Technion -Israel Institute
of Technology
The William Davidson Facultyof Industrial Engineering and Management
Dean Statement
Dear visitor,
A hearty welcome to the website of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management
(IE&M) at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. The current academic year marks an important
milestone in the history of IE&M as we plan to celebrate the Faculty's 50th anniversary. The Faculty,
which started as an off-shoot of Mechanical Engineering in the mid-1950s, was recognized as an independent
academic unit in 1958. The first cohort, consisting of some 20 students, stepped cautiously into an unknown
trail that quickly became a well-trodden path for hundreds of students every year. The Faculty, which was
the first of its kind in Israel, has taken a leadership position in setting the standards for educating and
training of IE&M undergraduate and graduate students throughout the state of Israel and beyond.
Looking backwards with a perspective of five decades, the Faculty has a lot to be proud off. Using business terminology, it created a strong brand that has proven to be resilient to the ups and downs in the job-market. IE&M graduates are employed in all sectors of the economy and the profession has wide-spread name recognition among all layers of the population. As always, success breeds competition and indeed, today there are many alternative IE&M programs offered by other Israeli universities and colleges that compete for high quality students seeking an education in this area. Still, the Faculty at the Technion is by far the leading IE&M department in Israel. This achievement is largely due to its academic staff which has been setting ever-increasing standards of excellence in IE&M. Two of our Behavioral Sciences & Management professors were awarded with the Israel Prize; Two of our Operations Research (OR) professors received the Von-Neumann Award (the highest award given by the US OR society) and the EURO Gold Medal (the highest award given by the OR societies in Europe), respectively; Several professors in the areas of Statistics, Probability and Information Systems Engineering served as Editors-in-Chief of major international journals in their areas; Other professors received a prestigious Fellow status in major international associations, and more.
A thorough comparison of our academic staff with their colleagues at several leading US departments was recently conducted by the Neaman Institute (a non-for-profit and independent think tank). The results clearly position IE&M at the Technion among the top five units of its kind in the world.
While we certainly enjoy the reputation created by our past achievements, we have no intention to rest on our laurels. On the contrary, the faculty is well aware of the challenges it faces in the future and is constantly seeks to improve its capabilities and offerings. The difficulties that affect the entire higher education sector in Israel (as reflected in the report of the Shochat Committee that was published recently) have not by-passed our faculty. Facing dwindling government support, we are forced to look outside for the resources we need to maintain and improve our educational products. Fortunately, in the last few years our requests for help were met with enthusiastic support by some veteran as well as new sponsors who provided us with generous gifts that enabled us to carry on our mission. Also, our newly-formed Industrial Advisory Board has given us invaluable advice and support. But, much more is required to stay in the race. I therefore invite our alumni and the employers of our graduates to take a more active role in shaping the future of IE&M at the Technion (and, through the IE&M faculty, the future of that profession in Israel). It's high time for us to adopt the practice that is so common in the US departments we are competing with - where successful alumni return to their alma mater and invest in the education of future generations.
I wish us all a successful academic year. Let's hope that the crisises that we have experienced in the last two years (the second Lebanon War in July-August 2006 and the students' strike in April 2007) will not repeat themselves and we will be free to focus on our main objective - continuous improvement in all dimensions - teaching, research and community service.
Sincerely,
Boaz Golany
12 October 2007
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