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Home / Research

Research

Smart Research for Large-Scale Improvement

From borders in the UA’s back yard to debris in space, systems and industrial engineering researchers are working to make the world safer and more secure.

Partnering with the Arizona Department of Transportation, renowned researchers are developing technology for connected vehicles and making emergency response quicker. Working closely with the Department of Homeland Security and the National Center for Border Security and Immigration, they are creating an autonomous surveillance system to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border. And, cooperating with Air Force Research Laboratory and an international alliance, they are developing a cyberinfrastructure to monitor satellites and manage traffic in space.

Focus Areas

SIE is conducting research in the following primary areas:

  • Smart transportation and manufacturing logistics
  • Space, defense and security
  • Data analytics, informatics and machine learning
  • Human factors and social systems
  • Energy, water, environment and sustainability
  • Optimization
  • Health care systems

Project Highlights

Sweeping the Border

Using artificial intelligence and UAVs, SIE department head Young-Jun Son and his research team are designing an autonomous surveillance system for border control.

Our goal is to devise a system to most effectively, efficiently and safely deploy border patrol resources.

Language of the Road

Larry Head, acting dean of the College of Engineering and director of the UA Transportation Research Institute, is perfecting connected vehicle technology that allows cars to communicate with one another and the traffic environment around them.

I like to call it the language of the road. And it’s going to begin speaking to you, and it’s going to be an active part of what you get in your vehicle. Hopefully to keep drivers more engaged and reduce accidents.

Objects in Space

A team of researchers led by SIE professor and director of Space Situational Awareness-Arizona Roberto Furfaro is creating a cyberinfrastructure to facilitate national collaboration and data sharing for space traffic.

It'll be a collaborative environment where they can seamlessly drop data, make discoveries and acquire knowledge.

Science of Sport

When he’s not researching cost modeling and DoD acquisition policy or expanding his Science of Sport outreach program, professor Ricardo Valerdi directs the Sports Management Program at the Eller College of Management and is the UA’s faculty athletics representative to PAC-12 and NCAA. He also helped develop virtual reality training for sports concussion.

Much of my work involves understanding where synergies and frictions exist within a system and getting all of the pieces to work together.
Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications

Research Centers and Facilities

Much of SIE’s transportation engineering research takes place at the UA’s interdisciplinary Transportation Research Institute, which addresses the mobility, safety and environmental challenges of a rapidly evolving transportation ecosystem.

Further facilitating SIE discovery are a number of multidisciplinary labs, including the Space Systems Engineering Lab, which is supporting to the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission in the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory.  

See UA College of Engineering-affiliated Research Centers and Institutes.

  • Employee Resources
The University of Arizona
Department of Systems & Industrial Engineering
1127 E. James E. Rogers Way
P.O. Box 210020
Tucson, AZ 85721-0020
520.621.6551

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