Academics
The department is recognized as one of the country's premier industrial engineering departments. The 2009 U.S. News & World Report undergraduate program rankings placed the department fourth in the country, and the graduate program was ranked as tied for fifth. Twenty-four full-time faculty currently serve over 160 graduate and 325 undergraduate students.
At the undergraduate level, students can pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial and manufacturing engineering. The first two years of the program consist primarily of general engineering courses, including math and science. Once these introductory courses are complete, students begin taking industrial engineering courses on topics such as engineering economy, manufacturing technology, statistics, work design, and operations research. Of the 129 credits required for graduation, nine are devoted to a specialization, allowing students to focus their degree on a specific area within industrial engineering. The available tracks are manufacturing engineering, engineering service systems, and engineering information systems. Undergraduates are also permitted to pursue an approved minor and count three of the credits earned toward their Industrial Engineering (IE) degree.
Graduate students have a greater variety of options. Master of Science (M.S.) and Master of Engineering (M. Eng.) degrees are available, and may be supplemented by options in manufacturing engineering, human factors/ergonomics engineering, or quality engineering. Furthermore, dual M.S. degrees in industrial engineering and operations research are offered. At the Ph.D. level, students may pursue an industrial engineering degree, a dual-degree in industrial engineering and operations research, or a degree in industrial engineering with a minor in operations research. Besides coursework, a thesis is required for the M.S. and Ph.D. programs. For the M.Eng. degree, a shorter scholarly paper must be written.
In addition to the study abroad opportunities available to all engineering students at Penn State, the industrial engineering department offers two study abroad programs specifically for industrial engineering students. The first, at the University of Navarra in San Sebastian, Spain, is offered to undergraduate juniors and seniors in the department. The second, at the IE department of the Technion in Haifa, Israel, is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Each program offers a variety of industrial engineering coursework, taught both in English and the language of the host country.
Read more about this topic: Harold And Inge Marcus Department Of Industrial And Manufacturing Engineering
Famous quotes containing the word academics:
“Our first line of defense in raising children with values is modeling good behavior ourselves. This is critical. How will our kids learn tolerance for others if our hearts are filled with hate? Learn compassion if we are indifferent? Perceive academics as important if soccer practice is a higher priority than homework?”
—Fred G. Gosman (20th century)
“Almost all scholarly research carries practical and political implications. Better that we should spell these out ourselves than leave that task to people with a vested interest in stressing only some of the implications and falsifying others. The idea that academics should remain “above the fray” only gives ideologues license to misuse our work.”
—Stephanie Coontz (b. 1944)