Introduction to Research in IE and OR II

IE 491 is the second half of an undergraduate research apprenticeship: you stay with the same advisor and the same problem you took on in IE 490, but now you push past the initial framing into deeper modeling, analysis, and results worth defending. Most of the term is independent work — refining the literature review, executing the methodology, and iterating with your advisor — culminating in a final report and presentation rather than exams. It's where the optimization, stochastics, and statistics from the IE core stop being homework exercises and start behaving like tools you actually wield on an open question, which is also why it doubles as a useful proving ground before graduate study or analytics-heavy industry roles.