The term, “steeped in tradition” comes to mind. When I graduated from Cal Poly, my best offer was a job to teach at Cal Poly. My best instruction came from those who had successful experience in private industry. I intended to pursue a position in corporate management with a company that produced a product from a natural resource. I have stated many times; if you add training, responsibility and authority to the IE curriculum you have the manager I wanted to be. After completing a year of Aero. Eng. (because I had graduated in Aero Technology at Utah State) I decided I wanted to graduate in IE. The department Head, a retired Sales Manager from Clark Lift Truck had devised the 4 year IE curriculum said I had to complete the curriculum in sequence. I was 26, married and anxious to get on with my career. The Dean of Engineer approved my plan to complete the 4 year curriculum in 2 years. I took maximum credit load each quarter, including summer sessions and even worked part time for a contractor. My physics instructor taught me calculus in free time before I took the class. My Aero buddies let me join there study group while taking the EL and
EE requirements in summer sessions. When I told the head of the Aero Dept that I was changing my major to IE, he said “ and be a gloried accountant instead of an engineer?” I said, “I intend to become a good manager of engineers and others as well”. At my 50 year reunion I told Debra Larson, Dean of Engineering that I thought IE graduates could fill the need for technical management in small communities and achieve a comfortable and happy lifestyle. Now, they call it Manufacturing Engineering.

CE at RIT:

• It will cost you a ton of money. A great deal more than UB.
• I argue that the 3 semesters per year hurts your education. You don’t get enough time with the subject to really dig in.
• Classes are definitely more applied (you will have more labs with actually volt meters, circuitry, ect).
• The ratio of guys to girls at RIT sucks. In my day, there was a lot of Geneseo/RIT relationships because their ratio is very nearly the opposite.

CE at UB:

• Going to Buffalo is like going to college at the Department of Motor Vehicles: everyone is there; everyone is waiting in line. Put another way: no one coddles you. You need to make sure your registered for classes, you are responsible for ensuring you have enough credits, you have to advocate for yourself in a large bureaucracy. Unlike say U of R, where they have people dedicated to watching your back.
• Buffalo is not a fancy school. They cannot rely on their reputation like say Harvard. So no grad inflation. Instead they have to give you a rock-solid, rigorous education.
• SUNY buffalo is way cheaper.
• Buffalo is also much more diverse than RIT. RIT is allot of white people from the Northeast. Buffalo has whole sections of the population which don’t speak English. The school has a huge amount of internationals - direct from the middle east, Africa, Asia - for some reason.
• Buffalo is also huge. UB North campus is like it’s own city. This means any interest you might have - rock collecting, skiing, swing dancing, geo-caching - buffalo probably has a club that.

For both schools:

• Both schools have microelectronics fabs. This is key for CE jobs. You want to spend as much time in a clean room as you can! If you want a job at Intel, Samsung or Global Foundries clean room work is key.
• I can’t say you will have to leave WNY. The answer would be a solid yes, for the last 20 years or so - but this may be changing. New York is really trying to remake it’s economy for the microelectronics industry. Hot cities for CE? Austin or San Fransisco.

BUT - if you want to get a computer engineering job, the school you want is University of Albany, the college of nanoscale engineering. I am not sure, but I think this is a similar price to UB, and it is far, far better than what you would get a RIT.

This is one of the leading places in the country for learning microelectronics. New York State already invested billions on developing this campus and you would benefit immensely from it. The school has a major specifically geared towards working in a nanofab and lots of connections with the Global Foundries FAB about 30 minutes away.

Those jobs can fetch upwards of 80 thousand, starting salaries.

Comparing the engineering programs at the University of Washington (UW) Seattle and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is difficult as both universities have strong engineering programs and the best option for an individual depends on their specific needs and interests. Both universities have a wide range of engineering disciplines and are well-regarded in the field.

That being said, here are a few factors to consider when making a decision:

1. Research opportunities: Both UW and UIUC have strong engineering research programs and have numerous opportunities for students to engage in cutting-edge research. However, UIUC is known for its highly ranked engineering research programs, particularly in areas like electrical and computer engineering, and may be a better option for students interested in pursuing research opportunities.
2. Location: The location of the university can play a big role in an individual's experience. Seattle is a major technology hub with a thriving tech industry, while UIUC is located in the heart of the Midwest and has strong ties to industry in that region.
3. Program strengths: Both universities offer a wide range of engineering disciplines, but each may have strengths in specific areas. For example, UW Seattle is known for its strong programs in bioengineering and computer science, while UIUC is known for its highly ranked electrical and computer engineering programs.

