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MANAGING TECHNOLOGY IN THE INFORMATION AGE:
STANFORD'S NEW DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
M. Elisabeth Pat-Cornell1
Professor and Chair, Department of Management Science and Engineering
Terman Engineering Building, Room 348, Stanford UniversityStanford, CA 94305 (U.S.A.)mep@leland.stanford.edu
http://ieem.stanford.edu/faculty/pate-cornell.html
ABSTRACT
Stanford University has faced the challenges of global trends in the "management of technology in
the information age" by creating, in its School of Engineering, a new department of ManagementScience and Engineering (MS&E). Competition and globalization demand that the students be
prepared to operate in a fast-changing world with sound bases, flexibility, financial savvy and an
appreciation for diversity. Nested in the center of the Silicon Valley, this MS&E department involves
32 regular faculty members and covers 8 areas:
Organizations, Technology and Entrepreneurship
Economics and Finance
Decision Analysis and Risk Analysis
Production and Operations Management
Systems Modeling and Optimization
Probability and Stochastic Processes
Technology Policy and Strategy
Information Science and Technology
Such a department thus faces a challenge in the construction of academic programs that are both
coherent and relevant, and are built around centers of excellence, existing domains of expertise and
specific problems. This requires that cross-discipline synergies be exploited to remain at the
1
ELISABETH PAT-CORNELL is the Burt and Deedee McMurtry Professor in the School of
Engineering, Professor and Chair of the Department of Management Science and Engineering. She
is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Past President of the Society for Risk
Analysis.
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cutting edge of academic research and industrial needs. This paper describes the mission of this
department, the history and the process by which it was created, and the philosophy and structure
of its graduate and undergraduate programs.
Keywords: Engineering, Education, Engineering Systems, Technology Management, Technology
Policy
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MANAGING TECHNOLOGY IN THE INFORMATION AGE:
STANFORD'S NEW DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
M. ELISABETH PAT-CORNELL
1. FOUNDATIONS AND MISSIONS OF THE NEW DEPARTMENT
In December 1999, the Board of Trustees of Stanford University authorized the creation of the
Department of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E). This new department is the result of
a fusion of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM) and of the
Department of Engineering-Economic Systems and Operations Research (EES&OR). The latter
was itself the result of a merger, three years before, of the EES and OR departments. EES&OR
was a graduate department, while IEEM offered an undergraduate degree as well as a Masters and
a Ph.D. degree. Current details can be found at http://www.stanford.edu/dept/MSandE/
The new MS&E department includes about 32 full-time regular faculty members and about 20
consulting and visiting faculty members, lecturers and research associates. The department offers
both undergraduate (UG) and graduate programs. Its faculty has the broad range of expertise
needed to address issues associated with the management of technology in the information age,
and also with the challenges of mathematical modeling in many engineering domains. Its emphasis
is, to a large extent, on the management problems of the private sector, but also on the analysis of
some public policies.
A decision was made early in the department planning to avoid divisions (or sub-department
organizations). Instead, the department comprises eight areas whose role is to organize the
teaching, the research, and the qualification of doctoral students in the different fields. As of thebeginning these areas of expertise included:
Systems modeling and optimization
Probability and stochastic systems
Information science and technology
Economics and finance
Decision analysis and risk analysis
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Production operations and management
Organization, technology and entrepreneurship
Technology policy and strategy.
Most of these areas already existed in the heritage departments; for example, Production
Operations and Management was part of IEEM and economics and finance was part of EES&OR.
Two of these areas have had to be developed although they were already represented among the
existing faculty: Information Science and Technology, and Technology Policy and Strategy.
