Constructive Partnership
The Graduate Certificate in Systems and Product Development is a career-compatible one-year program utilizing core systems engineering theory and practice. The program is offered to employees of SDM affiliates and is designed to move corporations toward a shared definition of systems engineering core capabilities.
Students in the certificate program complete three semesters of the core curriculum, Fundamentals of System Engineering and Management. This course, attended jointly with our master’s program fellows, provides an integrated view of architecting, engineering, and managing the development of complex systems.
In addition, all students attend 14 professional seminar days on MIT’s campus. These experiences offer students the opportunity to be fully immersed in the MIT ecosystem alongside their peers, faculty, and industry project sponsors. Programming provides intensive and accelerated team-building, inter-cohort networking, and an introduction to MIT history with the following focuses:
August Boot Camp – Leadership, cohort building, and team formation
January – Integration of methodologies into real-world practice
May – Executive presentation skills
" The SDM Core is very enriching and was my favorite part of the program. It is definitely worth at least starting there with the knowledge that if you do want to convert to the master’s the program is super flexible. "
Hannah Slominski, SDM Graduate Certificate '18, Master's Degree '19The certificate program culminates with a comprehensive capstone project that provides students with the opportunity to apply principles and methods from the SDM integrated core directly to a high-priority or strategic project within their organization. Throughout the project, students receive guidance, input, and feedback from MIT faculty and their sponsor. The project culminates in a final presentation to the certificate program cohort.
Projects vary greatly – from further developing a new technology and taking the first steps in bringing it to market or addressing an important problem or complex challenge that an organization is facing in real time. Often the capstone is the catalyst for a longer-term project/product/program within a student’s organization.