“Engineering gives me the ability to think critically about real-world problems and to use my expertise to apply optimization tools to solve problems"
- Campus: Okanagan
When disruptions challenge our globally connected world, the impacts can be massive. We saw this during the Covid-19 pandemic, when grocery store shelves were bare.
We see this in times of natural disasters, when the ability to get food and medicine to the front lines can literally be the difference between life and death.
Mahsa Mohammadi is conducting research that will help decision makers across virtually every industry minimize disruptions to supply chains and optimize them to work as efficiently as possible.
Mahsa Mohammadi's Spotlight Story
A long-standing interest in industrial engineering
Industrial engineering takes a systems perspective to complex problems. It combines knowledge of supply chain, operations management, logistics and transportation, operations research, and statistics and math to explore ways to make the system as a whole work better, whether that system is a factory, a distribution centre or an agency providing disaster relief.
Mahsa completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering in Iran, where she focused on this area of engineering practice.
Her love of research and learning spurred her desire to move around the world to pursue a PhD at UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering.
She began her studies in January 2022 and became a lecturer in the summer of 2024, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in supply chain tactics and strategies, factory planning, multi-criteria decision making optimization, numerical methods of analysis and engineering analysis.
Researching supply chain optimization
Mahsa’s PhD research focuses on ways to make supply chains more efficient and resilient, including through the use of novel technologies like blockchain.
“One successful example of a company that is already doing this is Walmart, who has developed blockchain networks to streamline their operations and track the movement of goods from source countries to local supermarkets,” she says.
Blockchain technologies offer a powerful way to solve the incredibly complex problems of supply chain management.
Think of the magnitude of Walmart’s supply chain as the company moves products across borders and time zones to its distribution centres and stores. There are countless suppliers and shippers involved, each with their own data management systems. Using a blockchain network to keep track of everything is one way in which the Walmart is leading the way in innovation.
Mahsa develops mathematical and computational models to build decision support systems that business leaders can use to make better decisions that will minimize the risk of supply chain disruption and help ensure that the overall system is as resilient as possible.
She says she finds this area of research very rewarding. “Engineering gives me the ability to think critically about real-world problems and to use my expertise to apply optimization tools to solve problems,” she says.
“Industrial engineering is a particularly interesting field because it has relevance in so many different areas that we often don’t associate with engineering, including in the banking and financial sectors.”
An advocate for UBC
Having been part of UBC’s engineering community for the past two years, Mahsa says that she believes UBC is a great choice for students who want to be part of a dynamic learning community.
“There are so many options for students here in terms of engineering programs, and, within those programs, they can choose many different areas to specialize in, whether that’s industrial engineering or life cycle assessment. The Open House days are a great opportunity to learn more about each program area and the job opportunities associated with them.”
Undergraduate Programs Graduate Programs
Missed the Open House? Watch Mahsa’s presentation on adopting new technologies for logistics and transportation management at the Virtual Open House in the fall of 2024.
