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A Departmental Reform Strategy and the Resultant National Model for an Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an extensive research study to develop a national model for an undergraduate curriculum in Industrial Engineering. A departmental reform strategy was developed and applied to reengineer the IE curriculum. The reform strategy began with identifying the voice of the customer, including both industry and academic institutions which employ or enroll IE students after they graduate with their IE undergraduate degree. The emerging topics and desired characteristics of undergraduate IE graduates were identified in an earlier research study. These emerging topics were used in a focus group to identify high-level knowledge clusters of information that future IE graduates would need to master based on possible future work scenarios. The emerging topics were mapped to the high level knowledge clusters to generate curriculum requirements of future progress. This research effort developed a revised IE curriculum that can be used as a national model for IE departments. This curriculum focuses on nontraditional industry sectors, incorporating enhanced instructional strategies that can improve learning and retention, as well as state-of-the art technologies that support these strategies. The national model also includes material to help engineers gain knowledge that will help to prepare them for roles of leadership and management in their careers, as well as provides for recruiting strategies to increase the numbers of underrepresented minorities and women in IE programs. This paper describes the approach used in this research effort to develop the national model, as well as details of the resulting model for undergraduate IE curriculum.

Introduction

The Industrial Engineering and Management Systems department at the University of Central Florida with its Industrial Advisory Board designed a comprehensive multi-faceted three-year plan to reengineer the Undergraduate Education Program. The effort involves making significant changes in the curriculum, developing aggressive recruiting strategies to attract students into the Industrial Engineering profession, transforming faculty instructional strategies, and introducing new technology in the classrooms while providing additional experiential opportunities for students. The IE undergraduate national model was developed as a result of the efforts pursued during the National Science Foundation (NSF) Implementation Grant for Departmental Reform that was awarded in 2003.

This paper described the departmental reform strategy developed and applied to create the national model, as well as the national model generated to the IE undergraduate curriculum of the future.

Research Goal

The Goal of this research activity was to implement a comprehensive Departmental Reform strategy that will serve as a national model for other departments interested in significantly

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Furterer, S., & Furterer, S., & Sharawi, A., & Rabelo, L., & Crumpton-Young, L., & Williams, K., & St. John, H. G. (2007, June), A Departmental Reform Strategy And The Resultant National Model For An Undergraduate Industrial Engineering Curriculum Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1859