The secret is in the projects

Students working on a project in the office.
See our students at work! IE brings on two key hires for experiential learning opportunities.

"The advantage of the Purdue IE experience comes from the application and execution experiences they receive," says Pat Brunese, Assistant Head of Industrial Engineering. "Not only are our students gaining the technical expertise recruiters come to appreciate in a Boilermaker job applicant, but they also hone professional and soft skills that come with experiential learning through the support and partnership with industry." 

Purdue's School of Industrial Engineering has doubled down on our investment in these programs with two new hires to help maintain partnerships with Industry and serve as an additional mentor to students as they pursue these next steps of their training.   Ben Fong, PhD, PE and Aaron Ramsey

This winter, Aaron Ramsey joined the Purdue IE team to carry on the partner relationships for our undergraduate project design course. Mr. Ramsey comes to us from Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and decades in the private sector. "Hiring Aaron was a great choice at a time of need. His familiarity with our work and our partners has allowed him to very quickly pick up the program and build momentum," suggests Barrett Caldwell, Interim Head of the school. 

"Ben Fong was another exceptional hire," continues Caldwell of the Professor of Practice that joined the school in August. "Dr. Fong's work ethic, mastery of skill and network have already been an incredible asset to our Professional Master's Program. His leadership in the Professional Master’s Program has been paramount as demand has been doubling every semester since the degree program was launched in Fall of 2020." Fong comes to Purdue after a PhD at Virginia Tech and 28 years of senior global leadership experience in R&D, new product strategy, operational excellence, and commercial growth. He worked over 20 industrial sectors from 50+ U.S. and global facilities.

There are two opportunities to engage with our students - the undergraduate level and the graduate level.

At the undergraduate level, the senior projects are key to one of the final courses our undergraduates take. It has traditionally been the opportunity for them to work in small teams on a proposed project from industry supporters, applying the knowledge they gained during their Purdue tenure, or the "capstone" of their undergraduate studies.  Student work with partners of the program, whom serve as "clients". Student teams visit the plant, meet the partners, scope and propose a project, collect and analyze data, propose solutions and implementation strategies.

"I've learned some of our most successful teams helped supporters secure a contract to produce a new product line. Other teams have aided in workflows and processes, saving untold labor and operations costs," states Ramsey. "This is a great place to start from and to take the program into the next level of excellence." 

Similarly, projects are a key to success of our Professional Master’s Program in Industrial Engineering. The Professional Master's Program is a residential program offering students to choose from the same graduate courses taught by the same professors as our other top ten ranked graduate program and our three-peat, #1 ranked Online master's program. However instead of the nine credit hours a traditional MSIE student would spend working on research and a thesis, the Professional Masters student will spend nine credit hours working on a two-semester, industry-sponsored project and professional development courses.

“The PMP Capstone projects are at a much higher level than the Senior Design Projects. I have trained my graduate students as the operations management consultants to support our sponsored projects. The real-life consultancy experience and client engagement coaching has become one of the pioneer Master of Industrial Engineering programs in the nation,” states Dr. Fong. “Upon the graduation, my students are equipped with the set skills to become a professional management consultant or a continuous improvement project manager.”

Again, the key to these programs is in the partnerships. If you or your organization may be interested in seeing our students in action, please contact Ben Fong for Professional Masters Program project support or contact Aaron Ramsey for the Undergraduate design projects. It is through these opportunities that our students find their next giant leap.

 

Writer:

Julia M. Sibley, jmsibley@purdue.edu

Sources:

Barrett Caldwell, bscaldwell@purdue.edu

Patrick Brunese, pbrunese@purdue.edu

Ben Fong, nbfong@purdue.edu

Aaron Ramsey, aaronramsey@purdue.edu