"Engineering isn’t just calculus and physics.” - John Petta
The University of South Carolina’s undergraduate program in industrial engineering is only in its first year, but students are already applying core engineering principles to real operations on campus.
According to Professor Thor Wuest, director of the industrial engineering program, the program was launched in response to both workforce demand and student interest.
“This program directly capitalizes on South Carolina’s position as a dynamic manufacturing state,” Wuest says. “The continued expansion and arrival of major industries necessitate a strong supply of skilled industrial engineers to ensure sustained growth.”
He added that the program also fills a longstanding gap for students.
“Industrial engineering was by far the most requested unoffered major by incoming cohorts, perfectly reflecting its standing as a fulfilling career continuously ranked among the highest earners and fastest-growing professions,” Wuest says.
For the Introduction to Engineering Course, one of the first major assignments was a hands-on analysis of the Russell House food court, a bustling hub familiar to every USC student. For Professor John Petta, it was the perfect way to show freshmen the real-world power of the field.
“In industrial engineering, we improve processes within systems that involve people,” Petta says. “You can apply it anywhere: hospitals, manufacturing, restaurants, even a college food court. It’s incredibly flexible.”
Petta says that industrial engineering stands out from other engineering fields because it focuses on optimizing the systems that connect people, technology, materials and information. At a time when industries are increasingly looking for ways to improve efficiency, reduce waste and enhance customer experience, the demand for industrial engineers is at an all-time high, with jobs expected to grow approximately 12% over the next decade, substantially faster than the average for all occupations.
“It’s the most sought-after degree right now, higher than any other engineering discipline,” Petta says.
The increased interest in industrial engineering jobs makes the new undergraduate program especially timely. And for its first semester students, many of whom are freshmen, the Russell House project offered an early look at industrial engineers collecting and interpreting data and designing practical solutions to improve real-world systems.
“First, make the process safe, then make sure it’s ergonomically sound. Only then can you make it efficient.
- John Petta
Before joining the Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing faculty, Petta spent more than 35 years in executive roles across global manufacturing facilities, hospitals and other organizations. His teaching style blends foundational concepts with real-world examples from his career.
“When I teach a concept or theory, I always bring in how you would apply it,” Petta says. “Freshmen don’t always know what engineering is yet, so showing them real applications really resonates.”
After introducing topics like teamwork, systems thinking and process improvement, Petta asked students to take a hard look at something they were all familiar with: the Russell House food court.
“I wanted something where they may have already felt the frustration of a bad process,” Petta says. “I walked in one day and it looked quite chaotic and thought, ‘This is perfect.’”
Students were asked to create detailed process maps of different food stations, from kiosk ordering to meal prep to pick-up to visualize bottlenecks, defects, and insufficiencies.
“We noticed that the biggest issue was a confined floor plan and minimal counter space, but with an abundance of fresh ingredients and preparation required,” says Katie Pearson, a freshman industrial engineering major. “Through a spaghetti diagram of the flow of their products, we saw that they could make better use of their space.”
Petta explained that process mapping is a cornerstone of industrial engineering. "It gives a great visualization of a complex process. You don’t have to be in the middle of the food court to understand what’s happening.”
Students then proposed improvements and justified those ideas with return-on-investment considerations, simulating the challenge of pitching solutions in a real business environment.
“You can’t just say ‘hire more people’ or ‘add technology’ because that costs a quarter of a million dollars,” Petta says. “You have to defend it economically.”
Many students focused on the disconnect between mobile app notifications, especially Grubhub, and the actual readiness of the orders. They mapped out the triggers that send “order ready” messages and found inconsistencies that harm customer experience.
“It’s the worst kind of defect,” Petta says. “Telling someone their order is ready, when it isn’t reminds them that they’re waiting, and that they’re going to wait even longer."
The students’ analysis showed a strong grasp of both technical mapping skills and customer-centered mindset that defines industrial engineering.
Wuest says that a hands-on, industry-aligned approach is central to the program’s long-term vision.
“The long-term vision for our industrial engineering program is elegantly simple and strategically focused: we put students first by building a dynamic, hands-on learning environment in close collaboration with our industry partners,” Wuest says. “This ecosystem is designed to be continuously evolving to ensure graduates are career-ready from day one.”
Throughout the fall semester, Petta emphasized the broader mindset he hopes his students will take away: systems thinking.
“Don’t blame people. It’s the system or the broken process that leads to defects,” Petta says. “If students learn that early, they’ll become better engineers.”
Petta reinforces that mindset through creative assignments, including one where students applied industrial engineering tools to scenes from the first six Star Wars films. Whether it was improving the safety in the trash compactor or organizing efficient pod-racing pit crews, students learned that the same engineering tools can apply in wildly different scenarios.
“I want them to start seeing everything as a system,” Petta says. “I told them from now on you will never stand in line at a fast-food restaurant without mentally redesigning it.”
Petta says that at the heart of the new program are three core priorities: safety, ergonomics and efficiency.
“First, make the process safe, then make sure it’s ergonomically sound,” Petta says. “Only then can you make it efficient.”
For Petta, teaching the first generation of industrial engineers is a point of pride, and an opportunity to pass along lessons from a career that took him from washing dishes at a restaurant to becoming a chief operating officer.
“It excites me to see their curiosity,” Petta says. “Engineering isn’t just calculus and physics. It’s about taking those tools and making the world a more effective and efficient place.”
If the program’s early projects are any indicator, the university’s first industrial engineering students are already taking that message to heart and are preparing to change the world.