It was, as they say, the best of times and the worst of times.
A prototype for the first computer was created, the neutron was discovered and the bread slicer was invented.
But the country was mired in the Great Depression, the dust bowl was forming and Nazism was beginning to take root in Germany.
The year was 1930. It was the year that industrial engineering first appeared as a curriculum at North Carolina State University.
It was not a promising beginning – there was no faculty and there were no graduates. Even by 1933, when we awarded our first industrial engineering degree, only 11 students were enrolled. And during World War II, the department essentially closed down.
Then came the turnaround.
The end of the war presented a brand new opportunity to start over in the School of Engineering.
World War II veterans poured in as students. Enrollments and the number of degrees granted increased steadily. Graduate programs were initiated, the curriculum was expanded substantially, esteemed faculty were added.
And here we are today. One of the top 12 industrial engineering programs in the country, according to the annual U.S. News and World Report survey, celebrating over 75 years of excellence at NC State.
Our faculty includes 23 distinguished professors. Our graduate student enrollment is nearly 100 and our undergraduate enrollment is about 200. And the total value of our annual research contracts and grants now approaches $4 million.
In short, we’ve come a long way. We’re proud of our standing in the industrial engineering community and our reputation in the academic world. And, given the year of our founding, we don’t think it’s inappropriate to say that we are, almost literally, the best thing since sliced bread.