MIT System Design and Management (SDM) is a program dedicated to cultivating technically grounded leaders, jointly offered by MIT’s School of Engineering and Sloan School of Management. Our program was designed in conjunction with industry to equip graduates with the tools they need to guide organizations through the design, integration, and management of complex systems. Now we’re offering custom professional education for corporate teams, built with the same rigorous academic content as our curriculum and tailored to your organization’s needs.
SDM’s Professional Certificate brings insights from our research and learns from your real-world challenges. The program can range from one week to several weeks and can take place at your company or be hosted on MIT’s campus. We aspire to make an impact on your organization by working with groups of 25 people or more.
Benefits for Staff
- Our Professional Certificate programs give teams a shared vocabulary, allowing them to work together and tackle problems with a grasp on key systems concepts and critical thinking tools.
- Teams with a technical grounding acquire the systems concepts and project leadership tools they need to launch new endeavors or level up institutional priorities.
- We bring together domain experts in your organization to practice project leadership and get direct feedback on their work from MIT faculty.
Benefits for the Organization
- The Professional Certificate offers a short-term, targeted experience focused on the concepts and tools that are most immediately useful.
- Because each program is tailored to your organization, discussions and examples can be drawn directly from your real-world cases and problems, addressing key challenges without sharing proprietary information.
- We can tailor a program to include a strategic project, with our team providing insight and instruction on applying systems principles in real time.
- Participants learn from MIT faculty, instructors, and research scientists and gain access to world-renowned academics.
How it Works
The Professional Certificate includes three main components:
- Optional pre-work modules: These asynchronous, online modules introduce core concepts, frameworks, and tools. This stage can include recorded lectures, readings, and reflective exercises. Participants will acquire the vocabulary and baseline understanding they need to get the most out of their in-person sessions.
- In-person workshops: An intensive experience with MIT faculty, either on site at your organization or on the MIT campus. Programs can include lectures, strategic projects, hands-on workshops, and presentations to company executives.
- A final project that links the workshop experience to the regular work of your team – managing the gap between theory and implementation.
Before we start, our team will meet with your group to understand your priorities and align the content with your organization’s requirements. We offer the flexibility you need to tackle specific problems, choosing the tools and technical methods that best suit your needs and tailoring the content of the modules and workshops to meet your needs.
Participants who complete the modules and workshop will receive a Professional Certificate in System Design and Management. The certificate may also include Continuing Education Units (CEUs).
Submit an Inquiry
To request a consultation or inquire about partnering with SDM for a Professional Certificate program, contact Ignacio Vazquez, SDM Director of Industry and Certificates, at sdm_pe@mit.edu.