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Department News
The Department of Industrial Engineering offered a new graduate program in fall 2020. The Master of Science in Operations Analytics is open to students interested in leveraging data to make organizations run more efficiently. Chase Rainwater, professor and associate department head, is the inaugural director of the program.
Geared for students from both engineering and non-engineering backgrounds. Any student with an undergraduate degree from an ABET-accredited industrial engineering program should not have any pre-requisite courses to complete.
David Humphrey, vice president-investor relations with ArcBest, said the program would position graduates to improve business processes by analyzing data.
“More and more at ArcBest, data related to every element of our company is abundantly available. For us to be successful, it is essential that we have the ability to effectively analyze that data in order to refine processes that improve our customers’ experience and profitably grow our company. We are excited to know that the new University of Arkansas Master of Science in Operations Analytics graduate program will develop the important analytical skills that engineering graduates need in data management and modeling.”
The masters program provides students with the professional and intellectual growth needed to become managers and leaders in operations analytics. Students gain the core operations analytics and quantitative modeling skills to better manage, control, and improve the operations of enterprise or public-sector organizations.
Through coursework, students develop knowledge of the principles and practices of analytics modeling methods, such as optimization, statistical modeling, machine learning, simulation, and computing methods, as they apply to the strategic, operational and tactical control of operations.
“Data-driven insights directly impact how industries produce a product or service a customer. Continuing education in a field driven by analytics and engineering will only enhance student’s critical thinking and data visualization skills. Operational Analytics knowledge will make valuable contributions in turning a company’s vision into reality,” said Karen Jewell, vice president engineering and technology with J.B. Hunt. For students with a degree other than an ABET-accredited industrial engineering degree, prerequisite courses may be required and are available through the industrial engineering program.
Rainwater commented, “We are excited to offer students a flexible alternative to gaining graduate-level skills in operations analytics. The new degree program benefits from the long-standing faculty expertise in this area and is something we hope can propell students into analytics careers that will serve to fill the demand we see from numerous companies.”
Skills Graduates Acquire:
• Develop descriptive, predictive and prescriptive mathematical and statistical models and to apply those models through computational methods to problems of controlling and improving enterprise operations. • Use foundational knowledge and apply critical thinking skills to problem identification, problem-solving, and decision making, within the context of controlling and improving enterprise operations. • Adapt analytics concepts to interpret and communicate findings and implications to senior decision makers. • Use information systems, statistics and computing principles and apply state-of-the-art technologies for data representation, data retrieval, data manipulation, computational analytics, data analysis, visualization as they apply analytics within enterprise operations. • Program graduates will be prepared for occupations as: General and operations managers, Operations research analysts, and Management analysts. For more information contact: opan@uark.edu or visit: operations-analytics.uark.edu
