"Build Your Own Masters" at NYU Tandon

BROOKLYN, New York, Monday, February 13, 2023 – An innovative engineering master’s program unveiled today by Digital Learning at NYU Tandon gives students flexibility to tailor their degree to their unique professional interests and aspirations.

Students in Tandon’s new Master of Science in Emerging Technologies program will have the opportunity to enroll in one of nine interdisciplinary concentrations – including in-demand fields like robotics, cybersecurity, and data science – all offered fully online. 

The 30-credit program is distinct from other master’s programs as it offers an unprecedented level of flexibility for an advanced engineering degree. Students will choose 12 credits from their chosen concentration, including a final capstone course geared towards solving a specific concentration-related challenge. The remaining 18 credits can be composed of electives from more than 50 courses offered across the entire Emerging Technologies program.

The program serves as yet another entry point to NYU Tandon, which is one of a small handful of American universities now providing this kind of highly flexible graduate engineering education, empowering students to customize their curriculums to their own career paths. 

Typically, graduate engineering programs offer degrees in standard fields like mechanical or electrical engineering. They equip students with deep knowledge in that discipline, but offer limited opportunities to explore other fields due to strict program requirements. 

The M.S. in Emerging Technologies, on the other hand, emphasizes breadth. It is designed with industry in mind for a fast-evolving tech-driven job market, and encourages students to gain expertise in certain knowledge domains – like healthcare or cybersecurity, areas with strong career prospects – without being strictly beholden to traditional disciplinary silos that define the field. 

“The goal of the program is to cross engineering’s disciplinary boundaries and meet the needs of professionals who work at the intersection of several fields, or who conduct innovative, interdisciplinary research,” said Peter Voltz, Associate Dean for Undergraduate and Graduate Academics and the academic director of the new master’s program.

“We want to arm more professionals with engineering and technology skills that support their careers, even those in roles without traditional engineering titles or job descriptions,” said Shivani Dhir, Assistant Dean of Digital Learning. “For example, someone who wants to be a product manager for a cybersecurity firm might choose a Cybersecurity concentration coupled with electives in artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science. Or someone in a new product marketing role at a global consumer brand who wants to collaborate more effectively with the engineering and design team may opt for an Innovation & Change Management concentration with some software development and user experience electives. This program allows you to chart your own academic journey and is ideal for working professionals who are pursuing career growth in cross-functional roles or integral to cross-functional teams.” 

The nine concentration areas within the Master of Science in Emerging Technologies are Cybersecurity, Data Science, Innovation & Change Management, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Software Development, Urban Informatics, User Experience & Design, and Wireless & Networking. 

This new master’s program is the latest in a series of unconventional curriculum changes the school has rolled out on the heels of a historic $1 billion investment in engineering for the 21st century. The school is re-engineering several of its courses as it delivers on promises to break barriers between engineering disciplines and give students more experiential learning opportunities. 

These changes include revamping the required undergraduate Introduction to Engineering course in Fall 2022 to incorporate more experiential learning and sustainable engineering practices and introducing courses in ethics and responsible data science; growing its Vertically Integrated Projects experiential learning program from a handful of student teams in 2016 to more than 40 this year; and enhancing its doctoral education to include more leadership development and ethics guidance, and introducing a new doctoral track in Urban Science. Additional curricular innovation is in the works, including a practitioner-focused doctor of engineering. 

“The new master’s degree in Emerging Technologies is a prime example of how NYU Tandon is reimagining engineering for a new generation – one that reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the industry landscape and the complex problems that engineering and technology can solve.” said Dean Jelena Kovačević. “Changing the engineering curriculum to be more responsible, more experiential, and more encompassing of the intersections of multiple fields is well overdue. It cannot happen overnight, and we are being thoughtful about when and how to introduce these innovations. This is a very exciting time to be an engineering educator and a student at NYU Tandon.” 

These changes comport with Tandon’s areas of excellence, the academic architecture that frames the research and instruction delivered by the school.

In addition to the new M.S. in Emerging Technologies, Tandon offers four other fully online M.S. degrees, in Bioinformatics, Cybersecurity, Management of Technology, and an interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Risk and Strategy degree offered through a partnership between NYU Tandon and NYU Law. Students can also earn master’s degrees partially or fully in-person at Tandon’s Brooklyn campus in more than 20 fields.

The M.S. in Emerging Technologies will begin accepting applications on March 1, 2023 for its inaugural cohort beginning in fall 2023. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu/academics/programs/emerging-technologies-ms-online.

About Digital Learning at New York University Tandon School of Engineering

Digital Learning at NYU Tandon provides non-traditional learning opportunities in engineering and technology through innovative degree, non-degree, and executive programs in flexible online and hybrid formats. The portfolio offers pathways for students and professionals with both STEM and non-STEM backgrounds to enable career growth as well as collaborates with industry partners to address corporate learning needs. 
 

About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering

The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute. A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences as part of a global university, with close connections to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. NYU Tandon is rooted in a vibrant tradition of entrepreneurship, intellectual curiosity, and innovative solutions to humanity’s most pressing global challenges. Research at Tandon focuses on vital intersections between communications/IT, cybersecurity, and data science/AI/robotics systems and tools and critical areas of society that they influence, including emerging media, health, sustainability, and urban living. We believe diversity is integral to excellence, and are creating a vibrant, inclusive, and equitable environment for all of our students, faculty and staff. For more information, visit engineering.nyu.edu.