In addition, the department includes a number of centers and research groups:
Work, technology and organization
Stanford networking research center
Supply-chain forum
Decision analysis group and decision ethics center
Engineering risk research group
Systems optimization laboratory
Energy modeling forum
Stanford technology venture program
The strength of the department is in combining fundamental disciplines and domains of application
with an emphasis on engineering and technology. As stated by its committee on graduate
programs (Stanford Bulletin, 2000-01):
The Department of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) provides
exceptionally strong programs of education and research by integrating three basic
strengths: (1) substantial depth in conceptual and analytical foundations, (2)
comprehensive coverage of functional areas of application, and (3) vigorous
interaction with other departments in the Stanford School of Engineering, with
Silicon Valley industry, and with many organizations throughout the world. The
analytical and conceptual foundations include optimization, dynamic systems,
stochastic systems, economics, organizational science, and decision and risk
analysis. These foundations support the functional areas and provide the basis for
further advance in the discipline. The functional areas of application include
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finance, production, information, organizational behavior, marketing,
entrepreneurship, policy, and strategy. Programs in these functional areas
emphasize both fundamental concepts and practical applications. Close
associations with other engineering departments and with industry enrich the
programs by providing opportunities to apply MS&E methods to important problems
and by motivating new theoretical developments from practical experience.
MS&E's programs also provide a basis for contributing to other important areas
such as information systems, telecommunications, defense policy, environmental
policy, biotechnology, and other areas where mastery of fundamentals, functional
knowledge, and an engineering viewpoint are extremely valuable."
The MS&E department complements the other departments of the School of Engineering (SoE) by
its focus on management issues, both in industry and government. Although there are some
domain overlaps, it differs from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) by its emphasis on
the tools of engineering analysis and its focus on technological applications.
The advent of this department and its future developments are guided by a number of global trends
and challenges that were described and discussed elsewhere (Pat-Cornell, 1999). These trendsinclude:
Explosion of information of communications technology and of the Internet,
Extraordinary increase in computational powers,
Little restrictions on circulation of capital: a fluidity of the capital market with both the
effectiveness and instabilities that it can trigger,
Faster-better-cheaper leaner industries,
Transformation of the work place due to this change of technology,
Emphasis on high-tech industries (e.g., biotech and electronics) and service industries,
Challenge to designing complex robust systems that integrate hardware, software and human
beings,
Acceleration of the creation and dissemination of knowledge (with less filters),
Acceleration of the R&D financing process,
New relationship between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs,
Increase in the complexities of the systems that affect everyday life,
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Difficulty to reach scientific consensus as well as an agreement on goals and priorities among
countries; therefore in many ways, a borderless system, and a challenge to the legal solutions
that can be found within national borders,
Increasing demand for an impossible risk-free environment without much perspective on
background risk, comparisons and feasibility,
A world in which technical literacy and education is becoming increasingly critical but where the
least well -off are likely to be left behind resulting in increasing inequalities and therefore,
increasing instabilities, and
A world where the free-market model is often viewed as the product of the US leadership and is
challenged in more traditional parts of the world such as Europe and Asia, and especially in the
Muslim regions.
The implication of these trends for university education is an increasingly international competitive
and diverse environment. Universities need to adapt and compete without losing their core values.
Unfortunately, the boundaries of schools, departments, and disciplines are increasingly ill-adapted
to the solution of actual problems, and interdisciplinary centers are becoming essential. Yet, at the
same time, students need solid anchoring in specific methods and disciplines. Distance learning
has become a necessity for industries that need to keep abreast of developments but it presentstechnical, cultural and educational challenges. Students may lack the experience of campus life
and the student-teacher interaction, but they will find new opportunities for interactions across
countries and continents, new course dynamics and new learning techniques.
It is in this context that the new department of Management Science and Engineering was created.
It focuses on the management of technology in the information age but also on the development of
mathematical methods that will allow addressing problems concerning both management and
technical aspects of complex engineering systems. One challenge for the department is to
maintain a strong engineering and technological component, and to balance short-term issues and
long-term knowledge. Another one is to create a homogeneous entity out of a group of students
and faculty that covers a wide spectrum of intellectual fields from social sciences to applied
mathematics. It is essential, in particular, to avoid a kind of pecking order among disciplines that
can only bring tensions and prevent the intellectual synergies that such a department can foster.
