Professor, B.S. (Mechanical Engineering). 1975 and M.S.I.E. 1977 (Indian Institute of Technology, Madras), Ph.D. (State University of New York at Buffalo), 1983.

Dr. Bala Ram worked for three years in the field of information systems in India after getting his MSIE degree. 

He joined the department in 1983. Dr. Ram has completed several funded research projects in the areas of Applied Operations Research and Materials Handling. 

He directed a project in Materials Handling sponsored by the National Science Foundation. 

Currently, he is involved with courseware and laboratory development to support student projects in product realization. 

Dr. Ram is the Chairman of the Inter-disciplinary Manufacturing Committee in the College of Engineering. 

He is in charge of the Integrated Manufacturing Lab and the Programmable Controller Lab, and the Design Studio Lab in the college. 

Dr. Ram is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of North Carolina, a member of IIE, ASEE and SME. He is actively involved with the local chapter of SME.

Research and Teaching Interests:

Selected Publications:

"Multimedia-based Tool for Material Handling", Experimental Learning Workshop VI, Cornell University, July 1996 with (R. Girdhar).

"Simulation-based Tool for Facilities Design", Product Realization Consortium Courseware Workshop, Cornell University, July 1996 with (R. Girdhard).

"Material Transport Scheduling in Flexible Manufacturing Systems", Working Paper, May 1995 (with S. Joshi, S. Ramaswamy and N. Williams).

"Sequential Control Laboratory for Manufacturing Engineering Education," Proceedings of the 1993 American Control Conference, June 1993 (with D. Pai).

"Development of Evaluation Systems for Continuous Improvement in Undergraduate Engineering Education," Proceedings of the 100th Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education, June 1993 (with O. Eyada, A. Thompson, C. Ntuen and S. Tufecki).

"An Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Manufacturing Education", Proceedings of the 15th Conference on Computers and Industrial Engineering, March 1993 ( with E.H. Park and S. Udoka).

"The Pallet Loading Problem: A Survey", International Journal of Production Economics, 28, 217-225, 1992.

"Application of Early Cost Estimation Software Prototype in Some Small Manufacturing Industries", for Department of Commerce, December 1992.

"The Pallet-Packing Problem for Non-Uniform Box Sizes", International Journal of Production Research, 29, No. 19, 1963-1968, 1991 (with C. S. Chen and S. Sarin).

"A Flexible Palletization Station - Algorithms and Implementation", Proceedings of the Fourth Advanced Technology Conference of US Postal Service, November 1990 (with S. Sarin and C. S. Chen).

"A Model and a Solution Approach for the Machine Loading and Tool Allocation Problem in a Flexible Manufacturing System", International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 28, No. 4, 637-645 (with S. Sarin and C. S. Chen).