MELP Courses and Technical Focus Areas

Courses

Students in the MELP degree must complete 30 credits of graduate courses: 21 credits of required courses and 9 credits of electives. 

Required Courses

• INTAF 502 Science, Technology, and International Policy (3): Examines science and policy communities, the importance of science and technology to international affairs, scientific issues likely to affect international policy.
• EDSGN 549 Design Decision Making (3): Complexity of design-making; state-of-the-art methods and tools. Information and decision making in design; understanding the complexities due to uncertain information, multi-person decision making, technology obsolescence, and competing priorities.
• EDSGN 558 Systems Design (3): System engineering principles and practices and the application of systems engineering in the analysis, design, development, integration, verification, and validation of complex systems.
• LPE 851 Foundations in Public Law (3): A foundation course for engineers and other non-law graduate students on how public law regulates engineering, science and technology policy: how the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government interact to form science and technology policy, how administrative agencies and regulations implement that policy, and how the judicial review of legislation and regulation affects policies, regulations, and systems. Download the fall 2022 flyer. 
• LPE 852 Foundations in Private Law (3): A foundation course for engineers and other non-law graduate students on how engineering, science, and technology is affected by private law; including employment/labor, mergers and acquisitions, antitrust, intellectual property, torts, financial instruments, fiduciary duties, and criminal law.
• LPE 853 Engineering, Law and Policy Systems (3): An interdisciplinary course providing a broad exploration of the relationship between engineering, policy, and law. From driverless cars to AI-powered systems, engineering is transforming public and private spaces. This course identifies the legal and political constraints engineering solutions must satisfy to be implemented within complex engineering systems. Download the fall 2022 flyer. 
• LPE 854 Engineering, Law and Technology Policy Practicum (3): This course addresses current pressing issues in innovation, technology policy, and law through the eyes of policymakers. Students work on public-facing projects in interdisciplinary teams applying strategic technology policy, regulatory concepts, and systems thinking to real-world policy issues to assist relevant policymakers in their policy decision-making process.

Additional Law, Policy, and Engineering Courses

• ENGR 497 Datafied Cultures and Privacy Law: In this course, students will explore contemporary legal, policy, and ethical issues regarding data creation, collection, use, and access in the United States and around the world (such as the European Union). This course will illuminate data justice challenges and examine the diverse ways in which individuals, corporations (including "Big Tech"), and governments approach data and privacy. The course will address privacy harms and how privacy interests are balanced against other competing interests. It will examine existing and emerging privacy torts; applicable constitutional, statutory, and regulatory provisions; institutional policies; and social norms. Students will gain an understanding of the distinct needs and interests of digital minimalists and quantified selves; complex problems of transparency, accountability, and fairness; dataveillance and the human rights it implicates (including rights to privacy, nondiscrimination, science, and health); and data governance frameworks. An emphasis will be placed on health and consumer data and information privacy law. This course is offered as part of the Law, Policy, and Engineering (LPE) initiative and is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate students pursuing engineering or scientific careers. Download the fall 2022 flyer. 
• ENGR 597: Engineers and Scientists Shaping Policy: Policy influences and is influenced by science and technology. This course is intended to provide students with knowledge and skills to integrate policy implications into their engineering and scientific research design and to prepare students to be effective agents of change, as engineers and scientists, in both public and private policy. Students will explore policy for science and science for policy, examining position statements and practice guidance issued by the professional organizations and societies relevant to their engineering and scientific discipline. Students will become familiar with theories of policy analysis, with mechanisms that set science policy, and with science policymaking bodies and influencers. Students will learn how to use and communicate technical expertise to help address policy problems on different scales (e.g., local, state, national, and global) and how to integrate ethical, legal, social, and policy components into their own research approach. Assignments will enable students to apply their developing STEM expertise and consider current policy issues through the preparation of, for example, ELSI research grant proposals, commentaries, advocacy letters, responses to governmental requests for information, comments on the proposed rulemaking, technical assistance on legislation, stakeholder memos, and amici briefs. This course is offered as part of the Law, Policy, and Engineering (LPE) initiative and is ideal for engineers and scientists who seek an understanding of how to engage with the policymaking process and how to advance innovative research with broad societal impacts in mind. Download fall the 2022 flyer.

