Avishai Mandelbaum
Co-Founder – Professor Emeritus
Professor Emeritus Avishai Mandelbaum has a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer-Science and an M.A. in Statistics, all summa cum laude from Tel-Aviv University. His Ph.D. is in Operations-Research, from Cornell University. His first academic position was at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University 1983-1991. He then returned to Israel, and has been a faculty at IE&M Technion ever since. He served as Dean in 2014-2018, during which IE&M has turned into a “data-driven” Faculty; in particular, he led the creation and accreditation of Technion’s pioneering undergraduate program in Data-Science & Engineering.
Prof. Mandelbaum is a fellow of INFORMS and MSOM. He was an associate editor of the leading journals in his research areas, in particular Mathematics of Operations Research, Management Science and Queueing Systems. He created the function and had been serving, over many years, as the faculty adviser for IE&M outstanding students.
His research covers stochastic models (analysis, asymptotics, control), statistics and operations research, with applications to queueing theory/science, service systems (e.g. tele-services, hospitals) and data science. His research and teaching have enjoyed various prizes, in particular the Yanai Prize for Academic Excellence at the Technion (inaugural class).
In 2007, Prof. Mandelbaum co-founded theTechnion SEE Laboratory; and he has been serving as the lab’s academic director ever since. SEELab has become a hub for Service Science, Engineering and Management, with its unique data-repositories supporting research partnerships, graduate theses and teaching at all levels, in Israel as well as worldwide.
Paul Feigin
Co-Founder – Professor Emeritus
Professor Emeritus Paul Feigin joined the Technion in 1976. He completed his Ph.D from the Australian National University in 1975.
Professor Feigin is a statistician who has contributed to theory and application of data analysis in a variety of fields. His research covers areas such as inference for stochastic processes, nonparametric statistics, statistical analysis of genetic data, and analysis of customer patience in call centers. He applies modern methods of forecasting and data-mining (now called Machine Learning) as well as design and analysis methods used in clinical trials. He is an elected fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and of the International Statistical Institute.
Alongside his academic activities he has earned extensive experience in consulting for medical companies such as Teva Pharmaceuticals and MeMed. For over a decade he served as the scientific director of TechnoSTAT, a statistical consulting company. Together with the late Prof. Ayala Cohen, he established the Technion Statistical Laboratory which he has returned to lead.
Professor Feigin served as the Technion’s Senior Executive Vice President (2007 – 2013), the Technion Vice President for Strategic Projects (2013 – 2016) and as the Assistant to the Technion President for Strategic Projects (2016-2018). He earlier served as Dean of The William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management (1999–2002).
He was recently appointed as the Director of the Israel Data Science Initiative (IDSI), an umbrella body established to coordinate the activities of the seven university Data Science Research Centers as well as to advance the field of data science through interfacing with government, industry and international organizations.
Galit Yom-Tov
Co-Director – Associate Professor
Galit B. Yom-Tov joined the faculty in 2012, and is a co-director of the SEELab since 2018. Galit received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management from the Technion in 2010. Afterwhich did a Post-doc in Columbia University for two years.
On top of her academic work, Galit has extensive experience in practice. She worked several years as a production engineer and IT specialists, and is consulting governmental agencies and companies on different aspects of service engineering. For example, she was consulting the Ministry of Health, and done research in collaboration with the largest HMO in Israel, Clalit Health Services, Live Person, Microsoft, and more. Galit’s research focuses on service operations and behavioral operations. She studies how data, that is obtained from various service systems (such as call-centers and hospitals), can teach us about customer and agent behavior in such systems, and how queueing models can help us understand the operational implications of such behavior. She aims to build new operational methods for these systems in a way that will balance service and financial goals. Her present focus is on healthcare systems, where her research can help to allocate resources such as beds, nurses, and physicians, so that patients receive adequate service while considering financial constraints.
Galit teaches courses on Service Engineering, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Yair Goldberg
Co-Director – Associate Professor
Associate Professor Yair Goldberg joined the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management in the Technion in 2018. He obtained his Ph.D. in Statistics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2009. From 2009 to 2011, Yair conducted postdoctoral studies at the Department of Biostatistics and served as a statistical consultant for The Translational and Clinical Science Institute (NCTracs), both at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 2011 to 2018.
Yair’s current research focuses on machine learning and survival analysis. In the field of survival analysis, he works on the development and analysis of new models, in both semiparametric and nonparametric frameworks. In the field of machine learning he is currently working on developing fast algorithms for dimension reduction.
Anat Rafaeli
Professor Emeritus
Professor Anat Rafaeli joined the Faculty in 2000. She completed her PhD studies at the Ohio State University in 1984 and was a post-doctorate visiting fellow at Stanford University. Prior to joining the Faculty Prof. Rafaeli was a faculty member of The Hebrew University and also has been a faculty member at The University of Michigan.
Anat’s research examines emotions felt and displayed in organizations, organizational artifacts (e.g., workstation design, organizational logos, or employee dress), hiring and recruiting processes, and service interactions between employees and customers.
Prof. Rafaeli holds the Yigal Alon Chair for the Study of People at Work in the Technion.
Naveh Eitan
Professor
Professor Eitan Naveh joined the Faculty in 2001. He received his D.Sc. in Quality Assurance and Reliability—all from the Technion in 1995, followed by post-doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
Prof. Naveh research focuses on innovation and quality. He studies triggers that lead to tension between continuous innovation and quality, and identifies conditions under which organizations can manage and even benefit from this tension. Part of his research is the investigation of errors, which are a basic dimension of quality.
Eitan explores these and other topics in both research and development teams in hi-tech companiesand medical teams in medical centers. He uses conventionalcross-sectional research design as well as interventional design.
Zychlinski Noa
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor Noa Zychlinski joined the faculty in 2020. She received her Ph.D. from the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Technion in 2018. From 2018 to 2020, Noa held a Post-Doctoral position at the Division of Decision, Risk, and Operations at Columbia Business School.