PROFILES

Candidate Profile

The Industrial Engineering Program of Bogotá Headquarters considers that applicants and those who will later exercise the profession of Industrial Engineer must be characterized by:

• Numerical aptitude and calculation.
• Discipline in study, continuity and method in intellectual work.
• Ability to coordinate human talents and physical resources.
• Ability to establish appropriate interpersonal relationships.
• Interest in studying the problems of technology, related to industrial processes, their economic evaluation and the social aspects of industrial production.
• Interest in computer programming and the use of software.

Graduate Profile

The professional graduate of the National University of Industrial Engineering will have to excel in the following aspects:

• Knowledge of the scientific and technological principles that demand training as an engineer, with which the industrial engineer will be able to cope with technological changes and their application in the professional field.
• Emphasis on the study of industrial production systems, based on knowledge of modern industrial automation technologies.
• Multidisciplinary preparation to integrate knowledge in the field of computing, operational research and economic engineering criteria in the evaluation of alternatives for decision-making on the improvement of existing systems or in the implementation of new investment projects.
• Technology management orientation in processes related to transfer, innovation, improvement and negotiation.
• Social and humanistic training, leading to the analysis and understanding of the social, economic, natural and political context and developing the ability to communicate clearly and convincingly and the attitude for teamwork.

Occupational Profile

The academic proposal of Industrial Engineering is oriented towards a professional who designs, develops and improves production systems applied to the industry. In these systems it makes efficient use of human talents, equipment, natural resources, financial resources and technology.

In compliance with this professional profile, the Industrial Engineer graduated from the National University will be able to carry out the following activities:

• Define and coordinate the manufacturing process of a product, specifying the required resources and technology.
• Planning, programming and controlling production.
• Design and operate information systems for the management of industrial processes.
• Modernise production technologies, using tools such as automation, flexible production and robotics.
• Design systems for the logistics and distribution of both production processes and the supply, marketing or return of products at the end of the life cycle.
• Design and improve working methods.
• Carry out studies of plant location and distribution.
• Design and implement integrated quality systems in industrial companies.
• Design and manage maintenance systems.
• Carry out technical and economic feasibility studies of projects.
• Participate with other engineers in the execution of industrial projects.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of the Industrial Engineering Program is to train a professional with the scientific knowledge and practical tools that will allow him to successfully perform in the organizational management of production and technology in companies producing goods or services.

In fact, the aim is to train professionals with solid scientific bases, technical and methodological knowledge, with investigative, creative, analytical and synthesis skills, critical attitude, communicator, leadership, human sense, social responsibility and entrepreneurship capable of:

• To generate new industries and to promote the improvement of existing ones and as a consequence, to promote the social and economic development of the country and the region.
• Explore new principles and technologies to adapt and develop them according to the country’s own conditions and needs.
• To manage in the organizations a production guided by criteria of environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility.
• To put their knowledge at the service of the community represented primarily in small and medium-sized industries lacking sufficient resources for their development, recognizing their important role as job-generators, and as trainers of technicians and professionals.
• Design, plan, organize, implement and control any productive system, to increase its productivity and efficiency, with the optimal use of resources and the development of the organization’s human resources.

These objectives are in line with the mission and institutional vision expressed in the General Statute, Agreement 011 of 2005 and Agreement 033 of 2007 of the Higher University Council, which gives the guidelines for the student training process, namely:

• To train professionals and researchers on a scientific, ethical and humanistic basis, providing them with a critical awareness that allows them to act responsibly to the requirements and trends of the contemporary world and to lead creative processes of change.
• To prepare professionals capable of working in disciplinary and interdisciplinary teams integrated in a vast network of local and international communication.
• To train people capable of formulating proposals and leading academic processes that contribute to the construction of a democratic and inclusive nation in which knowledge is a fundamental pillar of coexistence and social equity.

MISSION AND VISION

Mission

In line with the above objectives:

The Industrial Engineering academic programme is designed to train professionals who are suitable for the design and management of processes and for the production of goods or services and who are capable of analysing the country’s technological problems and industrial development.

Vision

Offer a program of high academic standard, committed to industrial development through teaching, research and extension activities. To be an academic reference of the programs of Industrial Engineering by developing an active teaching approach conducive to stimulating and developing in students their creative capacity to properly apply the scientific and technological knowledge of their profession and to enable them to deal autonomously with self-learning processes. As a commitment to quality and academic excellence in the next 10 years, it will seek international accreditation, which will open up opportunities for its academic development and positioning in the national and international context.

