{"71627":{"#nid":"71627","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Alumni Spotlight: Ran Jin Pursues a Career in Academia","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAfter receiving his PhD from\nthe H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), Ran\nJin has accepted a position as an assistant\nprofessor at the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia\nTech (VT). Jin, who has always wanted to pursue a career in academia, is\nexcited about starting his career. According to Jin, several features attracted\nhim to his current position such as the flexibility to determine his research\nfocus, the interaction with young people, the teaching and self-learning, and ability\nto measure his career success by the students\u2019 success. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EDuring his time in ISyE, Jin was the recipient of several\nprestigious awards including: 2010 INFORMS QSR Best Student Paper Award\nFinalist for \u201cReconfigured Piecewise Linear Regression Tree for Multistage\nManufacturing Process Control\u201d, Runner-up for the 2008 Best Poster Award for\n\u201cIntermediate Adjustment Feedforward Control,\u201d in the College of Engineering Graduate\nSymposium, and the 2007 Forging Industry Educational \u0026amp; Research Foundation\nScholarship.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ETo learn more about Ran Jin,\ncontinue reading the interview that follows.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE:\u0026nbsp; Ran Jin,\nwhat motivated you to achieve your career goals? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; When I was a kid, my father told me: \u201cYou\ncan\u0027t expect to be both grand and comfortable.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\nNow, even if I am having great difficulty achieving my career objective,\nI feel being persistent seems to be the only choice.\u0026nbsp; I want to contribute something in my area\nwhen I still have the chance.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE:\u0026nbsp; Tell us\nabout yourself.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; I was born in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province,\nChina. My hometown is famous for panda bear and spicy food. I received my\nbachelor\u2019s degree in electronic engineering from Tsinghua University in\nBeijing, China.\u0026nbsp; Afterwards, I joined\nProfessor Jan Shi\u2019s research group at the University of Michigan where I\nreceived a master\u2019s degree in statistics, as well as in industrial engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EOutside of work, I\nenjoy photography, kayaking, and reading books, specifically history and\neconomics related. I enjoy cooking, and I seldom repeat what I cook because I\nalways want to try something new.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE: \u0026nbsp;What influenced your\ndecision to get your PhD at Georgia Tech?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; Professor Shi heavily influenced my decision\nto pursue a PhD at Georgia Tech. I think the most important part of the PhD\nstudy is to find a good advisor. A good advisor can lead you to the objective\nthat you want to achieve. A good advisor is a tour guide to help you quickly\nexplore the areas that you might have interests in. Professor Shi is such a\ngood advisor. \u0026nbsp;When Professor Shi decided\nto join the faculty at Georgia Tech, I wanted to transfer with him, and I feel\nthat was probably the best decision I ever made. \u0026nbsp;Another aspect that drew me to Georgia Tech\nwas the size of the ISyE faculty. I was happy to have so many faculty members\nin our department, with flexible course choices and many research collaboration\nopportunities.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE: \u0026nbsp;Tell us about a favorite or most memorable\nISyE experience you had.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; I highly enjoyed the seminars\ngiven by world class scholars invited to our department.\u0026nbsp; As a graduate student, the learning, dialog, and\nquestions with these scholars helped me understand what defines good research,\nand what makes that research outstanding in the academic society.\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE: \u0026nbsp;What is something every student should do\nwhile at Georgia Tech?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; Go workout at the CRC! As a\nstudent, balancing work and life is important.\u0026nbsp;\nBesides, how many students from other schools have a chance to go\nworkout on an Olympic site?\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE: \u0026nbsp;Where was your favorite spot on the Georgia\nTech campus?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; The lawn beside the ISyE and Instructional\nCenter buildings. From this spot, I enjoyed many picnics and beautiful views of\nthe campus.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE: \u0026nbsp;What have you been doing since finishing your\nPhD last April?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; I moved to a new place and\njoined the VT faculty.\u0026nbsp; Joining the VT\nfaculty is a completely new start for me. It means challenges, and also\nopportunities.\u0026nbsp; Being outstanding in this\ntop IE department of the country is not easy, but fortunately I have a lot of\ngreat colleagues to learn from.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE: \u0026nbsp;Would you say that ISyE prepared you for your\ncurrent position?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; ISyE prepared me for almost\nevery aspect of my current position. ISyE has one of the best industrial\nengineering programs in this country, with teaching and research being\nperformed by some of the best scholars in the field.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE: \u0026nbsp;What do you do to make learning more engaging\nfor students?