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A Vision Committee appointed in the Winter of academic year 97-98 by John Hennessy, then
Dean of Engineering, and chaired by William Perry, former US Secretary of Defense, stated that the
mission of this new department:
will be research and education associated with the development of the knowledge,
tools, and methods required to make decisions and shape policies, configure
organizational structures, design engineering systems, and solve operational
problems associated with the information-intensive, technology -based economy.
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2. PROCESS OF DEPARTMENT CREATION
Preparations for a merger
The idea of merging IEEM with EES and OR had been discussed for many years by the Advisorycommittee of the SoE. When a first merger occurred, in 1996, between the departments of EES
and OR, it was decided to leave IEEM out of it, in part because of the cultural gap that seemed to
exist between the organization-behavior group in IEEM and the more mathematically oriented
faculty.
The author of this paper became chair of that IEEM department in the Fall of academic year 97-98.
As early as November 1997, a visiting committee was invited to provide feedback to the department
and advise the faculty on a number of issues including areas needing further development. One of
the recommendations of that committee was to consider a merger with the newly formed EES&OR
department. The objective was to create a critical mass of faculty, generally working on
management questions, systems analysis, and operations research issues in the School of
Engineering, instead of keeping two relatively small separate groups (about 15 faculty members in
IEEM and 20 in EES&OR). Furthermore, there was some feeling, even among some of the
EES&OR faculty, that the presence of an organizational group would be beneficial to the whole.
The chairs of both departments discussed extensively this recommendation with the Dean ofEngineering. As a former Masters student in OR, Ph.D. student in EES, the author, then chair of
IEEM, strongly believed that there was an opportunity for intellectual synergies, but also knew that
blending the cultures and personalities would be a challenge. In the Winter of Academic Year 1997-
1998, Dean Hennessy decided to move ahead with a merger of the departments of IEEM and
EES&OR and appointed a Vision Committee to shape the future of a potential common department.
During the academic year 98-99, and upon the recommendation of this Vision Committee, the Dean
created several committees involving all faculty members from both departments to consider the
problems that the new department would have to face, in order to permit a decision regarding the
feasibility of a merger. These committees included: Finance and Administration, Undergraduate
Programs, Graduate Programs (with two subcommittees: Masters Program and Ph.D. program),
Hiring and Promotion and External Relations. Each committee prepared a report to be used as a
starting point for further developments should the merger occur. The objective of these committees
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was as much to provide an opportunity for the faculty of both departments to get acquainted as it
was to propose problem solutions.
Meanwhile the Vision Committee created a department charter of Articles of Affiliation that stated
first the departments mission described earlier. In addition, the charter included cultural and
behavioral principles as well as operational rules divided among Principles of Value and Behavior,
Procedures of Governance and Finance and Procedures of Teaching and Education. This charter
was to be the basis of a common understanding and was critical to the blending of (at least) two
vastly different cultures. The faculty had the opportunity to comment on this charter and to propose
changes, but the Vision Committee was in charge of the preparation of that document.
By the end of the Winter quarter of 98-99, most of the committees has finished their work and
submitted a report. Nevertheless, there was still reluctance on the part of some faculty members to
go ahead with an outright merger. This reluctance had multiple roots. In EES&OR, the previous
merger had been somehow traumatic, and many felt that they did not want to repeat the
experience. In IEEM, there was a feeling that although small, the department had been financially
successful and intellectually strong in the domains that it had chosen to develop and that the
general harmony of the departments internal relations could be threatened by a merger. The Deantherefore decided that instead of a merger, it would be preferable to create a new department that
the faculty would have the choice to join. He gave each of them the alternative to either move to
another department provided that both sides agreed, or to stay in a remaining department if this was
inevitable. As it turned out, all faculty, in a vote that was taken in the Spring of 98-99, decided to
join the new department with the understanding that it would be based on the Vision Committees
Articles of Affiliation.
