Program Information

Program Description

The goal of ISE is to ensure that a manufacturing or service organization's systems are efficient, productive, safe, and well designed against cumulative injury, and that the systems incorporate the right tools and equipment. Types of activity involved in ISE include:

  1. Developing quality metrics for the organization's products or services and performance measures for its internal operations.
  2. Collecting data to measure and monitor the quality and performance.
  3. Improving the performance and hence the quality.
  4. Utilizing the latest computer-based analytical, modeling, and design technologies.

The MS Industrial and Systems Engineering curriculum prepares engineers for these activities and helps achieve the goal of ISE in a manufacturing or service organization. The curriculum prepares students to bridge the gap between operations and management with courses ranging from operations planning and control, quality assurance and reliability, human factors and ergonomics, human-machine interaction, information engineering, and cost-effectiveness analysis, to organizational development and total quality management. It prepares students to enter the profession immediately or to go on to pursue a Ph.D. degree.

A Ten-course Program with Four Specialty Areas

MS-ISE is basically a ten-course program, including nine graduate courses and an M.S. thesis/project or a written comprehensive examination.

Four specialty areas are offered:

  1. Specialty Area 1: Production and Quality Assurance
  2. Specialty Area 2: Supply Chain and Logistics Engineering
  3. Specialty Area 3: Healthcare and Service Systems Engineering
  4. Specialty Area 4: Human Factors Engineering

Further information may be obtained by calling or visiting Dr. Jacob Tsao, the Graduate Advisor of the Industrial & Systems Engineering Department.

An Evening Program Tailored for Silicon Valley Professionals

With "SJSU is at the heart of the Silicon Valley," the MS-ISE program is essentially an "evening" program, with almost all graduate classes taught between 5:30PM and 8:30 PM. Many MS-ISE students have full-time jobs in the Valley while attending the program; some of them are managers having hiring responsibilities. MS-ISE students’ course loads vary from three units per semester to twelve units.

Six Sigma Certificate