Duke Master of Engineering Management Programme
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Technical Electives

Technical electives enable students to customize coursework to satisfy their individual prefernces. Elective offerings are designed to provide variety, flexibility, and top-of-class quality as students enhance their depth and/or breadth. Students may

  • take courses at the highly-ranked departments within the Pratt School of Engineering, including our top-ranked Biomedical Engineering Department or

The possibilities are endless in customizing a set of courses to meet your needs. Download our most popular electives here.

* Fuqua courses are offered on a space available basis with instructor consent. MEM students are limited to two Fuqua courses per semester. Fuqua courses require a separate registration process than that of engineering courses.

Concentrations within the MEM Program

Though not required by the MEM Program, concentrations are often chosen by students who would like to focus on a technical field or industry segment. Students choose from a varied selection of courses, enabling both those with strong technical interest and those with an interest in integrating business and technology to expand their knowledge in a particular area. Concentration areas include the Science and Technology Concentrations and the Management of Technology Concentrations.

Science and Technology Concentrations

Focused on students seeking graduate level science and engineering knowledge.

Biomaterials

Link to additional related courses from Duke's Center for Biologically Inspired Materials & Material Systems.

Biomedical Engineering

Link to additional related courses from Duke's Biomedical Engineering Department.

Civil Engineering

Link to additional related courses from Duke's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and North Carolina State's Civil Engineering Department.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Link to additional related courses from Duke's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

Energy and the Environment

Link to additional related courses from Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment's Energy and Environment Program.

Environmental Engineering - Suggested Classes

Link to additional related courses from Duke's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment, and North Carolina State's Civil Engineering Department.

Materials Science

Link to additional related courses within Materials Science.

Mechanical Engineering

Link to additional related courses within Mechanical Engineering.

Photonics

Link to additional related courses from Duke's Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics.

Management of Technology Concentrations

Focused on student with an interest in applied classes that integrate business and technology

Commercialization of Technology

Link to additional related courses from The Fuqua School of Business's Marketing Concentration, The Fuqua School of Business's Entrepreneurship and Innovation Concentration, or also consider science and technology classes in area of interest.

Construction Management and Property Development

Link to additional related courses from North Carolina State's Civil Engineering Department.

Decision and Risk Analysis

Link to additional related courses from The Fuqua School of Business's Decision Sciences Concentration, Duke's Department of Statistical Science, and The Fuqua School of Business's Decision Sciences Doctorate Courses.

Entrepreneurship (Please note that this concentration focuses more on building the business than the technology.)

Link to additional related courses from The Fuqua School of Business's Entrepreneurship and Innovation Concentration.

Financial Engineering

Link to additional related courses at The Fuqua School of Business's Finance Concentration and Duke's Masters in Economics Program.

Global Health: Product and Service Management

Link to additional related courses at the Fuqua School of Business (In the drop-down menu marked "Please select an area", choose Health Sector Management.)

Information Technology Management

Link to additional related courses from Duke's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and Duke's Computer Science Department,

Intellectual Asset Management

Link to additional related courses in Intellectual Property at Duke Law School.

Operations and Supply Chain Management

Link to additional related courses from The Fuqua School of Business's Operations Management Concentration.

Pharmaceutical Technology Management

Link to additional related courses from Duke's Center for Biomolecular and Tissue Engineering, the Fuqua School of Business (In the drop-down menu marked "Please select an area", choose Health Sector Management.), and Duke's Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology.

Please note that there are many additional courses offered in addition to those on these lists. Additionally, there are career interests that are not represented, such as consulting. Students with an interest in consulting might choose to specialize in many different topic areas like IT, finance, product development, etc. If you are interested in consulting, you should look for the area that most resembles your area of interest and consider classes from that concentration. You should also consider classes like EGRMGMT 260 Engineering Project Management or practicum classes like EGRMGMT 296 Industrial Practicum or MANAGEMT 490 - Strategic Planning Practicum.

Engineering Management Electives

EGRMGMT 232: Advanced Finance for Technology-Based Companies
The focus of this course will be on major financial decisions of established technology corporations as well as entrepreneurial ventures. Analytical models and theories will be covered via problems and cases. Specific areas will include asset management, short-term and long-term borrowing, advanced capital budgeting strategies, determination of capital structure, dividend policy, international issues, and mergers and other forms of restructuring. Prerequisite: enrollment in the Master of Engineering Management Program. 3 units. Skender.