One critical issue remained to be resolved: the name of the department. It was decided that the
vision committee would handle the process of choosing a name. To that effect a series of faculty
meetings were organized during the Summer of 99. A very large list was first created, then
narrowed down to a few choices. The objective was to avoid the simple juxtapose the initials of the
heritage departments. Something like IEEM&EES&OR seemed out of the question [although the
students, never short of black humor and imagination, had come up with a number of options that, if
printable, would not have necessarily conveyed a sense of respectability]. The faculty finally
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decided to consider for ratification, a name that had the advantage to describe accurately what they
do, to be widely recognized, and to be broad enough to represent the kind of big tent that was
needed at that stage. The name Management Science and Engineering was ratified by a 93%
approval vote.
The transition quarter
At the beginning of academic year 99-2000, the new Dean of Engineering, Jim Plummer asked the
chair of IEEM to become chair of the departments of IEEM and EES&OR separately in order to
prepare for the creation of the new department on January 1, 2000. The first problem that the chair
had to face regarded the departments name. It had the disadvantage to include the word
management which the Graduate School of Business considered part of its mission, and also to
have the same initials as the department of Material Science and Engineering. Both problems were
resolved quite amicably. The first one was addressed by convincing the GSB that management
was simply what the department did, and that confusion between the two Schools would be
carefully avoided (the same potential problem exists, of course, with the word technology). The
second problem was resolved by careful separation of acronyms (MS&E for Management vs . MSE
for Materials) and by addressing practical routing problems (mail, telephone, web site etc.).
During that quarter, the chair appointed four critical committees: admissions, undergraduate
programs, graduate programs, and space and also formed a transition committee to provide advice
on a number of issues. Faculty meetings were held every other week, more frequently if needed.
The chair was assisted by a deputy chair, Peter Glynn, formerly from OR, who took care of daily
issues in EES&OR, while Jim Jucker, in an informal role, took care of routine problems in IEEM. At
the end of the quarter, it became clear that the role of the areas was to be critical and that they
had to be well defined according to the faculty wishes. In December 19999, a short faculty retreat
was organized to decide what these areas would be, and the faculty settled on the eight areas
described above. Each faculty member was given the opportunity of choosing up to two primary
and two secondary affiliations, which had the advantage to avoid the construction of solid walls
between the different groups and promoted the sort of communications that seemed necessary.
Only the future will tell how this organization will work.
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The creation of the new department and the first two quarters
The new department of Management Science and Engineering was born on January 1, 2000. The
first task was to organize the departments administration and to divide clearly the responsibilities of
the different staff members. Fortunately, in anticipation of this new department, a number of staff
positions had been left open and no one lost his or her job.
The second task was to reassure the students whose status seemed unclear in departments that
were about to disappear. It was decided that they would have the choice of either joining the new
programs or staying in the programs in which they were admitted, and therefore, to continue to offer,
as long as necessary, a large number of program options. During the Winter of 99-00, graduate
admissions had to be made for the following year. The two heritage departments (IEEM and
EES&OR) had very different customs regarding the treatment of Ph.D. students. IEEM admitted a
small number of Ph.D. students (about 12 per year) with the understanding that they would be
allocated office space and adequate computers and that they would be funded for fours years
through a combination or Teaching Assistantships, Research Assistantships, and Fellowships. In
EES&OR, the tradition was to admit a much larger number of students (up to 50 in the first year of
the merged department) with no guarantee of funding or other resources. For the MS&E
department, it was decided that it would be desirable to admit a small number of candidates to thePh.D. program and to offer them funding and office space. The Admission committee thus
proceeded to admit, from a single pool of applicants, the number of students who could be provided
with adequate resources (about 30 of them). At the same time, given the uncertainties regarding
the number of UG who will choose to join the MS&E department, the number of Masters students
admitted for academic year 00-01 was slightly reduced (to about 150) from the combined numbers
admitted in both departments in the past.
