A landmark paper that shares sweeping recommendations for how the industrial engineering profession can address global issues - an initiative spearheaded by UCF researchers - has been published in the International Journal of Production Research.

The work, "Grand Challenges in Industrial and Systems Engineering," shares a set of eight key areas in which the profession can make significant contributions to society. A concept that originated from the grand challenges introduced by the National Academy of Engineering a decade ago, the idea to put forth a similar effort focused on industrial engineering was introduced by Pegasus Professor Waldemar Karwowski, chair of the UCF Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, and University Distinguished Professor Gavriel Salvendy.

A global team of 18 authors from three continents and five countries, including the U.S., China, France, India and South Korea, contributed to the work, representing expertise in areas such as manufacturing, logistics and healthcare. Despite the monumental task at hand, the team's collaborative effort in synthesizing their ideas into eight areas took just over a year in the making.

Karwowski says that the profession is ideally suited to play a pivotal role in addressing the world's most pressing economic, environmental, sustainability and health and well-being issues.

"Scientific and engineering expertise requires a deep understanding of social and human factors to design systems that improve efficiency and productivity, enhance resilience and safety, and promote sustainability in the future age of pervasive artificial intelligence (AI)," Karwowski says.

He adds that the discipline must evolve to remain relevant and practical in the 21st century by integrating systems thinking, AI capabilities and real-world problem solving into education and practice.

"Our discipline faces unprecedented challenges in an era of exponential technological growth and increasing system complexity," he says. "The profession can play a crucial role in addressing complex economic, health, environmental and sustainability challenges facing contemporary society."

Karwowski served as a keynote speaker at this summer's North American Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management hosted by UCF, where he shared the grand challenges with attendees:

• AI for Business and Personal Use
  This area leverages AI technology in decision-making and system design operations. It recognizes AI's revolutionary impact on society, as the internet has done in the past.

• Cybersecurity and Resilience
  The need to protect critical infrastructure and information, while ensuring the capability for system recovery, is the focus of this challenge. Systems engineering tools can identify risks, protect systems and design resilient infrastructures.

• Sustainability: Environment, Energy and Infrastructure
  The profession must create optimization models to use resources that balance environmental protection with economic development. Solutions can be developed using a systems perspective by studying the relationships with humans, organizations and the natural environment.

• Health Issues
  Through process optimization and technology integration, the profession can significantly enhance healthcare delivery systems by creating systems that improve patient care and reduce costs.

• Sociotechnical Issues
  A collaborative approach to problem solving that uses systems thinking, a method that examines problems by studying relationships, can help address sociotechnical issues to build resilient communities.

• Logistics and Supply Chain
  Improving global distribution networks through logistics and supply chain management can address global disruptions, resource scarcity and changes in consumer demand.

• System Integration: Humans, Automation and AI
  By developing frameworks that allow humans and technology to work together, systems and operations can work seamlessly while also mitigating risks like trust, transparency and skill development of humans and machines.

• Industrial and Systems Engineering Education
  The profession plays a critical role in preparing future engineers for interdisciplinary collaboration. This includes curriculum development, integrating large language models into problem solving and combining operations research with machine learning and AI models.

"Our discipline has been changing following developments in technology and the widespread use of AI," Karwowski says. "In all these challenges, the use of AI is mentioned in one way or another. The world is rapidly changing and technology is changing the field of industrial engineering."

Their work is already gaining traction in the field. Karwowski says the paper received more than 7,500 views in just five months. It has been cited in three works so far, much more quickly than the typical year it takes for many papers to receive a single citation, signaling a burgeoning interest from researchers.

The team is making a concerted effort to share the grand challenges with the profession. Karwowski has shared the paper with his colleagues at other universities, where it was well accepted. One of the paper's authors, Laura Albert, department chair of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discussed the paper in her blog and as a podcast guest.

In addition, Karwowski was invited to present the paper to the industry advisory board for the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. The presentation was well received and he left with an important request from the board to serve as the next step in sharing the grand challenges: to develop a customized version of the paper specific to industry.

"I think this paper will definitely help our profession to understand what research we should be doing in the future and how should we adopt our educational programs to be able to do the research that is needed to be able to implement its results for the benefit of people everywhere, for the benefit of humankind," he says.

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