The Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering’s (ISyE) undergraduate program has been ranked the #1 program of its kind in the nation since 1991 according to the U.S. News & World Reports. While many of our students seek out our program because of our top rankings, they are equally attracted to the number of concentrations and academic interests offered. Yet one of the most alluring qualities of this program is the flexibility of career options that our Bachelor of Science (BSIE) degree allows.
Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering
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At ISyE, we work on ways to improve a variety of complex systems by formulating and analyzing abstract models in search of making systems more efficient and optimizing performance. We address how people and the decisions they make contribute to the complexity of systems and how people benefit when those systems are analyzed. We immerse ourselves in the depth and breadth of decision-based technical problem solving by focusing on the disciplines of industrial engineering, operations research, and systems engineering. So, what does that all mean?
Problems Industrial Engineer's Solve
Planning
The Housing Office at Georgia Tech has to deal with a big problem every fall; how to make dormitory assignments so as to leave everybody reasonably happy. Of course, it may not be possible for everybody to be actually "happy" with their roommate assignment, so Housing's true aim would probably be to at least minimize the amount of misery created overall with the assignments.
Here's the thing...suppose that for Fall 2006, a total of 1964 freshmen are planning to live on campus in a dorm. Each student has, as part of their enrollment information, submitted a "wish list" regarding their preferences in terms of a roommate. These include such things as serious study habits, from Alabama, not from Alabama, likes jazz, talkative, no pet snakes, etc. Some of these attributes may have higher priorities than others, so Housing may "weight" them in some way.
In any event, what Housing would like to do is find a pairing of individuals that, in some sense, maximizes total "acceptability" and for which there is enough dorm space. For example, if two rooms are available for four students, but one student is absolutely unacceptable to the other three (under any circumstance), then two rooms will simply not suffice. Nonetheless, what do you think about the problem? Is it tricky? Does it get easier or harder if rather than pairs, Housing is looking for groups of three (i.e. for dorms with 3-person suites)?