Credit: Three terms of ENGR 385 (Co-op) will substitute for a technical elective. A combination of ISEN 491 and ENGR 385 is also an acceptable substitution. Consult with an academic advisor for guidance.
Obligation: You must complete all the co-op terms in your commitment to the co-op office and to your employer.
Prerequisites: Minimally the freshman engineering, math and science courses plus ISEN 230 before the first cooperative work period. It is also desirable, but not a requirement, to have ISEN 320 and 350 complete before the second cooperative period. In addition, you must have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.5 at Texas A&M.
The Report
- The report will be a work experience paper. Primarily, your report needs to indicate how you used material from your industrial engineering courses or other Texas A&M courses for the benefit of your employer.
- The report will follow the general engineering guidelines provided by the co-op office. It should contain a title page, table of contents (separate page), table of figures (separate page), body of the report, bibliography and possibly an appendix. The length of the body of the report should be between five and 10 pages with supplemental information in an appendix.
- An emailed version of the report in PDF format and a scanned copy of the supervisor's evaluation are due on Monday of the week that final exams start. The report and evaluation should be sent to the faculty contact listed below. (If email is not available, a hard copy must be received in the industrial and systems engineering office by the same deadline). The supervisor's evaluation is to be made using the form provided by the co-op office. Any material received late but before the first day of finals for the university will cause a letter grade deduction, and material received during finals will cause a two-letter grade deduction. If the complete report and the supervisor's evaluation are not received by the last day of finals, the grade received will be an F. Note: If a co-op spans more than one semester, the report and evaluation are needed for each semester.
- The course grade is based primarily on the quality of the report and the supervisor's evaluation. A grade of A indicates a well-written report, clear utilization of industrial engineering material and above average reviews from your supervisor.
Helpful Guidelines and Suggestions
- Keep a daily journal. Record what you think you are supposed to do, what you did, what problems you encountered, what successes you had, etc. Write a bit of your report each week. At the end of the term, you will only need to edit your document to complete the task.
- Shortly after beginning your job, meet with your supervisor and tell him or her when you must mail your report. Find out how much time he or she will need to do the evaluation and sign off on the report. Do not wait until the last minute. The scheduling issue is not a valid excuse for an extension to your due date.
- For emailing your report and evaluation, always use your official Texas A&M email account. If you do not receive an acknowledgement that the report was received within a couple of days, please call.
Contact
Texas A&M University Career Center
Co-op Program
Phone: (979) 845-7725
http://careercenter.tamu.edu/current-students
Departmental Contact
Dr. Amarnath Banerjee
Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Affairs
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-3131
(979) 458-2341
banerjee@tamu.edu