Last month, rising 9th–12th grade students spent four days discovering how industrial engineers solve problems at the iExperience Camp, hosted by the Center for Academics, Success, and Engagement (CASE) in Georgia Tech’s H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE). The camp blended campus life at Georgia Tech with real-world exposure to industrial engineering in practice. 

Designed as both an academic and professional exploration experience, the camp gave students a structured look at how industrial engineering works in the real world, far beyond textbooks and classroom examples. Each day combined on-campus learning sessions, collaborative project work, and industry site visits highlighting different applications of industrial engineering and systems thinking. 

A Week of Learning by Doing 

The program opened on Monday, June 15th, where students participated in welcome activities, icebreakers, and an introduction to Georgia Tech admissions. The first day focused on building community while giving students an early sense of what studying engineering at Georgia Tech looks like. 

After a campus tour and lunch at the John Lewis Student Center, students visited the Allen-Davidson-Coleman XR Makerspace at Georgia Tech and other lab spaces, getting hands-on exposure to emerging technologies. In the afternoon, students were introduced to their group projects and began preparing to synthesize the week’s learning into final presentations. 

Industry in Action: Site Visits Across Atlanta 

Midweek, the program shifted to industry immersion through visits to organizations applying industrial engineering in different contexts. 

At McKenney’s, students saw how industrial engineers support construction and facilities systems and heard from Georgia Tech alumni working in the field. A facility tour connected industrial engineering concepts to real building operations. 

At the Coca-Cola Company headquarters visit, students explored the role of industrial engineering in global supply chains. ISyE alumni Johnny Yang (B.S. 2021), Supply Chain Manager for Innovation Planning & Sourcing Optimization, and Sana Fathima (B.S. 2017, M.S. 2018), Senior Manager of Supply Chain Infrastructure Planning, explained how data drives bottling, distribution, and retail placement decisions across a global network. 

At NCR Atleos, students explored the ins and outs of ATM machines while hearing from GT IE alumni employees and current Georgia Tech interns about how industrial engineering improves reliability, user experience, and system integration. 

The site visits concluded at the McKinsey Innovation & Learning Center, where students learned lean principles and waste reduction through a hands-on SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Die) activity. They also observed advanced tools such as wearable scanners and automation technologies used to improve process efficiency. 

Building Ideas into Presentations 

Throughout the week, students worked in groups to connect what they learned from each site visit and campus experience. These project sessions challenged them to identify where industrial engineering was present in each organization and articulate its impact. 

On the final day, Thursday, June 18th, students finalized their projects and prepared for the family showcase held in the ISyE Main Atrium. Each group presented on either one of the four companies visited or ISyE’s XR Makerspace, explaining how industrial engineering principles appeared in real-world operations and reflecting on key insights from the week. 

The final presentations served as both a capstone and a celebration. Students demonstrated not only what they had learned about industrial engineering, but also how they could communicate technical ideas clearly and connect them to real-world scenarios.  

Families, mentors, and Georgia Tech staff attended the showcase, creating an environment that highlighted both student achievement and the broader mission of the program: making industrial engineering accessible for the next generation of engineers. 

Looking Ahead 

The iExperience Summer Camp showed students how industrial engineering shapes industries ranging from construction and manufacturing to technology and global supply chains. More importantly, it gave them a glimpse into what studying engineering at Georgia Tech can feel like. 

For many participants, the week was less about choosing a single future path and more about discovering the wide range of ways industrial engineers make systems work better, smarter, and more efficiently across the world.