U-M Industrial and Operations Engineering faculty and students study new ways to use tools and techniques to address important application areas impacting many of society’s most important challenges. These application areas include business operations and analytics, energy and sustainability, health and human safety and mobility and transportation networks.

Business operations and analytics

All sectors of the modern economy rely on fundamental quantitative tools for analysis, prediction and optimization to leverage data for the purposes of improving decision-making.

Person pointing at a map on a window

Energy and sustainability

Energy utilization and sustainability are linked through their influence on communities, climate change and economics.

Windmills in a large field

Health and human safety

Health and human safety involve many important decisions that affect people’s lives, including the management of expensive resources in health systems, complex clinical treatment decisions and the design of safe environments for people to live and work. 

Vital monitors in a patient room

Mobility and transportation networks

Mobility and transportation systems research use data-driven analytics, human-centered design principles, computer simulation models and experimental studies to design and utilize advanced automation technologies. 

Person driving a smart car