Introduction to Industrial and Systems Engineering

1 credit hours 15 contact hours Prerequisites: No prerequisite. NOTE THE CREDIT VALUE: this is a ONE-CREDIT course, not the three-credit survey the title might suggest. It is a short professional orientation - career planning, ethics, teamwork, industry site visits and guest speakers - with some introductory problem-solving method. It is not a technical survey of the discipline and does not substitute for one. ONE CARRIER: FIU alone offers this number. Several other Florida institutions run their own introduction to the discipline under different numbers, so if you are not at FIU, look for the equivalent in your own catalogue rather than for this number. WORTH TAKING EARLY: the site visits and speakers are the cheapest way to find out whether the field suits you, and that is more useful in the first year than in the third. v1.0

Course Description

Introduction to Industrial and Systems Engineering is a professional orientation course rather than a technical one. The statewide description lists an introduction to and overview of the profession, including career planning, professionalism and communication, ethics, teamwork, industry site visits, industrial speakers, and selected solution methods for problems in coordination and planning.

⚠⚠ It carries ONE credit. That is the most important thing to know about it: the title sounds like a survey of the discipline, and it is not. It is a short course designed to orient a new student to the profession and to the department.

Carried by FIU alone among Florida public institutions.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

Describe what industrial and systems engineers do, and the range of industries that employ them.
Explain the ethical obligations of the engineering profession.
Work effectively in a team and communicate technical ideas in writing and speech.
Apply selected solution methods to introductory problems in coordination and planning.
Plan a course of study and the first steps of a career, including internships.

Optional Outcomes

Reflect on site visits and practitioner talks.
Use introductory software the department expects later in the programme.

Major Topics

Required Topics

The profession: history, scope, and the industries it serves.
Professional ethics and responsibility.
Communication and teamwork for engineers.
Career planning, internships and the co-operative education route.
Introductory problem-solving in coordination and planning.

Optional Topics

Industry site visits.
Guest speakers from practice.
Introduction to the professional society and student chapter.

Resources & Tools

Usually no textbook, or a short professional-orientation reader.
⚠ IISE — the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers — runs student chapters, and this course is the natural moment to join one. Student membership is inexpensive and is where internships often surface.

Career Pathways

Named on the Industrial Engineer career path as the entry point. Its practical value is diagnostic: it is the cheapest honest test of whether the discipline suits you, taken at one credit in the first year rather than discovered at the third.

Special Information

⚠⚠ One institution carries this number

This course is offered by Florida International University and by no other Florida public institution. Two things follow, and both matter more than they sound.

First, this guide describes that institution’s course, not a statewide consensus, because there is no consensus to describe. Second, the statewide SCNS record was almost certainly written by the same institution — so where the two agree, that is one source quoted twice rather than independent corroboration. Nothing here should be read as more strongly established than a single department’s practice.

⚠ On transfer, expect to send the syllabus. A receiving institution that does not offer the number has nothing to match against, so the decision will be made on content and hours.

⚠ One credit, and what that means for planning

A one-credit course carries roughly one contact hour a week. It will not move a full-time enrolment total much, and it is not a substitute for a technical survey course. Do not count it as a major technical requirement unless your own degree audit says so.

If you are not at FIU

Most Florida industrial engineering programmes run some form of introduction to the discipline, under their own numbers — the subject is common, the number is not. Search your catalogue by title rather than by this number.