{"id":5156,"date":"2024-08-20T12:46:37","date_gmt":"2024-08-20T12:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/?p=5156"},"modified":"2024-11-18T14:06:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T14:06:53","slug":"systems-engineering-masters-concentration-with-dual-mba-fits-the-big-thinking-career-graduate-has-in-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/systems-engineering-masters-concentration-with-dual-mba-fits-the-big-thinking-career-graduate-has-in-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Systems engineering master\u2019s concentration with dual MBA fits the big thinking career graduate has in mind\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mia Reed traces her path to a career in engineering  to the time her grandmother needed heart surgery and was offered a mechanical artery as an option, something a younger Reed had never heard of and that prompted her to go research the technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought, this would be really cool to make these,\u201d Reed said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Louisiana State University, she started out by focusing on robotics with the idea of a career in developing prosthetics. But while she liked robots \u2013 she was on her school\u2019s combat robotics team \u2013  her robotics classwork didn\u2019t intrigue her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through a summer internship with Collins Aerospace in Colorado Springs, Colo., she found that she really liked the aerospace field. She switched to materials engineering with a focus on composites common to the aerospace industry. That led to an internship and a full-time job with Lockheed Martin in New Orleans, her hometown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now an engineer with the digital twins team at Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Reed is planning a career where she becomes a team manager on the way to an executive position making strategic decisions on her company\u2019s future. To help her make those goals a reality, she chose Purdue University\u2019s 100% dual online Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Engineering with a concentration in systems engineering and Master\u2019s of Business Administration dual degree program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She considered pursuing a master\u2019s in engineering management, but after talking with colleagues and mentors saw advantages in earning a technical engineering master\u2019s first and an MBA down the road. Then, she found out about Purdue\u2019s dual degree program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was like, I can have classes that count for both, so save time and money, and get two degrees,\u201d Reed said. \u201cLet\u2019s do it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A coworker once told her that she \u201cneeded a bumper sticker,\u201d that is a catch phrase capturing what she was all about. His was \u201cthe guy you call when no one else can solve the problem.\u201d Reed decided that hers is \u201cthe person you call to get it set up right the first time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She likes looking at the big picture, being involved early in the process, figuring out how everything is going to function harmoniously. Purdue\u2019s concentration in systems engineering was a great fit for the career she has in mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSystems engineering is looking at the entire problem not just one part,\u201d Reed said. \u201cYou know a car has a bunch of parts, it has a motor, it has a transmission, it has doors and seats, and all that. I like looking at the larger picture and figuring out how things are going to work together. That’s why I did systems engineering.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The online option allowed her to work on the two degrees while working full-time and the program\u2019s flexibility, and its numerous elective course options, let her tailor her coursework in large part to her interests and career needs, and to her preference for project-based learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy classes did not have live class times I had to show up to, and my schedule was kind of nuts with work and things, so being able to watch lectures when I could was very, very helpful to me,\u201d Reed said. \u201cAlso, you had so many options in the classes you can take, and I really enjoyed that. You basically get to create your own degree.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being able to pick and choose some of her courses didn\u2019t mean the curriculum wasn\u2019t rigorous. Reed talked about spending 40 hours over a Thanksgiving break fighting to get one math-intensive project moving ahead. But there was always help available when she needed it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe professors were really good about making sure you understood they were there, you could pop in on Zoom for office hours and talk to them just like you could pop in on campus,\u201d Reed said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The professors were really good about making sure you understood they were there, you could pop in on Zoom for office hours and talk to them just like you could pop in on campus.<\/p>\n\n <\/blockquote>\n

Mia Reed<\/p>\n

Interdisciplinary Engineering\/Dual Degree<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Faculty also were good about facilitating student project and study groups and Reed thinks she benefitted from interacting with fellow students from around the country and the world, from different backgrounds, and in career stages ranging from just out of undergraduate to decades of experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never felt isolated,\u201d said Reed, who received her Purdue engineering master\u2019s in May 2024 and went on to complete her MBA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about Purdue\u2019s fully online dual master\u2019s in Interdisciplinary Engineering and MBA program, visit the program website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mia Reed traces her path to a career in engineering\u00a0 to the time her grandmother needed heart surgery and was offered a mechanical artery as an option, something a younger Reed had never heard of and that prompted her to go research the technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"area-of-study":[],"person":[],"class_list":["post-5156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mia_reed_family.jpg",1800,1200,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mia_reed_family.jpg",1800,1200,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mia_reed_family.jpg",1800,1200,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mia_reed_family-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mia_reed_family-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mia_reed_family-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mia_reed_family-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mia_reed_family.jpg",1800,1200,false],"rt_custom":["https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/mia_reed_family.jpg",1800,1200,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Greg Kline","author_link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/author\/gkline\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Mia Reed traces her path to a career in engineering\u00a0 to the time her grandmother needed heart surgery and was offered a mechanical artery as an option, something a younger Reed had never heard of and that prompted her to go research the technology.\u00a0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5156"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5298,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156\/revisions\/5298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5156"},{"taxonomy":"area-of-study","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/area-of-study?post=5156"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=5156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}