Master of Engineering Program in Systems Engineering and Technology Management

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The School of Engineering and the Lally School of Management jointly offer a unique Master of Engineering program in Systems Engineering and Technology Management (SETM). Although the program is open to qualified undergraduates from other institutions, it is primarily intended as a co-terminal degree option for Rensselaer engineering undergraduates. It is a 30-credit-hour program leading to the Master of Engineering degree. The program is designed to provide engineering students with an opportunity to extend their understanding of emerging technologies within their disciplines while providing fundamental background in technical decision making methods and technology management. The program provides essential background in the financial metrics of business performance, the analytical modeling tools for applying these metrics in organizational and technical decision making systems, and the critical challenges associated with new models of value creation and business growth across different industries. Students will be prepared for technical management roles as they simultaneously extend their expertise in their undergraduate engineering disciplines beyond the bachelor’s level. Graduates of the program will be prepared to assume management responsibilities sooner upon entering the professional workforce.

Program Features

The unique feature of this program is the fusion of a management/industrial and systems engineering core with the student’s undergraduate engineering discipline. The curriculum culminates in a four-to-five course concentration in the student’s technical focus area. The technical concentration courses can be at the 6000 or 4000 levels. In addition to the bachelor’s degree in engineering, (including an introductory course in engineering statistics such as ENGR 2600 Modeling and Analysis of Uncertainty), the program requires five 6000-level courses that provide the management and decision sciences foundation of the program including:

ISYE 6610 - Systems Modeling in Decision Sciences Credit Hours: 3
ISYE 6620 - Discrete-Event Simulation Credit Hours: 3
MGMT 6020 - Financial Management I Credit Hours: 3
MGMT 6060 - Business Implications of Emerging Technologies Credit Hours: 3
Or
MGMT 6080 - Networks and Value Creation Credit Hours: 3
MGMT 7740 - Accounting for Reporting and Control Credit Hours: 3

Culminating Technical Concentration

The culminating technical concentration requires four-to-five adviser approved concentration courses in the student’s engineering discipline.

As one example for illustration purposes only, consider an industrial engineering student seeking a career in a manufacturing industry. A student with this interest could elect technical concentration courses that could include the following:

Example Plan of Study

ISYE 6020 - Design of Experiments Credit Hours: 3
ISYE 6180 - Knowledge Discovery with Data Mining Credit Hours: 3
ISYE 6210 - Theory of Production Scheduling Credit Hours: 3
ISYE 6600 - Design of Manufacturing System Supply Chains Credit Hours: 3
ISYE 6820 - Queuing Systems and Applications Credit Hours: 3

Example Plan of Study with the Master’s Project

As an alternative to the four-to-five course culminating technical concentration, students can elect a three-to-four course technical concentration plus an engineering Master’s project for 3 credit hours. To complete this requirement, students must register for 3 credit hours under the 6980 Master’s project course in their engineering discipline and complete a project directly related to the technical concentration.

Again for illustration purposes only, the corresponding Plan of Study for the degree option described above could be:

Fall Semester

ISYE 4220 - Optimization Algorithms and Applications Credit Hours: 3
ISYE 6610 - Systems Modeling in Decision Sciences Credit Hours: 3
ISYE 6620 - Discrete-Event Simulation Credit Hours: 3
MGMT 6020 - Financial Management I Credit Hours: 3
MGMT 7740 - Accounting for Reporting and Control Credit Hours: 3

Spring Semester

ISYE 6020 - Design of Experiments Credit Hours: 3
ISYE 6210 - Theory of Production Scheduling Credit Hours: 3
ISYE 6980 - Master’s Project Credit Hours: 1 to 9
MGMT 6060 - Business Implications of Emerging Technologies Credit Hours: 3
Or
MGMT 6080 - Networks and Value Creation Credit Hours: 3

Examples of Potential Other Technical Concentrations

This program is open to all engineering majors. Other examples of representative technical concentrations available through this program are summarized below:

A civil engineering student seeking a career in the construction field might combine a technical concentration in construction engineering with a complementary elective course in technical project management.
An industrial engineering student seeking a career as a technical analyst in a Wall Street brokerage firm might combine a technical concentration in optimization with a complementary elective course in risk analysis.
An electrical engineering student seeking a career as a microelectronics engineer might combine a technical concentration in microelectronics with a complementary elective course in statistical quality control.
A computer systems engineering student seeking a career as a systems developer might combine a technical concentration in software engineering with a complementary elective course in the area of human-computer interaction.
An aeronautical engineering student seeking a career in aircraft design might combine a technical concentration in structures and control with a complementary elective course in the area of research and development management.
A mechanical engineering student seeking a career in the automotive industry might combine a technical concentration in manufacturing processes with a complementary elective course in production operations management.
For information about the Master of Engineering program in Systems Engineering and Technology Management, contact the Master’s Program Director in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

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