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Session 1357

Integration and Synthesis of the Industrial Engineering Curriculum via an Unstructured Problem Solving Course Bryan A. Norman, Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Bopaya Bidanda, Kim LaScola Needy, Jayant Rajgopal University of Pittsburgh

Abstract

The Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh is addressing an important issue – how to develop a comprehensive, integrated curriculum that (1) is pedagogically sound, (2) thoroughly prepares graduating engineering students for industrial practice and graduate school, and (3) trains students to readily recognize and apply their engineering background to solve unstructured problems, both locally and beyond US borders. Beginning in September 2003 we embarked on an innovative approach to curriculum reform that contains four overarching objectives, namely (1) the integration of concepts across the curriculum; (2) teaching students to synthesize different concepts to solve unstructured problems; (3) providing problem solving methods and strategies within a societal framework that allows for their application within a local as well as a global context; and (4) creating a portable development methodology that can be readily adapted to other engineering disciplines. This paper reports on the development and implementation of a new course IE 1091 - Unstructured Problem Solving that was piloted in the Summer 2004 Semester. Faculty and student assessment of the course are reported and analyzed at three distinct periods – during the course, immediately upon completion of the course, and six months after completion of the course.

1. Introduction

We address a pressing issue in engineering education – how to develop a comprehensive, integrated industrial engineering curriculum that thoroughly prepares graduates not only for industrial practice or graduate school, but also trains students to readily recognize and apply their engineering background to solve problems, both locally and internationally. At the 2004 ASEE Annual Conference, the authors discussed how we are revising the undergraduate IE curriculum at the University of Pittsburgh with four primary objectives in mind1:

1. Integration: Integrate concepts across the curriculum via • Reinforcement of course material throughout the curriculum. • "Just-in-time" concept integration. 2. Synthesis: Teach students how to synthesize different concepts to solve problems. • Industrial engineers often face ill-defined, complex problems in systems where there are significant interactions between different sub-system components. • Students often fail to see that solving a problem in practice requires the application of several different IE concepts and methods, and that the essence of

“Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2005, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Besterfield-Sacre, M., & Norman, B., & Rajgopal, J., & Bidanda, B., & Needy, K. (2005, June), Integration And Synthesis Of The Industrial Engineering Curriculum Via An Unstructured Problem Solving Course Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--15285