Exploring Engineering Majors in

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Exploring Engineering Majors in Biomedical,
Materials, Industrial and Management Engineering
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
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IME Combining Math, Science and Business Sense
for Better Solutions

• Coordinate the application of resources to meet
  multiple objectives
• Minimize the time, money, energy and materials
  needed to produce a product or provide a service
  with the highest possible quality
• Serve as systems integrators
• Develop the best overall strategy and action plan
  to profitably meet customer requirements on a
  timely basis at a competitive cost
• IMEs work in all types of service and goods
  producing industries
• Warehouses, hospitals, factories, airlines,
  banks, brokerages, airlines, government services,
  defense industries, consulting
• Almost every type of enterprise can use the
  services of an industrial engineer

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IME Very Few Students Enter College Knowing
About IME

• Switching to IME for other majors is common. The
  IME graduating class grows by a factor of 4 or 5
  from the first to the fourth year
• Most IMEs enter college undeclared or initially
  major in something else
• Many students report switching to IME because
  they discovered that, to them, that IME
  represents math with a practical purpose
• Many students choose IME due to its focus on
  human centered systems
• IME has the widest range of career trajectories
• The strong, consistent job market is another
  factor motivating some students to major in IME
• IME salaries are above average relative to other
  engineering disciplines
• Professional IMEs report very high career
  satisfaction

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IMEs What They Do and How Theyre Educated

• Designing human centered systems
• Formulating and building models of business and
  engineering systems and using them to optimize
  operating policies prior to committing resources
  to their implementation
• Deterministic and Stochastic Optimization (OR I
  and OR II)
• Simulation Model Building
• Making decision making sense out of large
  masses of data
• Strategies for adding value by upgrading data to
  information and information to knowledge within
  the organizations information value chain
• Statistical Analysis
• Quality Control
• Information Systems

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IMEs What They Do and How Theyre Educated

• Supporting Decisions on Business and Technical
  Policies and Projects
• Evaluating alternatives in quantitative and
  qualitative terms
• Planning the allocation of scarce resources,
  determining who does what to obtain the best
  overall solution
• Engineering Economics and Project Management
• Production Operations Management and Cost
  Accounting
• Supply Chain Management
• Designing Facilities, Products and Services to
  Meet Customer Needs
• Developing detailed plans for the creation of
  products and services and the resources used for
  their production and deployment
• Facilities Planning and Industrial Logistics
• Design and Analysis of Work Systems
• Industrial Safety and Hygiene

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What Qualities Make Good IMEs?

• Interested in the Effects that People Have on
  Business and Engineering Systems
• Pragmatic Sensitive to business implications of
  activities and decisions
• Likes to Organize Things and Lead Others
• Good at Seeing the Big Picture How Different
  Parts of a System Fit Together
• Likes to Interact with Other People
• Likes to Make Decisions Rationally and Apply
  Quantitative Reasoning
• Is Good at Explaining Things to Others and Being
  Persuasive
• Understands Human Nature and its Effect on
  Behavior and Organizations
• Likes to Build Models Reflecting Random
  Influences
• Understands Importance of Planning Before Acting
• Can Break a Complex Problem Down Into Smaller
  Pieces