Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering: Science-Informed Artificial Intelligence Cluster, Fall 2025

Description

The Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) Department (https://ise.utk.edu) at UTK is seeking exceptional candidates to fill one tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level starting August 1, 2025. This search is part of a cluster hire to add faculty across multiple departments with expertise in Science-informed Artificial Intelligence (ScAI). The successful candidate may have a 25% joint appointment with the Mathematics department. The ScAI cluster is part of the “It takes a Volunteer” cluster hiring initiative at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (https://provost.utk.edu/it-takes-a-volunteer-2023-2025-cluster-hiring-initiative/).The ScAI Cluster will be a team of excellence in the science, mathematics, and optimization of AI for advancing scientific and engineering applications with a direct impact on additive manufacturing and hypersonic defense systems. As part of this institutional priority initiative, new hires will join a dynamic core group of scientific collaborators with complementary experience and a shared interest in building a national reputation for excellence and innovation in ScAI. In addition, members of the cluster are expected to work together to grow the University’s reputation in ScAI through shared grant proposals, publications, and innovative new curricular programming.

The new hires will also support and contribute to the AI TENNessee Initiative. The AI TENNessee Initiative is a new transdisciplinary research and education initiative focused on the State of Tennessee’s unique AI strengths and opportunities for innovation. Led by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, this initiative is engaging with academic, industrial, and community partners across Tennessee to leverage the benefits of AI across all disciplines and economic sectors in areas such as AI for science, smart manufacturing, climate-smart agriculture and forestry, precision health and environment, and future mobility. Our goal is to improve lives through AI research and education. The mission of the AI Tennessee initiative is to: 1) advance cutting-edge fundamental and transdisciplinary AI research and creative activity across all disciplines to address important challenges; 2) expand the number of Tennessee students developing skills and core competencies in AI across many disciplines to prepare them for AI-enabled jobs of today and the future; and 3) partner with industry and institutions statewide to  position Tennessee as a national and global leader in the data-intensive knowledge economy.

UTK is the flagship campus of the UT system, land-grant university, and a public Carnegie Research 1 institution. As an 1862 land-grant university and as Volunteers, serving our state and nation is key to our mission. UT enrolls approximately 36,000 students at its Knoxville campus. Under a united leadership across the UT system, university campuses, and colleges, UTK is undergoing transformational changes focused on solving some of the most audacious, pressing problems our country and world face today.

The Tickle College of Engineering is undergoing an unprecedented period of growth and success and anticipates adding over 30 new faculty over the next three years as part of ambitious cluster hiring campaigns led by Chancellor Donde Plowman and Dean Matthew Mench. For two years, the college has set records in research expenditures, enrollment, incoming student GPA, diversity, and intellectual property development. New facilities include the state-of-the-art Zeanah Engineering Complex, the University of Tennessee Manufacturing and Design Enterprise (TN-MADE) facility, and the Innovation South building now under construction that will house UT’s Fibers and Composites Manufacturing Facility (FCMF). TCE currently has 185 T/TT and 67 NTT faculty in its seven academic departments and offers 12 undergraduate, 16 MS, and 15 PhD degree programs. Affiliated with TCE and located in Tullahoma, Tennessee, the UT Space Institute is an aerospace and defense research hub. The college is also home to eight research centers and three interdisciplinary institutes. With approximately 3,800 undergraduate and 1,150 graduate students, the college sits 29th among public universities in the most recent U.S. News and World Report graduate rankings. Faculty in the college have won 21 early career awards (NSF, DoE, DARPA, AFOSR, and ARO) since 2016. In FY22, the college had NSF HERD research expenditures of $109 million.

The ISE Department offers BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Engineering and MS and Doctor of Engineering degrees in Engineering Management. The Department currently has 13 tenured or tenure-track faculty