By Dawn Pauli, contributing writer

A new Industrial Systems Engineering (ISE) Department at Oakland is being created to better meet the needs of the manufacturing industry.

After meeting with representatives from the automotive Big Three and tier-one parts suppliers, and conducting research, Christian Wagner, newly appointed chair of ISE, and a team from the Engineering Department agreed there was a demand for an industrial engineering degree.

Wagner said the United States continues to lose engineering work to offshore countries. To be competitive, engineers must design for the complete engineering life cycle, including functionality, manufacturability and reparability, while ensuring the products are recyclable when the product is no longer needed.

“Industry is clamoring for this type of degree,” Wagner said. “Businesses have to figure out how to become more efficient, and that’s the essence of what the industrial engineering degree is about. We need to train engineers to squeeze out every last drop of productivity and to understand the full range of engineering throughout business.”

The new ISE Department is bringing together the bachelor’s in Manufacturing and Systems Engineering. These two degrees will be restructured as an Industrial and Systems Engineering program, focusing on the areas of mechanics and fluid and thermal sciences.

The master’s programs in System’s Engineering and Engineering Management, in cooperation with the School of Business Administration, and a doctoral program in Systems Engineering also will be offered in the ISE Department.

The Product Development and Manufacturing Center (PDMC), the internationally recognized entity that provides education, applied research and technology transfer for the automotive industry, also will be moved to the ISE Department.

“This provides a solid research arm for the ISE Department,” Wagner said. “The focus of the PDMC is how to design products, and that’s the same research the ISE Department will be doing. Pat Dessert, the director of the PDMC, has created a vision and has done an amazing job of continuing it.”

ISE courses will begin in fall 2005. Wagner said the department will continue to explore other opportunities for an Executive Program in Engineering Management.