Ultimately, the best option will depend on an individual's specific needs, interests, and career goals. It's important to research both universities, visit the campus if possible, and speak with current students and alumni to get a better sense of which program may be the best fit.

Short Answer: UCSD.

Long Answer:
- In terms of cost: UCSD is the winner, especially if you are in California, given that UCSD is publicly funded vs. RIT is private. Even if you are outside of California, tuition cost of UCSD is also lower compared to regular tuition fee for well-known private research institution in NY.
- In terms of engineering field: UCSD is also the winner because their Jacobs School of Engineering is ranked among top 10 engineering schools, and their acceptance rate is quite low (9% for transfer and 13% for freshmen). Expect to study very hard there, and as a general rule for these hand-on STEM field, the harder you study, the higher the job prospect later
- Just for fun: In terms of reputation (what is reputation anyway?) reputation for top universities rely heavily on their research contribution, and UCSD is a more well-known research institution worldwide with a higher number of Nobel laureates and publications, so this explains why UCSD’s reputation/overall ranking is higher compared to RIT.

But the very important question for you is also where do you want to live for a few years? New York, or San Diego - they are two very different places and may need another Quora question about them ;)

probably because it's more efficient that way...

BOOM

kidding and vagueness aside, I think IE/OR's demand in the field/s is stagnant/stagnating and so after so many departments had sprouted up, the demand did not increase and so the supply did not as well.

with so much 'work' becoming more and more driven by the work of machines and supplied by electricity instead of human labor and raw materials respectively the traditional IE/OR problem sets become less commonplace. interesting side-note: OR has many overlaps with CS as they try to 'optimize' their versions of workers, resources and transport protocols.

secondly, alot of the calculations that IE/OR's can do can and are being relegated to software; route determination, capacity analysis, demand planning/forecasting, inventory management etc.

furthermore I have observed, at least in the US, that optimization and resourcefulness take a backseat to shorter cycle-time and sheer volume; just get it out the door! In my humble opinion this is due to the abundance of the US. Sure that tide is a changing now with a more aware workforce (younger generation and repercussions of the economic downturn) but inherently it was not, for a long time, popular sentiment to work-hard just to squeeze more efficiency, especially when the current ways work pretty well.

so with those points mentioned, it would not make sense to make more departments that would train more IE/ORs would it?

Barring ivy league schools, MIT, and the like, most engineering degrees are pretty comparable. What really makes the difference is what you want to do with your IE degree. I would look up all the research of your potential universities and go with the one that most closely aligns with your interests or dream job. If this gets you nowhere, then obtain the required course list for this program at each university and see what differences you can find. These different classes you would have to take should also play into your decision based on interests and goals.

Also to think about is the college experience. Since most colleges don’t have degree programs that are a landslide better than other colleges, other things should go into your determining criteria as well. What is the satisfaction rating of the school by students? What friends or acquaintances may be going to that university? How far is each from home? Are some programs easier than others?

Basically, the research opportunities and required courses are what make up the difference between colleges, but your decision should be based on more than that. Regardless of how much better a particular degree program is, if you end up hating the college and failing, then you would have been better to go to a school that you enjoy and are able to succeed at.

Jared Moon

IE Major at Clemson University

(ranked #2 for students love their college)

I think you’re asking the wrong question because Software Engineering(SE) and Computer Science(CS) are not the same thing. You will learn very different things in these two programs, regardless of the school.

For reference (and from your question):

• IIT does not have a dedicated SE program. They offer a MS in Computer Science with a specialization in SE.
• RIT has a dedicated BS & MS program in SE. It was IIRC the first accredited SE program in the country as of about 20 years ago. It’s an entirely different department from Computer Science and while some of the core curriculum overlaps, it has a different goal.

I think you need to answer the question what you’re looking for first. Do you want a CS degree or an SE degree? Then you can compare the schools and potentially the programs head to head.

I went to RIT, but I never really liked the school. It wasn’t until probably a decade later that I came to realize what a great education I got there. I cycled through a few different jobs and understand now that there’s a huge difference in developer capabilities. At RIT, you could generally count on your classmates in the later years to hold up their side of a project. You would fail out if you couldn’t and plenty of people did.

The flip side of this is that GPA’s at RIT tend to be lower because the professors aren’t generally very forgiving. So your GPA at RIT is probably equivalent to a higher GPA elsewhere. This matters when you first graduate and are looking for a job, but not so much later in your career.

