Industrial Engineering & Management

The first year of study is characterized by a broad range of disciplinary education that builds upon and extends students' entrance qualifications. IEM students select introductory modules totaling 45 credit points (CP) from the CHOICE area of various study programs, of which 30 CP will be from their intended major.

Students have the option to change their major at the beginning of the second year of studies if they have completed the corresponding modules of the study program in the first year.

IEM students will take the following CHOICE modules:

• General Logistics (7.5 CP)
• General Industrial Engineering (7.5 CP)
• Introduction to International Business (7.5 CP)
• Introduction to Finance and Accounting (7.5 CP)

Through these modules, students will gain a solid understanding of industrial engineering and management, manufacturing technology, logistics systems and supply chains, and essential business functions in the globalized world.

In their second year, students take modules totaling 45 CP from in-depth, discipline-specific CORE modules. These modules aim to extend the students' critical understanding of their major's fundamental theories, principles, and methods at the current state of knowledge and best practice.

IEM students take 45 CP from the following CORE modules:

1) "Advanced Industrial Engineering”, consisting of the modules:

• Production Planning & Control (5 CP)
• Product & Production System Design (5 CP)
• Data Management and Analytics in Industry 4.0 (5 CP)

This unit takes an in-depth look into production systems, providing the students with an understanding of product development and design activities, production planning and control methods, and modeling and simulation of the entire manufacturing process.

2) “Advanced Industrial Management”, consisting of the modules:

• Operations Research (5 CP)
• Lean Supply Management (5 CP)
• Production & Technology Management (5 CP)

In this unit, students will learn to model decision-making problems, develop purchasing strategies, employ advanced lean methods for eliminating waste in industrial processes, and manage innovation and technologies.

3) “Project & Strategic Management”, consisting of the modules:

• CORE Module: Applied Project Management (7.5 CP)
• CORE Module: International Strategic Management (7.5 CP)

This unit prepares students to set up, organize, manage and control projects and evaluate and design strategies in international management.

Students prepare and make career decisions after graduation during their third year. They take a mandatory summer internship to explore options fitting individual interests and gain professional experience.

The 5th semester also opens a mobility window for comprehensive study-abroad options. Finally, the 6th semester is dedicated to fostering students' research experience by involving them in an extended Bachelor thesis project.

IEM students take 15 CP of major-specific and major-related Specialization modules to consolidate their knowledge of the current state of research in areas of their choice.

IEM students choose 15 CP of the following Specialization Modules:

• Industry 4.0 and Blockchain Technologies (5 CP)
• Advanced Product Design (5 CP)
• Supply Chain Design (2.5 CP)
• Integrated Decision Making in Supply Chain Management (2.5 CP)
• Distribution & E-Commerce (2.5 CP)
• Law of Transportation, Forwarding, and Logistics (2.5 CP)

As part of Constructor University's commitment to student employability, all students are required to participate in a mandatory internship program. The 4-month program-specific internship for the Industrial Engineering & Management (IEM) program, which takes place during the 5th semester, is a crucial component of the curriculum. It provides students with the opportunity to gain real-world experience in a professional setting, allowing them to apply their knowledge and understanding to a professional context, reflect on the relevance of their major to employment and society, and gain professional guidance. This experience can also serve as a stepping stone for their Bachelor's thesis project or future employment after graduation. The program also includes career advising and several career workshops throughout all six semesters to further prepare students for the transition from student life to working life and their future careers. As an alternative, students interested in starting their own company can opt for a startup option, which focuses on developing their business plan and reduces the full-time internship to 8 weeks (15 CP).

The CONSTRUCTOR Track is another important feature of Constructor University’s educational model. The Constructor Track runs orthogonal to the disciplinary CHOICE, CORE, and CAREER modules across all study years and is an integral part of all undergraduate study programs. It provides an intellectual tool kit for lifelong learning and encourages the use of diverse methodologies to approach cross-disciplinary problems. The CONSTRUCTOR track contains Methods, New Skills and German Language and Humanities modules.

Methods
Methods and skills such as mathematics, statistics, programming, data handling, presentation skills, academic writing, and scientific and experimental skills are offered to all students as part of the Methods area in their curriculum. The modules that are specifically assigned to each study programs equip students with transferable academic skills. They convey and practice specific methods that are indispensable for each students’ chosen study program. Students are required to take 20 CP in the Methods area. The size of all Methods modules is 5 CP.

To pursue IEM as a major, the following Methods modules (20 CP) need to be taken as mandatory modules:

• Methods Module: Applied Calculus (m, 5 CP)
• Methods Module: Finite Mathematics (m, 5 CP)
• Methods Module: Programming in Python (m, 5 CP)
• Methods Module: Applied Statistics with R (m, 5 CP)

New Skills Modules
This part of the curriculum constitutes an intellectual and conceptual tool kit that cultivates the capacity for a particular set of intellectual dispositions including curiosity, imagination, critical thought, and transferability. It nurtures a range of individual and societal capacities, such as self-reflection, argumentation and communication. Finally, it introduces students to the normative aspects of inquiry and research, including the norms governing sourcing, sharing, withholding materials and research results as well as others governing the responsibilities of expertise as well as the professional point of view. Students in this study program are required to take the following modules in their second and third year:

• New Skills Module: Logic (m, 2.5 CP)
• New Skills Module: Causation and Correlation (m, 2.5 CP)

These modules will be offered with two different perspectives of which the students can choose. The module perspectives are independent modules which examine the topic from different point of views. Please see the module description for more details.

German Language and Humanities Modules
German language abilities foster students’ intercultural awareness and enhance their employability in their host country. They are also beneficial for securing mandatory internships (between the 2nd and 3rd year) in German companies and academic institutions. Constructor University supports its students in acquiring basic as well as advanced German skills in the first year of the Constructor Track. Non-native speakers of German are encouraged to take 2 German modules (2.5 CP each), but are not obliged to do so. Native speakers and other students not taking advantage of this offering take alternative modules in Humanities in each of the first two semesters.