A new master’s degree program at UT Dallas will prepare graduates to take leading roles in managing high-tech engineering projects.
The Systems Engineering and Management Program, jointly run by the University’s Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and the School of Management, will teach students to apply scientific and management principles to the design, development and operation of complex projects that often involve large interdisciplinary teams working on tight deadlines toward ambitious goals.
“I’ve found that high-tech companies particularly value employees who know how to work collaboratively with people from other disciplines,” said Dr. Stephen Yurkovich, the engineering school’s co-head of the new program, “so I’m confident our graduates will be in high demand.”
Added Dr. Rajiv Shah, the School of Management’s co-head of SEM: “I am confident Dr. Yurkovich will be a great new addition to the program and will work with us in turning out graduates with great credentials in both engineering and management.”
The School of Management’s Executive Education version of the SEM degree program, designed for students with work experience and offered only on weekends, was launched last fall. Those students have the option to earn two SEM-related certificates that they can apply toward the master’s degree.
The regular master’s program, designed for students with little or no experience and offered on weekdays, begins this fall.
Typical students in both programs will already have earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, math, physics, chemistry, economics or finance.
Classes will include instruction not only in high-tech areas such as systems integration and networks but also in many aspects of business and operations management.
In addition to offering degrees, the Systems Engineering and Management Program will act as a hub for fostering collaborative research among the other disciplines in the University’s engineering, computer science and management schools, said Yurkovich, who also holds the Louis Beecherl Jr. Distinguished Chair in Engineering at UT Dallas.
Yurkovich was previously a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Ohio State University, where he was also director of the Honda-OSU Partnership Program and a member of the Center for Automotive Research, or CAR.
“CAR is probably the leading center in the country for automotive research, and I worked there with not only other electrical engineers but also mechanical engineers and computer scientists and many others,” he said. “It’s a place with a true interdisciplinary culture, which is fairly rare, and that’s the kind of culture I want to promote more of.”
Yurkovich received his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. His research has focused on the theory and application of control systems in automotive technology and other areas, and he was named an IEEE fellow in 2001 “for contributions in the application of control systems technology and for leadership in engineering education.” He has authored or co-authored four books and about 250 technical papers.