MISSION

 

Create, acquire, assimilate, apply, and transfer knowledge for the design, analysis, improvement and implementation of complex systems that include humans, materials, equipment and other resources — the essence of industrial and systems engineering.

VISION

 

To be a top-five-ranked industrial and systems engineering department recognized for our:

 

Innovative educational curricula and learning experiences

Strong, balanced research program

Positive and diverse learning environment

Beneficial outreach/technology transfer activities

Leadership in the industrial and systems engineering profession

 

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

 

Support and reward excellence and innovation.

Create competencies for life-long learning.

Foster environments for teamwork, diversity, and good university citizenship.

Create partnerships with industry, government, and alumni.

Act with professional and ethical responsibility.

Advance the reputation of the industrial and systems engineering profession, the ISyE department, and the university.

 

OBJECTIVE:

EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE

Strategies/Goals:

 

1. Recruit, support, reward, and retain a world-class diverse ISyE faculty dedicated to education, research, technology development, and entrepreneurship.

• Use a focused committee effort to continuously recruit and hire world-class faculty in our strategically important areas to replace the FTE positions vacated by faculty retirements, departures, or near term planned retirements.

• Retain at least 90% of members of our faculty who receive outside offers that we attempt to counter.

 

1. Recruit, support, and retain the best undergraduate and graduate students, with focused efforts for women and under-represented groups.

   • Identify six (6) excellent feeder schools and create a targeting process for identifying and recruiting excellent graduate students, especially those graduate students who will stay in Wisconsin and the U.S. to help advance these economies.

   • Identify alternative sources of funding (beyond building fund donors) such that by 2012 at least $2,000,000 of unrestricted funding has been established to facilitate better graduate student recruiting and increase the number of graduate students supported by two-year fellowships from 2 to 5 per year.

   • Apply quality improvement processes and methods to enhance our doctoral qualifying examination process to ensure the best possible assessment procedures to identify the best candidates for pursuing the PhD degree.

2.  

3. Continually improve and innovate the ISyE curriculum, including content and method, to meet customers’ changing needs and ensure that our students are well prepared to meet or exceed the requirements of the professional position of their choice.

   • Maintain strong core disciplines and programs in the areas of Decision Sciences/Operations Research, Human Factors and Ergonomics, Health Systems Engineering, and Manufacturing and Production Systems and be ranked in the top 10 in the nation in 2012.

   • Benchmark the ISyE undergraduate curricula with other top 10 schools and work with the COE 2010 initiative to identify current or future areas for improvement in light of the rapidly changing needs of the industrial and systems engineer for the 21st century.

   • Review and redesign of the ISyE undergraduate curriculum addressing possible increases in the number of credits and new required courses (such as Health Systems Engineering and Quality Engineering) while maintaining a high level of emphasis in the curriculum on technical proficiency and rigor in engineering core studies, and specific coursework in planning and design skills, and incorporating or expanding coverage of emerging industry trends such as Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management, global business models, Lean Manufacturing, and new mathematical models in courses beyond just the electives.

OBJECTIVE:

RESEARCH LEADERSHIP

Strategies/Goals:

1. Maintain and enhance our strong, balanced research programs and leadership position as the top ISyE department in federal research funding as measured in the annual GT Benchmark study.

   • Continue to investigate the ramifications of revising the current ISyE workload policy, determine the potential of such revisions for increasing faculty research and innovation, and communicate these issues to the dean on a regular basis.

   • Investigate the use of teaching innovations (including those purchased from top IE departments) to make efficient use of faculty teaching time.

2. Support and enhance the development of interdisciplinary research, which addresses strategic needs of the ISyE department and industry, government, and society.

   • Increase annual R&D funding from industry to the level of at least $250k from at least 4 companies and/or industrial consortia by 2012.

3. Identify and invest in strategic areas of potential R&D growth.

OBJECTIVE:

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURISM LEADERSHIP

Strategies/Goals:

1. Maintain our centers, consortia, and other approaches for technology transfer to and develop new alliances with industry, business, and government.

2. Establish mechanisms to create student project opportunities with industry and government.

3. Form strategic alliances with other UW-Madison colleges/schools to harvest technological opportunities in interdisciplinary areas.

 

OBJECTIVE:

RECOGNITION

Strategies/Goals:

 

1. Maintain a high ranking in the top 5 in public universities and the top 10 in all universities.

   • Work with COE publications and promotions staff via newsletters, press releases, and other media to increase the national visibility of our accomplishments and excellence and maintain/increase our rankings among IE departments in the U.S.

   • Increase the number of endowed chairs from 0 to 2 by 2012.

   • Increase the number of named professorships from 4 to 6 by 2012.

 

1. Enhance current approaches and develop new approaches for external relations.

   • Work with the ISyE Visiting Committee and the UW Foundation to establish a prioritized wish-list on specific department needs to have at the ready when industry or alumni are looking for charitable programs to invest in, and develop the foundation’s capabilities to explain to others about industrial and systems engineering and the opportunities for the ISyE department’s impact on society.

   • Establish a web-based data base of alumni information, coupled with departmental information on the program, areas of research and other key departmental facts as a communication tool and resource for students, alumni and faculty.

 

1. Promote recognition of faculty accomplishments through internal and external awards.

OBJECTIVE:

EFFECTIVE INFRASTRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT TO ACCOMPLISH THE MISSION, VISION AND OBJECTIVES

Strategies/Goals:

 

1. Support educational excellence with effective department level student services, academic services, and administrative services.

   • Continually improve the infrastructure of the ISyE department for research management for small ISyE centers and faculty, information systems (web pages, etc.) for recruitment of high quality graduate students, and other administrative and support staff functions necessary for a leading research department.

2. Support for student services and alumni services.

3. Provide adequate space, facilities, and support for ISyE instruction and research programs.

   • Benchmark the ISyE department’s performance on cost effectiveness, administrative support, teaching load, and research dollars/FTE against other departments in the College as a means to show that the department is running very lean and to justify the department’s right to current funding or limited cuts.

    

   • Increase ISyE class sizes in cases where this will generate budget savings or improve faculty productivity and not adversely impact the quality of our education process.

4. Maintain state-of-the-art labs to support undergraduate and graduate programs.

5. Develop alternative staffing models for resource programs.

6. Develop alternative models of staffing for teaching and resource programs.