Vibrant "visitors provide valuable perspective

When College of Engineering Dean Paul Peercy asked that all departments should form external advisory, or "visiting," committees, Professor and Chair Harry Steudel took his pronouncement to heart and recruited a group that took action right away. "He's got a very vibrant cross-section of industry types and people from other academic institutions," says alumnus Jeff Wiesner, who chairs the 15-member committee. It's comprised of men and women — mostly alumni — with backgrounds in health care, business, professional services, manufacturing, academia and other fields, and includes a range of early-, mid- and late-career industrial engineers.

Wiesner, a retired partner from management consulting and technology services company Accenture, calls industry one of the department's biggest "customers," and says customer input via the committee can help it validate its initiatives. "We can bring to the department lessons learned based on what has worked and what hasn't worked in each one of our individual companies, because we all face some of the same kinds of issues and challenges that the university is facing," says Wiesner.

In addition, members Richard Koubek of Penn State University, Tom Schuppe of the Milwaukee School of Engineering and David Weber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology can benchmark the department from an academic standpoint, he says.

To extend their understanding of the department's current state, the group also solicits and values feedback from students and faculty, he says.

When all 15 members were on hand for the group's second annual meeting in May, its discussions included the department's desire to redesign its curriculum, how better to prepare IE students for work in industry, and ways to deal with state budget cutbacks.

In response, the committee submitted more than 30 recommendations, including emphasizing communication skills within the curriculum, developing additional strategies for recruiting graduate students, establishing expanded fund-raising networks, and reaching out to five- to seven-year graduates for input on how their education has served them.

IE faculty recently worked several of the top-rated ideas into the department's strategic plan. But that doesn't mean the committee's work is finished. Wiesner says that as the department updates its undergraduate curriculum, members are interested in providing insight into what skills employers seek in IE graduates. "I think we can help the department identify emerging trends in the business community," he says.

In addition, they unanimously voted to contribute to the department's goal of becoming even more of a national presence in industrial engineering education and research. "They are so enthusiastic," says Steudel.

As Steudel appreciates the committee's enthusiasm, so Wiesner credits the department for being open to suggestion. "The industrial engineering department has been very open to engaging with and entertaining ideas from outside industry," he says. "They've been very frank in the discussions in terms of the challenges facing the department, and they've been very willing to listen to and incorporate the input of the board members into their planning."