What Is Industrial Engineering?

According to the Institute of Industrial Engineers (1975), the Industrial Engineering profession is described as follows:

Industrial Engineering is concerned with the design, improvement, and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, equipment, and energy.  It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design to specify, predict and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems.¡±

What are the educational objectives of the Industrial Engineering Department at Rutgers University?    

1. To prepare students to apply their creativity in solving complex engineering design problems, to approach unstructured problems, to synthesize and design potential solutions and to evaluate the impact of their solutions in the broader context of the organization or society.

2. To train students to collect, analyze, and interpret data relevant to problems arising in the industrial engineering domain.

3. To provide students with analytical and computational skills to operate effectively within the industrial engineering domain through training in problem representation, abstraction, and validation.

4. To prepare students to function as professionals in the workplace by fostering their ability to form, facilitate, lead, coordinate, and participate in teams as well as understand organizational processes and behavior.  To prepare students to effectively and convincingly present their solutions and to do so in the context of written, oral, and electronic media.

5. To provide students with the skills and ability to apply current technology to solve industrial problems.

6. To sensitize students to a need for and to provide an ability to accomplish life-long growth within the field/profession of industrial and systems engineering.