To heighten the awareness of the many things industrial engineers do, the industrial and manufacturing systems engineering department held an open house Thursday in the Black Engineering courtyard.

“It isn’t just hard-core engineering; it is everything from the factory to Wall Street,” said Erika Eaton, a marketing and recruitment intern for the industrial and manufacturing systems engineering department.

The open house, which featured a cookout and presentation from engineering faculty, was aimed at undeclared engineering students trying to decide which field of engineering best suits their interests.

Department chairman Pius Egbelu said one of the main reasons to have the open house was to give students a formal introduction to the department’s new facilities. The industrial and manufacturing systems engineering department moved into the Black Engineering building last semester.

“The objective was to welcome people to the new site, tell them who we are and what we do,” Egbelu said. “Hopefully, it caused students, especially undeclared engineering students, to take a second look at us.”

The theme of the open house was “Think Outside the Traditional Engineering Box — Be an Industrial Engineer.”

“Any organization that uses people also needs industrial engineers,” Egbelu said.

Egbelu said industrial engineers from Iowa State have been employed by health-care organizations, financial institutions, department stores, insurance companies and theme parks.

“It is a very broad discipline,” he said. “We do all kinds of things.”

All five specialization areas in the department — manufacturing, human factors, engineering management, enterprising computing information engineering and operations research — were represented at the open house.

“The thing that is very unique about us is that we are the bridge between business and engineering. Our graduates can work in both worlds,” Egbelu said.

Egbelu also said the industrial engineers pride themselves on being “recession-proof.”

He said during recessions there historically has been a greater demand for industrial engineers because they are the “problem solvers.”

Samuel Adams, associate professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, said the field is very service-oriented.

“Industrial engineers seek out ways to improve operations,” Adams said. “They look at the mechanical operations as well as things such as time and effort. They are in charge of helping the customers get what they want.”

Egbelu said because of that, industrial engineering moves with the times.

“We get involved in everything and are changing as time changes,” he said.