Industrial Engineering and Operations Research

Welcome to the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at Columbia University. The IEOR Department is the home to four disciplines including Engineering Management Systems, Financial Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Operations Research.Engineering Management Systems is a field that emphasizes both technology and management perspectives in solving problems, making decisions, and managing risks in complex systems.
It provides a rigorous exposure to deterministic optimization and stochastic modeling, a basic coverage of applications in the areas of operations engineering and management, and an in-depth coverage of applications in the areas of the selected concentration. Graduates from this program are expected to assume positions as business analysts in logistics, supply chain, revenue management, and consulting firms, and as financial analysts in risk management departments of investment banks, hedge funds, and credit-card and insurance firms.

Financial Engineering is a multidisciplinary field that requests familiarity with financial theory, the methods of engineering, the tools of mathematics and the practice of programming. Undergraduate and graduate studies in Financial Engineering provide students training in the application of engineering methodologies and quantitative methods to finance. It is designed for students who wish to obtain positions in the securities, banking, and financial management and consulting industries, or as quantitative analysts in corporate treasury and finance departments of general manufacturing and service firms.Industrial Engineering is the branch of the engineering profession that is concerned with the design, analysis, and control of production and service operations and systems. Originally, an industrial engineer worked in a manufacturing plant and was involved with the operating efficiency of workers and machines. Today, industrial engineers are more broadly concerned with productivity and all of the technical problems of production management and control. They may be found working in every kind of organization: manufacturing, distribution, transportation, mercantile, and service. Their responsibilities range from the design of unit operations to that of controlling complete production and service systems. Their jobs involve the integration of the physical, financial, economic, and human components of such systems to attain specified goals.
Industrial engineering includes activities such as production planning and control; quality control; inventory, equipment, warehouse, and materials management; plant layout; and job and work station design. Operations Research is an applied science, and is concerned with quantitative decision problems, generally involving the allocation and control of limited resources. Such problems arise, for example, in the operations of industrial firms, financial institutions, health care organizations, transportation systems, energy and resources, and government.
The operations research analyst develops and uses mathematical and statistical models to help solve these decision problems. Like engineers, they are problem formulators and solvers. Their work requires the formation of a mathematical model of a system and the analysis and prediction of the consequences of alternate modes of operating the system. The analysis may involve mathematical optimization techniques, probabilistic and statistical methods, experiments, and computer simulations.