CRITERION 2. PROGRAM EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES As pointed out on the Institute of Industrial Engineers website1, industrial engineering differs from other engineering discipline in that practitioners need to be able to apply skills in a wide variety of situations. Recent graduates of our program have begun their professional careers as a packaging engineer, operations capital coordinator, marketing and distribution operations, industrial sales engineer, quality engineer, military OR analyst, and operations management training in such varied venues as private industry, military operations and research, aerospace, information technology, regional technical consulting, and food production. Additionally, some of our graduates have gone on to seek higher degrees in industrial engineering, business, medicine and applied mathematics.

It is clear that our students have a very wide range of abilities, interests, and intentions. The challenge is to provide them with a basic set of skills and knowledge that will serve them well, regardless of which career they decide to pursue. The faculty of the Industrial Engineering Department strives to meet this need through a variety of formal and informal processes.

As with any continuous improvement initiative, there are two key aspects: 1. What is quality from the perspective of the customer? 2. What substituted characteristics of the process can we measure in order to monitor the process and assure the quality of the product? For the first point, the industrial engineering department employs a number of formal and informal processes. We communicate with representatives of industry, graduates of our program, professional organizations, and our students to see what our graduates would be expected to do with the skills and knowledge they acquire in our program. It is the nature of industrial engineering that this is an ever-changing expectation and for that reason we need to continually keep asking the question, “What do our graduates need to be able to do?”

The second question is both simpler and more complex. In the setting of an undergraduate program, it begs three sub-questions. 1. Once we know what it is our students need to do, we have to ask, "of those things, what can they best learn in our program and what should be left to them to learn on the job?" Some things are learned better in one setting than the other. Additionally, we cannot possibly provide every skill and knowledge that would be needed by every one of our graduates, given the very large variety of careers they pursue. 2. Once we have identified that knowledge and skills we wish to develop in our students, the next question is, “how do we do that?” 3. After question 2, comes the question, “how can we be sure that what we are doing is having the desired effect?” 4. The final question arises, as it would in any quality management setting, ”if we are not doing what we want to do, how do we fix?” Each and every member of the industrial engineering faculty is involved in some aspect of asking and attempting to answer these questions. At times, individual faculty members pursue these tasks in their own specialized areas, but when it comes to the curriculum all faculty work

1 http://www.iienet2.org/Details.aspx?id=716 together towards the common goals. To this end, The Department of Industrial Engineering determines, evaluates, and updates its Program Educational Objectives in conjunction with published University and Engineering College objectives, as well as through periodic involvement with its constituencies.

A. Mission Statement Provide the institutional mission statement.

As New Mexico’s land-grant university, the mission of New Mexico State University (NMSU) is to serve the educational needs of New Mexico’s diverse population through comprehensive programs of education, research, extension education, and public service.

The College of Engineering supports this mission in its undergraduate programs by focusing on the following goals: 1. To be nationally and internationally recognized for academic & research programs in Engineering & Engineering Technology. 2. To provide world-class engineers & engineering technologists for industrial, government, and academic constituents of the College of Engineering 3. To be the “University of Choice” for undergraduate engineering & engineering technology education in the region 4. To serve as an engine for economic development in New Mexico through the advancement of engineering and technology Furthermore, that engineering graduates receiving baccalaureate degrees will demonstrate:  an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering;  an ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data;  an ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs;  an ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams;  an ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems;  an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility;  an ability to communicate effectively;  the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context;  a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning;  a knowledge of contemporary issues; and  an ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice.

B. Program Educational Objectives List the program educational objectives and state where these can be found by the general public.

The Industrial Engineering educational objectives are stated in Figure 2-1 and may be found in both the print and online versions of the Undergraduate Catalog2.

2 NMSU Undergraduate Catalog 2017-2018. https://catalogs.nmsu.edu/nmsu/engineering/industrial-engineering/ The program educational objectives were reviewed by a subcommittee of the Dean’s Advisory Council (that included members of the department’s Industrial Advisory Committee) as part of an overall undergraduate program review in 2017. This review was conducted to evaluate the program’s potential for growth and the necessary resources. The review was brought on by concern from the Dean’s Advisory Council over dropping undergraduate enrollment. A next periodic review of program educational objectives by the Industrial Advisory Committee is scheduled for the summer of 2020.

DEGREE: Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering

Industrial engineers design, develop, install and improve integrated systems of people, equipment, information, financial resources, software, materials, and energy. Industrial engineers work in a variety of manufacturing, health care, utility, retail, government and research settings, therefore the tools and methods of the industrial engineer are both varied and broad. They use knowledge and skills in engineering, mathematics, and physical and social sciences along with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design to monitor and improve such systems. New Mexico State University’s undergraduate degree program in Industrial Engineering prepares students to join the work force or pursue graduate education while setting the foundation for life-long learning.

Specifically, graduates of the program will be:

 able to apply various industrial engineering techniques in an integrated fashion to solve real world problems in process design and/or improvement;  able to obtain meaningful employment or enroll in a graduate program; and  prepared for a long-term, successful career sustained by life-long learning experiences.

