Kenneth E. Murphy, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor of Teaching @ University of California Irvine)

Kenneth teaches predictive analytics, operations management, and management science courses in executive, MBA, MS, and undergraduate programs. He has published in scheduling, technology implementation, and organizational effectiveness, in leading operations and systems journals.  Along with his colleagues, he created an innovation index, which measures the degree to which an economy is engaged in advanced industrial and service activity. His current interests include digital transformation in higher education, equity in STEM education, and the measurement of economic activity with respect to jobs of the future. 

Fenglian Pan (Assistant Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering @ UNC Charlotte)

Fenglian has been working on the Arizona Summer Engineering Academy outreach programs for 4 years. As a System and Industrial Engineering (SIE) student delegate, she collaborated with SIE faculties, local high schools, and school districts to offer summer outreach programs for rising 9th through 12th graders who want to learn more about engineering. She had experience in featuring in-person formatting and virtual camps that bring students projects, activities, presentations, and real-life experiences from engineering disciplines. These collaborative efforts have significantly increased the exposure of research activities at UA to the students and attracted more talented students to the engineering school and its related disciplines.

Zihan Zhang (Assistant Professor, School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence @ Arizona State University)

Zihan co-chaired the INFORMS EOC K-12 Subcommittee from 2022 to 2025 and co-founded the INFORMS Education Outreach and Networking Program. Passionate about supporting the next generation, she has been actively involved in the academic community, serving as co-lead editor of ORMS Tomorrow and as a student liaison supporting the TMYS program. During her presidency of the INFORMS Georgia Tech Student Chapter, the chapter received the Student Chapter Annual Award – Summa Cum Laude. Her dedication to service, education, and student well-being has been recognized through several honors, including the 2025 INFORMS Volunteer Service Award, the 2024 INFORMS Judith Liebman Award, and the Phillip J. and Delores A. Scott Graduate Student Health and Wellness Award from Georgia Tech.

Yifeng Wang (Ph.D. Candidate, Industrial Engineering @ Georgia Institute of Technology)

Yifeng is actively involved in the academic community, contributing to multiple volunteering activities such as iExperience Summer Camp. He also engages as a program manager to support multi-party communication and session organization in different events.

Yuhao Zhong (Assistant Professor, Industrial Engineering @ Virginia Tech)

Yuhao is passionate about K-12 STEM outreach and helping students see the value of analytics and engineering. His volunteer and service experience includes serving with the INFORMS K-12 Education Outreach and Networking Program, leading the INFORMS Student Chapter at Texas A&M University, and mentoring students in programming through TAMU Datathon.