Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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The Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering is the industrial engineering department at the Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1908, it is the oldest such department in the world.^[1] In 2006 the department's graduate school was ranked third in the United States according to U.S. News & World Report, and its undergraduate program was ranked fourth.^[2] The department is currently headed by Richard J. Koubek^[3] and is based in the Leonhard Building, a $12 million building containing the acclaimed FAME manufacturing lab. The department employs 25 faculty members, who in 2005 served 127 graduate and 345 undergraduate students.^[4]

Contents 1 History 2 Academics 3 Facilities 4 Alumni and faculty 5 Notes 6 External links

[edit] History

Penn State at the turn of the 20th century had developed a national reputation for its engineering curriculum,^[1] but industrial engineering was only beginning to emerge as an academic discipline. Noted efficiency expert Frederick Taylor recommended that university president James A. Beaver hire Hugo Diemer, a professor from the University of Kansas, in the hope that Diemer would create an industrial engineering curriculum at Penn State. A two-year option was ready by 1908, and a four-year baccalaureate degree program emerged the following year, the first of its kind in the world. At the time, courses consisted of modern industrial engineering fundamentals such as time and motion study, plant layout optimization, and engineering economics, in addition to courses on advertising and sales. The new department also took over the instruction of manual shop skills, including carpentry and metalworking.^[1]

At the time, the department did not have its own building, and for many years shared building space with other departments in the university's College of Engineering. In the 1980s, Penn State board members began to consider expanding the campus toward the west, and by 1987, initial plans to construct a new engineering building were in place. The Penn State Board of Trustees funded the project in 1995 amid concerns of damaging the aesthetics of the previously undeveloped western edge of campus. Some trustees disapproved of the building design, but the board ultimately released $5 million from its fund dedicated to expanding west campus.^[5] In 1998, the project received additional funding from the State of Pennsylvania.^[6] The building opened in 2000 and was named after William E. Leonhard, a 1936 Penn State alumnus who with his wife has donated in excess of $1 million toward engineering at Penn State.^[7] In 1999, the department itself was named after Harold and Inge Marcus, a couple living in Seattle who donated $5 million to the department.^[8]

In 2005, the department restructured the undergraduate industrial engineering curriculum for the first time in 21 years. Shifting its focus somewhat from its traditional manufacturing emphasis, the new curriculum introduced several courses related to the service industry. An industry advisory board in conjunction with faculty helped guide the changes, mentioning healthcare, supply chains, and e-commerce as service industry opportunities for industrial engineers. Under the new curriculum, students take a number of refactored courses, and are offered a choice between three separate subject tracks, allowing them to focus their major on manufacturing, the service industry, or information technology.^[9][10]

[edit] Academics

The department is recognized as one of the country's premier industrial engineering departments. The 2006 U.S. News & World Report rankings placed the department's undergraduate program fourth in the country, and the graduate program third.^[2] Twenty-five full-time faculty served 127 graduate and 345 undergraduate students in 2005.^[4]

At the undergraduate level, students can pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial and manufacturing engineering. The first two years of the program consist primarily of general engineering courses, including math and science. Once these introductory courses are complete, students begin taking industrial engineering courses on topics such as engineering economy, manufacturing technology, statistics, work design, and operations research.^[11] Of the 129 credits required for graduation, nine are devoted to a specialization, allowing students to focus their degree on a specific area within industrial engineering. The available tracks are manufacturing engineering, engineering service systems, and engineering information systems. Undergraduates are also permitted to pursue an approved minor and count three of the credits earned toward their IE degree.^[12][13]

Graduate students have a greater variety of options. Master of Science and Master of Engineering degrees are available, and may be supplemented by options in manufacturing engineering, human factors/ergonomics engineering, or quality engineering. Furthermore, dual M.S. degrees in industrial engineering and operations research are offered. At the Ph.D. level, students may pursue an industrial engineering degree, a dual-degree in industrial engineering and operations research, or a degree in industrial engineering with a minor in operations research.^[14] Besides coursework, a thesis is required for the M.S. and Ph.D. programs. For the M.Eng. degree, a shorter scholarly paper must be written.^[15]

In addition to the study abroad opportunities available to all engineering students at Penn State, the industrial engineering department offers two study abroad programs specifically for industrial engineering students. The first, at the University of Navarra in San Sebastian, Spain, is offered to undergraduate juniors and seniors in the department. The second, at the Technion in Haifa, Israel, is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Each offers a variety of industrial engineering coursework, taught both in English and the language of the host country.^[16]

[edit] Facilities

The offices of the department are located in the Leonhard Building. The structure encloses 95,200 square feet (8840 m²) on three stories, and its exterior is made of brick, cast stone and glass.^[5] While the building contains some offices for mechanical engineering faculty and hosts a variety of engineering and non-engineering classes, it primarily serves industrial engineering students and faculty. The building contains two lecture halls and three classrooms, a 24-hour computer lab, and undergraduate and graduate student lounges.^[17] The building also contains numerous research and instructional laboratories, including the Benjamin W. Niebel Work Design Laboratory,^[18] the Metrology Laboratory (equipped with laser micrometers, coordinate measurement machines and a roundness testing gauge),^[19] and the Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) and Robotics Laboratory (containing 7 material handling robots).^[20]

Additionally, the building contains a 10,000 square foot (900 m²) high-bay manufacturing lab called the Factory for Advanced Manufacturing Education, or the FAME lab. With the goal of reinforcing material taught in the classroom and introducing students to common engineering processes, the department brought together a variety of manufacturing equipment. It partnered with Haas Automation to create the Haas Technical Center, a section of the lab that contains 10 Haas CNC machining centers and turning centers.^[21][22] In the lab's metalcasting area, students learn about casting and molding methods like green sand casting, resin bonded sand casting, and loast foam casting.^[23] A welding area is made up of six welding booths and contains equipment used for shielded metal arc welding, gas metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, submerged arc welding, spot welding and plasma arc cutting. The facility also contains injection molding equipment, a manual machining area, and various types of testing and measuring tools.^[24][22]

[edit] Alumni and faculty

The department claims numerous industry leaders among its graduates. Susan M. Sinclair (1993) and Allen L. Soyster are among those who have held the position of President of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE).^[25] Harold W. Gehman, a 1965 graduate, served as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Joint Forces Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic until he retired in 2000. In 2003 he was appointed to head the investigation of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.^[26] Business leaders who have graduated from the department include Gregory Lucier (1986), the President and CEO of Invitrogen,^[27] and Edward M. Kasody, president and CEO of American Trim, a joint venture of Superior Metal Products and Alcoa.^[28]

The department's faculty includes former department head and IIE fellow A. "Ravi" Ravindran, the author of several textbooks in the area of operations research, and Harriet Black Nembhard, the winner of the 2004 Armand V. Feigenbaum Medal for her work in quality engineering.^[29] Other faculty members that are fellows of professional organizations like IIE or the Society of Manufacturing Engineers include Richard A. Wysk, Jose A. Ventura, and Robert C. Voigt.^[30][31] Former faculty include Amos E. Neyhart, a traffic safety education pioneer and creator of the first driver education classes in the United States in 1933.^[32] Inyong Ham, a Penn State professor (1958–95) and an IIE Fellow, was known for his development of group technology and research on the use of computers in manufacturing and process planning.^[33] Another former faculty member, Benjamin W. Niebel, authored an introductory industrial engineering textbook, served as department head, and won the IIE Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Award in 1976.^[34]

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Department home page
• List of faculty
• List of all courses with descriptions