EGRMGMT 260: Engineering Project Management
Projects are one of the key mechanisms for achieving organizational goals and implementing change, whether it is the design and launch of a new product, the construction of a new building, or the development of a new information system. This course will focus on defining project scope, developing project plans, managing project execution, validating project performance and ensuring project control. Additional topics covered include decision making, project finance, project portfolio selection and risk management. 3 units. Fox, Murray.

EGRMGMT 262: Operations Management
Operations management involves planning and controlling the processes used to produce the goods and services provided by an organization. In essence, it is the management of all activities related to doing the actual work of the organization. Managing these processes can be quite challenging -- they are often very complex, and can involve large numbers of people and facilities, huge volumes of materials and great distances. Objectives of the course are to: 1) introduce students to the functional area of operations and to increase their awareness of how a firm's operations interface with the other functional areas of the organization, 2) familiarize students with the various issues and problems that traditionally arise in the management of operations within both manufacturing and service organizations, 3) acquaint students with some of the terminology, modeling, and methodologies that often arise in the handling and resolution of operations issues and problems. 3 units. Jennings.

EGRMGMT 263: Supply Chain Management
A firm's supply chain encompasses all of those processes involving the design, manufacturing, and delivery of a product to the end-customers. In the last 20 years, a combination of industry innovation, new technologies, and academic research has led to substantial growth in our knowledge and in our ability to manage supply chains. Companies in many sectors have realized both the synergies and the efficiencies that can be gained from solving supply chain problems, and have realized the competitive edge that effective supply chain management provides.
The objectives of this course are two-fold: (1) To develop conceptual and modeling skills, and to provide practical problem-solving tools, applicable to the design and analysis of supply chains, and (2) Identify how the existence of multiple (distinct) decision makers in the supply chain can create misaligned incentives that harm supply chain performance, and then to understand alternative contract structures and other responses that can help mitigate this effect. 3 units. Li.

EGRMGMT 264: Advanced Engineering Systems Optimization and Simulation
Introduction and advanced discussions of mathematical optimization and simulation to design and evaluate engineering systems. Application of linear and nonlinear programming, dynamic programming, expert systems, simulation and heuristic approaches to a range of engineering systems problems. Examples addressed to be suggested and developed by the students including but not limited to: production plant scheduling, water resources planning, vehicle routing, resource allocation, repair and rehabilitation scheduling, and comparison of engineering design alternatives. Corequisite: Differential Equations or Permission of Instructor. 3 units. Peirce.

EGRMGMT 274: Commercializing Technology Innovations: Turning Visions into Value
This course is designed to demystify and unify the journey from idea creation to value extraction through the use of concrete tools and real-world exercises. Innovations have many sources (e.g., individuals, companies, universities, governments) and many vehicles for commercialization (e.g., licensing, new products, enhanced products, and new ventures). Through this course, students will learn to think more broadly about innovation and commercialization options and strategies. 3 units. Holmes.

EGRMGMT 280: Decision Models
Successful management requires the ability to recognize a decision situation, understand its essential features, and make a choice. However, many of these situations - particularly those involving uncertainty and/or complex interactions - may be too difficult to grasp intuitively, and the stakes may be too high to learn by experience. This course introduces spreadsheet modeling, simulation, decision analysis and optimization to represent and analyze such complex problems. The skills learned in this course are applicable in almost all aspects of business and should be helpful in future courses. 3 units. Staff.

EGRMGMT 296.XX: Industrial Practicum
The Engineering Management Practicum is provides a "real life" view of various challenges faced by organizations. Projects at the intersection of engineering and business will be chosen for this practicum. Students will work in teams and will conduct a mentored, semester-long project for an organization. The learning objectives of this course include: (i) learn how engineering and technology impact organizations and how they are integrated into an organization to achieve desired results; (ii) understand, through an experiential environment, how organizations function and the difference between theory and implementation in an organizational setting; and (iii) develop team based skills in an applied environment and learn how to communicate technical issues to a variety of personnel in an organization. 3 units. Fox, Holmes.

