The Practice of Industrial Engineering

Introduction to industrial engineering subject matter, problem types, and design/analysis approaches with emphasis on formulation and design alternatives.

offering recorded2 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Hannah Silber4.1/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Hannah Silber

Grades were split between attendance and events, and a group final project that reportedly took about an hour to complete. There were no exams or regular homework assignments.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Define and explain common industrial engineering terminology

  • Give examples of career opportunities in industrial engineering

  • List the focus areas in industrial engineering and give a brief explanation of how each area uses industrial engineering principles

  • Give examples of problems in each area of industrial engineering

  • Identify professional and academic development resources available to industrial engineering students

  • Investigate an open-ended industrial engineering problem and think critically about how to solve it

  • Analyze small datasets using Microsoft Excel

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
ISYE 191

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.42/5 from 26 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 4.0/5 raw quality · 1.0/5 difficulty · 2 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Hannah Silber

Hannah Silber taught ISYE 191 with mandatory attendance and guest speakers, offering no exams or individual homework. Students reported the grade relied heavily on attendance and a short group project, describing the workload as minimal and the class as an easy A.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2026: 3.96 GPA, 98.7% A/AB (n=156 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Amanda Smith

Historical instructor Amanda Smith taught ISYE 191 with minimal homework, using short participation assignments and an easy project that many students completed for high marks. Most lectures featured guest speakers, though Smith addressed student questions directly. Students found the course enjoyable and less stressful than other engineering classes, with one reviewer specifically noting its low difficulty and high quality.

AMANDA SMITH is recorded teaching in Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

HANNAH SILBER is recorded teaching in Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 2000

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Hannah Silber

The course primarily involved listening to guest speakers rather than traditional instruction, with Prof. Silber facilitating sessions. Students described the class as easy to pass if they attended regularly.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.86 GPA, 94.2% A/AB (n=138 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.94 GPA, 97.5% A/AB (n=122 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.96 GPA, 98.7% A/AB (n=156 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Hannah Silber

Grades were split between attendance and events, and a group final project that reportedly took about an hour to complete. There were no exams or regular homework assignments.

Past student reviews · Hannah Silber

Students found the lectures boring and noted that attendance was required despite the lack of active teaching. Prof. Silber was viewed positively for trying to make the sessions tolerable.

Topics

  • Industrial engineering subject matter areas and problem types
  • Design and analysis approaches, techniques, and methodologies
  • Problem formulation and design alternatives
  • Focus areas in industrial engineering and their use of IE principles

Skills

  • Formulating problems and designing alternative solutions
  • Defining and explaining industrial engineering terminology
  • Investigating open-ended industrial engineering problems
  • Analyzing small datasets using Microsoft Excel

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

4 earlier forecasts · 0.06 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Selected offering source records
ISYE 191 · Spring 2027

The Practice of Industrial Engineering

Recorded 2026-10-29
Raw records
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261029T213040-0fa85c20",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:490:010215",
    "course_id": "ISYE 191",
    "course_uid": "course_1d47eb9413dc8539fee61a85",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "010215",
    "source_subject_id": "490",
    "title": "The Practice of Industrial Engineering",
    "credits_min": 2,
    "credits_max": 2,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Model & dataset provenance
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  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "e5ff8e63e4b762e3a45a597d8e17ffae87df1bd27ab79fa0c385a272bac6c36a",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "c9cd06eaa45f9ddf7e69faa38b89ff3d3dd995dd",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00"
}