View this email in your browser














Media Contact:


Millie Acebal


305-348-7762

mroussea@fiu.edu

news.fiu.edu

@FIUNews











Photo courtesy of UPS.







First-of-its-kind master’s degree in enterprise logistics


will prepare students for the workforce




MIAMI (July 12, 2017) Â– As the gateway to Latin America, South Florida is a hub for logistics and home to many companies looking to hire local talent. The new master of science in logistics engineering at FIU’s College of Engineering & Computing is designed to give students the skills they need to meet industry needs.


 


“When we hire new graduates, they have a lot of theory, but they don’t know the true world of logistics. We spend a lot of time training these young people,” said Gregory Goba-Ble, vice-president of engineering, UPS Americas Region. “I’m very interested in this curriculum because our industry has a need to get people ready to start working after graduation.”


 


Most logistics degrees currently offered nationwide focus on supply chain management. The master’s degree in enterprise logistics at FIU incorporates various aspects that affect the global community, from different products and methods of transporting them to the software, hardware and engineering components involved in doing so.


 


“No one is looking at the area of enterprise,” said Gary Goldfarb, chief strategy officer of Interport Logistics, a full-service supply chain management provider. “We want FIU to be a leader in the world of enterprise logistics, and this degree will distinguish the university as education innovators at a very high level.”


 


Goldfarb, who chairs this effort and is past chairman of the trade & logistics committee of The Beacon Council, approached the College of Engineering & Computing with the idea. He brought major companies to the table – many of which are competitors. They united to address a common problem they all face: an undertrained workforce lacking specific skills. Top executives from these companies are serving on the college’s advisory board and providing feedback on what topics the curriculum should encompass.


 


“We wanted to create a program that would be relevant, and could fully prepare students from day one on the job,” said Chin-Sheng Chen, professor and the director of the enterprise and logistics engineering programs at the College of Engineering & Computing. “The feedback from our industry partners was vital in designing the curriculum, and by meeting their needs, we hope our graduates will find success getting hired by many of these corporations, and other logistics companies worldwide.”


 


While students benefit from practical knowledge, insider expertise and problem-solving skills, companies will save time and money on training new graduates.


 


“When we started building our software, there was no single source to learn; we learned by doing and developed our standards. International logistics has been taught from generation-to-generation,” said Jesus David Rodriguez, president, Magaya Corporation, developers of logistics software. “We believe the next generation should not have the same struggle. This degree program will help graduates be a step ahead.”


 


In addition to UPS (NYSE: UPS), Interport Logistics and Magaya Corporation, other companies participating on the industry advisory board include FedEx, Maersk and PriceSmart. The College of Engineering & Computing will also be working closely with the companies to secure scholarships for its students and job placement upon graduation. The new master’s degree in enterprise logistics will officially launch in fall 2017.







-FIU-



About the College of Engineering & Computing:

As a member of one of the country’s top-tier research universities, the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) is actively engaged in cutting-edge studies and education, and is home to top-level research laboratories and facilities. With close to 5,500 students, CEC graduates the largest number of Hispanic engineers in the continental United States. CEC has two schools – Moss School of Construction, Infrastructure and Sustainability; and the School of Computing and Information Sciences –  and four departments – Biomedical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical and Materials Engineering. In the latest NSF Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey, computer science was ranked 39th and engineering ranked 83rd. The Higher Education Research and Development Survey tracks R&D expenditures by universities and colleges in the U.S.


About FIU:

Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a “R1: Doctoral Universities – Highest Research Activity” and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida’s anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine’s “America’s Best Employers” list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU’s Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute. FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA with more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.