Managing Technology in the Information Age

7/30/2019 Managing Technology in the Information Age

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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.)[email protected]

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.

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