Engineering Departments: A Tale Of Two Sciences

Engineering department rivalry distilled into its purest form. Mechanical engineers and industrial engineers pretending not to know each other at parties is practically a scientific constant. One designs the machines, the other optimizes the processes, yet they act like distant relatives at Thanksgiving. The stoic "No" from mechanical engineers speaks volumes about their relationship with equations and physical constraints, while the cheerful "Yes" from industrial engineers reflects their optimistic approach to efficiency problems. It's the academic equivalent of oil and water—except both insist they have the superior method for separating the two.