Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Established in 1909, the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pennsylvania, is the oldest industrial engineering department in the world.[1] According to the most recent U.S. News & World Report university rankings, the undergraduate program is ranked eighth in the United States and the graduate program tenth.[2] The department is headed by Janis P. Terpenny, the Peter and Angela Dal Pezzo Chair, and is housed in the Leonhard Building in the West Campus area of University Park. Named for alumnus Harold Marcus and his wife Inge, the department employs 29 faculty members who serve approximately 200 graduate and 400 undergraduate students.[3]
History
At the turn of the 20th century, Penn State 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 bachelor's 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, members of the Penn State Board of Trustees began to consider expanding the campus toward the west, and by 1987, initial plans to construct a new engineering building were in place. The board 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.[4] In 1998, the project received additional funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.[5] The building opened in 2000 and was named after William E. Leonhard, a 1936 Penn State College of Engineering alumnus who, with his wife, has donated in excess of $1 million toward engineering at Penn State.[6] In 1999, the department itself was named after alumnus Harold Marcus and his wife Inge, who donated $5 million to the department.[7][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. Four key research areas emerged: Human Factors; Manufacturing; Operations Research; and Production, Supply Chain, and Service Engineering.[9]
Academics
The department is recognized as one of the country's premier industrial engineering departments. The 2014 U.S. News & World Report undergraduate program rankings placed the department eighth in the country, and the graduate program was ranked as tenth.[2] Twenty-nine full-time faculty currently serve nearly 200 graduate and 400 undergraduate students.[3]
At the undergraduate level, students can pursue a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in industrial 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.[10] Undergraduates are also permitted to pursue an approved minor and count three of the credits earned toward their industrial engineering degree.[11]
Graduate students have a greater variety of options. The Master of Science (M.S.) degree is available through both a traditional thesis track, or a one-year non-thesis track.[12] Options in manufacturing engineering, human factors/ergonomics engineering, and quality engineering are available for M.S. candidates. 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.[13] Emphasis areas available to students pursuing the doctoral degree are Human Factors/Ergonomics, Manufacturing, Operations Research, and Production, Logistics, and Service Systems.
In addition to the study abroad opportunities available to all engineering students at Penn State, the industrial engineering department offers study abroad programs specifically for industrial engineering students.[14]
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.[4] 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 multiple classrooms, a 24-hour computer lab, and undergraduate and graduate student lounges.[15]
The building also contains numerous research and instructional laboratories, including: Additive Manufacturing and Reverse Engineering Lab; Benjamin W. Niebel Work Design Lab; Bridging Research in Innovation, Technology, and Engineering Lab; Complex Systems Monitoring, Modeling and Controls Lab; Design Analysis Technology Advancement Lab; Distributed Intelligent Systems and Controls: Research, Education, and Technology Lab; Engineering Statistics Lab; Human Performance Assessment and Modeling Lab; Human Subjects Testing Lab; Laboratory for Quality Engineering and Systems Transitions; Process Mechanics/Workholding Research Lab; and Service Engineering and Applied Optimization Lab.
Additionally, the building contains a 10,000 square foot (900 m²) high-bay manufacturing lab called the Factory for Advanced Manufacturing Education (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.[16] In the lab's metalcasting area, students learn about casting and molding methods like green sand casting, resin bonded sand casting, and lost-foam casting. 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.
Alumni and faculty
The department claims numerous industry leaders among its graduates. Susan M. Sinclair (1993) and Allen L. Soyster (1965) are among those who have held the position of president of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE).[17] Soyster went on to become the head of the department from 1981-1996.
Harold W. Gehman, Jr. (1965) 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.[18]
Gregory Lucier (1986), the president and CEO of Invitrogen,[19] is also a well known and highly regarded alumnus.
The department's faculty includes some of the leading thinkers in the field of industrial, manufacturing, and service systems engineering. 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.[20] 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.[21] Another former faculty member, Benjamin W. Niebel, authored an introductory industrial engineering textbook, served as department head, and in 1976 won the IIE Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Award.[22]
Notes
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