Strength of industrial engineering program bolstered by diversity of career path prospects, industry collaboration opportunities

About This Series: This story is part of an ongoing Purdue Today series highlighting programs ranked in the Top 10 or Top 10th percentile among our peers nationally, demonstrating the university’s persistent pursuit of excellence, innovation and transformative learning. 

Senior Halle Lin was drawn to industrial engineering at Purdue University for the depth and breadth of the highly ranked program, as well as the vast career opportunities the field offers.

“I love the fact that the IE department here has a focus on so many different aspects of industrial engineering with the field being so broad,” Lin says. “Each class allows me to explore each individual field so then when I graduate, I don’t feel like I’ve been narrowed into something. I feel like I’ve been able to get exposed to so many industries within IE.”

In its category in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report undergraduate program rankings,

Purdue’s School of Industrial Engineering was ranked No. 2, maintaining its hold as one of the nation’s best.

“Purdue’s School of Industrial Engineering offers a deep and wide bench of expertise in operations research, artificial intelligence, data analytics, manufacturing systems, human factors, and production and supply network,” says Young-Jun Son, the James J. Solberg Head and Ransburg Professor of Industrial Engineering.

• Purdue School of Industrial Engineering
• U.S. News & World Report: Best Undergraduate Industrial/Manufacturing Programs
• CAREER Award
• National Academy of Engineering
• Video: Halle Lin discusses why she chose Purdue’s School of Industrial Engineering

Purdue’s IE faculty includes 12 National Science Foundation CAREER award winners and two members of the National Academy of Engineering. CAREER awards are presented to junior faculty to acknowledge their exemplary integration of research and education. And election to the NAE is considered one of the highest professional honors among engineers.

“Our IE programs offer a well-rounded approach with many opportunities for industrial collaboration,” Son adds. “IE’s world-class faculty has a wide area of expertise that covers everything from supply chain resiliency, AI and machine learning, inclusive autonomous vehicle design, health care, smart manufacturing, robotics, climate change and sustainability.”

The expansive array of student opportunities in the IE program includes many global programs, including the Global Engineering Alliance for Research and Education (GEARE), as well as semester exchanges with universities around the world and study abroad programs.

Students also are given the opportunity to work with an AI teaching assistant that directs them where and how to solve problems. Additionally, an exceptional group of advisors are committed to support, nurture and empower the IE family to provide the greatest possible experiences.

While Purdue’s School of Industrial Engineering is housed primarily in Grissom Hall, IE introduced the new 17,000-square-foot Gateway facility in spring 2023. Gateway includes the Geoffrey and Katherine Cubitt Human Integration and Simulation Lab where students have access to the Move4D Scanner System. In the Build @ Scale Lab, students can access modern smart manufacturing equipment, such as the new Zeiss ScanBox through collaboration with Purdue Polytechnic Institute.

Julianna Hachenski wouldn’t change a thing about her decision five years ago to pursue an undergraduate IE degree as a Boilermaker, choosing Purdue over 10 other colleges where she earned acceptance, including Princeton, Cornell and a host of other Big Ten universities. As a member of IE’s Class of 2023, she is convinced her Purdue experience prepared her exceptionally for a career, which was launched last fall at Boston Consulting Group in Durham, North Carolina.

“Nowhere else in the country could I have had the extraordinary experience that I had here at Purdue. And if I were to do it all over again, I would make the exact same decision. I would do it the exact same way,” says Hachenski, a native of Saratoga Springs, New York.

Confirming that path, during her time at Purdue she landed four internships with three distinct companies — General Mills, Land O’Lakes and The Walt Disney Co. — that provided her the value of 14 months of real-world experience. She gained insights in areas such as strategic sourcing, analysis, industry assessments, budget proposals, software purchasing, supply chain management and more. 

“I just fell in love with the idea of being an industrial engineering student at Purdue. It ticked all those boxes on my list,” she says. “And I discovered that I loved focusing on supply chain and that I wanted to zoom out even further — that strategy that’s not just about how to make decisions but also how that trickles down to affect the supply chain in the manufacturing lines.”