Attendees at the Epstein Department’s 2025 spring banquet, undergraduate award winner Alex Wang, guest speaker Matt McKinney, ISE Department Chair Maged Dessouky and Daniel J. Epstein. Image/Grace Owh.
The Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering celebrated the achievements of the past year at the department’s annual banquet held at Town and Gown at the University Park Campus on 28 April 2025.
Banquet attendees included students, faculty, staff as well as alumnus and USC Trustee Daniel J. Epstein, whose historic naming gift has transformed industrial and systems engineering research, innovation, and learning at USC for over 20 years. Guests enjoyed a keynote speech presented by co-founder and CEO of Loop, Matt McKinney. Loop is a Chicago-based startup company that leverages AI to digitize shipment data for the benefit of manufacturers and freight companies. Loop works with Fortune 500 companies including J.P. Morgan Chase, Tyson Foods, Estée Lauder and has raised over $110M in funding.
McKinney, who studied ISE at USC and graduated in 2014, drew upon his background at Uber to tackle the massive problem of building a new structure for the legacy transportation payment system that supports the global supply chain. USC Viterbi news recently wrote about McKinney and Loop, and how the company is aiming to “unlock profit trapped in the supply chain.”
The ISE banquet also featured an awards ceremony honoring the following students for their achievements over the past academic year.
Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering – 2025 Awards
Outstanding Student of the Year (undergraduate): Megan Phi
Outstanding Student of the Year (MS Fall): Rachel Monger
Outstanding Student of the Year (MS Spring): Shilong Ren
Outstanding Achievement in Leadership: Alex Wang
Outstanding Undergraduate Research: Alex Wang
Outstanding Teaching Assistant of the Year: Zhiwei Li
Outstanding Course Producer of the Year: Shilong Ren
Senior Capstone Design: Cash4Trash team – Nicole Chou, Lensa Hamda, Solyana Michael and Matthew Villena
More photos from the ISE Spring Banquet are available here.
Published on June 3rd, 2025
Last updated on June 3rd, 2025
