Auburn ISE launches healthcare systems certificates
Published: Aug 19, 2025 10:50 AM
By Carla Nelson
Auburn University’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) is now offering undergraduate and graduate certificates in healthcare systems engineering, expanding its curriculum to meet growing industry demands.
The new programs aim to prepare students to improve healthcare delivery by applying systems-level thinking and engineering principles. With courses focused on healthcare operations, human factors and culture and policy, the certificates will prepare engineering and non-engineering students to address real-world challenges in healthcare.
“Industrial and systems engineers are playing an increasingly important role in healthcare,” said LuAnn Carpenter, director of student program assessment and administration, who led the development of the new courses. “According to the Department of Labor, nearly every healthcare facility in the U.S. is expected to employ at least one industrial engineer within the next decade. We want our industrial engineers to know how to apply industrial engineering effectively to improve healthcare in Alabama and beyond.”
Carpenter’s interest in the field was influenced by personal experiences as a patient.
“When you're an industrial engineer, you see processes differently,” she said. “I saw areas where the healthcare system could improve, and I knew Auburn engineers could be part of that solution.”
To shape the new curriculum, Carpenter collaborated with alumni working in healthcare.
Sharon Hickman, ‘92 industrial and systems engineering, served as an advisor and now co-teaches one of the new healthcare courses. With more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, she is the co-founder, president and chief operating officer of Adaptient, a performance and safety innovation firm that helps healthcare organizations enhance resilience and reduce risk.
“Healthcare is full of smart, dedicated people working in broken systems,” Hickman said. “We have a workforce stretched to its limits, dealing with fragmented technology, opaque processes and safety events referred to as ‘errors’ that actually are the predictable result of system design failure. ISE brings a rigorous, systems-level approach that healthcare desperately needs. It teaches students to analyze complexity, reduce friction and solve root causes instead of symptoms. This mindset is essential to redesigning healthcare delivery.”
The certificates include three newly developed courses: Healthcare Systems, Culture and Policy; Healthcare Operations; and Human Factors in Healthcare. Topics range from inventory policies and lean methods to communication in surgical teams and designing safe, user-friendly healthcare technology. The curriculum also addresses the legal, cultural and financial complexities that engineers must understand to work effectively in healthcare settings.
The graduate courses are also offered as a new option within ISE and the Thomas Walter Center for Technology Management’s Engineering Management program, alongside the other options in manufacturing, occupational safety and ergonomics, product innovation and systems.
“Many ISE students are interested in healthcare but struggle to demonstrate their knowledge of its unique challenges,” Hickman said. “These certificates bridge that gap by giving them a language and toolkit that instantly sets them apart. For non-engineers, it shows a commitment to meaningful change in healthcare. That combination of content knowledge and systems mindset is rare, and it’s exactly what the industry needs more of.”
Hickman described her involvement in building the program as meaningful.
“Auburn ISE gave me the foundation to do work that improves lives, both for patients and the people caring for them,” she said. “To come back years later and help build something that merges engineering and healthcare is a full-circle moment. I get to contribute to the kind of training I wish had existed when I was starting out. We’re not just adding a credential to someone’s resume; we’re building the next generation of leaders who will drive real, lasting change in healthcare.”
Media Contact: , carla@auburn.edu, 3347400221
With courses focused on healthcare operations, human factors and culture and policy, the certificates will prepare engineering and non-engineering students to address real-world challenges in healthcare.
