Everything started back in 1975, when the Mechanical Engineering Department created the new “Section of Economy, Organization and Management”. Following this decision, Rui Guimarães was “sent” to the Lancaster University to complete a MSc. and a PhD. in Operations  Research (1975- 1980). Later in 1982, Rui Guimarães, Bernardo Calafate and Carlos Moreira da Silva founded the Industrial Management Unit (GEIN) at the Mechanical Engineering Department, to address the need and the importance of management-related topics in the academic training of mechanical engineers. The goals were clear: to improve the quality of teaching in the field of management, to develop links with the industrial world, and to carry out applied research projects.

When Rui Guimarães returned from Lancaster in 1982 after doing his PhD, he taught Operational Research in the Electrical Engineering degree with Jorge Pinho de Sousa as a teaching assistant. A few years later, José Soeiro Ferreira, José Manuel Mendonça and Jorge Pinho de Sousa made up the Industrial Engineering and Management core within the Systems area of the Electrical Engineering Department.

In the academic year 1983-84 GEIN launched the Production Management branch of the Mechanical Engineering 5-year Programme. Later in 1990, GEIN launched the 5-year Industrial Engineering and Management Programme (today MEGI and LEGI). The Master in Innovation and Technological Entrepreneurship (MIETE) started in 2005/06, followed by the Doctoral Programme of Industrial Engineering and Management (PRODEGI) in 2007/08, and the Master in Services Engineering and Management (MESG) in 2007/08.

Conversations on the opportunity to establish a new Department were led by Rui Guimarães and other professors from GEIN (Sarsfield Cabral, Alcibíades Guedes, Falcão e Cunha and António C. Brito) and the Electrical Engineering Department (namely Jorge Pinho de Sousa, José Fernando Oliveira and Maria Antónia Carravilla). In November 2007 the Board of FEUP approved the creation of the INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT – DEGI. Our first Director – Sarsfield Cabral – headed the department from 2008 to 2018. To respond to the need to improve the research quality and increase its visibility, in 2009 started the so-called DEGI Club Sessions. Soon after, the first yearly IEMS conference took place in January 2010. Meanwhile, the Engineering and Management Research Unit (UGEI) moved from IDMEC to INESC TEC, joining the other research units linked to DEGI.

The foundations were well established by extraordinary people that left a priceless legacy! The best is still to come!!