Curriculum - MIT GradEl

Program

Curriculum

Hone your skills.

GradEL offers a selection of impactful courses designed to help students achieve new levels of personal and professional success across technical disciplines. The skills developed in these courses are further strengthened through interactive workshops throughout the year and a range of qualifying courses offered in partnership with other MIT departments.

“It would be great to have these courses as a requirement for any advanced degree.”

– Odai Elyas, Course 1 PhD


To earn the Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership, you must meet the following criteria

  1. Complete the GradEL course 6.9280 Leading Creative Teams with at least a B grade.
  2. Complete 12 or more units from any of the Qualifying Graduate Courses with at least a B grade. Teams with at least a B grade.
  3. Attend at least 4 GradEL Workshops.

GradEL Courses

These courses are open to all MIT graduate students.

6.9280 Leading Creative Teams* Fall & Spring
6.9260 Multi-Stakeholder Negotiation for Technical Experts Spring
6.9270 Negotiation & Influence Skills for Technical Leaders Fall
6.9250 Leadership - People, Products, Projects Spring
6.S630 Personal Engineering Leadership Development Plan Seminar Fall 2H
6.S640 Unpacking Impact: Transforming Research into Real-World Solutions Spring
TBA Innovating for Improvement TBA
TBA Engineering Leadership Practicum TBA

* Required to earn the certificate

Qualifying Graduate Courses

This list includes all GradEL courses as well as courses offered in partnership with other MIT departments. Students must complete at least 12 units from among these courses while achieving at least a B grade as part of the Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership requirements.

Communicating and Negotiating

6.9260 Multi-Stakeholder Negotiation for Technical Experts Spring
6.9270 Negotiation & Influence Skills for Technical Leaders Fall
15.281 Advanced Leadership Communications
15.665 Power and Negotiation

Implementing and Deploying Solutions

TBA Innovating for Improvement TBA
15.761 Introduction to Operations Management
EM.413 Foundations of System Design and Management III
IDS.341/16.355 Concepts in the Engineering of Software
STS.482[J] Science, Technology, and Public Policy

Leadership Fundamentals

6.9280 Leading Creative Teams* Fall & Spring
6.S630 Personal Engineering Leadership Development Plan Seminar Fall 2H
TBA Engineering Leadership Practicum TBA
15.270 Ethical Practice: Leading Through Professionalism, Social Responsibility, and System Design
15.310 People, Teams, and Organizations
15.318 Discovering your Leadership Signature
15.321 Improvisational Leadership: In the Moment Leadership Skills
15.386 Leading in Ambiguity: Steering Through Strategic Inflection Points

Leading Design and Development Projects

2.739/15.783 Product Design and Development
6.9250 Leadership - People, Products, Projects Spring
10.807/15.371 Innovation Teams

Strategic Thinking and Visioning

6.S640 Unpacking Impact: Transforming Research into Real-World Solutions Spring
15.374 Organizing for Innovation
16.887/EM.427 Technology Roadmapping and Development
IDS.522 Mapping and Evaluating New Energy Technologies

Understanding and Shaping Organizations

15.320 Strategic Organizational Design
15.341 Individuals, Groups, and Organizations
16.855/EM.429/IDS.336 System Architecting Applied to Enterprises

GradEL Workshops

These one-off workshops are led by a wide range of instructors and held at least four times per semester. They are open to all MIT grad students. Students must attend at least 4 workshops as part of the Graduate Certificate in Technical Leadership requirements.