IE Alumna Guiping Hu Named New Sustainability Department Head at RIT
Guiping Hu recently began her new role as the sustainability department head at Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS). Hu arrived on campus from Iowa State University (ISU), where she served on the faculty of the Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering department. She also was affiliated with ISU’s sustainable agriculture graduate program, Bioeconomy Institute, and the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology program. Dr. Hu earned her MSIE (2006) and PhD IE (2009) from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering.
Hu’s work focuses on operations research and data analytics, two areas that have a wide range of applications in sustainable manufacturing, renewable energy systems, sustainable supply chain design, and sustainable agriculture.
In addition to publishing more than 75 journal papers and participating in over 40 conference proceedings, she has been the principal investigator or co-PI on 35 funded research projects garnering more than $10 million. She also has held multiple key roles within the industrial engineering profession, including as an associate editor, elected division president, and board of directors member.
Open communication and a growth mindset are major tenets of Hu’s educational philosophy. “I love to connect, communicate, and collaborate,” she said. “Our goal is to provide students with the best academic experience in both classroom and research settings.”