The Master of Engineering degree consists of a total of nine courses plus a one-week workshop taken just before the Autumn Quarter starts. This introductory workshop is the first of the Innovation Leadership series, followed by one course in each of the following Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters.
The remaining six courses are technical courses aligned with a field of study chosen by the student. Your choice of a track will connect you to an academic advisor with expertise in that particular field. We offer curricula in Bio- and Immunoengineering, Materials for Sustainability and Health, and Computational Modeling of Materials.
Each of the three tracks has a few Track Core courses, which are foundational experiences or prerequisites for electives in the student’s chosen area of interest, and Track Electives, with which a student can explore a particular application (or applications) of the track. Other courses may be substituted by petition, subject to approval by the program. If you are interested in taking a course that is not listed, contact your academic advisor.
Innovation Leadership Workshop
The workshop, typically scheduled during the week before the Autumn Quarter orientation, focuses on communication and negotiation with individuals, teams, and organizations. Students will learn how to communicate effectively in professional contexts, both formally and informally. Narratives with which communicators can persuade and inspire will be considered, with an emphasis on finding approaches that work for each student. The cohort will learn how to build and maintain high-performance teams to overcome (and benefit from) differences in motivations and attitudes within them, and to leverage the experiences and perspectives of diverse and global teams. The effective navigation of organizations, and opportunities for leadership within them, will also be explored.
Schedule
The University of Chicago academic year is based on the quarter system. Quarters are shorter academic units than semesters and allow a school to offer four different sessions of classes per year. Each quarter is nine weeks long plus finals week. Please visit the University’s Academic Calendar for additional information.
Applied Curriculum & Coursework-focused Approach
The overall objective of the program is to prepare students for leadership roles in a technological society. The goal for most of the students is to follow traditional engineering paths in manufacturing, technology development, and research, but many will also follow paths that branch out into diverse fields such as law, medicine, business administration, consulting, entrepreneurship, or policy. For this reason, the Master of Engineering degree adopts a holistic coursework-focused approach covering fundamental and applied science and engineering, and also humanities, entrepreneurship, and business.
Graduate with an MEng degree
Students will typically complete the program in one year (three quarters), though there is a four-quarter option for students pursuing summer internships. Part-time students coming from the workforce or with other constraints on their time can be given a second year to complete all requirements. If you have questions about this option, please discuss with the program director or your academic advisor.
Credits
Students must complete nine classes (900 units) and the workshop.