EGRMGMT 298.XX: Independent Study
Students may set up an independent study for a topic of their choosing. It is the responsibility of the student to find a professor that is willing to lead the independent study. Some popular independent studies in the past have included Global Engineering Education, the Duke Smart Home, the Duke Virtual Reality Cave, and Technology Assessment with the Research Triangle Institute. 3 units. Staff.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Computational Finance
A beginner's introduction to the most important concepts used in quantitative finance. Students will learn to build practical financial models using MS Excel spreadsheets, and no prior knowledge of finance or of MS Excel is assumed. Investment banks, hedge funds, and money managers make buy and sell decisions based on computational models. Computers can and do execute buy and sell orders in a completely automated fashion based on pre-programmed parameters. This course starts with the most basic, and most important, portfolio and investment models used to evaluate risk and identify profit opportunities. Using Excel, students will learn how to build these models themselves, and to understand the decision-making inputs used by professional investors. The course has a practical focus - how to analyze prices of stocks, bonds, options and other financial instruments using the types of computationally sophisticated tools in wide use today. 3 units. Egger.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Data Mining, Optimization & Data-Visualization 
Students practice a critical business skill: analyzing real-world data and communicating actionable findings in compelling form. This is a small group, project-based class. Students can design their own project (with approval of the instructor) or join one of a number of exciting projects already underway.
Available project areas include:
-financial fraud detection
-earthquake risk modeling
-analysis of eye-tracking data for medical diagnosis
-the latest methods for machine translation and speech recognition. 3 units. Egger.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Designing Customer Experiences
In a competitive global market, businesses must address complex cross-discipline questions such as "how do I successfully distinguish my business from competitors?" to remain relevant and competitive. Increasingly, the quality of a businesses' "user experience" provides the key to building loyal customer relationships and sustainable market differentiation. Companies such as Apple Computer and Starbucks understand that their compelling customer experience are formed not only in the products they deliver but also in a system of complementary interactions and services. Effective customer experiences are not created by chance; they require systematic planning, design, iteration, and evaluation to be successful. In this course, students use case study discussions, readings, and hands-on projects to form a framework for designing compelling customer experiences. In addition, students flesh out this framework through project-based assignments and presentations applying the principles of human factors, design for usability, and interaction design to analyze, create and present customer experience solutions. 3 units. Staff.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Emerging Trends in Services Management, Engineering and Design
This class will discuss Service Science Engineering Management (SSME, www.ibm.com/university/ssme)  SSME is a term used to describe Services Sciences, an interdisciplinary approach to the study, design, and implementation of services systems - complex systems in which specific arrangements of people and technologies take actions that provide value for others. More precisely, SSME has been defined as the application of science, management, and engineering disciplines to tasks that one organization beneficially performs for and with another. Students will be introduced to the fundamental building blocks of services theory and practice. In addition to lectures they will be exposed to real world situations via case studies and discussions led by subject matter experts currently working in various services practices. 3 units. Wright.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Engineering Entrepreneurship
This course will teach students how to analyze a technology for its commercial potential and what makes up a good technology-based business opportunity. Students will typically identify three opportunities and then down-select to a single opportunity for the full semester project. During the down selection process, students will provide constructive feedback to the PI's whose projects were not chosen for the full analysis about why they have not been chosen, thus honing the students communication skills with respect to this process. For the chosen technology, students will identify the stage of the technology they have chosen and put together a plan for moving it to the next stage of commercialization. Focus will be placed on external validation of the technology whenever possible. Success will be defined by getting to the next stage with the technology (e.g., having a good case to obtain investment for the next stage) or by presenting a well thought out and logical case to terminate their project which is a critical aspect of evaluating any technology. 3 units. West.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Intellectual Asset Management
All major corporations, mid-sized firms, and small or start-up ventures involved in any technology field have basic needs that include considering all forms of intangible assets. The field of intellectual property and the associated need to value the intellectual property has evolved to the point that all Merger and Acquisition (M&A), venture capital, and R&D activities should include a thorough understanding and review of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, etc. to strategically determine how to proceed with these activities. A complete review of the US and international patent processes, as well as a full understanding of valuation and valuation techniques to manage the intellectual property (IAM - Intellectual Asset Management) will be the primary focus of this course. 3 units. Staff.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Introduction to Quantitative Finance
