Program Overview & Degrees

Sociotechnical Systems are complex large-scale technology-intensive systems with a large number of stakeholders, where technological complexity and social complexity need to be tackled in an integrated fashion. Examples include the internet (and its problems of security, privacy, and design), urban, regional and global transportation systems, regional and national power grids, telecommunication networks, the global financial system, environmental systems, national healthcare systems, cities and other large-scale projects with significant societal impact. The graduate programs in Sociotechnical Systems provide students with the ability to address grand challenges facing such systems using insights from various fields of engineering and social sciences.

Master’s in Sociotechnical Systems

The Master’s in Sociotechnical Systems Program provides students with the ability to analyze and model such systems, design policies and strategies for their sustainable management and propose ways for their continuous improvement. This highly interdisciplinary program is primarily a research degree preparing students for Ph.D. programs in Sociotechnical Systems, Public Policy, Strategic Management, Engineering Management, Financial Engineering, and other related disciplines. The program is also suitable for decision-makers, managers and planners of complex large-scale systems such as infrastructure systems (transportation, energy, water, telecommunications, emergency services etc.), the global financial system, national healthcare systems, emerging cities and other large-scale projects with significant societal impact.  Leveraging insights from systems thinking, complexity science, management, public policy, economics and modeling and simulation, the program allows students to acquire the knowledge, skills and tools necessary to engage some of the most complex issues facing humanity today.

Master’s Program in Infrastructure Systems

The Master’s Program in Infrastructure Systems is a professional program intended for those students with the desire to pursue careers in management, planning and decision-making for transportation, energy, telecommunications infrastructure at the urban, regional, national and global scale.

Ph.D. Program in Sociotechnical Systems

The Ph.D. program in Sociotechnical Systems is designed as an in-depth research degree that trains scholars and visionaries seeking to explore new systems-centric paradigms for the 21^st century. Its goal is create a cadre of highly capable and entrepreneurial scholars whose research interests and contributions are tightly coupled with real-world needs and practices. The Sociotechnical Systems Ph.D is the first and currently only such degree in the United States. Similar programs include the Engineering Systems Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Engineering and Public Policy program at Carnegie Melon University.