Biography

Gretchen A. Macht is an Assistant Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering at The University of Rhode Island, where she has been on the faculty since 2015, and presented the 40 Under Forty Award by Providence Business News in 2019.

Dr. Macht is a computational, community ergonomist who directs the Engineering for Democracy Institute (EDI) and the Sustainable Innovative Solutions (SIS) Lab. She initiated EDI, formerly the RI VOTES project, in 2017 after a Rhode Island statewide Kaizen of the 2016 Presidential Election. EDI performs extensive data analysis, simulation, and allocation resource modeling to overcome current, new and future obstacles in the voting and election processes. As the director of EDI, an interdisciplinary group of political scientists, various architects, and engineers, we explore the role of utilizing engineering to sustain democracy.

Her research has been supported by collaborations with the Rhode Island Secretary of State, the Rhode Island Board of Elections, Democracy Fund, Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project, National Science Foundation, and the US Elections Assistance Commission. Her public talks were sponsored by The Boston Society of Architecture, RI Common Cause, Center for Technology and Civic Life, and the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

Professor Macht received her degrees from The Pennsylvania State University, with her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering with a specialization in Human Factors and Ergonomics, her M.S. and B.S. in Industrial Engineering with tracks in Manufacturing, as well as a Postdoctoral Scholar in Architectural Engineering.