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What’s New at Cornell’s Masters in Engineering Management [Episode 516]

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In this episode Dr. Patrick Reed and Prof. Robert Newman discuss the Engineering Management Program at Cornell and what the Adcom wants to see in applicants. [SHOW SUMMARY]

Are you an engineer who wants to stay in a technical environment but move into managerial roles? Cornell’s Engineering Management Masters may be the answer to your prayers. And it comes in two flavors: On campus and online. We’re going to learn about both from the directors of the program so tune in.

An interview with both the Director of Cornell’s Masters in Engineering Management Program and the Executive Director/Senior Lecturer of Engineering Management at Cornell University. [SHOW NOTES]

Welcome to the 516th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me. Before we dive into today’s interview, I want to mention a free resource at Accepted that can benefit you if you are applying to graduate engineering programs. Applying to graduate engineering programs, what you need to know is a free downloadable guide that can guide you through a process you’ve never been through before. It’s not the same as applying to college. Download your complimentary copy.

Our guests today are Dr. Patrick Reed and Professor Robert Neuman. Dr. Reed is the director of Cornell’s Masters in Engineering Management program or the MEM. He’s joined today by Professor Robert Newman, Executive Director and Senior Lecturer in Engineering Management at Cornell University.

Hello, Dr. Reed and Professor Newman. Welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [1:37]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

Good afternoon.

I’m delighted to speak with you both. Let’s start with how I normally like to start a podcast. Dr. Reed, what is the Engineering Management program at Cornell University? Can you provide an overview of, first of all, the on-campus program? [1:43]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

Yeah, so the first thing is, just to clarify, what type of degree it is. It’s our master’s of engineering, so it’s a professional degree. Within this, it’s in the College of Engineering, and Engineering Management itself is a program where we are bringing folks that typically have engineering or STEM training, and then they want to continue in a technology-driven environment while simultaneously training them into the skill sets that links them into business and putting them into a trajectory where their future career is more focused in transitioning the technologies to market and thinking about management roles. It’s that interface where it’s a nice balance where you get individuals that can be involved all the way down to the technical specifications and design stage of technology, and translating it into its ultimate societal use and marketing, and the more management-driven, and I would say entrepreneurial driven opportunities.

Now, in terms of the on-campus program, can you just go over what people will be studying? ]3:07]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

Sure. What folks will be doing when they come to the program – it’s a typical version of the on-campus – is a two-semester program. When they come, they will be taking a mixture of our core courses and then some of our electives. They’ll be taking courses in project management and data analytics, economics and finance, decision making, and leadership seminars. We’ll also want them to get a broader training, so they’ll be taking electives in organizational behavioral. It’s one of those things where it’s not just enough to have the technology or the idea or the design. You have to put that within the institution and market context that you want. Then one of the defining traits of our program is that it’s open to nine specialization credits and a lot of that is taken across colleges can be within engineering, it could be within the business school, or even more broadly.

With that, our popular tracks, consulting analytics leadership, we have real estate and construction management, sustainability and renewable energy, entrepreneurship. Robert can correct me, but I think one of our most popular tracks is the build your own track, or students come in and they see the flavors of all the different coursework that’s available and they tailor to their own interests. It’s pretty flexible in that regard, but yeah, that gives you a synopsis. That’s typically done in one academic year. We do have the option for students who want to maybe do an internship and they have a little more flexibility. There can be a three-semester option for the on-campus folks.

Now, Professor Newman, can you answer the same question about the online program? Provide an overview. How is the online program structured? [5:05]

Professor Robert Newman:

Sure. Thank you very much. The online program really allows professionals who are currently in the workplace to come and get the same degree but while remaining in their job and to continue to work full-time. As a part-time program, students will take either one or two courses each semester. This allows them to finish the program in as short as four semesters, or they can take a longer period of time if that suits their workload better. Except for two one-week-long, summer intensives that we hold each June, the classes are done completely remotely. They’re scheduled in accordance with our normal academic calendar, so the start date of the classes is the same as the start date with the on-campus students, and the end dates are the same as the end dates with the on-campus students.

