Providing manufacturing experiences to industrial engineering students through an extension program
Industrial engineering students at the undergraduate and graduate levels can benefit from participating in industry projects. Capabilities of faculty student teams to complete such projects have been marketed to local industry by an industrial extension program. Several such projects have been completed. The impact of these projects on both the learning of industrial engineering topics by students, and the development of "soft skills" such as communication and teamwork is reported. The model used to solicit and complete such projects is reported, and the lessons learned are presented.