Meet Jing Lu, industrial technology major

Jing Lu, Nantong, China

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Making a difference

I really hope, no matter what kind of business I will be in, I can use my knowledge of business to benefit people. Since I’m Chinese, I hope I can bring the good side of the culture to my career. I also want to provide opportunities to students here, especially international students.

My major

Industrial technology is a combination of engineering and management. The technology management skills you learn give you an overall view of the company and help you see where you might end up. I’ve gained a deep knowledge of everything in manufacturing: operations, safety, maintenance. It has prepared me to open my own company. In every course, the instructors bring up global views. We have a lot of discussions about culture and how people perceive things differently. When we talk about standards, they also bring up global standards.

Choosing IT

I started out in actuarial science and statistics, and I realized I didn’t want to do numbers my whole life. My mom owns a company, and I figured out it is hard to run a business; you have to know everything from the supplier to manufacturing to the customers. So I wanted to find a way to study these aspects of business. Besides studying industrial technology as a technical concept, the classes give me a management view, and the professors give me more of a broad international view.

Involved in the department

There is a need for someone to help new students understand about available resources and strategies for success. That’s why I became president of ATMAE. I did a lot of work making connections with professors and setting up a trip to go to an academic conference. I got funding from the department to help send me and eight students. The college gave me the platform to be able to do that. I have also helped my department plan a recruitment program in China. I set up all of the appointments and made networking connections there.

Internship in Shanghai

I traveled to India as part of a college-sponsored program and met with leaders at KPIT Cummins. They saw my attitude and my knowledge, and they contacted me for an internship for Cummins in Shanghai. I worked with a project manager as they were choosing a new location for their warehouse and offices. I helped the manager do some surveys of the whole company to understand how people wanted the layout and location of their offices. For another project, I helped with Six Sigma tracking to help them understand how many of their processes failed and how many succeeded. I also helped them update their customer service system.