Industrial Engineering

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>What is industrial engineering? </p>

<p>I've been told it's a combination of general engineering and management science, but what that actually means is lost on me. At Berkeley they call the major "Industrial Engineering and Operations Research," and when I poke around the careers.berkeley.edu web site it looks like many of the industrial engineers end up working in business and finance related fields. </p>

<p>Are there any engineers and/or business-types around?</p>

2

<p>Industrial engineers design factories. They deal a lot in efficiency and ergonomics, and they're well versed in mechanical engineering and robotics these days. Basically, the typical job for an industrial engineer might be to go in to a factory where they make widgets and figure out how to make a machine and redesign the factory so that the company can more efficiently produce widgets.</p>