Over the past 15 years, they’ve aggressively expanded the school, increasing in student body size, number of programs and number of graduate degrees. I live near Boston and when I first moved here, nobody had ever heard of RIT. These days, it has a reputation for being a great school. By virtue of having graduated there, their efforts to expand have increased the value of my degree.

IIT is apparently harder to get into, but based on popularity of the programs, my suspicion is that RIT is a better school for people wanting a CS or SE degree. That’s because they have more students in those programs and therefore more resources to allocate to them.

Both excellent universities.

Are you currently employed in the Seattle area? Or do you wish to intern and then get a job in the Seattle area and in the industries of that area? If yes, then U Washington.

Are you currently employed in the Boston area? Or do you wish to intern and then get a job in the Boston area and in the industries of that area? Do you want to take advantage of a six-month Co-Op in your major while working on your Master’s degree? If yes, then Northeastern.

Either way you will be a “Huskey”, the mascot for both universities……. Or as we all call Northeastern….. “The Hounds of Huntington”

Good luck.

Because the field and body of knowledge is (relatively) poorly defined and overlaps with a lot of other disciplines and majors, e.g. Manufacturing/production engineering, Mathematics, computer science, operations management, etc. The only actual IE subject I can think of that is NOT taught also taught in some form or another in another college department is Statistical Quality Control. OR is taught in the Math department, production management is taught (less rigorously) in the business school, manufacturing methods is taught in the Mfg or Mechanical Engineering department, human factors engineering is also taught in computer science (for human machine interaction) or occupational health/medicine... You get the picture.

So IE is a great undergrad program that gives you a good mix of subjects to prepare you for operations management career, but as an academic discipline, it is too interdisciplinary and therefore can be limiting for faculty who want to do research or get a PhD.

Original question: What are the best undergraduate schools for Industrial Engineering Design?

This question can’t really be answered until it’s modified. The term Industrial Engineering Design is confusing. Could you instead specify one of the following:

Industrial Engineering - A branch of engineering dealing with processes and facilities used in manufacturing.

Industrial Design - Also known as Product Design, a profession which creates designs of all kinds, usually consumer products, combining artistic, ergonomic and mechanical knowledge.

Purdue offers both programs, Industrial Engineering in the College of Engineering, Industrial Design in the College of Liberal Arts. If you’re not sure what you want, do a bit of research first, Quora has lots of info or the web.

I pulled my ‘Handbook of Industrial Engineering’ by Gavriel Salvendy off the shelf to see what they say. In the first chapter there is an excerpt from the AIIE (American Institute of Industrial Engineers) which has defined the field as, ‘concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, equipment and energy. 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.’

In the preface to the book (~4000 pages) the following list is included highlighting broad areas of specialization.

1. Organization and job design.
2. Methods engineering.
3. Performance measurement and control of operations.
4. Evaluation, appraisal, and management of human resources.
5. Ergonomics/human factors.
6. Manufacturing engineering.
7. Quality assurance.
8. Engineering economy.
9. Facilities design.
10. Planning and control.
11. Computers and information systems.
12. Quantitative methods.
13. Optimization.

Needless to say, there is a lot to learn and no one learns it all. In today’s society, in almost all fields of study, we find increasingly more and more specialization. The old country doctor/general practitioner is hard to find. Those that can speak fluently to most of these areas (this is much of my consulting business) have been at this a very long time. We are constantly learning and evolving.

My friend Himanshu has got two friends at his new place, Rakesh and John.

Personally, I knew none of them.

So for me, both were nice persons.

Then few weeks ago, I got the chance to meet Rakesh and found him absolute pro in his job. He talked very decently and was very friendly to me. He asked me for dinner and we ate together while discussing about our works.

Now, I think Rakesh is a better person.

But does that make John inferior than him?

No

One of my Room mate say Amritansh, got the chance to meet John and he claims that John is one of the best persons he has ever met.

We both are right but in actual we don’t have the experience to live with John and Rakesh together. Though, Himanshu knows every shit about them and he says that both of these two persons are actually the best in what they do.

John is very lazy but an awesome story teller and is trying to build his career in that,so Amritansh found him so soothing and cheerful while Rakesh is very authoritative and sober,though he maintains good relationship with everyone, so I liked him.

Brother, People with Mechanical Engineering Stream will suggest you to opt for the same, while the people with Industrial Engineering will ask you to opt for theirs. But it is you who has to critically analyse your interest and then opt for the best suited stream.

