The Department of Industrial Engineering (IE) at North Carolina A&T State University (NCA&T) will enhance its research and education programs at the undergraduate and graduate level through collaboration with The Logistics Institute (TLI) at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Institute for Systems Research (ISR) at the University of Maryland.
The vision of the IE graduate program at NCA&T is to be a nationally reputed and leading producer of minority industrial engineers with specialization in the areas of materials handling and warehousing, logistics and supply chain management, virtual manufacturing, scheduling, human-computer interface, and cognitive ergonomics.
The mission of the project is to establish a self-sustaining partnership with TLI and ISR in order to enhance research and education at NCA&T, especially in the areas identified above. To achieve the mission of the project, the following goals have been identified:
À To collaborate with TLI and ISR by participating in on-going and new research projects in the above research areas; À To submit proposals for collaborative research jointly with TLI and ISR to public and private agencies; À To develop and improve graduate and undergraduate course offerings at NCA&T in the areas identified above; À To support graduate and undergraduate student research in collaboration with TLI and ISR; À To establish a long-term collaboration of mutual interest with TLI and ISR.
They seek to accomplish the above goals via a set of initiatives for collaborative research, education, and dissemination. Initiatives for research collaboration include joint projects with faculty at ILI and ISR, and opportunities for graduate students from NCA&T to spend a semester at the research centers. Education enhancement initiatives include course offerings over distance education channels, seminar series, and collaborative undergraduate projects. An annual symposium will seek to disseminate project results to faculty and students from other minority-serving institutions, and to present capabilities of the partnership to federal and private agencies.
The effort under the project will be managed by evaluating and sponsoring specific joint proposals submitted by faculty at NCA&T and the research center; this will be administered by an Administrative Committee. An Advisory Board will address issues relating to sustaining the collaboration beyond the project duration.
NCA&T is a land grant institution with a distinguished record spanning a period of over hundred years in academics, research, and public service. The College of Engineering is the Nation's leading producer of minority engineers. The undergraduate program in the IE Department has a current enrollment of 168 students of which 92% are African-Americans and 48% are female. The BSIE degree program is accredited by EAC/ABET. The graduate program in the IE Department is over 20 years old. Until four years ago, it was the only IE graduate program among all HBCUs. The graduate program has maintained a stable enrollment of over 50 students with 90% African-American and 60% female population. The progress made by the Department in graduate research and education over its two decades of existence has resulted, as of December 1997, in authorization from the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina system to plan for a doctoral program in industrial Engineering. The Ph.D. Program is expected to begin in Fall of 1999.
