MEP Manufacturing Certificate Program

Description

The Manufacturing Certificate provides students enrolled in the MEP program with the fundamentals of manufacturing science and engineering by augmenting their graduate education and research experience through a multidisciplinary curriculum. Students pursuing the Certificate develop skills and knowledge in specific disciplines relevant to manufacturing, and couple that with a general understanding of the entire manufacturing enterprise.

The Certificate emphasizes the education of engineers, managers, and scientists in all aspects and fundamentals of the manufacturing enterprise ranging from the unit process level to the systems level. The structured program broadens and enhances the background of students enrolled in traditional academic disciplines, and encourages them to develop strategic knowledge in other disciplines relevant to manufacturing through class work and multidisciplinary teamwork experiences.

Thus, the program balances technical depth with a broad exposure and comprehension of realistic problems and solution methodologies that are faced by manufacturing industries every day.

The Manufacturing Certificate is a part of a graduate degree program (M.S. or Ph.D.) at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  One must complete a graduate degree in any of the College of Engineering's schools and complete the Certificate course requirements detailed below to obtain the MEP Certificate.

The Manufacturing Certificate is administered by the Manufacturing Research Center (MARC), with the Schools of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering participating.  Any student (not limited to these three engineering schools) who obtains a graduate degree in engineering from Georgia Tech can participate in the Certificate Program.

The Manufacturing Certificate offers the following advantages for students:

• Solid grounding in manufacturing fundamentals.
• Opportunities to develop knowledge and skills in a particular discipline, as well as a thorough understanding of the entire manufacturing enterprise.
• Multidisciplinary team project experience.
• Opportunities to broaden one's graduate education experience through a balance of technical depth in an engineering discipline and broad exposure to problems and solution methodologies pertinent to manufacturing.

Manufacturing Certificate Program Details

Students should submit an enrollment form, as soon as their studies begin, to the MEP office in Room 380 of the Manufacturing Research Center (MARC) building.

The Certificate in Manufacturing consists of a set of key courses from which students select twelve (12) semester hours.  Students are also required to attend seminars.

The key courses are grouped as shown in the following three course groups: Electrical & Computer Engineering; Industrial & Systems Engineering; and Mechanical Engineering.

Students must complete two courses in each of two of the groupings, and in at least two different schools.   Students may count only one 4000-level course, which must be outside their home school.  The 4000-level courses may be taken as background for the more advanced courses.  Courses with a grade of "D" or "F" do not count.

The three Manufacturing Certificate course groups are:

* ECE students cannot count this course (ECE 4761) toward their Certificate requirement.

** ME students cannot count this course (ME 4210) toward their Certificate requirement.

NOTE: Students who are currently enrolled in the MEP Certificate Program as of June 2009, and who may have already taken courses that were previously part of the MEP curriculum, but are no longer, may count those courses as long as an A, B, or C grade was obtained. Upon completion of the MEP Certificate Program, students should note on their “Petition for a Manufacturing Certificate” form that they took these courses prior to the curriculum change-over in June 2009.

NOTE: In addition to the course requirements noted above, Certificate Program students are also required to complete ECE/ISyE/ME 6792: Manufacturing Seminar Series.   Students must attend eight (8), one-hour seminars that are related to manufacturing.  At least six will be of their own choosing.  These seminars are to be given at Georgia Tech, presented by external speakers, and attended during one semester.

Students are responsible for identifying these seminars.  Up to two seminars per semester may be arranged by the MEP program, in which case attendance is mandatory for Certificate students.  These seminars will count toward the eight required seminars for students enrolled in ECE/ISyE/ME 6792 in that semester.

After attending each of the eight seminars, students e-mail the professor in charge of the seminar a short report, which summarizes and critiques the seminar.  The professor reviews these reports and informs the students if the seminars attended and the write-ups of them are acceptable.  Seminar reports should be sent to the following e-mail address: mep.seminar@marc.gatech.edu

All seminar reports, from graduating or continuing students, must be submitted seven (7) days before the last day of semester instruction.

Once the students have attended, reported on, and received instructor approvals for eight seminars, the seminar series requirement is fulfilled.  Students will receive one hour of pass/fail credit for the ME/ECE/ISYE 6792 seminar requirement.

Distance learning students may attend seminars at their sites.  The seminars may not be by their fellow employees, may not be vendor talks, and must take place during the semester they are enrolled in the seminar course. Distance Learning students must have their seminars approved ahead of time by the course instructor.

Typically, all of the above Manufacturing Certificate requirements can be completed within the typical timeline of M.S. and Ph.D. programs in the various College of Engineering schools.  Upon completion of the MEP program requirements and completion of their graduate degree, students will receive their Certificate from the MEP office.

Updated: June 10, 2009