Very much the same classes for the most part, although there are some specialty classes that we have for the online students as well. Then there’s a variety of levels and synchronicity versus coordination of schedules depending on the type of class. Some classes, the students who are online can do most of the work on their own schedule. Other classes, especially classes that require coordination with students for activities such as a class in negotiations, for instance, they would have to schedule coordinates with their classmates.

Are there electives or what percentage of courses are elective in each of the programs? Dr. Reed, do you want to start with that one? [6:35]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

Yeah, so for ours, we have a 32-credit on-campus degree, and nine of those credits are specialization or optional, and so there’s a degree of flexibility there. Then even within, for example, organizational and behavioral, we have multiple options that are available to the students. If they want to take different flavors of that, for example, emphasizing contemporary issues that they currently face or if they want a more entrepreneurship focus, we have different options there. In that regard, definitely nine credits available, and then beyond that, there’s some freedom in some of the requirements.

Professor Robert Newman:

Yeah, and I would add to that one of the things that many of our students say is that’s one of the things that attracts them to Cornell is their ability to pick. Almost a third of their program, they get to design based on their area of interest and the things they want to learn.

Now, is the degree that participants earn in both programs the same? Do they both get a master’s in engineering management, or is there an asterisk after the diploma for the online program? [7:48]

Professor Robert Newman:

Yeah, so they’re both exactly the same. From the student view, it’s the same as a master’s in engineering or degree in engineering management. The course listings on the transcripts will look the same and the diploma is the same.

Are you seeing any difference in terms of… Well, I guess one group is more for experienced people and the online program is more of an early career program. Is that correct or not so correct? [8:12]

Professor Robert Newman:

That is correct. The on-campus program usually is people in their fifth year of academia or people who have maybe two or three years of work experience, and then they’re coming back to academia to get their master’s degree. Whereas the online course is for students that must have at least two years experience, but right now, we’re averaging about eight years experience in our distance learning program.

Wow, really? That’s even more than typically in an MBA program. [8:51]

Professor Robert Newman:

Yes, it is.

Dr. Patrick Reed:

That’s been attractive for the interactions between our program and the Cornell MBA program. They find that a lot of our students, even the on-campus students, are coming with some nice industrial experience and perspectives, so it’s been positive, and we’ve been fortunate for how the distance learning program… I mean, we’re new. We launched in 2020.

Great time to launch a new program. [9:23]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

Learning by doing and talking about entrepreneurial. Five years before that were a lot of plans and a lot of studio time, but it’s been great. Right now, we have across a couple cohorts, and I think Robert can correct me, but we have 55 professionals at different stages of working their way through while simultaneously giving them a sense of cohort and connectedness. That’s neat because you have people in different companies, in different parts of the country that are connecting in ways through these courses and interactions that wouldn’t be available otherwise. In many ways, I’d say from the faculty perspective, there’s been a lot of fun and benefits from bringing in people with so much diversity of backgrounds and experience.

Do the programs ever meet? Participants, I mean. [10:16]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

Off in terms of the flexibility for the DEL and the professional constraints, that generally the cohorts aren’t together at this stage because of the logistics would be very difficult, and our on-campus cohorts are quite a bit larger, and so the logistics of that coordination is a bit more challenging.

How many people are in each of the programs? [10:41]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

I’m correct, Robert? I think we have 55 that are in process in our distance learning, and then we have something on the order of over 100 in our on-campus degree program ranging from folks that may be staying an extra semester and some of those that are in the more traditional nine-month, two-semester track.