During the same time period, the undergraduate (UG) program was defined. While the IEEM
department had an ABET-accredited Bachelor of Science program, EES&OR did not. The decision
was made to keep the accredited option while creating others that are described further in this
paper. The UG program was voted by the whole department faculty, then approved by the Stanford
Committee on UG studies and by the Stanford Senate in June 2000.
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The Graduate studies committee had to design both the Master of Science (M.S.) degree and the
Ph.D. degree. The decision was finally made to give wide latitude to the different areas to organize
their Ph.D. programs, while giving the M.S. degree a wider base in the department. Both degrees
are described further in Section 3. One faculty retreat was dedicated to the discussion and approval
of the graduate programs. They were then approved by the Stanford Committee on Graduate
Studies and by the Stanford Senate in June 2000.
The Space Committee decided to poll the faculty through several questionnaires to find out their
preferences. One of the difficulties encountered in the previous merger of EES&OR was that the
faculty remained in its original quarters which did not facilitate the formation of a new intellectual
community. Given this experience, it would thus seem desirable to proceed to a new space
arrangement that would provide some degree of mixing while leaving the possibility to generally put
in the same area people with similar interests. More work will be needed in that area to decide
what will be ultimately the best solution.
But the most important question, in the Spring of 99-00 was perhaps the elaboration of a five-year
strategic plan that would allow immediate replacement of retiring faculty and shape the new
department. The department also needed to provide immediate replacement for two junior facultymembers who were leaving for personal reasons independent of the merger. The question of how to
allocate billets can be one of the most contentious and has the potential to generate serious
conflicts among the different groups. With the advice of the Transition Committee, the chair
separated the exercise into an informational phase and a decision phase, with cross-area
discussions in-between. To that effect, two faculty retreats were organized in the Spring of 99-00.
The first one was purely informational. Its objective was for each area to present what their field
represented in general, what was new and exciting in the domain, and what was already done in the
department in the field. Four groups of faculty members cutting across all areas were formed and
asked to meet separately to identify domains in which new faculty appointments would be
important, and to rank them by order of priority. In a faculty meeting, each group presented the
results of its debates and patterns began to emerge. In a subsequent retreat, ten desirable faculty
positions were defined and discussed. In a series of votes, the faculty then chose the first three
billets for which faculty searches could be organized next year if the Dean of Engineering accepted
the departments strategic plan. The first five-year strategic plan was completed in June 2000.
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Meanwhile, during the Winter and the Spring a faculty search was underway in the domain of supply
chain management. It was successful and a newly appointed junior faculty member plans to join
the department in the Fall of 00-01.
3. THE DEGREE PROGRAMS
In general the degrees of the MS&E department follow a T-model, i.e., a core (or breadth)
requirement and some depth in a chosen field. The breadth of the Bachelor of Science (BS) degree
is fixed to some degree by the requirements of the University and of the SoE. The M.S. degree has
a relatively small and flexible core. The Ph.D. is constructed around a small core (4 courses) and a
focus on an area of the students choice.
The Bachelor of Science degree
The BS in MS&E is a new major that includes first a solid engineering core. It offers the Industrial
Engineering option which is ABET-accredited, a feature that is considered important to the extent
that it has a history at Stanford and elsewhere, and that accreditation is highly valued by a number
of students. The BS also comprises five additional options described below.
The official program description of the BS in MS&E is (with some modifications to replace the
Stanford course numbering),
This curriculum provides students training in the fundamentals of engineering
systems analysis to prepare them to plan, design, and implement complex
economic and technological management systems. Graduates will be prepared for
work in a variety of career paths, including facilities and process management,
management consulting, investment banking, or graduate study in industrial
engineering, operations research, economics, public policy, medicine, law, or
business."
