$11 Million Engineers ISE Success

Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) is no stranger to firsts. The ISE program was the first engineering curriculum to require a computer programming course — in 1968. In 2003, ISE became the first academic department in the world to own an Electron Beam Melting machine.

And in September 2005, thanks to an $11 million contribution from Edward P. Fitts, NC State Distinguished Engineering Alumnus (’61), ISE became the first named academic department at NC State: the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

Fitts is the founder and former CEO of global packaging company Dopaco. His historic gift of more than $11 million is the largest the College of Engineering has ever received from an individual donor and the largest endowed gift to academics in NC State’s history.

Giving Back to Move Forward

Given the momentous nature of this endowment, it’s no surprise that the gift already is advancing ISE’s initiatives — recruiting talented new faculty and Paul Cohen, the new  department head. Specifically, the Fitts Endowment supports:

•    Undergraduate scholarships
•    Graduate fellowships and sponsored research
•    Several chaired professorships, which enable ISE to recruit internationally known experts in industrial and systems engineering fields
•    Three new program thrusts: Health Systems Engineering, Logistics Systems Engineering, and Bioproduction Systems Engineering – all of which are recruiting internationally recognized scholars in these areas.

Fitts acknowledges the role his education played in his career, “The education I received at NC State has always been the cornerstone of my success and helped make me who and what I am today. I wanted to give back to the department to make sure it had the necessary resources to educate the industrial and systems engineers needed for the 21st century.”