The curriculum of both “Mechanical Engineering” and “Industrial Engineering” is very vast and the learning drawn out of these courses are independent and parallel with traces of its base or foundation that itself is very mechanical that people prefer to choose Mechanical Engineering rather than any other ordinates. This is the result of their limited understanding and consideration of market as the loaf of bread from the same brand which has nothing to do with the learning experiences but job opportunities for which they know nothing but shit.

Analyse your interest first, check the curriculum and compare the weight of topics of your interest on both sides.

Don’t consider the market opportunities while deciding the Engineering Stream as the growing-fluctuating market has a lot to surprise you in near future.

The story I wrote at the beginning is completely fictional.

Depends on what you like or what interests you and how good your professor(s) are. Personally, I did not do as well in my non-degree related courses (electives/core classes) because of this. I also knew which professors to avoid and which ones to try to take as many classes I could from. Best to talk to a Senior or Junior about what their opinions are of different professors. What they tell you would prove invaluable. They may even be nice enough to share some class notes from their class. One of my easiest classes was Differential Equations, just because the professor was so good, that she made the class easy and fun. This would be an almost impossibility from anyone else.

Before simulation, when factories wanted to build/improve processes, the designers and manufacturers had to build the new hardware, assemble it into systems, and try it. For all of the variations which may be necessary to optimize the new process, all but the last variation is a huge waste. Doing it this this way is very costly, time consuming, and wasteful.

Today, using mathematics running on computers, each of the potential improvements can be modeled on the compter and, if not yet optimized, easily altered. Many variations can be computer run at very little cost and quickly.

This is the benefit of simulation. And, today, nearly everything being designed or altered undergoes simulation before hardware is committed to the project. It is a great contribution to efficiency.

In general, if you rank a set of data based on some sort of value, it is really easy to sort the good and the bad. For example, myself and many other managers I know, when hiring, sort resumes into two groups, candidates and non-candidates. After a few sorts, the list gets narrowed down to some manageable number that get invited for interviews and eventually someone gets hired. The difference between those in the top candidates group and those in the bottom non-candidates group is astounding.

But, when comparing a few excellent, top candidates, the comparison, in the very least, is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Your list is a group of top schools with outstanding credentials. Most alums from each school will give you a strong set of reasons why their school should be your choice, but most likely, you will get an equivalent education from any of those schools.

However, some years after you graduate, should you want to change jobs, or even careers, you will find that who you know matters and your alumni network may be very significant to your life chances. If there is anything the Ivy’s offer over the public institutions it is that amazing support and comradery the Ivy alums offer their fellow graduates. It opens doors and opportunities that you would be hard pressed to find otherwise unless you have something to offer that is unique and that few others can do. To wit, see if you can get access to the Harvard Business School Career Hub from someone just to see what’s available. It’s worth its weight in gold.

So, when making your choice, ask hard questions about the network you will be building and the longevity of that network. There is more to your career than coming out of a good school with good grades.

On the other hand, I chose the entrepreneur route, which makes worrying about being a professional manager for hire moot. Nevertheless, contacts are contacts are contacts. Entrepreneur or not, the network still matters.

That said, I like being a Michigan alum and as always: Go Blue.

I am I am from Oklahoma, so I considered several Texas schools along with Purdue. I chose Purdue and I'm glad that I did. It has a better global reputation then any of the schools in Texas and I was exposed to a wider variety of students than I would have staying in the Southwest.

For those that love woodworking and you're trying hard to discover detailed plans to build your dream project, you should check this link. They share list of 16000 projects with step by step plans. Each of the 16,000 projects are detailed enough to leave nothing to guesswork yet simple enough for beginners. Each projects included step-by-step instructions, cutting and materials lists, detailed schematics, views from all angles,.. It's easy to follow even I'm a beginner in this are.

My friend Himanshu has got two friends at his new place, Rakesh and John.

For those that love woodworking and you're trying hard to discover detailed plans to build your dream project, you should check this tutorial. They share list of 16000 projects with step by step plans. Each of the 16,000 projects are detailed enough to leave nothing to guesswork yet simple enough for beginners. Each projects included step-by-step instructions, cutting and materials lists, detailed schematics, views from all angles,.. It's easy to follow even I'm a beginner in this are.

Personally, I knew none of them.

So for me, both were nice persons.

Then few weeks ago, I got the chance to meet Rakesh and found him absolute pro in his job. He talked very decently and was very friendly to me. He asked me for dinner and we ate together while discussing about our works.

Now, I think Rakesh is a better person.

But does that make John inferior than him?

No

One of my Room mate say Amritansh, got the chance to meet John and he claims that John is one of the best persons he has ever met.