This course will cover the central normative concepts of quantitative finance, including the efficient market hypothesis and its variants, portfolio theory, the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), Black-Scholes-Merton theory, and the Black-Scholes option pricing formula. We will critically assess these concepts in light of the challenges to them raised by such leading non-normative scholars of quantitative finance as Benoit Mandelbrot, Robert Shiller, and Nassim Taleb.  The course will begin with an overview of the current global marketplace for financial derivatives, and an introduction to the terminology used to describe the specialized features of derivative instruments based on underlying stocks and bonds, commodities, currency exchange rates, mortgage-backed securities, etc.  Particular attention will be paid to understanding the products - and the regulatory and risk-management environment in which they were traded - that triggered the failure of numerous financial institutions worldwide in the Fall of 2008. 3 units. Egger.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Leading Multi-Functional Teams in Technology-Based Companies
This course is focused on developing skills in leading diverse teams in a technical setting. One portion of the course covers fundamental business concepts needed to write a business plan for a technical product. Students will learn to look at business problems from multiple dimensions, integrating technical issues with marketing, finance, management and intellectual property. Teams consisting of students from the Pratt School of Engineering and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences (Markets and Management Studies program) will work together to develop and present a business plan for a technical product concept. Students will learn the elements of a business plan and how to pitch a technology-based product concept. Topics covered include marketing of technical products, competitive strategy, market research, financial statements and projections, capital budgeting, venture capital, intellectual property, patent searching, regulatory affairs, and reimbursement. These student teams are led by MEMP students. MEMP team leaders are focused on reporting on team progress, delegating tasks, scheduling meetings, monitoring progress, ensuring work is evenly distributed, and helping out where needed and as dictated by their specific skills and the timing of the task. Team leaders are ultimately responsible for the production and quality of work done by the team. Team leaders are the first point of contact for the instructor. In addition to acting as team leaders, MEMP students will report project status and meet weekly with the instructor to discuss their project and also to discuss key texts on leadership and teamwork. 3 units. Boyd.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Managing Product and Service Development
How do companies ensure innovative ideas are transformed into a product or service? Irrespective of their size, location, number of employees, revenue margin, or industry segment, all companies transform their innovative strategies into real world products/services. Some companies have well defined transformation steps that they call product/service development process; others simply just do whatever it takes without organized planning. But in general, they all go through major iterative phases such as: discovery, definition, development, demonstration, qualification, deployment, and life cycle management. Furthermore, there are factors that impact all these phases such as: source of funding, people relations, supply chain, design/development tools, time constraints, internal/external regulations, etc. Adequate management of these factors enables the development process to be executed on time and on budget in order to meet customer needs and stakeholders' expectations. This course intends to provide an understanding of the product/ service/development process elements and the factors influencing the execution of the process. 3 units. Requena.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Managing the Design Process and Controlling Risk with Innovative Technologies: Case Studies and Strategies for Engineers and Managers
This interdisciplinary course introduces students to engineering and management principles involved in the design process as it occurs in the development and commercialization of innovative technology, with a special emphasis on healthcare applications and their legal and regulatory framework.  Tools and techniques for managing the design process will be presented and a framework for the management of risk and crisis will be developed.  Principles of risk and crisis management will be presented, including the identification, analysis, prioritization, resolution and monitoring of risk.  Risk management techniques such as failure modes effects analysis and fault tree analysis will be applied to designs of varying complexity.  Crisis management concepts to be presented include contingency planning, crisis recognition and containment.  3 units. Boyd.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Marketing Essentials for Early Stage Technologies and Products
Most early stage technologies are marketed ineffectively or not at all.  Yet, market and customer feedback is essential for effective product development.  Marketing communications creates the vital link between technology development and the market, ensuring that product development teams are closely connected to potential customers and end users.  This course teaches the basics of marketing communications for early stage technologies, teaching the essential aspects of audience targeting, message creation, brand creation, communications strategies and channels, internet (and viral) marketing.  All of this, of course, on a low, low budget!  Teams will be formed to develop a detailed marketing communications plan for an emerging technology. 3 units. von Windheim, von Gunten.

EGRMGMT 299.XX: Uncertainty, Design, and Optimization
Principles of design as a creative and iterative process involving problem statements, incomplete information, conservative assumptions, constraining regulations, and uncertain operating environments. Parameterization of costs and constraints and formulation of constrained optimization problems. Analytical and numerical solutions to constrained optimization problems.  Evaluation of design solutions via sensitivity and risk analysis. Application to design problems in civil and environmental engineering.  3 units.  Scruggs.