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; I use multiple types of media,\nsuch as video and images, to help students link new material to information\nthey already know.\u0026nbsp; I teach students how\nto solve real-world problems, rather than focusing on textbook problems.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE: \u0026nbsp;What piece of technology could you not live\nwithout as an instructor?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; PowerPoint. Without the PowerPoint\npresentation, it is hard to use video, photos, or data plots to illustrate the\nideas behind the problems I teach.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE:\u0026nbsp; Tell us a\nlittle bit about your PhD thesis and current research.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; My thesis is about how to manufacture\nproducts with better quality.\u0026nbsp; To improve\nthe quality, we need to understand the relationship between the quality and the\nimportant factors to change the quality.\u0026nbsp;\nNowadays, the manufacturing system becomes more complex, and we may have\nlimited knowledge about this relationship from an engineering perspective.\u0026nbsp; On the other hand, the advancement of sensing\ntechnology gives us a data-rich manufacturing environment.\u0026nbsp; My thesis is about how to integrate the\nengineering domain knowledge and operational data to model the manufacturing\nprocess, and improve the quality.\u0026nbsp; I\napplied this methodology in the semiconductor manufacturing processes\u003Cstrong\u003E.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003EMy current research involves engineering\ndriven data fusion in manufacturing system modeling and quality improvements,\nwith specific interests in the variation reduction in product realization and\nmanufacturing scale-up, and quality engineering based on high definition\nprofile data. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE: \u0026nbsp;What is your favorite book\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u003Cem\u003E\u0026nbsp; Modern History of China\u003C\/em\u003E, by\nTsiang, Tingfu. The reason why this is my favorite book is that the author has\na completely new angle and new evidence to show the history of China from years\n1840 to year 1911, with only 50,000 Chinese characters (It could be very\nchallenging even with 500,000 Chinese characters).\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp; I believe this should be the first book to\nread to understand the Chinese modern history. Dr. Tsiang\u2019s personal experiences\nare also interesting to me. He was a faculty member at Tsinghua University in\nthe 1920s, where I completed my undergraduate degree. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERecently, I have been reading \u003Cem\u003EEconomic Imperialism,\u003C\/em\u003E by Wuchang Zhang.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EISyE:\u0026nbsp; What is the best piece of advice you ever\nreceived?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\n\n\u003Cp\u003ERJ:\u0026nbsp; Actually I got two from my\nadvisor Prof Shi about how to work efficiently:\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cHave a beginning and an end.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOnly Handle It Once\u201d\n(OHIO)\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAfter receiving his PhD from\nthe H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), Ran\nJin has accepted a position as an assistant\nprofessor at the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Virginia\nTech (VT).\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27511","created_gmt":"2011-10-20 08:50:38","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:10:30","author":"Ashley Daniel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-10-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2011-10-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"71628":{"id":"71628","type":"image","title":"Ran Jin received his PhD from Georgia Tech ISyE","body":null,"created":"1449177396","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:16:36","changed":"1475894639","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:59","alt":"Ran Jin received his PhD from Georgia Tech ISyE","file":{"fid":"193546","name":"ran_jin_georgia_tech_graduation.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ran_jin_georgia_tech_graduation_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ran_jin_georgia_tech_graduation_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":508999,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ran_jin_georgia_tech_graduation_0.jpg?itok=Lr-VCAke"}},"71629":{"id":"71629","type":"image","title":"Ran Jin","body":null,"created":"1449177396","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:16:36","changed":"1475894639","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:59","alt":"Ran Jin","file":{"fid":"193547","name":"ranjin.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ranjin_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/ranjin_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1742065,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/ranjin_0.jpg?itok=SGaNWtqr"}}},"media_ids":["71628","71629"],"groups":[{"id":"1242","name":"School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE)"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"}],"keywords":[{"id":"109","name":"Georgia Tech"},{"id":"1202","name":"H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering"},{"id":"14827","name":"Ran Jin"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:barbara.christopher@isye.gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBarbara Christopher\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIndustrial and Systems Engineering\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404.385.3102\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}