Industrial Engineering
Industrial engineers focus on process improvement. The process might be a manufacturing line, where each process step is a physical operation that creates a product, or involve paper and information, such as the steps required to apply to a particular college for admission. Improvement can mean reducing cost, or reducing the time required to complete the process, or reducing the number of errors. To be effective, industrial engineers must combine technical knowledge with concerns about how people fit into the systems they design, skills that organizations need a lot right now. Industrial engineers take a systems view, considering all the resources (people, technology, information) that are part of the process. Industrial engineers find jobs in manufacturing firms, hospitals, transportation firms, and government agencies. An industrial engineer might be in charge of quality on a production line, develop computer models to improve service to patients in a hospital clinic, or work to reduce inventory costs. Many industrial engineers move into supervisory or management positions as their career progresses.
WPI's IE program is designed to provide students with the tools to spearhead process improvement efforts and the knowledge to implement and employ new technologies. Industrial engineering majors at WPI complete courses in three major categories:
- the basic mathematics and science course that are the foundation for all engineering disciplines,
- core courses that address the tools that industrial engineers use to effect process improvements, including such things as computer simulation and theories of human behavior, and
- elective courses that can be tailored to your career objectives.
If you'd like to know more about the Industrial Engineering degree program, please contact:
Sharon Johnson, Associate Professor and Director, IE Program
sharon@wpi.edu
Last modified: March 11, 2008 15:29:51