August is a busy month at Texas A&M University. Faculty are finishing up summer trips, students are moving back to campus and the amount of traffic increases exponentially around the city.
Before the hustle and bustle hit full swing for the fall semester, the faculty of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering participated in a retreat with industry professionals.
Faculty and industry professionals discussed various issues within the field, including healthcare, oil and gas and transportation, and how industrial engineers can help them improve current processes or create new systems to help with 21st century challenges.
Two panels of industry professionals visited with faculty during the retreat.
![Four individuals sitting and speaking as part of a panel.](_news-images/ISEN-news-FacRetreat19-Panel1-3Sept2019.jpg)
The first panel included speakers Dr. Stephen Jones, M.D., Robert Brydia, Scott Livingston and Logan Havern.
Jones works at the Houston Regional Methodist Research Institute and focuses on the development of customized clinical informatics systems and databases for clinical research and practice.
Brydia is a program manager for the advanced transportation operations group and senior research scientist with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. His work has produced analyses and case studies that have led to permanent infrastructure improvements.
Livingston is president of the intervention and stimulation equipment area at National Oilwell Varco delivering solutions to newbuild offshore vessels.
Havern is the co-founder of Blip Biometrics and currently works for JetBlue. He is also a senior industrial engineering student who will graduate in December 2019.
![Four individuals sitting and speaking as part of a panel.](_news-images/ISEN-news-FacRetreat19-Panel2-3Sept2019.jpg)
The second panel included speakers Kendall Bruce, Chris Havern, Hudson High and Dr. Samyukta Sethuraman.
Bruce works in innovation and business optimization for Forward Air Solutions. With more than 26 years of experience in logistics, he has worked with several companies, including Waste Management, Ryder Integrated Logistics and the United States Postal Service.
Havern is the group president of integrity management at Shawcor. He has more than 25 years of experience in energy services and has also served as vice president of human resources of integrity management and vice president of mobile technologies, along with other roles within the company.
High is the customer supply chain manager for North America with Arconic. He is a strong advocate for Texas A&M and gives guest lectures, works at volunteer events and serves on the advisory council for the industrial and systems engineering department.
Sethuraman is a senior research scientist at Amazon. She has worked on building and implementing a capacity management system for Amazon Locker to maximize the number of packages that are delivered to the lockers.
![Individuals stand and speak during a reception.](_news-images/ISEN-news-FacRetreat19-reception-3Sept2019.jpg)
The retreat sparked dialogue and created relationships between faculty and industry professionals that will improve industrial engineering and systems in Texas and around the world.