Oliver Gao is a professor in the graduate fields of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Systems Engineering, Cornell Institute of Public Affairs (CIPA), and Air Quality in Earth and Atmospheric Science at Cornell University. His research focuses on transportation systems, environment (especially air quality and climate change), energy, and sustainable development. Dr. Gao also studies sustainable food systems, quantifying and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from food supply chains. His research projects include work focused on green supply chain initiatives, including alternative commuter transportation models which are more convenient and energy efficient.
Cornell’s Engineering Management program is designed for working professionals who want to enhance their engineering leadership skills and accelerate their careers. Delivered part-time over two years, this flexible distance learning program empowers you to earn a Cornell degree while continuing to work full-time.
The program includes annual one-week intensive sessions held on Cornell’s campus in Ithaca, NY. During these sessions, you’ll have the opportunity to connect with a cohort of high-potential engineering leaders, Cornell faculty, and industry practitioners.
The program is structured around three core areas:
- Leadership: Master project management, team leadership, and strategies for guiding high-performing, high-velocity teams to success.
- Business Acumen: Build expertise in data and decision analytics, finance, and operations management, equipping you with tools and techniques to elevate your impact within your organization.
- Innovation and Disruption: Learn to lead with design thinking and foster a culture of innovation through courses in entrepreneurship and technology management, enabling you to stay ahead in your field.
A Top-Ranked Program
Recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Best Online Master’s in Engineering Management Programs, Cornell’s MEM equips you with the skills and connections to thrive in today’s dynamic engineering landscape.
The online and asynchronous courses are delivered through a course management system. You will have access to course materials, high-quality videos, assignments, and communication tools in one place.
During the first summer, you will take a one-credit pass/fail course (Python and Data Visualization).
CORE COURSES
- Project Management
- Engineering Management Project
- Data Analytics
- Economics and Finance for Engineering Management
- Decision Framing and Analytics
- Managing a Culture of Innovation
- Introduction to Python Basics
- Residential Session 1
- Professional Development Workshop
ELECTIVE COURSES
- Economics of the Energy Transition
- Product Management
- Negotiations and Contracts for Engineering Managers
- Contemporary Challenges for Engineering Managers
- Learning to Lead
- Special Topics in Transportation: Managing Transportation Systems
- Microeconomics of Discrete Choice
- Engineering Smart Cities
- Design Thinking for Complex Systems
There is a one-week required summer session held annually on the Cornell campus in Ithaca, New York where you can immerse yourself in campus life, while building life-long connections with your online learning cohort.
How It Works
FEATURED FACULTY

