors a single innovative technical contribution to the industrial engineering profession that may be recognized in any of several forms, including theory, design, application, implementation, and leadership, to name a few.” Batta was recognized for his achievements in the field of hazmat logistics.

This is the third significant award Batta has received from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. In 2008, he was honored with the David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award and last year, his excellent teaching and mentoring skills were recognized with the Albert G. Holzman Distinguished Educator Award.  Other awards from IISE include the Fellow Award and a Best Paper Award for the journal IISE Transactions.

Batta uses industrial engineering techniques, such as operations research, to develop and analyze mathematical models of systems critical to society. His current work includes hazardous materials routing/logistics, UAV routing/scheduling for search missions, convoy routing, routing/scheduling of automated guided vehicles, modeling repair of a transportation network, gasoline supply logistics, and electric vehicle routing and location of charging stations.

He has a sustained record of research funding, receiving more than $13 million in awards from federal agencies, among them the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Justice; local governments, including the city of Buffalo; and private industry, such as Boeing, United Airlines and Lockheed Martin.

Batta recently co-edited the “Handbook of OR/MS Models in Hazardous Materials Transportation,” with Changhyun Kwon. He has authored or co-authored over 130 publications in the top journals in his field, and serves on the editorial boards of Computers and Operations Research, the Journal of Enterprise Transformation and Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. He is a department editor for IIE Transactions.

He received his PhD in operations research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984, and a bachelor of technology in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, in 1980.