North Aurora resident takes helm of NIU College of Engineering’s ISYE department
On July 1, one of North Aurora’s newest residents, Chang Soo (CS) Nam, became chair of a Northern Illinois University engineering department.
Dr. Nam is at the helm of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE), within NIU’s College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (CEET)
CEET Dean David Grewell said the high level of Nam’s professionalism and work ethic set him apart from other candidates.
“CS has a long and strong history of research and the skills he’s developed in that area will serve him well as he transitions into a leadership role here,” Grewell said. “We look forward to him building on the success that the ISYE department has achieved over the years.”
For the past year, Nam was the Department Head of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (IME) at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan.
Previously, he had been at North Carolina State University (NCSU) for 12 years.
There, he was a Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and associated faculty in both the UNC/NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Psychology. While at NCSU, he received departmental awards for teaching, research and service.
Also on July 1, CEET saw the arrival of another new department head: Mohammad Saadeh, who is chair of the Department of Engineering Technology.
“I’m impressed with the ISYE faculty members here at NIU and look forward to supporting them as they conduct more research and teach undergraduates,” he added. “I’m very excited to share from my experience.”
Earlier this year, the department’s Master’s in Industrial Engineering program was rated ninth nationally by TechGuide.org — the only program from an Illinois university to make the top 10 list.
Graduates of NIU’s Industrial and Systems Engineering program work in a wide variety of industries at companies like Motorola Solutions, Hanes, Ferrara Candy, Molex, Target and UPS.
Originally from South Korea, Nam’s teaching and research interests center around brain-computer interfaces, social cognitive neuroscience, and human-explainable AI-robot teaming (HEART).
Nam’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Among his accolades, Nam received NSF’s CAREER Award in 2010 and in 2018 he was a U.S. Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship Program (AFSFFP) Awardee. Since 2014, he has also served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Brain-Computer Interfaces”; its name will be changed to “Research in Biomedical Engineering and Technology” in 2025.