Kan (Kevin) Wang, senior research engineer, in the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI) was selected to be part of the Research Faculty Teaching Fellows Program (Fall 2023/Spring 2024). The program aims to enhance the interaction across the Institute’s teaching and research activities. It offers research faculty the opportunity to become first-time instructors, and for those who have taught in the past, the ability to turn their cutting-edge research programs into instructional programs that enhance the teaching missions in the academic units.

Wang proposed a new course, Resilience of Biomanufacturing Supply Chains, which won his placement into the program.

“This Research Faculty Teaching Fellows Program will allow me to introduce important research topics in my research area to more Industrial Systems and Engineering (ISyE) students,” said Wang. “Case studies developed in my research projects and presented in the course will show students how to apply the knowledge learned from this course in actual industrial scenarios.”

Wang is also hoping that this teaching opportunity could help him better organize his own knowledge and research ideas in this area, and lead to new ideas that may develop into new collaborations between him and ISyE faculty. These collaborations could result in new research proposals and/or peer-reviewed papers. Plus, students taking his course would be provided opportunities to join new research projects in his lab.

According to Wang, cell therapy manufacturing is a nascent industry that will have critical workforce needs in five to ten years. He wants to expose more industrial engineering students into this emerging new industry.