Dr. Bopaya Bidanda is the Ernest E. Roth Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He returned to the faculty in 2021 after over 21 years as department chair. His recent books include The Business of Humanity (Routledge), Virtual Prototyping & Bio Manufacturing in Medical Applications (second edition, Springer), The Evolution of Project Management (PMI Press), and the Maynard’s Industrial & Systems Engineering Handbook (sixth edition, McGraw Hill) that serve as the definitive corpus of knowledge in industrial engineering.
Dr. Bidanda is the former president of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and has also served as the president of the Council of Industrial Engineering Academic Department Heads. Besides, he has served on the international advisory boards of universities in India and South America. Moreover, he has had visiting professorships in Singapore and Turkey. Dr. Bidanda is also a fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and a member of the ABET Board (of Delegates). Besides, he served on the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET for almost a decade.
He received the 2012 John L. Imhoff Award for Global Excellence in Industrial Engineering given by the American Society for Engineering Education. He has also received the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies’ 2012 Global Award for Excellence in Engineering Education and the 2013 Albert G. Holzman Distinguished Educator Award given by the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers.
Dr. Bidanda also helped initiate and institutionalize the Engineering Program on the Semester at Sea voyage in 2004. Most recently, he has been actively engaged in the Business of Humanity project in Pittsburgh and India. In addition, his Manufacturing Assistance Center initiative that provides meaningful careers to those at the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid, including to convicted felons and homeless veterans, now has multiple international locations.
Dr. Bidanda’s Fulbright-Nehru project is working towards accomplishing three objectives: interact closely with the industrial engineering doctoral students and new faculty at the National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai, and throughout India via an interactive doctoral colloquium; explore the nascent field of frugal engineering; and monitor a workforce development-based research project in Gujarat. These activities are expected to further develop and hone the scholarship and research capabilities of industrial engineering students and faculty.