Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

An Integrated Systems Lab and Curriculum to Address IE Program Criteria Jessica O. Matson, Kenneth W. Hunter, Sr., and David W. Elizandro Tennessee Technological University

Abstract

ABET program criteria for industrial engineering require programs to demonstrate that “graduates have the ability to design, develop, implement, and improve integrated systems that include people, materials, information, equipment, and energy” and to include “in-depth instruction to accomplish the integration of systems using appropriate analytical, computational, and experimental practices.” Faculty in the industrial engineering program at Tennessee Technological University have developed an integrated junior-year curriculum supported by an Integrated Systems Laboratory and related projects. The projects provide opportunities for students to apply their newly acquired tools in an integrated setting prior to enrolling in the capstone course. Project requirements can include work measurement, work design and ergonomics, engineering economics, simulation, statistical analysis and experimental design, project management, and technical communication. In addition to a description of the laboratory and projects, the rationale and a description of the curriculum is presented. Also included is a preliminary analysis of the impact of this approach on student learning.

Introduction

ABET program criteria for industrial engineering require programs to demonstrate that “graduates have the ability to design, develop, implement, and improve integrated systems that include people, materials, information, equipment, and energy” and to include “in-depth instruction to accomplish the integration of systems using appropriate analytical, computational, and experimental practices.”1 Many industrial engineering programs use senior capstone design projects to achieve program outcomes that relate to integrated systems. In such an environment, courses preceding the capstone project focus on developing “tools” that will be applied to an integrated system in the capstone project. The tools are acquired through stand-alone topics with applications limited to textbook problems or projects that are limited in scope. The problem of developing a student’s ability to engineer integrated systems is exacerbated by the typical, stand- alone laboratories that focus on individual topic areas within industrial engineering, e.g., ergonomics or manufacturing processes. As a result, students often struggle to apply the tools in an integrated setting, such as the capstone project, even though they may have excelled in courses where the tools are learned.

To develop the student’s problem-solving capabilities within integrated systems, faculty in the industrial engineering program at Tennessee Technological University have developed an integrated junior-year curriculum that incorporates an Integrated Systems Laboratory and related projects. The projects enable students to apply their newly acquired tools in an integrated setting prior to the capstone course.

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2005, American Society for Engineering Education

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Matson, J., & Hunter, K., & Elizandro, D. (2005, June), An Integrated Systems Lab And Curriculum To Address Ie Program Criteria Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14315