
Dr. J. Cole Smith has been named the inaugural Director of FINS. This was announced during the “State of the College” address by Dean Cammy Abernathy on Tuesday, October 9. The Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering has strong interests in problems of national security, mostly centered on solving network interdiction problems. “Network interdiction models and algorithms can help identify vulnerabilities in a complex network,” said Smith. This process can then be used to design more resilient networks that are prone to attack.