What you'll learn as an Industrial and Systems Engineering major at UW-Platteville

Prepare for a hands-on and in-demand career as an industrial engineer through the guidance of the UW-Platteville Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. In your industrial engineering courses, you’ll explore techniques and develop skills to help improve productivity in all types of companies by designing tasks, systems, and products that improve efficiencies while being safer, offering a higher return on investment, and making better use of resources.

UW-Platteville stands apart from other industrial engineering colleges. The Industrial Engineering program is accredited by the EAC Accreditation Commission of ABET, https://www.abet.org, under the General Criteria and the Industrial Engineering Program Criteria. The program curriculum covers topics in ergonomics, work measurement, operations analysis, facility layout, management, and continuous improvement. Plus, At UW-Platteville our bachelor’s in industrial engineering curriculum is aligned with the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, the first step in becoming a licensed professional engineer, and our graduates have a passing rate that far exceeds the national average.

Industrial engineering graduates find themselves applying their analytical, computer, and communication skills across a wide variety of environments, including factories, health care institutions, colleges and universities, and more as they provide the interface between machines and people. If you are interested in the management and business aspects of industrial engineering, you can pursue the engineering management certificate in addition to your degree. Prospective students interested in earning a master’s in industrial engineering online can enroll in UW-Platteville’s Master of Science in Engineering program.

Careers in Industrial Engineering

Industrial engineers are responsible for coming up with effective and efficient procedures, whether that’s creating a product or providing a service—considering available resources including machines, materials, energy, information, and personnel. Depending on the nature of their roles, people who work as industrial engineers may spend their workdays in offices, on factory floors, or in other locations where they can apply their knowledge and skills to create solutions to problems.

Industrial engineering is a versatile degree, because it is not as specialized as some other types of engineering degrees. Careers for industrial engineers include those in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, consulting, professional, and scientific companies. Industrial engineers also work in research and development roles.

Some of the most common job titles for people with industrial engineering degrees include the following:

  • Industrial engineer
  • Production manager
  • Quality engineer
  • Manufacturing production supervisor
  • Architectural manager
  • Process engineer
  • Manufacturing engineer
  • Manufacturing technician
  • Quality assurance inspector
  • Industrial designer

There are tremendous opportunities for skilled industrial engineers in manufacturing settings, but there is also a need for highly trained industrial engineering professionals in hospitals and health care settings, utilities, food processing, transportation, governmental organizations, and more.

Discover by doing

The industrial engineering program at UW-Platteville provides a student-centric approach to education. Learning through a variety of hands-on, experiential opportunities and industrial engineering research projects prepares students for real-world success in their chosen careers, enabling them to address challenges and identify opportunities.


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Engineering Management Certificate

Do you ever see ads for engineers but the skills required include terms such as 5S, Lean Six Sigma, TPM, Diversity, Ethical Training, Value Stream Mapping, or Project Management? Add a certificate in engineering management and enhance your skills to include what employers are seeking.

The engineering management certificate will provide you with basic management skills for success in a technology rich environment. The principles and applications of Engineering Management and Project Management are stressed along with in-depth studies in the modern management strategies of Lean Six Sigma.