The program builds on the foundational courses for engineering including calculus, science, and
engineering fundamentals, with courses in probability, statistics, finance, mathematical modeling,
computer science, organization theory, and either information science or a senior group project. To
develop depth in a particular area, students choose a concentration in industrial
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engineering/operations management, operations research, technology and policy, financial and
decision engineering, or technology and organizations.
Although the department offers a major in Industrial Engineering accredited by the Accreditation
Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), students are also free to choose majors with
different concentrations or science courses. The more flexible science choices make it easier for
premedical students or those seeking to focus on bioengineering. At the same time, the additional
concentrations provide a variety of alternatives to the accredited concentration on manufacturing and
production.
The program builds on a strong engineering foundation. The required mathematics courses include
calculus of single and multiple variables, linear algebra, probability, statistics, and stochastic
models. At least fourteen units of science are required. For the ABET-certified degree these must
be physics and chemistry.
The program includes five Engineering Fundamental courses, technically rigorous introductory
courses in various engineering disciplines. An introduction to finance and decision analysis, two
required computer science courses, and some background and laboratory experience in electricalengineering. Although students can choose any two other engineering fundamentals, it is strongly
recommended that they take a course that presents the basic science and engineering principles of
biotechnology.
The Technology in Society requirement is satisfied by a subset of the courses approved by the
School of Engineering, particularly those that emphasize social responsibility. Some of these
courses are also included in some of the concentrations, but in those cases the same course can
only count toward one requirement.
The Writing in the Major requirement can be met by four restricted electives in the program. It is
up to the students to ensure that their programs include at least one of them, either in their
concentrations or their Technology in Society courses.
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The department core comprises courses in deterministic optimization, computer science,
organization theory, finance, and either a senior project or a new course being developed in
information science. Through the core, mathematics, Engineering Fundamental, and Technology in
Society courses, all students in the program will be exposed to the breadth of faculty interests, and
in a good position to choose a concentration during the junior year.
In addition to the general Engineering requirements, the program offers the possibility for the
students to choose one out of five concentrations. Quoting the official program description:
The five concentrations are designed to allow a student to explore one area of the
department in greater depth. Some of the courses require some prerequisites
(Introduction to Economics or Psychology) not included in the degree program, but
those courses could be used to satisfy the General Education Requirements.
The Operations Management concentration focuses on the design and analysis of manufacturing,
production and service systems. If all of the ABET requirements are met, then a student with this
concentration who takes the project course can receive a degree in Industrial Engineering from the
Management Science and Engineering Department. These requirements include a particular set of
science courses and minimum totals for units of Engineering Science and Engineering Designamong the courses in the degree program.
The Operations Research concentration provides a more mathematical program, based on
algorithms, theory, and applications in economics and operations.
The Technology and Policy concentration is designed for students seeking a broad technological
background coupled with policy analysis. It features courses in microeconomics, public policy,
ethics or the law, and applications in national security and commercial technology policy.
The Financial and Decision Engineering concentration focuses on the design and analysis of
financial and strategic plans. It features accounting, decision analysis, investment science,
stochastic models, microeconomics, and either risk analysis or macroeconomics.
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The Technology and Organizations concentration is designed for students seeking a broad
technological background coupled with an understanding of the behavior of individuals and groups.
It features courses exploring different aspects of technology-based organizations.
The intention of the faculty is to ensure that this program leads to a strong engineering degree that
can serve as a basis for further studies, in engineering or in other fields such as medicine, law or
business.
