Attendees at the 2025 IISE Western Regional Conference. Image/Alex Wang
Nearly 100 industrial and systems engineering students, faculty and industry professionals gathered at the University of Southern California from February 28 – March 2 for the annual IISE Western Regional Conference. The event, coordinated and hosted by USC’s IISE student chapter, drew participants from across the West Coast, from schools including USC, UC Berkeley, San Jose State University, Oregon State University, Cal Poly Pomona, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
The event kicked off with a tour of the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It featured a range of sessions, from technical presentations to industry and alumni speakers, career advice, and networking sessions.
USC IISE president and organizer of the conference Alex Wang said the event gave students a glimpse into the many different worlds where industrial engineering can make an impact, thanks to the varied backgrounds of the professional presenters. One of the featured speakers was the Senior Manager of Industrial Engineering at Disney Parks and Resorts, Jon Yu (USC ISE’10).
“Jon shared practical advice from his career as an industrial engineering manager at Disney theme parks. He showed just how versatile industrial engineering skills can be,” Wang said.
The event also featured a technical workshop hosted by Nitin Kale, a professor of industrial and systems engineering and technology and applied computing practice at USC. The session covered some of the basics of graph databases, which are commonly used to represent social networks and warehouse inventory.
Wang said that another popular session was the career prep workshop with Mike Lee, senior lecturer of industrial and systems engineering and technology and applied computing at USC. Students learned how to optimize their resumes and engaged in interactive resume reviews and mock interviews.
Wang added that aside from the practical, technical and career skills an event like the IISE Regional Conference offered, student attendees were also able to benefit from the valuable social connections they were able to make in person.
“This year, we really tried to place emphasis on dedicating at least a few hours each day specifically to socializing and networking among students, Wang said. “I know I’ve made many spontaneous friends during the two IISE Western Regional Conferences I previously attended in 2023 and 2024, and I heard many testimonials about similar experiences at this year’s conference.”
Wang, who previously had experience coordinating a conference as a member of USC’s Institute of Transportation Engineers student chapter (of which he since became president), said he was glad he was able to take his learnings from running the ITE event and apply them to the IISE conference.
“From experience, I know that the world of ISE is small,” Wang said. “There’s no doubt some of the students who attended this conference will be working together in the future, so it’s valuable to get those connections started early.”
More photos from the IISE Western Regional Conference are available here.Â
Published on April 2nd, 2025
Last updated on April 2nd, 2025