Electives

The MELP course plan has been designed to be flexible and meet the needs of engineering students and professionals with diverse technical backgrounds and interests. Electives will be chosen by students based on their academic backgrounds and in consultation with their advisers and the LPE director. Students can expand their knowledge in a technical, legal, or policy area, develop a research paper, or place these skills to practice through an internship. 

Students must select 9 credits of electives, which may be:

• electives from technical focus areas including environmental, nuclear energy policy and nuclear security, computer and network security, autonomous vehicles, energy, telecommunications, biological and agricultural, nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing, biomedicine and health care technologies, among others. Students take at least two courses (6 credits) from that area; or
• general electives. Students choose from the list of general electives below to expand knowledge on policy, law, engineering, or international affairs, or pursue a master's research paper or internship; or
• required core courses in the graduate certificate in international affairs, international security studies, international public policy, international development policy, or engineering leadership and innovation management through Penn State World Campus.

Technical Focus Areas—Sample Elective Courses

Environmental

CE 555 Groundwater Hydrology: Analysis and Modeling
CE 561 Surface Hydrology
CE 571 Physical-Chemical Treatment Processes
CE 578 Groundwater Remediation
CE 476 Solid and Hazardous Wastes
GEOG 436 Ecology, Economy, and Society
GEOG 437W Energy Geographies and Policy
GEOG 439 Property and the Global Environment
INTAF 501 Water and Sustainable Development

Nuclear Energy Policy & Nuclear Security

NUCE 405 Nuclear and Radiochemistry (WC)
NUCE 420 Radiological Safety (WC)
NUCE 428 Radioactive Waste Control (WC)
NUCE 446 Reliability and Risk Concepts in Design
NUCE 441 Nuclear Security Threat Analysis and Assessment (WC)
NUCE 442 Nuclear Security System Design
NUCE 544 Global Nuclear Security Policies (WC)
INTAF 817 Weapons of Mass Destruction and International Security
INTAF 818 U.S. National Security
INTAF 505 Strategy, Conflict, Peace

Computer and Network Security

CMPSC 447 Software Security
CMPSC 443 Introduction to Computer and Network Security
CSE 543 Computer Security
CSE 544 System Security
CSE 545 Network Security
CSE 546 Cryptography

Autonomous Vehicles 

AERSP 424 Advanced Computer Programming
AERSP 460 Aerospace Control Systems
CMPSC 442 Artificial Intelligence
ME 545 Mechatronics
ME 555 Linear System Theory and Control
ME 556 Robotic Concepts

Energy

EME 444 Global Energy Enterprise (World Campus)
BRS 422: Energy Analysis in Biorenewable Systems
BE 464 Bioenergy Systems Engineering
CHE 423: Chemical Energy Technology
EME 801 Energy Markets, Policy and Regulation (World Campus)
EME 523 Stochastic Optimization Methods of Energy and Environment
EME 524 Machine Learning for Energy and Mineral Engineering
EME 525 Theory and Practice of Policy Analysis for Engineers
EME 803 Applied Energy Policy (World Campus)
EME 807 Technologies for Sustainability Systems
ESC 501 Solar Cell Devices 
ESC 551 High Power Energy Storage
INTAF 534 Political Economy of Energy and Extractive Industries in Africa
INTAF 810 Energy, International Security and the Global Economy

Telecommunications

COMM 404 Telecommunications Law
COMM 458 Media Law and Ethics
COMM 584 International Telecommunications and Trade Policy
COMM 587 Internet Law and Policy
ESC 445 Semiconductor Optoelectronic Devices
ESC 450 Synthesis and Processing of Electronic and Photonic Materials
ESC 482 Micro-Optoelectromechanical Systems (MOEMS) and Nanophotonics 

Biological and Agricultural

BE 467 Design of Stormwater and Erosion Control Facilities 
BE 477 Land-Based Waste Disposal
BRS 402 Foundations of Sustainable Business
BRS 417 Processing and Manufacturing Systems for Bioproducts
BRS 426 Safety and Health in Agriculture and Biorenewable Industries
BRS 429W Biorenewable Systems Analysis and Management
BRS 501 Biobased Polymers
BRS 502 Human Behavior and Ethics in Management and Technology
BRS 551 Sustainable Business Strategies
ABE 568 Food Safety Engineering
INTAF 511 Ethical Dimensions in Food and Agricultural Governance 

