Tennessee Tech’s Master of Science Program in Industrial and Systems Engineering is official, following approval from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.
Dean of the College of Engineering, Dr. Joseph Slater, said it is an exciting time for the School of Engineering following the announcement. Slater said the university brought back the program as a master’s degree because a lot of Tech’s engineering graduates are finding themselves in industrial engineering careers.
“So what this program does is allow them to take a few courses at a time and grow into a better understanding of what their jobs are in industrial engineering and, in time, get a complete degree,” Slater said.
Slater said the program should garner a lot of interest from graduates who look to further prepare themselves for a career. Slater said the new program tells students that Tennessee Tech is the place to be for engineering.
“What this program does is it completes filling out our programs so that we expand the breadth of what industry needs are in Tennessee, and it expands the breadth of the interest of prospective students in engineering.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the field is projected to grow an estimated 13.1 percent nationally, creating approximately 25,000 job openings annually. Slater said Tennessee is in tremendous need of skilled industrial engineers.
“We (universities across the state) are graduating about 15 percent of the need in the state,” Slater said. “So we are just not making the industrial engineers that the industry needs to thrive in the state. So we are having to find some other way to compensate for a lack of skilled workers.”
Slater said the master’s program will be ready for the fall, 2026 semester. Slater said the university may also eventually consider bringing back an undergraduate Industrial Engineering program.