The Master of Science degree
The intention of the faculty, when designing the M.S. degree, was to make it a true professional
degree in Engineering (as opposed, for example, to an MBA). As stated in the official description of
the program:
The M.S. degree in MS&E is a professional degree that requires that the students
who may come from other background acquire a sufficient knowledge of
engineering to qualify for a degree in the SoE. The program of Master of Science in
Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) prepares individuals for a life-long
career addressing critical technical and managerial needs in private and public
decision making. Department requirements for the M.S. degree provide breadthacross some of the areas of the department, and flexibility for meeting individual
objectives of depth in a particular area of concentration. The Masters degree may
be a terminal degree program with a professional focus, or a preparation for a more
advanced graduate program. The M.S. degree can normally be earned in one
academic year (three academic quarters) of full-time work, although students may
choose to continue their education by taking additional MS&E courses beyond that
year. Background requirements, taken in addition to degree requirements, must be
met by students who have had insufficient course work in mathematical sciences,
computer science, engineering and/or natural sciences.
The M.S. program is a professional engineering degree. Therefore, it requires that the students who
obtain it have a sufficient background in engineering to qualify for such a degree. The M.S.
comprises essentially three parts: core courses, an area of concentration and electives, with
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additional specifications as described in the Stanford degree bulletin (again with modifications to
clarify the Stanford system):
"Students in the Master of Science program in MS&E must take a minimum of 45
course units as follows:
at least five core courses
at least three other courses in an area of concentration of their choice
a course in probability unless a college-level course in probability has
already been passed
a project course requirement, and
the remaining units in elective courses."
Background requirements: Students must have had or must take the following (or
equivalent) courses before the M.S. degree is conferred: 15 units of Calculus, 5
units of computer programming, and an additional 15 units of engineering,
mathematical sciences, or natural sciences. These courses do not count toward
the 45 units of the M.S. degree. These additional background requirements would
typically be met by students who have a Bachelors degree in engineering,
mathematical sciences or natural sciences. Students will be notified at the time ofadmission of any remaining need to meet background requirements.
Core courses: M.S. students must take at least 5 courses out of the following 10
Dynamic systems or Stochastic decision models
Linear and non linear optimization
Introduction to stochastic modeling or Simulation
Economic analysis
Decision analysis or Risk analysis
Industrial accounting or Investment science or Financial decisions or
Introduction to finance
Production systems
Organizational behavior and management
Marketing for technology-based companies or Global entrepreneurial
marketing
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Strategy in technology-based companies
Courses in an area of concentration: Students must complete a departmentally
approved set of three or more courses of three units or more in an area of
concentration of one of the following:
An area of concentration in the MS&E department
An area of concentration in one of the seven other departments of the
School of Engineering
In exceptional cases, a coherent area of concentration designed by the
student.
Project course requirement: Students must take either a designated project course
or two designated integrated project courses (i.e., courses that include a project in
addition to regular course material).
Additional requirements include specification of the level of the courses counting for the M.S.
degree, of a minimum grade point average, and of the possibilities of course transfer from other
institutions.The Doctorate
The objective of the Ph.D. program is to train scholars in one of the areas of the department.
Therefore, the breadth requirements are limited, the emphasis is on the depth in the chosen area.
The qualification procedure and the requirements in each area are left to the judgment of the faculty
in that area.
As stated in the Stanford bulletin:
The Ph.D. degree in MS&E is intended for students primarily interested in a career
of research and teaching, or high-level technical work in universities, industry or
government. The program requires three years of full-time graduate study, at least
two years of which must be at Stanford University. Typically, however, students
take about four to five years after entering the program to complete all Ph.D.
requirements. The Ph.D. is generally organized around the requirement that the
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students acquire a certain breadth across some of the eight areas of the
department, and depth in one of them.
Doctoral students are required to take a number of courses, both to pass a qualifying exam in one
of these areas and to complete a dissertation based on research which must make an original
contribution to knowledge.
