Education at Penn State University
Industrial Engineering is the branch of the engineering profession that is concerned with the design, analysis, and control of production and service systems. Originally, an industrial engineer worked in a manufacturing plant and was involved only with the operating efficiency of workers and machines. Today, industrial engineers are more broadly concerned with productivity and all of the technical problems of production management and control. They may be found in every kind of organization: manufacturing, distribution, transportation, mercantile, and service. Their responsibilities range from the design of unit operations to that of controlling complete production and service systems. Their jobs involve the integration of the physical, financial, economic, computer, and human components of such systems to attain specified goals. Industrial engineering includes activities such as production planning and control; quality control; inventory, equipment, warehouse, and materials management; plant layout; and workstation design.
Penn State's Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering Department is one of the top five programs in the country according to U.S. News & World Report. The IE Department at Penn State University was founded in 1908 and was the first Industrial Engineering department in the world. The IE Department is located in a spacious $12 million building with state-of-the art facilities, including a working manufacturing lab, robotics lab, and four computer labs with more than 100 networked workstations.
My concentrations are in Operations research with Engineering Leadership Development Minor (ELDM). Operations research is concerned with quantitative decision problems, generally involving the allocation and control of limited resources. Such problems arise, for example, in the operations of industrial firms, financial institutions, health care organizations, transportation systems, and government. The operations research analyst develops and uses mathematical and statistical models to help solve these decision problems. Like engineers, they are problem formulators and solvers. Their work requires the formation of a mathematical model of a system and the analysis and prediction of the consequences of alternate modes of operating the system. The analysis may involve mathematical optimization techniques, probabilistic and statistical methods, experiments, and computer simulations. In operations research, new developments are being explored in mathematical programming, combinatorial optimization, stochastic modeling, computational and mathematical finance, queuing theory, reliability, simulation, and both deterministic and stochastic network flows.
The Engineering Leadership Development Minor (ELDM) is an interdisciplinary minor designed to supplement their major field of study with knowledge of leadership concepts, principles, practices, and techniques. The minor was developed as a result of strong industry, recruiter, and alumni support for training, educating, and developing engineers who are also capable leaders and managers. The leadership minor is an introduction to and the analysis of leadership roles and practices in organizations. Course work focuses on working in teams and social interaction in the classroom through the study of cases, group projects, meaningful discussion, and the development of critical analytical skills. The learning environment is “hand-on, minds-on,” and students must take personal, active responsibility for their own learning.
To solve organizational, production, and related problems most efficiently, industrial engineers carefully study the product and its requirements, use mathematical methods such as operations research to meet those requirements, and design manufacturing and information systems. They develop management control systems to aid in financial planning and cost analysis and design production planning and control systems to coordinate activities and ensure product quality. They also design or improve systems for the physical distribution of goods and services. Industrial engineers determine which plant location has the best combination of raw materials availability, transportation facilities, and costs. Industrial engineers use computers for simulations and to control various activities and devices, such as assembly lines and robots. They also develop wage and salary administration systems and job evaluation programs. Many industrial engineers move into management positions because the work is closely related.
Training Other Qualifications Advancement Job Outlook Overall employment of industrial engineers, including health and safety, is projected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations through 2012. In addition, many openings will be created by the need to replace industrial engineers who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force. Employment of industrial engineers is expected to increase as fast as the average while that of health and safety engineers is expected to grow more slowly than average
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