What are the most significant differences between the masters in engineering management and the MBA or even an executive MBA? Because it sounds like the average age group has eight years of experience, you’re almost approaching the executive MBA area marketplace. [11:03]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

I’ll take a stab at this and then I’ll pass to Robert because you have an engineer and you have someone with an MBA, an executive experience. I would say from my perspective, you don’t come to get a master’s of engineering management to leave engineering. The tagline is you’re coming to lead it, and so you’re tied to the technology, you’re tied to the technical fundamentals of the design or the technology, the architecture of what’s being invented while simultaneously transitioning that into the market context. The way that I view this is depending on the track, and that they’re not necessarily mutually exclusive, and we can talk about that, but the master’s of engineering management is putting somebody, potentially, you could think of them at that CTO track or somebody who’s going to be entrepreneurial, but they’re in on the design. They’re not just marketing something that’s technical that they’re trusting somebody else. They can get into the details, the technical specs, the functionality, the scoping, and I think that’s a little bit different. I’ll pass to Robert. It’s always interesting to hear what your colleagues have to say.

Professor Robert Newman:

Yeah, I think that’s spot on, Pat. One way I might phrase it is that the people who come from a master’s in engineering management degree, they love what they do, they are technical experts in some engineering or computer science field, and they don’t want to stop doing that. They just want to be much more skilled at leading that.

That’s a good distinction. Both of you, thank you. Let’s go into applying to and getting into the MEM, either the online or the on-campus one. What are the academic requirements to gain admission? [13:01]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

I’ll speak from director level. Our typical candidate is going to have an engineering degree or a quantitative STEM driven physics, computer science, and sometimes, that can be mathematics or applied physics or things like that, but it would be a rare exception that we wouldn’t bring someone in as STEM. Then even within those fields, a big part of our current program is we’ve made a significant move. I think people can feel the pressures of how technology is changing on a day-by-day basis, and we want to set a foundation for our students, and so that means they need to understand probability, statistics, and the emerging underlying mathematics of analytics, which is changing day by day. We put a big emphasis not just on the engineering or STEM degree, but also making sure that they have the underlying mathematical qualifications to be able to handle some of the analytics training that we’ll have in the program. I’ll pass to Robert in terms of if you want to add to any differences for our distance learning.

Professor Robert Newman:

No, I don’t think I have anything to add to that.

What if somebody comes from a non-engineering background? Can they take the coursework and would you consider that and then if they showed aptitude in the coursework, or do you really want somebody with a STEM degree? [14:29]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

What do I mean by STEM degree and what is it I’m specifically interested in… The calc series, so you’re going to have to… I’m looking in detail at whether or not somebody has gone all the way through multivariate calculus, has some linear algebra in their background. There’s different levels of mechanics that we don’t necessarily require that is in engineering degrees, but might be implied if they took electives in the college of engineering. Then probability and statistics are something that we don’t really compromise so much on, but that doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t allow somebody to take that in the background. I think it’s mathematics predominantly.

It is nice to see some physics, or if they’re more on the software side, on the computer science side of interest, that they have the underlying fundamentals there in terms of software engineering, some of the coding classes, and some of the background and theoretical basis for software development. There are examples where we’ve had exceptional people that had unique backgrounds and stories, and they did the work. They worked with us and asked what were the background in terms of the math and or physics or statistics that we thought would fill a gap for them, but to be completely honest, that’s relatively rare.

Thank you. No, I would assume that it is rare because it’s also very demanding, but I noticed in preparing for the call in terms of academic requirements, that the GRE is optional for the online program and not even mentioned for the on-campus program. When can a solid GRE score help to you? [16:08]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

I do a lot of the initial screening of applications, and then work with Robert and our whole program to really vet are candidates, but to be honest, I don’t use the GRE as a preliminary screening device, and I do not allow it to be a negative, so the way that I view it is it’s supplemental information if somebody provides it. It provides me with maybe a little bit of extra information in terms of the quantitative or the verbal elements or some aspects, but I can say where they’re spending their time, I would spend a lot more time on the statement than I would on an optional GRE.

