About the Program
Industrial engineers design, analyze, and manage complex human-integrated systems such as manufacturing systems, supply chain networks, and service systems. These systems typically consist of a combination of people, information, material, and equipment. In such systems industrial engineers determine how to optimize the system for maximum efficiency, effectiveness, throughput, safety, or some other objective of interest to the stakeholders of the system. To achieve these objectives, an industrial engineer draws upon knowledge of mathematics, along with physical, engineering, management, and behavioral sciences to function as a problem-solver, innovator, designer, coordinator, and system integrator. Industrial engineers are employed in and apply their skills in an extremely wide range of organizations, including manufacturing industries, service industries, and governmental agencies.
The complexity of these organizations and the emphasis on increased effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity have led to a growing need for industrial engineering analysis and design, resulting in an increased demand for industrial engineering graduates. This increased demand recognizes the modern industrial engineer’s versatility and responsiveness to the challenges of a rapidly changing society. Industrial engineering is one of the nation’s largest and most rapidly growing engineering professions.
The industrial engineering program prepares graduates for careers in all phases of industrial engineering and enables them to perform both technical and managerial functions that require scientific and engineering backgrounds. By combining the study of science, mathematics, engineering fundamentals, design, and management principles, an industrial engineering education provides a unique background and a sound basis for lifelong career development in engineering practice, research, or management.
Senior design projects consist of a real-world application of IE principles by teaming students with a local industry in Indiana. Teams have taken on full-scale projects like designing floor layouts for factories and hospitals, designing operations to improve system efficiency, reducing time and waste in processing, allocating resources to optimize system performance, and developing a safety plan for preventing work-related injuries.
The BS program in Industrial Engineering is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, under the commission’s General Criteria and Program Criteria for Industrial Engineering and Similarly Named Engineering Programs.
Industrial Engineering Major Change (CODO) Requirements
Critical Course
The ♦ course is considered critical.
In alignment with the Degree Map Guidance for Indiana’s Public Colleges and Universities, published by the Commission for Higher Education (pursuant to HEA 1348-2013), a Critical Course is identified as “one that a student must be able to pass to persist and succeed in a particular major. Students who want to be nurses, for example, should know that they are expected to be proficient in courses like biology in order to be successful. These would be identified by the institutions for each degree program.”
Disclaimer
The student is ultimately responsible for knowing and completing all degree requirements. Consultation with an advisor may result in an altered plan customized for an individual student. The myPurduePlan powered by DegreeWorks is the knowledge source for specific requirements and completion.
Comparative information about Purdue University and other U.S. educational institutions is also available through the College Navigator tool, provided by the National Center for Education Statistics, and through the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
