Personal Mention

Kim Piatt has been named the Dietrich College’s first director of experiential learning. In her new role, Piatt will provide oversight for the design, implementation and growth of experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students in the college via community engagement, internships, service learning, study abroad and undergraduate research. Piatt joined Dietrich College in March 2020 as manager of the Pittsburgh Summer Internship Program (PSIP). As manager of PSIP, Piatt handled the logistics of the program and found ways to enrich the experience for students by expanding professional development workshops, enhancing relationships with host sites and improving program assessment efforts. “I always tell students that helping them unlock their full potential is my mission as a professional.” Piatt said, “And that’s what experiential learning does: it’s going to help students unlock their full potential by engaging in meaningful experiences.” Learn more about Piatt and experiential learning in Dietrich.

Soummya Kar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been elevated to fellow status in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology. The IEEE cited Kar “for contributions to distributed signal processing.” Kar’s research interests span several aspects of stochastic adaptive control, decision-making, learning and inference in large-scale networked dynamical systems. His major technical thrust areas include stochastic analysis, distributed stochastic approximation, distributed algorithms, large deviations and application domains that include power networks and smart energy systems. Learn more about Kar.

R. Ravi, the Andris A. Zoltners Professor of Business, has been invited to join the Amazon Scholars Program, which enables world-class academics from various disciplines at leading research institutions to work on large-scale and high-impact technical challenges at Amazon without leaving their academic institutions. Ravi will work with Amazon’s Global Delivery Service Organization, addressing business issues related to modeling and optimization of Amazon’s fulfillment network. Ravi’s research focuses on algorithms for combinatorial optimization and their applications at the intersection of business and technology. “Joining the Amazon Scholars Program is an incredible opportunity for me,” Ravi said. “It will allow me to apply my research on network optimization and omni-channel fulfillment to make an important impact on Amazon’s systems, business and customer experience.” Learn more about Ravi.