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MIT, Boeing & NASA Are Enriching Engineers With a New Online Certificate Program
By: Olivia Vanni
The funny thing about working in engineering is that your education is never really over. Innovation is constantly reshaping the concepts and processes you find in various areas of engineering, so the professionals focused on these fields have to be on their toes to learn the latest and greatest advancements. A decent chunk of this learning is done through experience, but sometimes you need to jump start it with a course or two. And who better to do that with than MIT, Boeing and NASA?
That’s right: The biggest names in engineering are teaming up to develop the ultimate systems engineering program, and it’ll all be online. They’re currently working out the details of the curriculum so that the 4-class certificate program - “Architecture and Systems Engineering: Models and Methods to Manage Complex Systems” - will be ready to kick off this spring on MIT’s edX platform.
The different courses in this upcoming program will intertwine the knowledge and extensive research from MIT, as well as the real-world concept and applications gleaned from Boeing and NASA. They’ll be focusing their teachings on the most cutting edge practices and applications in model-based systems engineering. So folks working as engineers in aerospace (obvi), medical devices, automotive and system integration would greatly benefit from the coursework.
“Engineering practice is changing rapidly in tandem with the growth of software, driving incredible capability changes, but also causing enormous challenges managing complex development programs,” Bruce Cameron, director of MIT’s System Architecture Lab and director of the forthcoming program, told the school's Office of Digital Learning.
Why are Boeing and NASA getting in on the education action? With the Space Act Agreement, they have both made a commitment to becoming involved in STEM education, and this program is just one of ways the organizations will support learning in these subjects. Professionals taking advantage of this offering can earn continuing education credits with each course they complete, having a certificate from MIT once all of the coursework is finished.
"The edX platform will provide an interactive, flexible learning experience for engineers around the world to gain technical expertise from leaders at MIT, Boeing, and NASA," said Anant Agarwal, edX CEO and MIT professor. "We are honored to be part of this innovative collaboration between industry, government, and academia to offer professional education to a global audience."
