University of Illinois At Urbana Champaign

Systems Engineering and Design (SED) is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary program emphasizing interactions between parts of a whole.  It brings together basic sciences, engineering analysis, and engineering design. The curriculum offers flexibility through a Secondary Field Option, while providing a broad background in engineering as a whole and decision-making that supports overall design.  Systems Engineers understand how to coordinate interacting parts of a whole and to evaluate engineering within economic and physical constraints.

Through the Secondary Field Option electives, students can tailor their studies to one's interests and career goals in both technical and nontechnical areas. Secondary field options are of two types: pre-approved and customized. Pre-approved secondary fields have designated titles and a specified list of courses, from which several may be selected. Approval for the substitution of a course for one on the specified list may be requested via a petition form submitted to the department. Customized secondary fields may be created to achieve goals in areas not provided by pre-approved fields. To do this, a suitable title and all the courses must be petitioned for acceptance by the department. Petition approval is based on the merit of the secondary field and the coherence of the courses within it relative to the student's goals.

Pursuit of campus minors, dual degrees, and James Scholar contracts may be integrated with customized secondary field options. Courses taken may be applied to minors, dual degrees, or contracts as well as secondary field options.