Nanotechnology and Advanced Manufacturing

ESC 484: Biologically Inspired Nanomaterials
ESC 503: Low Dimensional Nanoelectronics
ESC 412: Nanotechnology: Materials, Infrastructure, and Safety
ESC 420: Nanostructures and Nanomaterials
ESC 520: Engineering at the Nano-scale
ESC 521: Pattern Transfer at the Nano-scale
ESC 522: Fabrication and Characterization for Top-down Nano-manufacturing
ESC 523: Fabrication and Characterization for Bottom-up Nano-manufacturing
ESC 577: Engineered Thin Films
ESC 581: Microelectromechanical Systems/Smart Structures
ESC 540: Laser Optics Fundamentals
ESC 541: Laser-Materials Interactions
ESC 545: Engineering and Scientific Principles of Additive Manufacturing 
EDSGN 562: Design for Additive Manufacturing
EMCH 544: Multiscale Modeling of Materials 
EMCH 473: Composites Processing 

Biomedicine and Health Care Technologies

BMB 400 Molecular Biology of the Gene
BMMB 543 Current Topics in Gene Regulation
BMMB 554 Foundations in Data-Driven Life Sciences
BIOE 510 Biomedical Applications of Microelectromechanical Systems (BioMEMS) and Bionanotechnology
BIOE 518 Bioprinting
BIOE 519 Artificial Organs Design
BIOL 555: Statistical Analysis of Genomics Data
CHE 455: Drug Delivery, Pharmacokinetics, and Artificial Organs
CMPSC 465 Data Structures and Algorithms *
CSE 566 Algorithms and Data Structure in Bioinformatics *
EMCH 501: Mechanics in Emerging Electronics for Biomedicine
EMCH 523: Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation
EMCH 541: Structural Health Monitoring
EMCH 542: Physical Principles in Biomedical Ultrasonics
ESC 430: Advanced Biofabrication Processes
ESC 507: Bioarchitecture
ESC 518: Bioprinting
ESC 525: Neural Engineering: Fundamentals of Interfacing with Brain
ESC 527: Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI)
ESC 529: Neural Control Engineering
ESC 584: Bioarchitecture

General Electives

INTAF 500: Research Design
INTAF 503 Hazards, Disasters and International Affairs
INTAF 506 International Economics: Principles, Policies and Practices
INTAF 508 Domestic Influences on Foreign Policy
INTAF 510 Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution
INTAF 567 Terrorism
INTAF 815 Dynamics of International Economic Order: Law, Politics and Power
INTAF 801 Actors, Institutions, and Legal Frameworks in International Affairs
INTAF 802 Foundations of Diplomacy and International Relations Theory
INTAF 803 Multi-sector and Quantitative Analysis
INTAF 804 Global Cultures and Leadership
INTAF 811 Estimative Analysis in International Strategy
INTAF 812 The Role of Intelligence in International Relations
INTAF 815 Dynamics of International Economic Order: Law, Politics and Power
INTAF 890 Colloquium on Current Policy Challenges
ENGR 451: Social Entrepreneurship
EDSGN 452: Projects in Humanitarian Engineering
EDSGN 453: Design for Developing Communities
ENGR 405: Project Management for Professionals (University Park & World Campus)
ENGR 501: Engineering Leadership for Corporate Innovation (University Park & World Campus)
ENGR 594: Master’s Paper Research
ENGR 595A: Engineering Internship
ENGR 596: Independent Studies
ENGR 802: Engineering Across Cultures and Nations (University Park & World Campus)
ENGR 804: Engineering Product Innovation (University Park & World Campus)
ENGR 497, 597 & 897: Special Topics
STAT 500: Applied Statistics
STAT 501: Regression Methods
STAT 508: Applied Data Mining & Statistical Learning
AE 531: Legal Aspects of Engineering and Construction
AE 571: International Construction Management and Planning
AE 579: Sustainable Building Project leadership
STS 589: Ethics and Values in Science and Technology
PPOL 801:The Public Policy Process
PPOL 802: Economic Analysis for Public Policy
PPOL 804: Public Sector Organization Theory
PPOL 805: Bureaucracy and the Policy Process
PPOL 807: Managing Public Organizations
PPOL 808: Public Finance and Budgeting
PPOL 809: Public Policy Analysis
PPOL 810: Policy and Program Evaluation