Research Partners & Outreach
Across town, across the globe.
Outreach – specifically extension and economic development – are key components of the university’s mandate as one of the nation’s foremost land-grant universities. In the industrial and systems engineering department, our outreach efforts are intended to extend knowledge and discover new methodologies via collaboration with business, industry, government, and other universities.
The list of outreach programs, partnerships and collaborative efforts to which our department devotes time and effort is long – and immensely satisfying:
We were one of the first industrial engineering departments in the country to work with the Ergonomics Center of NC on product evaluations, process assessments and research projects to find new ways of keeping people safe, comfortable and productive while working.
We partner with the Furniture Manufacturing and Management Center , the American Home Furnishing Alliance to help find innovative ways for American furniture manufacturers remain competitive worldwide.
In our partnership with the National Textiles Center , a research consortium of eight universities, two members of our faculty have worked on developing a logistics system for the design and manufacturing of apparel products to optimize the mix of what is produced domestically versus offshore.
At our annual symposium, we join with co-sponsors to bring together experts in specific industries for presentations, panel discussions and more. The topic changes each year; the 2006 symposium was devoted to systems engineering in medical and bioscience applications.
Working with the University of Rostock in Germany, we are designing and developing automated control technologies in biochemical screening processes for the discovery and trial of new drug components.
In partnership with N.C. A&T University, members of our faculty members are working on supply chain and logistics engineering to improve manufacturing operations at the Naval Air Rework Facility at Cherry Point, NC.
Also in partnership with N.C. A&T, two of our faculty are researching how to most efficiently mobilize military units and equipment for the Department of Defense.
In short, the days of the ivory tower are long gone. Universities are no longer isolating and insulating themselves, but reaching out into the community and society. And that’s a very good thing.