Dr. Omar Ashour

Biography

Omar Ashour is a Professor of Industrial Engineering at Penn State Behrend, having joined the faculty in fall 2013. He previously held a post-doctoral appointment at Penn State University, Park. Dr. Ashour received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering/Manufacturing Engineering and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology in 2005 and 2007, respectively. He then earned his M.Eng. in Industrial Engineering/Human Factors Ergonomics and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering Operations Research from Pennsylvania State University in 2010 and 2012, respectively. He is the inaugural recipient of the William Wendy Korb Early Career Professorship in Industrial Engineering awarded in 2016. His research centers on the application of data-driven decision-making to enhance healthcare manufacturing systems, focusing on modeling complex problems and developing decision-support tools that leverage data analytics and simulation techniques. These tools assist decision-makers in healthcare and manufacturing environments to make accurate and repeatable decisions aimed at improving the quality and safety of healthcare systems and enhancing efficiency and productivity in manufacturing processes. Dr. Ashour's work also delves into the integration of extended reality (XR), virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence, and gamification to support personalized adaptive learning in engineering education.

Research Interests