A university's approach to teach a freshman-level introductory course in industrial engineering

An increased emphasis on the development and implementation of freshman-level introductory engineering courses and programs at colleges and universities has occurred in recent years. This is, in part, a response to the increasing shortage of engineering graduates in the United States. These courses and programs are meant to recruit students into engineering and prepare them to successfully study engineering. In many cases, non-standard curricula emphasizing team-based projects are used, and many variations on these themes exist. This paper presents the approach taken by the authors to teach their university's freshman-level introductory course for Industrial Engineering majors. First, published information on and results from freshman engineering courses and programs at various colleges and universities are documented. Then, the approach the authors' university has taken in the past to teach its freshman-level introductory course in Industrial Engineering is presented. This is followed by the motivation for and description of the course's new curriculum, a comparison of student evaluations before and after the curriculum change, and a discussion of future changes for the course's curriculum.