More recently, industrial engineering capabilities have been enhanced by the ability to model systems using operations research and simulation techniques. Operational and process data are related by mathematical models depicting complex system relationships. Managers use these powerful methods to plan and execute operations with near optimal outcomes. Today, industrial engineers are applying these tools to solving problems in the service sector as well as in the traditional industrial environment. The bachelor of science degree program in Industrial and Systems Engineering is a four-year accredited program.
Students gain hands-on experience in a variety of laboratory assignments.
Modern and well-equipped industrial engineering laboratories include the Manufacturing Systems Engineering Laboratories containing robotic and automated equipment, conventional and computer numerically controlled machine tools, and welding facilities. Virginia Tech ISE student organizations have received numerous honors and awards including being selected as the most outstanding chapter nationally. The Student Chapter of Alpha Pi Mu, the national industrial engineering honor society, has won the outstanding chapter award eighteen times and the second place award nine times. The Student Chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers has been rated the most outstanding chapter in the nation thirteen times and second place six times. On an individual basis, Virginia Tech ISE students have received over twenty regional and national awards for technical papers.