Changing roles: introducing IMET’s new department chair

The Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering & Technology at Bradley University recently welcomed its new chair, Dr. Joseph Chen.

Throughout his career in academia, Dr. Chen has been recognized for outstanding teaching and research. Prior to being appointed professor at Bradley and being named IMET chair, he enjoyed a 15-year research and teaching career at Iowa State University where he earned seven teaching awards with the most recent, the “Superior Engineering Teaching Award,” being given to him after his departure. In addition, Dr. Chen has received three awards for his outstanding research efforts and publications. He has published more than 110 journal and proceeding papers and has secured over $1.1 million of external funding to assist his research and teaching.

Dr. Chen’s areas of expertise and instruction include automated manufacturing processes, computer-aided manufacturing, Lean manufacturing system design, Six Sigma methodologies, facility planning, entrepreneurship, and Taguchi parameter/tolerance design. His research focuses on three major areas: (1) adaptive control systems for automated machines; (2) RFID-based online remote Lean manufacturing monitoring systems, and (3) curriculum development to enhance education of Lean-Sigma manufacturing system design and methodologies.

Dr. Chen received his bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Tunghai University in Taiwan and his master's degree in industrial engineering in manufacturing from Auburn University, Alabama in 1982 and 1990, respectively.

With a number of new programs under development, the benefits of Dr. Chen’s recent move to the IMET Department are already visible. Two new graduate concentrations are being developed: one geared toward manufacturing management with Lean and Six Sigma theories and applications; another with greater focus on financial engineering. Both concentrations are pending approval by the university. The production of new Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma courses are also under way, and renovations to departmental recruitment tools, such as the Web site, fliers and newsletters, have also begun. Additional academic aides, such as Learning Community, create a culture of educational teamwork and an integrated community.

In the future, Dr. Chen hopes to develop 2+2 programs with community colleges in the states of Illinois and Iowa and to encourage the growth of more research projects in order to promote greater interactions between faculty and graduate/undergraduate students.