The Department of Systems Engineering at Penn was formed from faculty in Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Operations Research, Industrial Engineering and other disciplines almost a decade ago. The force that binds us together is our intellectual curiosity concerning the design, integration, control, and management of large-scale systems as well as a rigorous approach to addressing these issues. Beyond our core quantitative focus, the department stresses the need to understand the philosophy underlying the analysis and design of such complex systems besides having deep knowledge of the workings of a real system. Thus, our research is both theoretical as practical, as attested to by the patents and awards garnered by the faculty. Weekly seminars, brownbag workshops, intramural sports, etc. make for a vibrant intellectual and social life for the students.
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