It’s great advice. Experientially, what do you like to see from candidates or in candidates’ backgrounds? [17:08]

Professor Robert Newman:

Aside from the two years minimum work experience, which is a requirement for all the online applicants, we really look for candidates who have a few things. One is those who want to develop both their technical expertise but also their human skills or their soft skills, and their ability to be more effective leaders of engineering teams and engineering projects. We look for people who have a really clear understanding of why they want to come get the MEM degree, and people who exhibit the potential to grow and to grow personally, and that they’re looking for personal development over the course of this program, not just to simply add a degree to their resume.

Dr. Reed, do you want to add anything to that? [17:59]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

I really like that last point, I think. This is a unique opportunity, you’re coming to a program. Whether it’s distance, you’re still in the Cornell family and resources, and it’s a unique time, and so I think it’s really important to make it more than just resume decoration. This is an opportunity to really think about what you want to attain, what your path is. I think we can distinguish the types of candidates that want to just come because the name is Cornell versus those candidates that want to come because they’re on a personal journey and in whatever their story is for their professional development or their aspirations. Yeah, we’re really looking for that latter. That’s part of our role is to help them fulfill that.

So, you’re looking more for a purposeful approach, the application process? [18:48]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

The purposeful, right. That’s why I emphasize this statement. People may be surprised, but I really do read every line of every one of these, and it’s an amazing privilege actually to be able to meet digitally so many different people and have so many stories, but if you’re the person writing it, you have to realize that you have somebody that’s reading potentially hundreds of these, and so there are going to be things that are going to stand out, and it’s going to be your personal narrative, your aspirations why you’re there. It’s more than just academics, too. It’s not just that, “Oh, I got straight As, and therefore I qualify.” In many cases, if we have a compelling lived experience that’s narrated through a statement, that will more than compensate for somebody not having a straight A GPA.

That’s a wonderful answer. Thank you. Professor Newman, do you have anything to add? [19:49]

Professor Robert Newman:

The only other thing that I might look for in candidates, other than making sure they understand what’s the purpose for them coming and how’s their world going to change as they get this degree is make sure that they have a clear understanding of the coursework and what they’re walking into. Going from working full-time to trying to get a degree online, it’s a lot of work, and making sure they have a clear understanding and a way to budget their time so that when they sign up for a four credit hour course, they realize, “Okay, this is going to be 12 hours a week for the next 13 weeks,” and that they have a realistic understanding of how that coursework is going to fit in their schedule as well as how it’s going to help develop and grow them professionally to reach their goals.

Dr. Patrick Reed:

Just to jump on that briefly, this is something I do want to maybe put a few underlines under is we’re mandated by the State of New York to have a certain number of our class hours spent per hour in class, and so obviously, we take that seriously, and sometimes that can surprise some applicants both on campus, and in particular, those that are in a working environment and for the distance. I would say when applicants come from the first conversations, it’s good to clarify with us where you’re at and what the actual expectations are. It’s not something we arbitrarily choose. This is something that’s mandated, and then we carefully track.

Yeah, I think for most part-time programs, that’s something that they really have to understand, and also they need their employer’s support if they’re working full-time, they might need their family’s support if they have families, so that is critical. Now, we’ve touched on the statement of purpose. Can you describe the application process for each of the programs? I noticed there’s a statement of purpose requirement and a technical writing sample requirement for both programs, which is a little bit unusual. Last question was, can you go into the distinction between the statement of purpose and the technical writing sample? There’s a lot in that one question. I probably should have broken it up. [21:28]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

Yeah, no, I’ll take it. The statement of purpose is landing us into your narrative. Who are you? What is the journey that you’ve been on? What are the aspirations and experiences that have shaped where you’re at? Then how do you connect to our program? We’re looking for a degree of maturity there. That’s somebody that’s taking ownership in this experience. It’s not, “Oh, I’m going to go to Cornell and they’re going to get me a job.” No, you’re going to get you a job through completing your narrative and your path professionally. Now, when we move to the example of professional writing, that’s a different voice and it’s a very different skill. It’s telling in terms of the professional voice and the narrative of presenting technical information. I find that also quite helpful to distinguish candidates where you can see in context whether that’s on-campus or distance, how they’re communicating and conveying information, which is obviously, it’s not about necessarily them. That’s about the clarity of their communication, and in many ways, the ability of our program to augment that ability to communicate.

