Many K-12 students are unaware of the field of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) and the career opportunities it has to offer. To address this gap, the ISE department is dedicated to increasing awareness of the field among students, educators, and the broader community through a variety of educational initiatives and awareness projects. We have developed ongoing collaborations with Lehigh’s CHOICES program, the Lehigh Iaccoca Global Entrepreneurship (IGEI) High School Program, Liberty High School Project Lead the Way Engineering program, and the DaVinci Science Center. Our team also provides support and representation for our field at a number of Lehigh Unviersity-sponsored events such as Rossin College of Engineering Open House, Engineering Specialty Tours, or STEAM Expos – on campus or on the go.
The K-12 project receives support from both Lehigh ISE undergraduate students, as well as from ISE PhD students involved in Lehigh ISE’s FACET program, which aims to prepare ISE PhD students aiming to pursue academic careers. ISE students play a crucial role in ensuring the success of our K-12 Awareness initiatives. They actively contribute by attending weekly meetings in order to brainstorm to develop activities and offer suggestions on program improvement and outreach strategies. Their direct involvement extends to interacting with K-12 students, where they provide a fresh perspective on the subject matter, making it more relatable and engaging for the younger audience. On the activity development side, they create and curate new educational materials and activity strategies. In this collaborative effort, we are always seeking to improve and ensure a deeper understanding and appreciation for Industrial and Systems Engineering within the community through hands-on labs covering concepts of optimization, the learning curve effect, throughput, auction strategies, efficient production systems, and more. Through these engaging and interactive experiences we aim to spark students’ interest in engineering and demonstrate the impactful role of ISE in solving complex problems.