We both are right but in actual we don’t have the experience to live with John and Rakesh together. Though, Himanshu knows every shit about them and he says that both of these two persons are actually the best in what they do.

John is very lazy but an awesome story teller and is trying to build his career in that,so Amritansh found him so soothing and cheerful while Rakesh is very authoritative and sober,though he maintains good relationship with everyone, so I liked him.

Brother, People with Mechanical Engineering Stream will suggest you to opt for the same, while the people with Industrial Engineering will ask you to opt for theirs. But it is you who has to critically analyse your interest and then opt for the best suited stream.

The curriculum of both “Mechanical Engineering” and “Industrial Engineering” is very vast and the learning drawn out of these courses are independent and parallel with traces of its base or foundation that itself is very mechanical that people prefer to choose Mechanical Engineering rather than any other ordinates. This is the result of their limited understanding and consideration of market as the loaf of bread from the same brand which has nothing to do with the learning experiences but job opportunities for which they know nothing but shit.

Analyse your interest first, check the curriculum and compare the weight of topics of your interest on both sides.

Don’t consider the market opportunities while deciding the Engineering Stream as the growing-fluctuating market has a lot to surprise you in near future.

The story I wrote at the beginning is completely fictional.

I was not an industrial engineer, and of my engineering friends none of them were industrial engineers.

I was curious as to how it might differ from civil engineering, so I looked up an over view from one of the schools in Texas. It is, in my opinion, a very cryptic description and so esoteric it comes across as a jumble of words written to impress rather than explain. Perhaps you can glean more from this than me, so here it is from the University of Texas Arlington :

“Industrial Engineering students will be prepared for engineering practice through a curriculum culminating in a major design experience based on the knowledge and skills in earlier course work and incorporating appropriate engineering standards and multiple realistic constraints. The curriculum will prepare graduates to design, develop, implement, and improve integrated systems that include people, materials, information, equipment and energy. The curriculum includes in-depth instruction to accomplish the integration of systems using appropriate analytical, computational, and experimental practices.”

Does that help you any?

Best of luck,

Jim

Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with manufacturing facilities and systems. It designs and manages plant setup and operation, production planning and tooling, quality control, ergonomics of manufacturing and related areas. The management techniques can also be applied to service industries and institutions like hospitals.

Wikipedia lists these topics in this link: Industrial engineering - Wikipedia

• Process engineering: design, operation, control, and optimization of chemical, physical, and biological processes.
• Systems engineering: an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how to design and manage complex engineering systems over their life cycles.
• Safety engineering: an engineering discipline which assures that engineered systems provide acceptable levels of safety.
• Data science: the science of exploring, manipulating, analyzing, and visualizing data to derive useful insights and conclusions
• Machine learning: the automation of learning from data using models and algorithms
• Analytics and data mining: the discovery, interpretation, and extraction of patterns and insights from large quantities of data
• Cost engineering: practice devoted to the management of project cost, involving such activities as cost- and control- estimating, which is cost control and cost forecasting, investment appraisal, and risk analysis.
• Value engineering: a systematic method to improve the "value" of goods or products and services by using an examination of function.
• Quality engineering: a way of preventing mistakes or defects in manufactured products and avoiding problems when delivering solutions or services to customers.
• Project management: is the process and activity of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals in scientific or daily problems.
• Management engineering: a specialized form of management that is concerned with the application of engineering principles to business practice
• Supply chain management: the management of the flow of goods. It includes the movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption.
• Ergonomics: the practice of designing products, systems or processes to take proper account of the interaction between them and the people that use them.
• Operations research, also known as management science: discipline that deals with the application of advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions
• Operations management: an area of management concerned with overseeing, designing, and controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the production of goods or services.
• Job design: the specification of contents, methods and relationship of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the social and personal requirements of the job holder.
• Financial engineering: the application of technical methods, especially from mathematical finance and computational finance, in the practice of finance
• Industrial plant configuration: sizing of necessary infrastructure used in support and maintenance of a given facility.
• Facility management: an interdisciplinary field devoted to the coordination of space, infrastructure, people and organization
• Engineering design process: formulation of a plan to help an engineer build a product with a specified performance goal.
• Logistics: the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet some requirements, of customers or corporations.
• Accounting: the measurement, processing and communication of financial information about economic entities
• Capital projects: the management of activities in capital projects involves the flow of resources, or inputs, as they are transformed into outputs. Many of the tools and principles of industrial engineering can be applied to the configuration of work activities within a project. The application of industrial engineering and operations management concepts and techniques to the execution of projects has been thus referred to as Project Production Management.