UB - University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Discover ISE 101

Discover Industrial and Systems Engineering (EAS 101) is a one credit hour course designed to give students a first look into industrial and systems engineering as both a college major and a career choice. This course has NO PREREQUISITES and is intended for freshman and sophomores in engineering who wish to gain an appreciation for the ISE field.

First offered in Spring 2003, the “Discover ISE” course starts with a brief historical perspective, then covers the broad application areas and methodologies of the ISE discipline. Each member of the ISE faculty teaches a class, which provides students with real life information about the current day practice, careers, employers, and the role of ISEs in integrated systems design. The specific objectives of the course are to review:

• The discipline and practice of ISE
• The domain areas, modeling methods, and solution techniques available to an ISE
• The design, production, and delivery/distribution process for goods and services
• Role of ISEs in variety of information, man-machine, financial, and service systems

Here’s what previous “Discover ISE” students thought of the course and the field of industrial and systems engineering:

• "Over the past 14 weeks there has not been what I would call a non-interesting presentation by the IE faculty here at UB."
• "I like the idea of industrial engineering because it is engineering with people."
• "IE is a very interesting field. I was able to learn a lot about it over one semester's time. I had an idea of what IE did before taking the class, but as I found out; my interpretation was narrow and inaccurate."
• "IE isn't a typical engineering field. They solve problems, large and small, by taking human interaction and nature into account so that the right fix is used for the right problem."
• "The thing I like most about IE is how open it is."
• "After taking this class, I have a greater appreciation for IE. I realize that their jobs go past just running factories. I found this class to be enlightening and interesting. And if I wasn't already finishing my 2nd year of electrical engineering, I would definitely consider it as a career path."
• "(IE) is an exciting engineering career that allows you to work in a wide variety of positions or in management positions."
• "IE is probably the widest and broadest engineering discipline."
  
• "When it comes down to making more money and making its customers and workers happy, no company would deny the help of an IE."