Wilson College’s Newest Faculty Member Aims to Bridge Academia, Industry and AI Expertise

For Md Abdul Quddus, joining the faculty at the Wilson College of Textiles offered a perfect “bridge” — a link, of sorts, between his passion for academia and his distinguished career at the cutting edge of supply chain logistics.
In August, Quddus began a new chapter when he became the college’s newest assistant professor in the Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science (TECS).
In his role, Quddus brings deep experience both from his time as an assistant professor at Southeast Missouri State University. But he also draws from a five-plus year run as a senior operations research advisor at FedEx Express, one of the world’s top shipping and logistics companies. There, he honed a knack for incorporating the newest emerging technologies to rethink business strategies.
“When I was at FedEx, I solved complex logistical problems using artificial intelligence and machine learning,” Quddus explains.
Yet, the role left, unfulfilled, a hunger to work with students.
“I’ve always been passionate about teaching and advancing research,” Quddus says. “Here, in academia, I can always bridge real-world problem-solving with guiding the student and tackling real-world challenges to solve textile-related problems.”
Hitting the ground running
For Quddus, that work has already begun in earnest.
In his first semester on NC State’s Centennial Campus, he worked closely with students in teaching Supply Chain Management in the Textile Industry, an undergraduate course for the Supply Chain Operations concentration. This course focuses on every step of producing and distributing a product, from raw materials to finished goods.
It’s a complex set of processes Quddus knows well, through his work at FedEx to infuse AI to improve so-called “last-mile” delivery, improving delivery drivers’ routing to save costs and wait times for customers.
In his teaching role, Quddus leverages his own professional experience through lectures, then fosters collaborative classroom discussions and assigns group projects to help students grasp the material.
He’s hoping to bring that expertise — and that hands-on teaching approach — to future courses focused on sourcing, manufacturing and distribution throughout the textile industry.
And along the way, Quddus plans to incorporate fast-growing technology that figures to play a major role in virtually every sector of the economy in the coming years.
“For instance, how you can use AI in forecasting demand in different stages of the supply chain,” Quddus offers. “Somewhere down the road, I’m envisioning developing some graduate level courses around supply chain and analytics that will be more devoted toward AI and machine learning.”
Wide-ranging research
Along with his work as a senior operations research advisor at FedEx, Quddus has been widely published, owed to his deep background in transportation and supply chain logistics.
His work has focused on everything from electric vehicle charging grids to four-way traffic stops and the bio-fuel supply chain, and appeared in renowned publications such as Transportation Research Part E, the International Journal of Production Economics, Expert Systems with Applications, Annals of Operations Research, Applied Energy, and others.
Quddus earned his Ph.D. in 2018 industrial and systems engineering from Mississippi State University after receiving his master’s and undergraduate degrees, respectively, from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, and Khulna University of Engineering & Technology in Bangladesh.
This broad knowledge of next-generation technologies was a big part of what the Wilson College saw in Quddus in bringing him to campus last year.
“He will bring a combination of academic experience and real-world experiences,” says Emiel DenHartog, TECS interim department head.
“His teaching experience will help our students apply their learned knowledge to real-world problems in the topics that are important to our thriving, innovative, global textile industry,” DenHartog adds.
For Quddus, the excitement in the Wilson College is mutual, owed to its world-class research facilities and unparalleled connections between academia and industry partners.
“I’ve found this to be a very collaborative culture,” Quddus says. “I saw their vision, and innovation, and that excited me.
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