DEGREE STRUCTURE

A curriculum is a set of academic activities, organized through subjects brought together into training components that a student must follow to achieve the purposes of curriculum formation. The approach of the professional profile and the desired characteristics of the program, as well as the needs of the national development, are the conditions that determine the curricular organization of the Industrial Engineering career that is proposed here. In addition, as mentioned above, the original structure of the Curriculum has been modified to conform to the general guidelines applicable to all curricula at the National University of Colombia and provided for in Agreement 033 of 2007 of the Higher University Council and its norms regulatory and complementary.

The curriculum structure of the plan is articulated in certain areas of training that have the mission of contributing to the integral process of preparation of future engineers. However, the very existence of a curriculum such as the organization and hierarchy of teaching knowledge and experience or teaching practices does not guarantee its realization.

This is why the curriculum is more than formal statements of subjects. The academic characteristics of students and the quality and intensity of the joint work of teachers and students, the mystique for teaching and research and the generation of spaces for reflection on the different objects of study, they are likely to have a greater impact on the quality and implementation of training than the set of definitions that the curriculum may contain.

In formal terms the Groups and Subjects are grouped into three Training Components:

• Basic component: This component introduces and contextualizes the field of knowledge that the student chose from a citizenship, humanistic, environmental and cultural perspective. It identifies the general relationships that characterize the knowledge of the different disciplines and professions in the area, the national and international context of their development, the institutional context and the prerequisites for their integral formation.

  The academic program contains forty-two (42) credits required from this component, of which the student must pass twenty-two (22) credits corresponding to compulsory subjects and twenty (20) credits corresponding to optional subjects. This corresponds to 25 percent of the curriculum.

• Disciplinary Component: This component provides the student with the basic grammar of his profession or discipline, theories, methods and fundamental practices, whose training exercise, research and outreach will allow you to integrate with a particular professional or disciplinary community. The Degree Work in any modality is part of this component.

  Within the programme there are ninety-two (92) credits required, of which the student must pass fifty-two (52) credits corresponding to compulsory subjects and forty (40) credits corresponding to optional subjects. This component accounts for 54.8 percent of the curriculum.

  Please refer to the subject's content of the Disciplinar Component below.

  
  COMPONENT - ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT
  
  COMPONENT - PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT AND ENGINEERING PROJECTS
  
  COMPONENT - ECONOMICS AND FINANCE
  
  COMPONENT - MATERIALS AND PROCESSES
  
  COMPONENT - PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS
  
  COMPONENT - INFORMATION SYSTEMS
  
  COMPONENT - SYSTEMS, MODELS, OPTIMIZATION AND SIMULATION
  
  COMPONENT - SOCIO-HUMANISTIC

• Free elective Subjects Component: This component allows the student to approach, contextualize and deepen topics of his or her profession or discipline and appropriate tools and knowledge of different types of knowledge aimed at diversification, flexibility and interdisciplinarity. The objective of this component is to bring students closer to the tasks of research, extension, entrepreneurship and awareness of the social implications of knowledge generation.

The Curriculum consists of one hundred and sixty-eight (168) credits including Graduate Work, distributed over ten semesters. The student of the Industrial Engineering degree is recognized for his academic work every six months, according to the number of hours invested in his study, both in person and independently, up to the completion of the number of academic credits established in the current curriculum. The average hours of academic work per week considered in plan is equal to 51 hours. In addition, the student must complete or certify 4 levels (12 credits) of English as a foreign language, being a prerequisite for graduation.

The curriculum includes the possibility of a student internship in a company, which the Program Advisory Committee will rate at 6 or 9 credits, according to its intensity and academic scope. This work must be closely related to the professional aspects of the career. The practice is carried out under an apprenticeship contract, covered by an agreement of the company with the University, it is usually remunerated, it must be directed by a teacher of the program and have a tutor in the company. The assessments received from the companies indicate conclusively a highly successful performance of the practitioners.

Undergraduate students may have a dual degree in accordance with the provisions of the Higher University Council’s agreement 155 of 2014. There is also the possibility of having an international double degree, as established in Agreement 027 of 2010 of the Higher University Council, which is carried out within the framework of an agreement on international academic cooperation, based on the reciprocity and academic quality of the curricular programs involved. Having this modality has double degree agreements with several universities in Europe, the United States and Latin America with highly satisfactory results.

Further information on the program’s curriculum can be checked at the following link:

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING DEGREE STRUCTURE

EDUCATIONAL PROJECT OF THE PROGRAM - INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Educational Project of the Program