The Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) at NC State strives to improve society through research and education across a broad spectrum of methods and application areas. The ISE community includes more than 25 faculty, 10 core staff, 350 undergraduate students, and 250 graduate students with approximately 75 Ph.D. students. The ISE department leads three centers and multiple interdisciplinary graduate degrees, where faculty members work together in a collaborative and collegial environment (ranked highly by US News).
NC State is growing engineering (expected to be 40% over five years) in part to meet growing industry demand for graduates and the growing demand associated with Applied AI. The university is based in Raleigh, NC, which was recently named Best Places to Live by US News and World Report, with proximity to urban areas, beaches, mountains, great restaurants, cultural activities, and more. Our location also represents the eastern point of the Research Triangle and places us close to three major universities, a large number of world-class companies, and several leading research institutes. Our faculty are Fellows of IISE, INFORMS, SME, and additional societies.
In ISE, innovative research is conducted within and across areas, along with interdisciplinary collaborations across the university and beyond. In addition to degrees in ISE, the department leads a Master’s in Engineering Management degree, collaborates on graduate degrees in Operations Research, and supports the Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering Master’s degree. The department houses two funded centers that are public-private partnerships, including the Ergonomics Center of North Carolina, which is the only center of its kind at a U.S. public research institution, and the Center for Additive Manufacturing and Logistics, which is one of the most advanced manufacturing and 3D printing laboratories in the country. The newly established Bezos Center for Alternative Proteins is also led by an ISE faculty member.
The ISE department is supported by world-class laboratory facilities for computing, manufacturing, and human factors and ergonomics research, enhanced by the new Fitts-Woolard Hall, located on NC State’s Centennial Campus near the award-winning Hunt Library and numerous industry and governmental facilities. Our faculty members are internationally renowned in their fields, and they have extensive collaborations with other departments, universities, medical schools, and other external partners. NC State students ‘think and do’ with active learning on real-life problems across the entire ISE discipline, and our students become leaders in academia, industry, and government. NC State engineering is expanding, with up to 40% growth in faculty, staff, undergraduate, and graduate students expected over the coming years.
