Clemson IE, Ph.D. student, Amro Khasawneh, successfully defended his dissertation this fall, completing the hardest and most important step to receiving his doctorate. Amro began as a Ph.D. candidate in Fall 2016 shortly after earning his master’s degree from Binghamton University in Industrial and Systems Engineering.
In his dissertation, titled Systems engineering approaches to minimize the viral spread of social media challenges, Amro used systems engineering approaches to minimize the contagion effect of self-harm behavior among vulnerable individuals. His co-advisors were Dr. Kapil Chalil Madathil and Dr. Anand Gramopadhye.
When asked about the topic, Amro commented, “I found this opportunity to be a great fit for me as I always try my best to work on something that matches my values—helping people. It makes me happy when I see others happy and what a great match to work on a project that its core value focuses on lowering self-harm and thus turning others’ lives around to be happier.”
When Amro was still a teenager, he remembers setting a ten-year goal for himself to receive his doctorate at 25 years old. While he instead successfully defended two days before his 27th birthday, Amro is proud of all he has accomplished.
“Having a 10-year long goal accomplished felt amazing and taught me a lot of lessons for my future. One must have goals in life, plans to achieve them, persevere through the hard times, and celebrate the small wins. There will always be obstacles along the way, tough ones, but one should never give up and if necessary, find a detour.”
Among his accomplishments, in October Amro was awarded the Student Member with Honors Award at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) 63rd International Annual Meeting for his outstanding contributions to the field and society. To earn the award, Amro published in papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, presented at multiple international human factors conferences, and worked on various projects with industry professionals.
Amro was recognized as someone who has contributed outstandingly to the discipline during his tenure as a student.
When asked where he would like to see himself in the future, Amro responded, “I like being both a practitioner and an educator, therefore, I will continue learning and enhancing my knowledge in the domain, by working on applied projects and sharing new methods and findings with my fellows. I would like to see myself in a position where I can continue to do both.”
Amro Khasawneh will be hooded on December 18 and will begin working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins Medicine in 2020.
Congratulations to Dr. Khasawneh!