The PhD program: Each student admitted to the Ph.D. program must satisfy a breadth requirement
and pass a qualification procedure. The purpose of the qualification procedure is to assess the
students command of the field and to evaluate his or her potential to complete a high-quality
dissertation in a timely manner. The student must complete specified course work in one of the
eight areas of the department. The qualification decision is based on the students grade point
average, on the one or two preliminary papers prepared by the student, and on the students
performance in an area examination. Considering this evidence, the department faculty will vote on
advancing the student to candidacy in the department at large. The Ph.D. requires a minimum of 72
units, at least 54 of which must be in courses of 3 units or more. At least 48 course units in
courses of 3 units or more must be taken for a letter grade. Finally, the student must pass a
university oral examination and complete a Ph.D. dissertation. During the course of the Ph.D.
program, students who do not have a Masters degree are strongly encouraged to complete one,either in MS&E or in another Stanford department.
Breadth Requirement: The breadth requirement is to be satisfied by a choice of 4 courses spanning
4 out of the above mentioned 8 areas of the department.
The Ph.D. candidacy form must contain 4 courses that satisfy the breadth requirement.
Courses chosen to satisfy the breadt h requirement must be taken for letter grades.
At least one of the four courses chosen to satisfy the breadth requirement must be at the
doctoral level.
Qualification procedure requirements: The qualification procedure is based both on breadth across
the departments disciplines and depth in an area of the students choice. Its requirements
comprise three elements:
Grade Point Average (GPA) A student must maintain a GPA of at least 3.4 in the four courses
chosen to satisfy the breadth requirements, and a GPA of at least 3.4 in the set of all courses
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taken by the student within the department. In both cases, the GPA will be computed on the
basis of the nominal number of units for which each course is offered.
Paper(s) A student may choose between two options, either to be completed before the Spring
quarter of the students second year. The first option involves one paper supervised by a
primary faculty advisor in one area and a faculty consultant in another area. The objective is to
permit a student who has decided on a principal thesis focus to concentrate early in that area
while benefiting from the input (and broadening) afforded by the participation of a faculty member
outside the primary area of research. This paper should be written in two quarters. A second
option involves two shorter sequential tutorials in two different areas, with two different faculty
advisors. Each tutorial should be completed in one quarter. In both options, the student
chooses the faculty advisor(s)/consultant with the faculty members consent. A student may
register for up to three units per tutorial and up to six units for a paper. These paper or tutorial
units do not count towards the 54 course units required for the Ph.D., and letter grades are not
given.
Area qualification In addition, during the second year, a student must pass an examination in
an area of his or her choice, either in one of the eight department areas already defined by the
faculty, or in a ninth area representing a mix of area specialties to be defined by a cognizant
faculty group (including at least three faculty members) appointed by the department chair.This area examination will be written, oral or both at the discretion of the area faculty
administering the exam.
Area course requirement Students must complete the depth requirements of one of the 8 areas
of the MS&E department [Ph.D. requirements for the 8 areas of the MS&E department are
specified in a separate document].
3. EPILOGUE
The first graduation ceremonies of the MS&E department took place in June 2000 and although the
degrees delivered were those of the heritage departments, there was definitely a sense of
community. In the author opinion, it is fair to say that the faculty generally feels that a great deal
had been accomplished in academic year 1999-2000. The department is off to a good start and an
atmosphere of civility has generally prevailed, even in heated debates, throughout this first year.
Large uncertainties remain, especially in the short term. For example, what number of students will
choose to join the department and what will be the most popular options? What resources will be
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needed to accommodate the student demand and how successful will the department and the
faculty be in generating these resources? There is no reason to believe that these problems cannot
be effectively resolved with the support of the institution.
4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author thanks the faculty, staff and students of the MS&E department for their support, and for
the time and effort that they committed to the departments creation. As a caveat to the reader, it
should be noted that the requirements of the different degrees may change. Therefore, potential
applicants should check the Stanford bulletin and the departments web site for the most recent
program descriptions.
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5. REFERENCES
Pat-Cornell, M.E.(1999) Global Trends in the Management of Post-industrial Systems: Academic
Challenges and the Stanford Experience, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on
Technology Policy and Innovation, LBJ School of PublicAffairs, The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, TX, Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 1999.
Stanford University (2000) Course Bulletin, Academic Year 2000-2001, Stanford, CA.