Robert, do you want to add it all to that? [23:26]

Professor Robert Newman:

He covered it really well.

Now, on the site, you encourage applicants to be creative, and the site actually says, quote, “We want to learn more about you in a fun, engaging way,” close quote. Now, I have read thousands of statements of purpose in the last 20 plus years, so I can understand why you would rather read fun, engaging statements of purpose, but when does fun and creativity demonstrate poor judgment or become weird, forced or just inauthentic? Not helpful. [23:31]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

In the modern age of AI supported writing, if we start to see similar patterns in your pros that it may in fact be augmented and not telling your story, I’d say that’s a new issue that’s coming in. I think in terms of that boundary, first of all, it’s fine to not overshare, and if you do want to share, that’s fine, but sometimes you read an essay and you come out of the other end of it and you’re not sure how it’s related to grad school. Might have been fun, might have been creative, but it’s not topically relevant, the task at hand. I would say having just read several hundred of these, those are the cases that stand out as not connecting to what we’re doing. This is a collaborative communication. We’re exchanging information. If I don’t leave from that exchange with any more in-depth knowledge of you and how you connect to my program, I might remember your essay, but I’m probably not going to respond positively.

You may not remember it in a positive way either. [25:23]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

There’s always interesting examples here or there.

That was a wonderful answer. Thank you very much. Robert, did you have anything you wanted to add to that? [25:33]

Professor Robert Newman:

Yeah, I do. Realistically, I want to know something about the applicant that would be different than every other applicant can tell me. I want them to bring enough creativity to their application or to their interview where I have something unique about them that I might remember and something that sets them apart because realistically, we have hundreds and hundreds of applicants and most of them have very similar backgrounds, so bringing something fun, something different, something unique about yourself helps to make it personalized as long as you don’t take it too far and as long as you still put it in the context of why you’re applying for this program and why this program is a good fit for you.

Dr. Patrick Reed:

There is one thing I do want to tie to the degree though, and it’s something that I think we cover in a lot of our classes, is that creativity is the defining trait that separates a lot of folks and success. The ability to do the quantitative work is not necessarily unique, but it’s what you do with that quantitative work that’s going to be the distinguishing factor, and so beginning with that creativity and how one presents oneself, you start to get an indication because the reality is we have an incredibly talented pool, and that pool is only beginning, more competitive, and larger. To be honest, most people have pretty incredible quantitative skill sets. What distinguishes people is what they’re going to do with it.

It seems to me like the top engineers have to be on one hand analytical, but it’s the creativity that they bring to that analysis and that numerical and quantitative ability that distinguishes the great engineers from the average engineers. Is that correct? [27:23]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

Yeah, I think one of the things is doing what’s already been done well is not trivial. Recognizing what needs to be done and hasn’t been done, and how one would approach it is that’s where you start to get into new spaces, new impacts, translating your ideas into new markets. That’s where we’re operating is we want those individuals that aren’t following through with tried and true methods. We want the folks that are creating what is going to be needed, and that vision, and that creativity, both in the quantitative side, and we shouldn’t just overemphasize. The bias in engineering is doing quantitative work and thinking that that’s thinking. The organizational behavioral elements relating the managerial elements, you can have a great idea, but if you don’t team build and bring that out in terms of the actual context that is going to take it to market, then the idea might as well not exist.

