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Session 2457

Department-Level Reform of Undergraduate Industrial Engineering Education: A New Paradigm for Engineering Curriculum Renewal

M. S. Leonard, A. K. Gramopadhye, D. L. Kimbler, M. E. Kurz, R. J. Jacob, C. E. McLendon, and S. Regunath Clemson University

Abstract The Roy Report serves as the basis for today's typical industrial engineering curriculum. That report documents a 1966-1967 study led by Robert Roy, Dean of Engineering Science at Johns Hopkins University, supported by NSF and sponsored by ASEE. Unfortunately, few major changes have been made to the core baccalaureate-level industrial engineering curriculum shared by most American universities since the dissemination of the Roy Report and initial implementations based on its findings.

This paper describes the work of a project team from the Department of Industrial Engineering at Clemson University, sponsored by NSF. The team has been working since September 2002 to develop a new scalable and deployable industrial engineering baccalaureate-degree model. This model is designed to permit scaling up from an information technology kernel of coursework to a fully integrated industrial engineering undergraduate curriculum. Three aspects of the new curriculum plan are described in this paper.

Overview During the mid 1960s, a study group sponsored by NSF and ASEE developed the prototype for today's typical industrial engineering curriculum, with its emphasis on operations research tools of analysis. Industrial engineering academic professionals from across the United States participated in the study led by Robert Roy, Dean of Engineering Science at Johns Hopkins University. The rapid and almost universal adoption of the Roy model for the industrial engineering curriculum speaks to the willingness of industrial engineers to implement sound academic models.

The study led by Roy was based on the following mutually agreed upon definition of industrial engineering, as officially adopted by the American Institute of Industrial Engineers (AIIE) in 1955: Industrial Engineering is concerned with the design, improvement, and installation of integrated systems of men, materials, and equipment. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, and social sciences together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems. Roy observed, "We have interpreted the primary objective of this study as consonant with that [AIIE] definition."

Given the emphasis on uniformity of academic programs induced by the process-oriented accreditation standards of the Engineers' Council for Professional Development (the predecessor of the ABET, Inc.), the approach to curriculum model development that Roy and his colleagues used was especially effective. Roy's efforts led to the development of a curriculum model based

Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education

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Leonard, M. (2003, June), Department Level Reform Of Undergraduate Industrial Engineering Education: A New Paradigm For Engineering Curriculum Renewal Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--12312