About the Tauber Institute

INDUSTRY IDENTIFIED A NEED. THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN RESPONDED.

It all began when a gathering of business advisors identified a key category of employees missing from their organizations: trained professionals who understand both the business and engineering aspects of manufacturing.

As a result of that discussion, the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and College of Engineering formed a new cross-unit collaboration. Named for benefactor and U-M alumnus Joel Tauber, the Tauber Institute was born — and immediately began to innovate.

Faculty in the two schools created new courses to deliver an integrated education addressing the challenges of modern manufacturing, with an emphasis on leadership skills.

The Tauber Institute sought every opportunity to immerse students in real-world experiences — leading to the development of Tauber team projects and the annual Spotlight! event, where students compete for academic scholarships through their presentations about their work at top companies across the U.S. and around the world.

Award Winning Institute

The Tauber Institute has enjoyed many accolades — including receiving the UPS George D. Smith Prize for effective education in the fields of operations research, management science, and analytics. But a truer measure of Tauber’s success is that its graduates quickly secure rewarding employment, making an immediate impact in their respective companies, and rising to positions of authority.