NEAP Structure

Fall 2022, 2024

IE 313X:  Crisis Decision Making and Risk Management with Defense Applications

Focus on making good decisions and managing risk with a special emphasis on crisis situations and Navy and defense applications. Explore good techniques to structure a decision by thinking about the decision maker’s preferences, alternatives, and information. Examine how to model and account for risk both in crisis and non-crisis situations. Students will also be exposed to the military decision making process as a structured way to analyze information, explore different alternatives, and make decisions. The application of risk management and decision making for crisis situations will emphasize how to think clearly and use analysis in time-pressured situations.

Spring 2023, 2024, 2025

IE 472: Design and Evaluation of Human-Computer Interaction

Human factors methods applied to interface requirements, design, prototyping, and evaluation. Concepts related to understanding user characteristics, design principles, usability analysis, methods and techniques for design and evaluation of the interface. The evaluation and design of the information presentation characteristics of a wide variety of interfaces: web sites (e-commerce), mobile applications, and information presentation systems (cockpits, instrumentation, etc.).

Fall 2023

Spring 2024

IE 453X: Engineering Problem Solving for Defense

This is a project-based course where students will work in teams of approximately 3-4 students on a project sponsored by the Department of Defense (DOD) agency. The course will be structured similar to the Hacking for Defense (H4D) course explained here. The name seems to indicate that this course will be devoted to cybersecurity, but this course is a class organized by the DOD. H4D is a university course sponsored by DOD that teaches students to work with the Defense and Intelligence Community to rapidly address the nation’s emerging threats and security challenges. In this project-based course, the students will work on teams on real national security problems. 

The primary objective of IE 453X is to obtain practice in comprehensive engineering and communication skills, while simultaneously honing personal effectiveness and entrepreneurial skills, through the development and completion of an engineering project sponsored by a DOD agency. Engineering expectations include applying both previously learned and newly acquired knowledge and skills to identify, formulate, and solve a complex engineering problem, which results in tangible deliverables for the DOD agency. The semester’s projects will revolve around the theme of prototyping solutions for national security. Engineered solutions will consider extensive ramifications, including defense and security, political, ethical, environmental and energy, and global issues. Project developments will be communicated via the Lean Startup methodology made famous by Stanford University to iteratively cut through the complexity. Student teams will provide the DOD sponsor with a validated problem, a validated solution concept, and a prototyped Minimal Viable Product.

We are actively recruiting DOD agencies who can sponsor projects that ISU students will enjoy working on.