Industrial and Systems Engineering
Industrial and systems engineering provides the perfect blend of technical skills and people orientation. Industrial engineers address the overall system performance as well as productivity, responsiveness to customer needs and the quality of the products or services produced by an enterprise. They also are the specialists who ensure that people can safely perform their required tasks in the workplace environment.
Industrial and systems engineering involves designing, improving and installing systems that affect people, material, information, equipment and energy. Thus the nature of graduate study is highly interdisciplinary.
Opportunities for Students
The industrial engineering master’s degree program provides opportunities for individuals to expand their knowledge of industrial and systems engineering through a coherent program of study that includes a concentration in one of the three areas of emphasis (human factors/ergonomics, manufacturing processes and operations research) and a breadth of understanding in the other areas. The doctorate program provides opportunities for individuals to attain a high level of scholarly achievement and contribution to the discipline through advanced study and research. Graduate studies in industrial and systems engineering at Ohio State fall into the three following specializations that each emphasize a particular aspect of industrial systems:
Human Factors/Ergonomics
Human factors engineering, also known as ergonomics, has two focus areas:
- Biomechanics
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Biomechanics is the physical analysis of the human-environment interaction including industrial and clinical interactions.
Faculty: William Marras, Steven Lavender, Carolyn Sommerich - Cognitive Engineering
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Cognitive engineering is the human-centered design of products and distributed work systems. This includes the designs of roles and responsibilities, procedures and advanced technologies to support decision making, communication and cooperative work, information analysis, training and distributed control.
Faculty: Phil Smith, David Woods - Manufacturing Processes
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Faculty members in manufacturing process engineering have interests in metal forming, injection molding, die-casting, composite manufacturing, automation and CAD-CAM/CIM.
Faculty: Taylan Altan, Jerald Brevick, Jose Castro, Blaine Lilly, Gary Maul, Rajiv Shivpuri, Allen Yi - Operations Research
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The operations research graduate program has five focus areas: applied statistics, optimizations, stochastic modeling, production and engineering management.
Faculty: Ted Allen, Julie Higle, Shahrukh Irani, Robert Lundquist, Clark Mount-Campbell, Marc Posner, Suvrajeet Sen
About the Department
The Department of Industrial, Welding and Systems Engineering at Ohio State was established by the merger of the industrial and systems engineering and the welding engineering departments in 1994. The IWSE department’s 26 full-time faculty members serve a student population of 500 undergraduate and 150 graduate students. The department offers master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial and systems engineering and in welding engineering. In addition to these majors, minor programs of study are available in manufacturing and engineering management.
In collaboration with Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business, the department also offers a master’s degree in business logistics engineering.
The IWSE graduate program was ranked 17th in the nation by U.S. News &World Report rankings for 2007, and it is consistently recognized as having two of the top-ranked specialized programs, human factors/ergonomics and manufacturing engineering, in the United States.
Employment Opportunities
Industrial and systems engineering is about choices. While other engineering disciplines sometimes apply skills to very specific areas, ISE gives graduates the opportunity to work in a variety of businesses. The most distinctive aspect of industrial and systems engineering is the flexibility that it offers. Whether it’s shortening a roller coaster line, streamlining an operating room, distributing products worldwide, assessing back pain or manufacturing superior automobiles, all tasks share the common goal of saving companies money and increasing efficiencies. Industrial and systems engineering graduate students are employed by a wide range of industries, service and health-related organizations, universities, national laboratories and independent research organizations. ISE graduates usually receive multiple job offers with some of the highest starting salaries in the College of Engineering.
Research
The Department of Industrial, Welding and Systems Engineering has extensive laboratory and research facilities, including:
- Center for Resilience
- Data-Driven Decisions Laboratory
- Edison Joining Technology Center (in collaboration with Edison Welding Institute)
- Engineering Research Center for Net Shape Manufacturing
- Institute for Ergonomics
Faculty also are involved in many other interdisciplinary programs and research centers, including:
- Center for Advanced Polymer and Composite Engineering
- Center for Affordable Nanoengineering of Polymer Biomedical Devices
- Center for Occupational Health in Automotive Manufacturing (COHAM)
- Cognitive Systems Engineering Laboratory
Annual research expenditures in the department exceed $6 million. Primary sources of research funding include the Federal Aviation Administration, National Science Foundation, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, State of Ohio and multiple industrial sponsors.
Graduate Applications
Applications to Ohio State University must be submitted online. Please visit the Ohio State University Office of Graduate Admissions Web site to apply online with a credit card. Also, the industrial, welding and systems engineering department’s Web site provides links to the university admissions Internet site.