Thank you for that answer. Is an interview required of all admitted applicants? If not, who is invited to interview? [28:57]

Professor Robert Newman:

That’s a great question. Basically, we like to interview as many applicants as feasible. The structure and system is a little different for online students than it is for on-campus students. With the on-campus students, we get flooded with applications of students that we’ve never talked to, and so in that case, we’re going to interview almost all of those. There may be a few very, very top candidates or a few candidates who have a Cornell engineering undergraduate degree who we may admit without an interview, but for the most part, the on-campus student applicants are going to get an interview if they’re in contention for a position.

With the online program, it’s a little different in that without any exceptions that I know of, by the time somebody applies to the online program, they’ve already spoken to faculty, they’ve already spoken to staff, and we already have somewhat of a relationship and an understanding of who they are and why they’re coming here, so there’s no usually a reason to schedule a separate interview after the fact because we’ve already gotten to know them a little bit through information sessions and then one-on-one questions and answers. That just doesn’t happen with the on-campus cohort, but they do happen ahead of time with the online students.

The two questions that have occurred to me as you have been speaking: You said how many people are in the program, but how many applications do you receive in an academic cycle? [30:26]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

That’s been growing, which is nothing I’m necessarily complaining about at all. This year, we have for on-campus, and I think, distance learning combined approaching about 600. Last year, we were over 700. When I started my position as director in 2015, we were more in the 180 applications. As our program has evolved, our curriculum has evolved, and I think the awareness of technology and management meets engineering has evolved. There’s been a bit of an explosion. To give you some direct transparent numbers, we’re looking at applications, particularly, we’ll take the on-campus as the example, there’s more than 500. Of those, we are looking at probably interviewing no more than 140 individuals. The interview doesn’t mean that we’re at the final decision. That’s the last part of the evaluation.

Especially for the online program, but for both of them, is there an international component to the student body? [31:48]

Professor Robert Newman:

Yeah, so there definitely is. With the online program, we’re really focused. At this point, we’re still focused on North America just for the convenience of time zone, although we may expand that in the future. With the on-campus cohort, we have probably about 70% of our students come from countries outside of the United States.

That’s enormous. Okay, great. Now, moving forward in this journey, what are typical positions that grads of the MEM programs go into? [32:07]

Professor Robert Newman:

Sure. It would almost be easier to tell you what positions they don’t go into, but I can take a stab at this because you have to understand that the students coming in, first of all, have a broad range of experience and industries and undergraduate work, so everything from computer science to biomedical engineering to aerospace engineering to civil engineering to mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. There’s a wide range of skill sets coming in, and there’s a wide range of interests, not only in different industries but also different job types. Many will go into engineering roles, others will go into data analytics, some will go into consulting. Both product management and project management are extremely popular with our graduates. Some come because they have an entrepreneurial mindset and they’re looking to either start businesses or grow businesses.

I noticed online that at Cornell, and certainly at other universities, there’s an option for an MS/MBA. That’s obviously different from the MEM, and it probably takes about three years to complete, but for whom is that option better for? [33:21]

Professor Robert Newman:

I think that’s a really good option for top students. Absolute top students. it is an extremely competitive program to get into, but people who are looking to be entrepreneurs or looking to actually run businesses, so engineers and technical people who have a mindset that they want to be moving up to the C-suite at some point while staying in very tech products or tech services in engineering related fields. The program is sequential, so it’s not in parallel. You’d still come and get your MEM degree first, and then in your last semester of the MEM degree, you would apply to the Johnson School for the MBA portion of the combined program.

Now, what is a common mistake that you see applicants make in their application? We’ve discussed a couple of them. I don’t know if this is going to be repetitive, actually, but just again, this is something I like to ask because it’s, I think, as instructive sometimes to know what people shouldn’t do and what they should do. What would you say is a common mistake that you see? [34:21]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

One is to complete the application as requested. That’s a basic but surprisingly common issue. I think one of the things that people may… They may see it as a task and not a story. It makes sense for it to be an integrated story that includes your transcript because you’re taking classes and a degree, and you had aspirations. I assume you would invest in that. You’re professional. It makes no sense. Every so often, you’ll see folks will have not gone to as much depth on the professional experience they actually have, and so I would limit your opportunity costs. If you have a unique experience, I would share that. Then I think too few students necessarily realize that we do value things that go beyond just academics. The example is if you have a unique skillset, like you’re a concert pianist, but that’s not related to your engineering management, it is related actually, so we should know about that because it speaks volumes about your dedication and your breadth. Yeah, I would say don’t sell yourself short and make sure that the story is broad in all of the features that you need us to know about.

