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Undergraduate Curriculum
Tuesday, 04 October 2005
The ORFE Undergraduate program may be considered as the modern form of a liberal education: modern because it is based on science and technology, and liberal in the sense that it provides for broad intellectual development and can lead to many different types of careers. By choosing judiciously from courses in engineering, economics, public policy, and liberal arts, each student may design a program adapted to his or her particular interests.
 
All students start from a common academic core consisting of statistics, probability and stochastic processes, and optimization. Related courses focus on developing computer skills and exposing students to applications in areas such as finance, operations, transportation, and logistics. Students augment the core program with a coherent sequence of technical electives combined with supporting courses drawn from a long list of program electives.

Students may also design specialized programs which must be reviewed and approved by their academic adviser and the Director of Undergraduate Studies/Departmental Representative. Students often draw on courses from economics, computer science, applied mathematics, civil and environmental engineering, mechanical engineering, and the Woodrow Wilson School.

Planning Overview

The Yellow Pages Academic Guide is an annually updated PDF document for your reference available for download. The document outlines the planning process in great detail, highlights some former thesis topics and spotlights what some of our current students are doing now. Please refer to this document for more information.

The student's program is planned in consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies/Departmental Representative and the student's adviser and requires a thesis or independent project. With departmental approval, the exceptional student who wishes to go beyond the science and engineering requirements may also select other courses to replace some of the required courses in order to add emphasis in another field of engineering or the sciences.


In addition to the engineering school requirements, there are three components to the curriculum, the Core Requirements, the Departmental Electives and the choice between a Senior Thesis or Independent Project. During the course of study, students in the department also participate in various Certificate Programs and might utilize a Research Facility.

Please see the Yellow Pages Academic Guide for a full list of the current Core Requirements, Departmental Electives and Senior Thesis/Independent Project topics.
 

Certificate Programs and Research Facilities

Students in the department often participate in the following certificate programs and may also utilize research laboratories to further their study. Further details on the particular programs and research facilities may also be found in the Yellow Pages Academic Guide as well.

Certificate in Finance. Provided in cooperations with the Bendheim Center.

Certificate Program in Engineering and Management Systems. The department sponsors a certificate program for students majoring in other departments who complete a significant part of the core of the undergraduate program.

Certificate in Applied and Computational Mathematics. Students seeking a strong mathematical foundation can combine courses from the department with supporting courses which develop more fundamental mathematical skills.

Program in Applications of Computing.

Program in Robotics and Intelligent Systems

Computational and Stochastic Transportation and Logistics Engineering Laboratory. The CASTLE Laboratory works on problems in dynamic resource management with ongoing projects in chemical distribution, railroads, trucking, and the airlift mobility command. Through this lab, students gain access to data and specialized tools to aid them in their research into transportation and logistics.

Financial Engineering Laboratory. This facility provides students with access to specialized software packages and to financial data and news services. Research in the laboratory is concerned with the analysis of the various forms of financial risk and the development of new financial instruments intended to control the risk exposure of insurance and reinsurance companies.

Transportation Information and Decision Engineering Center. The TIDE Center conducts research on information and decision engineering technologies and on how these technologies can be used to improve transportation-related decision making. It is a cooperative effort involving Princeton University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Rutgers University. It is sponsored by the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology under its Research and Development Excellence Program.

Optimization Tools and Models Library. The OPTOMO Library is an Internet-based library that provides students with access to a large collection of important real-world optimization models, together with state-of-the-art tools for solving them.

 
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About ORFE
Welcome to the Department of Operations Research & Financial Engineering, part of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University. ORFE is engineering for business, commerce, and industry.
Our students are innovators and entrepreneurs. They acquire the skills to become leaders in finance, information technology, management consulting, insurance, and operations planning. Our researchers develop the tools used to make better decisions, improve the performance of complex systems, and manage resources efficiently.
The Department was formed in 1999 and traces a distinguished history to activities at Princeton between 1930 and 1960.