Master of Engineering in Industrial Engineering

The Master of Engineering in Industrial Engineering offers advanced training in topics that are vital to the well-being of US industry: quality, productivity, efficiency. Our program focuses on topics of engineering management, operations research, manufacturing processes, human factors, and enterprise computing. The Iowa State University Master of Engineering in Industrial Engineering is designed to train leaders who can meet both the technical and managerial challenges in developing modern complex engineered systems. The program can be completed online or in residence, part-time or full-time.

For international students, this program can include a Curricular Practical Training (CPT) option that allows you to work at an internship in a US company for a summer and one semester in the academic year. A sample program of study plan that includes CPT (and OPT) is outlined below the course requirements.

The Master of Engineering (MEng) degree requires 30 credit hours of coursework. For non-degree-seeking graduate students: up to nine (9) credits may be applied to your MEng Program of Study and Committee (POSC).

MEng Course Requirements

1. One course from each of the following areas is required.

Human Factors

IE 571 Occupational Biomechanics
IE 572 Design and Evaluation of Human-Computer Interaction
IE 576 Human Factors in Product Design
IE 577 Human Factors

Manufacturing and Operations

IE 514 Production Scheduling
IE 541 Inventory Control and Production Planning
IE 543 Wind Energy Manufacturing
IE 545 Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing
IE 546 Geometric Variability in Manufacturing
IE 549 Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing

Operations Research

IE 508 Design and Analysis of Allocation Mechanisms
IE 510 Network Analysis
IE 513 Analysis of Stochastic Systems
IE 514 Production Scheduling
IE 519 Simulation Modeling and Analysis
IE 534 Linear Programming
IE 541 Inventory Control and Production Planning

2. Four additional graduate-level courses in industrial engineering

3. Continuous registration in IE 501 (graduate seminar) throughout graduate program, if on campus

4. Three courses outside of industrial engineering

Sample MEng IE plan for international students interested in CPT/OPT

First Year

  • First Fall Semester: 3 courses in the MEng IE program
  • First Spring Semester: 4 courses in the MEng IE program
  • First Summer semester: CPT experience*

Second Year

  • Second Fall Semester: CPT experience*
  • Second Spring Semester: 3 courses in the MEng IE program

Post-Graduation

  • Optional Practical Training: initial 12 months*
  • Optional Practical Training STEM Extension: 24-month extension*

* Optional (not required) opportunities in the educational programs. Satisfactory performance in the degree program is required.

Distance Education

Online students interact with faculty through a web portal with 24/7 access to lectures, assignments, and online discussions. Exams are administered at your location using proctors arranged through Iowa State Online. Lectures are streamed online or downloaded for viewing at another time.

Applying for Admission

To be considered for admission to the Master of Engineering program, applicants must have a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering or its equivalent from a college, university, or technical school of recognized standing. Other Bachelor degrees will be considered on an individual basis, but completion of a calculus sequence through differential equations is required. The TOEFL (or IELTS) test is required for students whose native language is not English. High academic achievement or other persuasive evidence of professional accomplishments is expected for admission to the program.

Please review our program-specific requirements.

Contact:
515-294-0129
imsegradprogram@iastate.edu
IMSE Graduate Program

To start the application process, you can apply online.