ISE faculty, students travel to Norway for research, education exchange
Published: Jul 19, 2023 3:35 PM
By Victoria Martino and Carla Nelson
Alice Smith, the Joe W. Forehand/Accenture Distinguished Professor of the Auburn University Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, recently traveled to Norway to participate in a research and education exchange funded by the Norwegian federal government titled FutureLOG on Sustainable Logistics of the Future.
Two ISE doctoral students, Julio Jimenez and Juan Pablo Morande, and Ashley Curtiss, a senior lecturer in the Auburn University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, also made the trip as part of the Auburn team.
“Our students who went were so happy with experiencing another culture,” Smith said. “It expanded their horizons.”
During the trip, Smith presented two seminars – one on last-mile drone delivery and one on academic publishing. Both students presented their research; Jimenez on drones for production environments, and Morande on drones for warehouse operations. Curtiss presented his research on dynamic learning and best practices in the classroom.
Throughout the visit, the team worked with Fabio Sgarbossa, professor of industrial logistics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and his team of professors and students
“We also look forward to welcoming Fabio and perhaps some of his students and/or colleagues at Auburn in the coming year,” Smith said.
Smith added that global experiences are highly beneficial for students and she can use examples from Norway to lead her classes in Auburn.
Excited about the possibilities of future research in the country, Morande plans to return for spring semester in 2024.
“My research is about the applications of drones for order picking inside warehouses,” he said, adding that he is collaborating with Smith and Daniel Silva, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering at Auburn, to model a new approach for coordinating human workers and drones in this context. “The exchange with NTNU is exciting because they work with warehouse automation and have a lot of equipment that focuses on this trend. Their lab includes different autonomous mobile robots and sensing systems that would allow me to explore new approaches for my research and will be useful to collect interesting data on warehouse operations.”
Morande said that since NTNU also works with a wide variety of topics like supply chain and scheduling, it will be interesting to explore their different approaches and evaluate possible new research and collaborations while there.
“Trondheim is a lively, beautiful city, and being so close to the Polar Circle will be a whole new experience for me,” he said. “I plan to make the most of this opportunity.”
Media Contact: , carla@auburn.edu, )334) 844-1404
ISE Professor Alice Smith, along with doctoral students Julio Jimenez and Juan Pablo Morande and a senior chemistry lecturer Ashley Curtiss, recently traveled to Norway for a little over a week to participate in a research and education exchange funded by the Norwegian federal government titled FutureLOG on Sustainable Logistics of the Future.
