Online Engineering Leadership Development Offerings

Undergraduate Offerings

Digital Badges

In the ever-evolving engineering education landscape, ELD recognizes the role professional skills play in its students' future careers. To build foundational knowledge in engineering leadership and project management, ELD faculty recently developed two digital badge courses for current undergraduate Penn State students. 

To enroll in a badge course, click the course title below to be directed to a non-credit-earning Canvas course. Follow the steps in Canvas to enroll in the course. After completing all elements of the badge course, please email Bethanie Marshall at blm567@psu.edu.  

Engineering Leadership Fundamentals

The engineering leadership fundamentals digital badge course provides students with a foundational understanding of leadership, including leadership vs. management, self-awareness, team formation, mission statement importance and effectively running meetings. Students in the course review these leadership elements through an engineering lens.

Project Management Fundamentals

In the project management fundamentals digital badge course, students learn project management foundational knowledge, focusing on the planning and executing phases. The course topics also include leadership concepts addressing team dynamics, motivating team members, and delegating tasks.

Graduate Offerings

In partnership with Penn State World Campus, Engineering Leadership Development offers an online graduate certificate and an online graduate minor in engineering leadership and innovation management.

Graduate Certificate in Engineering Leadership and Innovation Management

The graduate certificate in engineering leadership and innovation management is designed to provide professionals with the knowledge and skills in the key aspects of engineering business: leading teams, identifying new business opportunities, working across international and cultural boundaries, effectively managing projects, and promoting internal innovation.

The certificate program highlights the changing nature of the field of engineering, impacted by globalization, and the importance of intercultural competencies and innovation management in the workforce. Upon completion of the certificate, students will have developed the attributes required of today’s successful engineering executives. The 12-credit certificate program is built from the College of Engineering’s engineering leadership and innovation management (ELIM) graduate degree program.

The ELIM graduate certificate is offered through Penn State's world-renowned World Campus.  

To learn more about the certificate, please visit the graduate certificate in engineering leadership and innovation management page on the Penn State World Campus website. 

Application Deadlines

Graduate Minor in Engineering Leadership and Innovation Management

The graduate minor in engineering leadership and innovation management is available to current Penn State World Campus students. Residential graduate students pursuing the ELIM minor are eligible for summer offerings of the courses. 

Application requirements: 

Students wishing to apply to the ELIM minor must provide a Personal Statement*. Please send via email to engrleadership@engr.psu.edu.

Personal Statement

As part of the ELIM graduate minor application process, please provide a Personal Statement that includes a 2 - 3-page essay, demonstrating your written communication skills, with the following information: 

• Statement of purpose: career and educational goals.
• Narrative describing your leadership and innovation experiences through summer internships, summer employment, co-op experiences, community engagement, professional societies, etc.
• Narrative describing your professional experience in an engineering position (or equivalent) to meet the 1-year requirement. Students wishing to enter the program directly from an undergraduate degree can fulfill the 1-year requirement for engineering experience through summer internships, summer employment, or co-op experiences plus additional experience within professional societies.

You will be notified by email regarding an admission decision. If you are admitted into the ELIM minor you will then need to complete the Request to Add Graduate Minor Form. 

Please obtain the required signature from your major program prior to obtaining the required signature from the ELIM minor program. The ELIM program will keep a copy of the form on record. For students enrolled through World Campus, please have your major program send the signed form through campus mail to: Engineering Leadership and Innovation Management Program, 213 Hammond Building. The ELIM program will then forward the signed form to the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School.

Courses

The minor consists of the same four courses as the ELIM Graduate Certificate:

• ENGR 501- Engineering Leadership for Corporate Innovation 
• ENGR 802- Engineering Across Cultures and Nations 
• ENGR 804- Engineering Product Innovation 
• ENGR 405- Project Management for Professionals**

*The Personal Statement is waived for students enrolled in the Great Valley MEM program. 

**Related courses may be substituted for ENGR 405 per an approved list of courses by the Engineering Leadership Development Office at engrleadership@engr.psu.edu.