Get quick answers about Systems Engineering at the Schaefer School at Stevens, including what the field covers and key curriculum areas. For more details, visit our undergraduate or graduate program pages.
FAQ
What is Systems Engineering?
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field focused on designing, developing and managing complex systems that integrate people, processes, data and technology. It emphasizes a “big picture” perspective, helping engineers understand how individual components interact within larger systems and how to improve overall performance, affordability, efficiency, safety and reliability.
At Stevens, systems engineering is taught as a cross-disciplinary approach that combines engineering fundamentals with systems thinking, data-driven analysis and real-world application. Students learn to address complex challenges across industries such as aerospace and defense, healthcare, software, finance, logistics and urban systems. The department emphasizes hands-on learning, research engagement and industry collaboration to prepare students to work on and lead complex, interconnected systems throughout their lifecycle.
Visit the Systems Engineering Department home page to explore faculty, facilities and academic offerings. Learn more about degree options through the Undergraduate Programs and discover ongoing innovation in the department’s Research Areas.
How do I become a systems engineer?
A typical path to becoming a systems engineer starts with earning a bachelor’s degree in a relevant engineering discipline such as the Industrial & Systems Engineering that builds strong foundations in math, science and engineering design. At Stevens, the Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial and Systems Engineering provides a direct pathway, combining engineering fundamentals with systems thinking, data analysis and design skills to prepare students for complex, real-world problem solving. Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) graduates enjoy strong employment prospects, with U.S. employment for industrial engineers projected to grow 11% from 2024 to 2034, compared with 3% growth for all occupations, and approximately 25,200 job openings annually over the decade.
Students strengthen their preparation through experiential learning opportunities such as senior design projects, internships, cooperative education experiences, undergraduate research and industry-sponsored projects, which connect classroom learning with real engineering practice.
After completing undergraduate study, students can deepen their expertise or specialize through graduate study in systems engineering or related fields. Stevens offers multiple graduate pathways, including:
These programs build advanced technical and leadership capabilities for careers in engineering, technology development, systems design and enterprise-level problem solving across industries.
What is an engineering management degree?
The bachelor's degree in Engineering Management merges a traditional engineering background — covering math, science, and core engineering topics — with courses focused on management. These classes often include accounting, cost analysis and managerial economics to build financial and business decision-making abilities. Students also study quality management, project management and production/technology management to learn how to plan and enhance technical projects. The program frequently features courses in systems engineering and engineering design, enabling graduates to effectively integrate people, processes, data and technology within complex engineering organizations.
The Engineering Management master's program (M.Eng./M.S.) blends core courses with electives, enabling students to tailor their degree in fields like project management, quality, production/technology management, and engineering economics/cost analysis. Its goal is to supplement an engineering or technical background with leadership development, operational decision-making and analytical skills necessary for managing teams, projects and complex technical organizations. Typically, students complete structured coursework centered on management and systems, then select electives to enhance their expertise in a chosen area aligned with their career aspirations.
The Engineering Management Ph.D. is a research-intensive doctoral program focused on advancing the field through rigorous scholarship and high-level design across domains such as finance, manufacturing, public policy and services. The curriculum emphasizes systems thinking and integrates management, technology and social-science perspectives to study how technology and business practices interact in complex human/technological systems. Doctoral students complete key milestones such as required coursework, qualifying exams, a dissertation proposal/defense and an original dissertation that contributes new knowledge to engineering management.
What do engineer managers do?
Engineering managers oversee technical teams, ensuring projects are completed on time, within budget and to quality standards. They turn business objectives into technical strategies, establish priorities and roadmaps, assign resources and handle risk management. Additionally, they coordinate across departments such as product, finance, operations, vendors and compliance, and mentor and hire engineers while enhancing processes like metrics, continuous improvement and quality and safety protocols.
Historically, our graduates have gone on to work at employers across a wide range of industries — including finance, engineering services, business consulting, technology, healthcare, aerospace and defense, manufacturing and government. Companies that have hired our graduates in the past include firms such as Amazon, Google, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Lockheed Martin and others of similar scale and scope. For the most current outcomes data, visit our Career Outcomes page.
Do engineering managers need to be technical?
Engineering managers usually need enough technical knowledge to understand their team's work, ask insightful questions and make well-informed tradeoffs, even if they don't handle daily design or coding tasks. A solid grasp of math, science and fundamental engineering principles allows them to estimate effort, assess risks and limitations, and leverage data to balance cost, schedule, quality, safety and performance. This technical literacy also enhances their credibility with engineers and fosters clearer communication between technical teams and business stakeholders. Ultimately, this capability supports better planning, more decisive choices and fewer surprises as projects evolve from concept to completion.
What type of degree is software engineering?
Software Engineering is typically offered as a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree focused on building reliable, maintainable software systems. It combines core computing topics like programming, data structures, algorithms and computer systems with engineering practices such as requirements, design, testing, quality and teamwork. Programs also include math foundations — especially in discrete math and statistics — and electives in areas such as cybersecurity, AI or software architecture. Overall, it prepares students to develop and manage software across its full lifecycle.
Our Software Engineering (B.E.) program is product-focused and applies engineering practices to the full software development life cycle — from requirements and design through implementation, testing, deployment and maintenance. While Computer Science tends to emphasize the underlying principles of computing from a more theoretical and mathematical perspective, Software Engineering's life-cycle focus makes it well-suited for roles centered on building and delivering production software with strong process and quality practices — such as software engineer, full-stack developer, QA/test automation engineer, DevOps/site reliability engineer or technical product and project roles that work closely with delivery teams. Both degrees can lead to many of the same careers, but Software Engineering is typically the stronger fit if you are most interested in designing, shipping and maintaining real-world software products at scale.
What is an Industrial and Systems Engineer?
The Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) program at Stevens integrates engineering, analytics and technology to prepare students to design, optimize and manage complex industrial and service systems. Students develop expertise in operations research, simulation, optimization, supply chain engineering, manufacturing systems and systems engineering, using advanced computational and quantitative methods to improve performance, efficiency and resilience. The curriculum is further strengthened by coursework in data science, analytics, artificial intelligence and engineering management, enabling graduates to apply modern engineering technologies and data-driven decision making to real-world challenges across industry, healthcare, transportation, energy and logistics. Graduates benefit from strong, growing demand in the workforce, as employers increasingly seek engineers who can integrate technology, analytics and systems thinking to improve organizational performance. Industrial engineering and related analytics professions are projected to grow significantly faster than the average for all occupations over the coming decade.
What is health systems management?
Health systems management applies systems thinking and management principles to the organization, delivery and improvement of healthcare services. It focuses on understanding and optimizing how healthcare systems operate, including workflows, decision-making processes, and the integration of people, technology and data to improve outcomes and efficiency.
At Stevens, this area is closely connected to systems engineering and analytics approaches used in healthcare. Students can explore related topics through programs that emphasize data-driven decision-making and systems-level improvement in healthcare environments, including the Healthcare Systems and Data Analytics Graduate Certificate, which combines systems engineering methods with healthcare analytics to address complex challenges in modern health systems.