STTG Member Spotlight: Prof. John D. Lee

 

Prof. John D. Lee

Meet Prof. John Lee. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and B.A. in Psychology from Lehigh University and his M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign. He is currently a Professor in the Industrial & Systems Engineering department at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

What was the path to your current role?
I entered academia after six years in industry. When I started in industry, I had no intention of becoming a professor, but the appeal of an academic position gradually grew.

What are the responsibilities associated with your role?
My main responsibilities include mentoring students, teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses, developing proposals to fund research, and sharing research findings at conferences and through journal articles. I also spend substantial time on service activities, such as faculty recruiting and mentoring, departmental and university committees, as well as paper reviewing and advisory boards.

What made you decide to pursue an academic role?

Several factors inspired my pursuit of an academic position but the most important was to have a direct effect on people. Another attraction is the freedom and autonomy in academia are hard to match in industry.

What do you enjoy the most in your current role?

The most enjoyable parts of my role are working with students to develop new ideas, connecting with a community that shares similar interests at conferences and meetings, and helping students expand their capacity.

Could you describe a favorite or recent project?

I have many favorite projects, but one favorite recent one aims to support NASAs deep space exploration. We are investigating how to measure and manage trust in a conversational agent by using features of the conversation itself: what people say and how they say it (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00187208231166624)

What skillsets would you expect from people applying to a role that is similar to yours?
Curiosity and the ability to learn and connect ideas. Ability to adjust mentoring to the needs of the person and situation. Maybe most important, be able to adapt to feedback at timescales that range from seconds (e.g., seeing students understand something new) and months (e.g., focusing on paper and proposal writing) to decades (e.g., adjusting research direction based on scientific and technological trends).

What is one piece of advice you would give up-and-coming HF professionals who want to work in surface transportation related roles?
Talk to others about their experience in a role that you are considering. Recognize that any role will not be constant for your career. Stay curious.

Do you have any suggestions for must-know skills and tools?
Systematic development of ideas and knowledge with a tool like Obsidian. Developing such a tool is central to learning new skills, such as analysis techniques in R, as well and expanding human factors theories.