UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Bárbara Venegas, currently an industrial engineering graduate student poised to earn her doctorate this coming academic year, has been named to the faculty of the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.
Venegas will assume the role of researcher and associate director of the Marcus department’s Service Enterprise Engineering (SEE) 360 research initiative on Aug. 1. Once she receives her doctoral degree, she will continue in her role with SEE 360 but will hold the title of assistant research professor.
“Bárbara is a natural fit for this position, as she has been a SEE 360 Fellow and understands the goals of the initiative and also the opportunities available for engineers in the service sector,” said Vittal Prabu, professor of industrial engineering and director of SEE 360. “She will be working toward creating new engineering solutions for service processes on the University Park campus by collaborating with managers who oversee these operations.”
As associate director of SEE 360, Venegas will be tasked with leading several research projects and spearheading collaborations with industry.
In her role as a SEE 360 Fellow, Venegas was mentoring undergraduate and master's degree students on service-related projects, while working toward earning a doctorate and serving as a teaching assistant in service engineering courses.
Venegas earned her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Universidad de La Frontera in her home country of Chile.
In 2013, Venegas was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and also received support from an initiative proposed by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet called Becas Chiles, which provides funding for scholars to study at prestigious universities. After a year of preparation with the Fulbright advisers, Venegas was accepted into Penn State’s College of Engineering.
The goal of the SEE 360 initiative is to examine the decision processes of service systems and apply engineering techniques in an effort to improve the productivity and quality within the service sector, in which 80 percent of the workforce in the United States is employed.