Assistant Professors Albert S. Berahas and Salar Fattahi each won a North Campus Deans’ MLK Spirit Award. The awards are given annually to individuals who exemplify the leadership and vision of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
University of Michigan Industrial and Operations Engineering (U-M IOE) Assistant Professors Albert S. Berahas and Salar Fattahi each won a North Campus Deans’ MLK Spirit Award on Jan. 18, 2024. The awards are given annually to individuals who exemplify the leadership and vision of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through their commitment to social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion.
Albert S. Berahas – MLK Spirit Award for Community Building & Impact
Berahas was awarded his MLK Spirit Award for his contributions to the department and college as a member of the U-M IOE DEI committee, the U-M IOE Graduate Admissions and Recruiting Committee and the faculty mentor for the U-M Black Industrial Engineers (BIndx) student group.
Outside of these groups, he also collaborated with the Detroit Education Takeover to organize the first-ever Optimaize Day. This workshop brings in Detroit high school students who come from underrepresented groups or non-traditional backgrounds to experience the U-M College of Engineering for a day. During this program faculty members teach them about practices in IOE, current students talk to them about the U-M experience and they take a tour of the campus. He plans to hold another workshop in April 2024 to continue this effort.
In the fall semester of 2023, he also co-organized the Inaugural U-M IOE Undergraduate Research Symposium. This effort was the first of its kind in the IOE department and allowed over 15 undergraduate students to showcase their research and contributions to the field. With over 100 attendees the event was deemed a success and will continue for future years to come.
He also volunteers to serve as a faculty mentor in the new U-M IOE Graduate Application Mentoring Program which is designed to match current IOE graduate students with prospective graduate students from underrepresented groups or non-traditional backgrounds to give them advice on the application process.
Lastly, as a member of the DEI committee, he co-led the development, dissemination and results analysis of the annual department-wide climate survey initiative. The hope is that this survey can give insight into the climate of U-M IOE and inform changes that should be implemented to further the department’s DEI efforts.
“It is a great honor to receive the MLK Spirit Award for Community Building and Impact,” said Berahas. “This award recognizes the collective efforts of students, staff and faculty of the IOE department, and serves as a testament of the department’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, allyship and excellence. I would like to extend a special thank you to Jhawan Davis and the Detroit Educational Takeover for their wonderful collaboration, as well as Tyra Sampson, Saroya Cicero, the rest of the IOE staff, the IOE Ambassadors, Professors Leia Stirling and Julie Ivy and the IOE DEI committee for all of their continued support.”
Salar Fattahi – MLK Spirit Award for Learning and Scholarship
Fattahi was awarded his MLK Spirit Award for his efforts in creating teaching materials related to DEI in engineering and his partnership with the U-M School of Education that aimed to introduce high school students to engineering.
He organized the IOE 899 Seminar Series which focused on inviting diverse speakers to engage with U-M engineering students about their research.
He also created an undergraduate course (IOE 473) on Advanced Data Analytics that addressed socially relevant issues such as fairness in artificial intelligence (AI), algorithmic bias, and the role of machine learning in promoting educational equity.
Lastly, he organized U-M IOE’s first machine learning workshop for underrepresented high school students. With the help of the U-M School of Education and the ECA he was able to offer the program at no cost to the students thus removing financial barriers to their participation. During the workshop, the high school students learned about real-life applications of machine learning while also experiencing the U-M campus.
“I am deeply honored to receive this award,” said Fattahi. “I extend my gratitude to all of my colleagues and students, both within and beyond IOE. I extend special thanks to our dedicated IOE staff, our partnered teachers in the Early College Alliance (ECA) High School and the remarkable efforts of Tiffany Wu from the School of Education who took on the majority of the responsibilities in this endeavor. This recognition serves as a reminder that there is still much work to be done to drive positive change and expand opportunities for everyone in the fields of data analytics and machine learning.”