<p>I’m a systems engineer. I looked at the UVa and VT curricula. The VT major is in “industrial and systems engineering”. It includes courses on plant management, inventory control, process design, materials engineering and quaility control. This is the old-fashioned IE major with a sexy new name (“systems engineering”). Where I work, the UVa program matches systems engineering better, including courses on systems architecture and a much larger number of information engineering courses. In fact, the UVa major is called “systems and information engineering.” At UVa you will learn about advanced simulations, such as complexity science, agent-based models, and other advanced topics in systems design. Simply put, VT prepares you for a job in the 20th century. UVa prepares you for a job in the 21st. </p>
<p>And, I do not go to either school. I did not graduate from either school. I have close family members at both schools.</p>