Engineering Operations at Iowa State University

Unique to Iowa State University and the College of Engineering, the engineering operations program allows you to tailor your course of study to suit your educational needs and career objectives. You also have the option to combine work and study through a cooperative education or internship program available through the various departments in the College of Engineering. The flexibility of engineering operations provides convenient scheduling of these off-campus opportunities.

Some areas of emphasis in the engineering operations curriculum are

• engineering journalism—a degree in engineering combined with a minor in business
• environmental engineering—a program that emphasizes environmental applications of engineering
• officer education—a program in cooperation with the Air Force, Aerospace Studies, and Naval and Military Sciences
• technical sales—a program that prepares students to sell products of a technical nature and consult with manufacturers and industrial consumers to solve engineering problems
• engineering entrepreneurship—an engineering degree combined with an emphasis or minor in entrepreneurial studies
• an individualized program to meet your career objectives

As an engineering operations major you will be required to take courses in engineering physics, mathematics, economics, psychology, accounting, law, statistics, social sciences, and humanities to which you can add elective engineering courses and perhaps electives from other disciplines. Depending on the career direction you choose, the program will also provide you with a broad background in the fundamentals of physical science, engineering science, computer use, and oral, written and graphical communications.

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Top-Notch Faculty
Faculty members at Iowa State are acknowledged leaders in educational and professional development. They include award-winning teachers, researchers, prominent inventors, leaders of professional societies, journal editors, and sought-after consultants. In the engineering operations program, you will benefit from the expertise of faculty from nine different departments within the College of Engineering.

To help you decide which courses to take to meet your career needs and objectives in the program, the Dean of Engineering appoints an engineering supervisory committee. This committee works with faculty members throughout the university to help engineering operations students develop suitable programs while maintaining academic excellence. Members of this committee, who come from different engineering departments, bring a variety of experiences and specialties to the program.


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World-Class Facilities
Iowa State is home to an impressive array of advanced facilities, from sophisticated research laboratories to high-tech classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art computers, audio, video, and satellite systems. Students in the engineering operations program have access to all campus resources.

All undergraduates have access to computer labs for their course work, projects, research, and email. Depending on your area of emphasis, you will have opportunities to use labs for everything from computer simulation and visualization to hands-on-learning in design, construction, and materials testing.


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Endless Opportunities
Today, engineering education is made up of more than just the traditional classroom and laboratory experiences. Diverse extracurricular activities allow you to enrich your educational experience. Students are active in a number of engineering and honor societies, and also participate in the more than 550 campus organizations open to all university students.


The College of Engineering also offers

• foreign study programs in the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Australia, and other countries, giving students an edge in today’s global markets
• internships and co-op programs that provide industry experience and give students a chance to earn money for college and living expenses
• opportunities for hands-on, real world experiences
  

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Scholarships
The support of more than 200 individuals and corporations maintains an engineering scholarship endowment of nearly $9 million. From these and other funds the college awards more than 900 scholarships totaling more than $1.3 million each year. In addition, engineering students compete well for scholarships available to all Iowa State students.


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Employment Outlook
Engineering is a career path that works! More than 3 million engineers work in the U.S. today, making engineering the nation’s second-largest profession. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the job market is projected to remain strong well into this millennium. The average starting salary for an engineering operations graduate is in the range of $40, 000. Starting salaries for engineers are expected to increase by six percent annually.

Graduates of engineering operations are involved in a variety of careers, as varied as the programs themselves. Some graduates have stayed within the traditional engineering profession in areas such as marketing or production supervision. Others have become technical journalists, biomedical engineers, nuclear power plant engineers, physicians, lawyers, environmental engineers, hospital engineers, transportation engineers, and military officers.

The consistently high quality of the engineering operations program at Iowa State has resulted in 90 percent placement rate. Iowa State alumni from the program have gone to attain prominence not only as engineers but also as corporate leaders, professors, inventors, innovators, attorneys, and medical doctors. Our graduates are found throughout the world—in companies ranging from the smallest to the largest in existence.

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For more information on opportunities in engineering operations, contact:

College of Engineering
110 Marston Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
(515) 294-9295
www.eng.iastate.edu/eop


* All statistics are based on surveys conducted in spring 1999.

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