Industrial engineers design, analyze, and manage complex human-integrated systems such as manufacturing systems, supply chain networks, and service systems. These systems typically consist of a combination of people, information, material, and equipment. In such systems industrial engineers determine how to optimize the system for maximum efficiency, effectiveness, safety, or some objective of interest to the stakeholders of the system. An industrial engineer draws upon knowledge of mathematics, along with physical, engineering, management, and behavioral sciences to function as a problem-solver, innovator, designer, coordinator, and system integrator. Industrial engineers apply their skills in an extremely wide range of organizations, including manufacturing industries, service industries, and governmental agencies.

Growing organizational complexity and the emphasis on increased effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity have led to a growing need for industrial engineering analysis and design, resulting in an increased demand for industrial engineering graduates. This increased demand recognizes the modern industrial engineer's versatility and responsiveness to the challenges of a rapidly changing society. Industrial engineering is one of the nation's largest and most rapidly growing engineering professions.

The industrial engineering program prepares graduates for careers in all phases of industrial engineering and enables them to perform both technical and managerial functions that require scientific and engineering backgrounds. By combining the study of science, mathematics, engineering fundamentals, design, and management principles, an industrial engineering education provides a unique background and a sound basis for lifelong career development in engineering practice, research, or management.

The School of Industrial Engineering offers educational programs leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering (BSIE). The two undergraduate programs of study — the regular industrial engineering curriculum and the honors curriculum — provide students with a broad scientific and engineering base and contain a sequence of courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry and the engineering sciences. These courses are accompanied by courses in manufacturing processes, facilities design, engineering statistics, engineering cost analysis, work analysis and design, operations research, process control, production system design, computer utilization, information systems, systems analysis, and industrial engineering design.