Cal Poly’s Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department brought its largest delegation to date to the 2026 Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Annual Conference, continuing a trend of increasing student participation and engagement. 

The delegation included 33 graduate and undergraduate students and six faculty members, including IME Department Chair John Pan. Participating students were advised by seven IME faculty members: professors Mohamed Awwad, Jill Speece, Zhiyuan Wei, Byeongmok Kim, Aditya Chivate, Puneet Agarwal and Duha Ali. 

This year’s conference was held in Arlington, Texas, from May 16-19. 

The delegation was joined by longtime Cal Poly IME Department supporters and alumni Dave Hampton, Jordan Ramsey and Elias Morales. 

Students represented Cal Poly across many industrial and systems engineering disciplines and conference tracks, including: 

• Operations Research 
• Facilities Design and Planning 
• Supply Chain and Logistics 
• Engineering Management 
• Engineering Education 
• Manufacturing Systems 
• Analytics 
• Applied Industry Projects 

The delegation featured: 

• Tyler Luby Howard and Dr. Mohamed Awwad, whose conference paper placed first in the Facilities Design & Planning track, with Howard also recognized at the Logistics & Supply Chain Division Town Hall meeting 

• Erik Tanjuakio, recipient of the 2026 IISE James W. Barany Award for Excellence and the 2026 IISE Fellows William Biles, Hamid Parsaei, and Victor Zaloom Endowed Scholarship 

• Daniel Hopkins, Elliot Overhiser, and Liam Mahony, advised by Dr. Byeongmok Kim, who won first place in the 2026 IISE Operations Research Division Undergraduate Case Hackathon 

• Liam Mahony, Nigel Stafford, and Dr. Zhiyuan Wei, whose paper placed first in the 2026 Operations Research Division Undergraduate Student Research Dissemination Competition 

• Kelly Hoang, who was part of a multi-university team from Cal Poly, Kennesaw State University, Binghamton University, Rutgers University, and Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico that won first place in the 2026 IISE Student Innovation Design Competition 

• Twelve students from three senior project teams advised by Drs. Mohamed Awwad, Jill Speece, and Byeongmok Kim, presenting senior project work across three conference tracks, including a team participating in the CISE Outstanding ISE Capstone Senior Design Project 

• Students presenting research papers, posters, and applied industry projects across multiple conference tracks 

 In addition to presenting and competing, all Cal Poly students in attendance volunteered throughout the conference, helping support conference operations by answering questions, guiding participants, supporting logistics and assisting attendees throughout the multi-day event. 
  
This experience was made possible through multiple layers of support, including: 

• Industry and alumni donations and sponsorship support  
• IME Research Experience IRA funding support that helped reduce financial barriers and increase student participation opportunities 
• The Cal Poly College of Engineering  
• The Office of Cal Poly Graduate Education 
• The Cal Poly IME Department 

The support provided through IRA funding, departmental support and donor contributions played a major role in enabling students to participate in professional development, research dissemination, networking, competitions and leadership activities at the national level. 
  
The student delegation: 

Jacob Alexanian, Harrison Blake, Elaina Chao, Jennifer Caluya DeLeon, Mikayla Drew Dunn, Keziah Gopalla, Ximena Escobar Greatorex, David Harris, Kelly Hoang, Daniel Burke Hopkins, Maddie Rose Howard, Hirsh Vardhan Kedia, Beau Fitzgerald Lefferdink, Sam List, Tyler Michael Luby Howard, Sydney Anne Lunasin, Chelsea Anne Oxina Macavinta, Isaac Madero, Liam Thomas Mahony, Joseph Edward Mascher, Finn Meuse, Natalie Murai, Eoin Wang Obrien, Elliot Martin Overhiser, Jen Reiter, Max Scott, Matthew Nathaniel Sechslingloff, Phillip Semenov, Nigel Edward Stafford, Hailey Tamara, Erik Julian Tanjuakio, Giovanni Wang, Janelle Wilson