the CHAIR

Education


by William B. Rouse

Education is the theme of this issue of Engineering Enterprise. Education, research, and service are the primary "offerings" of the Georgia Tech enterprise. In this issue, you will see how these three offerings come together to enhance the content and delivery of education at Georgia Tech.

Education in Industrial and Systems Engineering necessarily emphasizes gaining knowledge of manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, finance, and human systems, as well as methodologies such as simulation, optimization, statistics, and stochastics. However, as my high school math teacher taught, "What is clearly perceived is clearly expressed."

I am continually impressed by how articulate our many successful alumni are. They know how to communicate — tell the story, make the case, close the deal. Communication is an essential skill for engineers and everyone. Judith Norback's program on workplace communication is no longer leaving these skills to chance. She is researching how best to gain communication skills and, in parallel, implementing what she learns in our senior design courses.

Quite frequently, as I look up from my desk and out the window towards Ferst Drive, I see one or two hand trucks arriving with more paper. We consume an enormous amount of paper. I cannot help but wonder if there are not electronic means to substantially decrease this consumption. Amy Pritchett, when she is not focused on air traffic management, is leading an NSF-sponsored research project to create and evaluate ITWeb, a web-based means for course management accessible by both instructors and students.

I used ITWeb this past semester for my graduate course on decision-making. Not only did I avoid passing out any paper this semester, I also found that ITWeb changes the nature of instruction. The students tend to download the lectures and read them prior to class. During the class, they want to go beyond the lectures and discuss implications and experiences with theories, methods, and tools. In this way, teaching becomes much more collaborative.

Education is also becoming more interactive. Interactive games are enabling students to put their knowledge to work in operating supply chains and managing beer distribution, to name just a couple of games. This enables better understanding of causes and effects, as well as initial skills in using the knowledge gained from the classroom. We can surely expect use of game-based education to increase as students like my 8-year-old son, steeped in GameBoy and the like, make their way to Georgia Tech.

Our education initiatives have many sponsors including the National Science Foundation, Sloan Foundation, Keck Foundation and, of course, the State of Georgia. Alumni have also been great benefactors. In this issue of Engineering Enterprise we highlight John Morris. His generosity has enabled the Morris Fellowships which help attract many of the "best and brightest" to Georgia Tech. There are, of course, many other alumni who have also been very generous in their support of education. We are most appreciative of all these benefactors.

In the true spirit of Industrial and Systems Engineering, we are proactively employing the discipline's concepts, principles, methods, and tools to understand and enhance our own offerings. Education and research in education are prime areas for the types of innovations you would expect from a world-class institution. We intend to live up to these expectations.

William B. Rouse is the H. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart Chair and Professor of the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.



• Summer 2003 Engineering Enterprise Table of Contents
• Engineering Enterprise Home Page



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