Zhenyu 'James' Kong named Ralph H. Bogle Jr. Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering
Zhenyu "James" Kong, professor of industrial and systems engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been named the Ralph H. Bogle Jr. Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The Ralph H. Bogle Jr. Professorship in Industrial and Systems Engineering was established by the estate of Ralph H. Bogle Jr., who earned his bachelor's degree in engineering from Virginia Tech in 1942, and from other gifts contributed by alumni and corporations to recognize excellence in teaching and scholarship. Recipients hold the professorship for a period of five years.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 2013, Kong’s scholarship focuses on manufacturing systems engineering and artificial intelligence and machine learning for advanced manufacturing. In his career, he has obtained total research funding of $23.2 million for 32 distinct external projects. His research has been funded by several federal agencies and entities.
Kong has published 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals and 32 papers in peer-reviewed conference proceedings. His work has been cited over 4,000 times and has been recognized with numerous best paper awards. Kong’s research and scholarship have been recognized with being named a fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He also was named one of the 20 Most Influential Academics in Smart Manufacturing by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Smart Manufacturing magazine and received the College of Engineering’s Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research at Virginia Tech.
In the classroom, Kong has taught seven unique courses at Virginia Tech for both undergraduate and graduate students, two of which cover data analytics and machine learning. He has graduated 13 Ph.D. students and four master’s degree thesis students and is currently advising six Ph.D. students. Ten of his Ph.D. graduates hold tenure-track faculty positions with seven in the U.S. and three with international universities. He has advised 23 undergraduate research students, including those in the Multicultural Academic Opportunities Program. His graduate advising was recognized by the Graduate School with the Outstanding Mentor Award, representing the College of Engineering.
Kong is chair of the industrial and systems engineering promotion and tenure committee and has served as program co-chair for the 2016 IISE Annual Conference, associate chair of the scientific committee for the North American Manufacturing Research Institute and conference, president of the IISE Quality Control and Reliability Engineering Division, focused issue editor for IISE Transactions (Design and Manufacturing), and associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering.
Kong received his bachelor's degree and master’s degree both in mechanical engineering from the Harbin Institute of Technology in China and his Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