Andrea Ippolito is a lecturer in the Engineering Management Program at Cornell University as well as the founder and Director of Women Entrepreneurs Cornell (W.E. Cornell). Additionally, she is currently the founder and CEO of SimpliFed, a company supporting every family on the baby-feeding journey.
Prior to joining Cornell, Ms. Ippolito served as the Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Innovators Network within the VA Center for Innovation. She completed her M.S. in Engineering and Management at MIT. Prior to MIT, Ms. Ippolito worked as a research scientist within the Corporate Technology Development group at Boston Scientific. She obtained both her B.S. in Biological Engineering in 2006 and Master’s of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering in 2007 from Cornell University.
Robert Newman’s teaching focuses on developing critical skills for leadership, including: emotional intelligence, individual and team behavior, conflict management and other soft-skills for project managers; business savvy, effective communication, economic analysis, negotiation prowess, managing contracts and IP, ethics, and engineering management decision making.
Prior to joining Cornell, Robert has over 20 years experience as a successful manager with an outstanding track record of delivering organization development and growth at global providers of technology, capital equipment, consumables, and support services at world-leading organizations. He successfully managed the integration of teams following four acquisitions, and performed a very successful business turn around.
Prior experience includes CEO of MiTeGen, a manufacturer of consumables and instrumentation for biotech; COO of AeroFarms LLC, a start-up company providing capital equipment for controlled environment agriculture; Business Manager of Service and Customer Support at Mettler Toledo Hi-Speed, North America’s leading manufacturer of checkweighers and integrated product inspection solutions; and as Vice President of Customer Support and Implementation at Moldflow Corp., the global leader in CAE for polymer processing, hot runner controllers, and related injection molding and production monitoring equipment.
Undergraduate degrees from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and an MBA in International Management, from Baker College.
Linda Nozick is Professor and Director of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. She is co-founder and a past director of the College Program in Systems Engineering and has been the recipient of several awards, including a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Clinton for “the development of innovative solutions to problems associated with the transportation of hazardous waste.” Dr. Nozick has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications, many focused on transportation, the movement of hazardous materials, and the modeling of critical infrastructure systems. She has been an associate editor for Naval Research Logistics and a member of the editorial board of Transportation Research Part A. Dr. Nozick has served on two National Academy Committees to advise the U.S. Department of Energy on renewal of their infrastructure. During the 1998-1999 academic year, she was a Visiting Associate Professor in the Operations Research Department at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Dr. Nozick holds a B.S. in Systems Analysis and Engineering from the George Washington University and an MSE and Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Reed received his Bachelors of Science in Geological Engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla in 1997. He then continued his graduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he graduated with his PhD in 2002. Dr. Reed’s first 11 years as a faculty (2002-2013) where at The Pennsylvania State University in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. During his time at Penn State, Dr. Reed garnered a number of honors including the U.S. National Science Foundation’s CAREER award (2007), the ASCE/EWRI Outstanding Achievement Award (2008), and the ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize (2012) for his leadership in advancing multiobjective systems design and decision support.
Since joining Cornell in 2013, Dr. Reed is now the endowed Joseph C. Ford Professor of Engineering in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research group is advancing multiobjective systems engineering, decision analytics for complex systems, and adaptation of water-energy infrastructure systems to better confront deeply uncertain climate change risks and growing human pressures. His research contributions in these areas have garnered more recent major honors, which include being selected as the International Environmental Modelling & Software Society Biennial Medalist and Society Fellow (2016), the American Geophysical Union (AGU)’s Paul A. Witherspoon Lecture Award for Exceptional Mid-Career Research Achievement (2019), the Association for Computing Machinery Gold Medalist for a Human Competitive ‘Humies’ breakthrough discovery (2020), and election as an AGU Fellow (2022).
Dr. Reed is now focused on advancing our ability to navigate the tradeoffs and synergies in confronting climate change, energy transitions, and sustainability development goals. Dr. Reed is seeking to transform our critical water and energy infrastructures and better map the interconnected risks that shape their deeply uncertain dynamics. He is harnessing emerging computational, data, and algorithmic breakthroughs to advance our understanding of complex adaptive human-Earth systems and our candidate pathways to a sustainable future. In support of these goals, Dr. Reed has served as a chapter author on the Complex Systems chapters of the 4th and 5th U.S. National Climate Assessments, as a facilitator in the development of the MultiSector Dynamics Community of Practice, as a member of the congressionally chartered U.S. Department of Energy’s Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee, and his role as an Editor in AGU’s Earth’s Future transdisciplinary Gold Open Access journal.

Dirk Swart’s teaching focuses on developing critical skills for leadership, including: negotiation, emotional intelligence, individual and team behavior, conflict management and problem solving, managing contracts and IP, ethics, and engineering management decision making.
Dirk has over 20 years experience as a technical entrepreneur and is currently the CEO of Zynect, an embedded sensor company based in Ithaca NY. He co-founded Zynect in 2010, has raised over $2.4m in funding and brought over 20 successful embedded products from concept to market. Prior to that he was a visiting fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future.
Degrees include a BBusSc (Computer Science) from the University of Cape Town and an MA from Tuft’s Fletcher School. His thesis title was: More Voice but Less Say: An analysis of North-South Trade Agreements. His thesis supervisor was Adil Najam.



Who Should Apply
- Working professionals with at least two years of engineering experience
- Engineers aspiring to lead teams or oversee projects
- Engineers with ambitions to start their own businesses
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