Professor Robert Newman:

I would add to that, when it gets to the level of an interview, there’s really two repeated common mistakes that I see. That is, applicants either, when they’re asked a question, quickly diverting to telling me what they want me to hear about them. They have a preconceived storyline they want to make sure they get across during their interview instead of answering the question that was asked. The other similar mistake they may make is some applicants will provide an answer that they believe the interviewer wants to hear instead of just answering the question as asked. One of the things we look for, can you actually listen to my question and answer the question as opposed to telling me some things that you think are really important for me to hear about your background?

Dr. Patrick Reed:

Be exceptional, but don’t tell us that you are exceptional.

That’s a great one. [37:20]

Professor Robert Newman:

I like that, Pat.

Very succinct, short, sweet, and to the point. It’s a great one. Okay. I’m great. Really, I am. What question would you have liked me to ask that I haven’t asked, or what question would you like to answer that I didn’t ask? [37:27]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

For me, I think one of the things is where do we see things evolving, especially at the interface of engineering, tech, and business over even the next five years?

Dr. Patrick Reed:

I think we’re in a stage now where if somebody went back to 2019 and tried to predict 2020 through 2023, they’d probably do a pretty poor job. That’s not all… We can fixate on the negative sides of that, but there’s also the positive sides of that in terms of the explosive growth. AI is largely gone common and viral. People are playing with it in their every day and in their networks, and that’s not slowing down. We’re at the beginning phases of this, and there’s levels of communication at the humanity scale that hasn’t existed before and are accelerating any breakthroughs in technology.

To get to the point here is that I think training for a future where creativity, a willingness to embrace the fact that the future’s going to have some ambiguities and some significant uncertainties, to stop pretending like we’re going to respond to what will be, and be a little more careful with being ready just in case, and the way that we’re handling our technologies, the way we’re handling our supply chains, the way that we’re having an impact, at the end of the day, if we’re really thinking about the impact of technology, the impact of decisions, the impact of engineering on society, there are a lot of issues to consider there. I think we need to make sure that as we’re moving forward, that we can distinguish actual action that is making the world a better place from the appearance of action. I think part of that is the breadth of training and the depth of training. I think that’s something that we discuss a lot in our program is bringing people to the stage where it’s not the appearance of action. You’re actually making a translatable impact.

It sounds to me like that’s your niche. [39:57]

Dr. Patrick Reed:

We hope so.

Professor Newman, did you have a question that you’d like to respond to that I didn’t ask? [40:00]

Professor Robert Newman:

Sure. Absolutely. I guess a question that I would like you to ask that you may not have is what do our students and what do our graduates say as to why they chose Cornell as a MEM program from Cornell? What we see is they give three or four reasons over and over again. One is the strong mix of extremely technically rigorous skill development alongside with human soft skill development needed for leadership. Another one is the level of personal support from faculty to students is really appreciated by our alumni and our students. Probably the third one-

Okay, we have a snowstorm going on and it’s affecting the internet here, but the third reason is absolutely the flexibility of the program and the ability to pick nine credits of electives as well as one of your organizational behavior electives is really appreciated. Then the fourth one would be the strength and support that they get from the alumni network. We have the Cornell Alumni Network is huge, and even with the MEM program itself, it’s been going on for well over 30 years on campus. Cornell alumni like to help Cornell students and future alumni. Those are the four reasons why people tell me over and over that they came to Cornell for a master’s in engineering management.