In addition, the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, Inc. criteria in conjunction with the Institute of Industrial Engineers, requires that:  baccalaureate degree graduates will be able to demonstrate the ability to design, develop, implement and improve integrated systems that include people, materials, information, equipment and energy;  industrial engineering curriculums include in-depth instruction allowing students to accomplish the integration of systems using appropriate analytical, computational and experimental practices; and  that faculty teaching in industrial engineering departments show evidence of understanding professional practice and maintain currency in their respective professional areas. Program faculty must have responsibility and sufficient authority to define, revise, implement, and achieve program objectives.

Figure 2-1. Industrial Engineering Educational Objectives

We interpret these objectives to mean that our graduates should be able to:  Analyze a situation and define the issues,  Plan an improvement/new process and organize to accomplish that improvement or new process. This includes ability to schedule and manage finances.  Work with others who will carry out the improvement or new process. This includes people of all levels and backgrounds.  Assess data appropriately  Conduce appropriate analyses, and  Make management recommendations.

C. Consistency of the Program Educational Objectives with the Mission of the Institution Describe how the program educational objectives are consistent with the mission of the institution.

Program Educational Objectives for the Department of Industrial Engineering map closely to both the College of Engineering Educational Objectives and the University's Educational Objectives. They seek to serve the educational needs of New Mexico’s diverse population through comprehensive programs of education, research, extension education, and public service. As the state’s land grant university, it is the responsibility of educational programs, especially those in engineering, to prepare students to enter the local and regional workforce and engage them in community service along the way.

D. Program Constituencies List the program constituencies. Describe how the program educational objectives meet the needs of these constituencies.

The Department of Industrial Engineering serves five primary constituencies: • The State of New Mexico and its citizens, • Students who select or might select the program, • Employers or potential employers of students who select the program, • The engineering profession in general and the industrial engineering profession in particular, and • The public who might be impacted by the actions of the program’s graduates. To assure meeting the needs of these constituencies, it is necessary to communicate with their members. Due to the practical limitations of interacting directly with some of these, the Industrial Engineering Department deals with representative constituencies, either directly or through a higher-level organizational unit of New Mexico State University. The representative constituencies that roughly correspond to the five constituencies above are the following: • The legislative and judicial branches of the New Mexico government, • Student and Alumni organizations, as well as individual IE program graduates • Representative employers, alumni, the Industrial Advisory Board, and recruiters, • The Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), and • National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying and the North Central Association. Members of the alumni are a critical constituency in that they may represent any of the five primary constituencies. Faculty are members of primary constituencies 1 and 4 and, in some situations, may represent constituency 5.

E. Process for Review of the Program Educational Objectives Describe the process that periodically reviews the program educational objectives including how the program’s various constituencies are involved in this process. Describe how this process is systematically utilized to ensure that the program’s educational objectives remain consistent with the institutional mission, the program constituents’ needs and these Criteria.

The process for regularly evaluating the Program Educational Objectives is built on communication among all of the constituencies and NMSU Board of Regents (see Figure 2-2). The program constituencies include the students, faculty, alumni, and employers, and interested parties who work in the profession:

Program Board of Regents Educational Annual Guidance Objectives Faculty Student Outcome Meeting Assessment Refine Curriculum Alumni Surveys

Industrial Advisory Board Student Course Faculty Self Refine Course Evaluations Evaluations Materials

Success of Graduates

Figure 2-2. Process flowchart of Revision of the Program Educational Objectives

The Program Educational Objectives are reviewed by the faculty once a year in the beginning of the fall semester at an all-faculty meeting. Data from each of the four measures is collected and analyzed during this meeting. Any deficiencies are reported with a recommended action. The four measures are described in more detail below.

 NMSU Board of Regents review and approve a performance plan for excellence called Building The Vision (BTV) for strategic budgeting and planning at the university level. On an as-needed basis only, the program will modify and update the Program Educational Objectives accordingly. We do not anticipate frequent or material changes to program objectives but note this potential here. This meeting of the Board of Regents is scheduled once a year.

 At the end of each semester, for each class, each instructor provides an ABET course outcome summary report for student outcome assessment. The report summarizes which student outcome was assessed and the level of assessment for each class. The ABET committee chair collects and compiles the data. The result is reviewed once a year in the beginning of the fall semester at faculty meeting.

 Alumni feedback and input is provided through surveys. The survey is conducted every three years. The alumni survey is sent to graduates who have held an industrial position for at least one year. The feedback will provide the IE faculty data from which to compare the PEO targets, as well as provide opportunities to discuss continuous improvement in the curriculum. The results of the alumni survey are also discussed with the Advisory Committee once a year in the middle of fall to address curricula improvements. The members of the Committee also advise the faculty on future plans and facilitate the development of research partnerships between the department and industry.

 The Industrial Advisory Committee is asked to review Program Educational Objectives every three years. Each committee member is asked to fill out a questionnaire sheet about the Program Educational Objectives. Table 2-1 is a roster of the Industrial Advisory Committee. Feedback form this questionnaire is used to assess our PEOs.

Table 2-1. NMSU Industrial Engineering Department Advisory Committee

Name Affiliation Michael Gannon Sandia National laboratories Scott Theodorson Skyworks Karen Wells Humana Psych Jim Noble URS Stephanie Walker Raytheon Erika Edgerly Intel Susan McDermott Cray Research Tim Gantick Coherent