Industrial Engineer - June 2007

A Georgia Institute of Technology project that optimizes cancer treatment was singled out as the best operations research project of 2006. Eva K. Lee, associate professor in Georgia Tech's H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, worked with Marco Zaider, M.D., head of brachytherapy physics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. They devised sophisticated optimization modeling and computational techniques to implement an intra-operative 3-D treatment planning system for brachytherapy (the placement of radioactive "seeds" inside a tumor) that offers a safer and more reliable treatment than traditional methods. For the full story, visit www.iienet.org (membership required).