A life-long opportunity: Alumni education
Michigan Engineering Online & Professional Education offers flexible learning opportunities led by experts from industry and academia.
Michigan Engineering News
College graduation is one of life’s big finish lines. But for Michigan Engineering grads, it’s also a beginning—the beginning of membership in one of the largest and most active alumni networks in the world. And one of the benefits of that membership is access to world class lifelong learning opportunities with Michigan Engineering Online & Professional Education (ME-OPE).
ME-OPE (formerly known as Nexus) fuels continuing development with flexible education opportunities such as professional education certificates and online degree programs. And because flexibility is key to busy alums, ME-OPE works to meet working professionals where they are.
Skill growth for full-time professionals
More than 35 ME-OPE certificate courses vary in length from single-day to a full year, and are offered both in-person and online. Courses cover subjects like human factors engineering, Six Sigma, Lean thinking, project management, leadership and many more.
After completing both a Bachelor and Master of Science, alumni Jeremy Brill chose to continue learning with Michigan Engineering. Through an online course, he earned his Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification while growing in his career.
“As a designer in healthcare, learning new methods and approaches is key to solving complex problems,” Brill said . “Healthcare is constantly adapting and changing—it is important for me to grow with it.
“Having the option to continue my learning at Michigan has been a tremendous opportunity. My experience has been great. The format, resources, and tools allow me to learn on my schedule. In addition, the professors have been highly responsive providing feedback and opportunities to tailor my learning to my area of interest.”
Expert instructors from industry and academia
ME-OPE also emphasizes instructional excellence. Professional education instructors come from both industry and academia. Each instructor is passionate about their course curriculum and invested in supporting professionals who want to grow their skill sets.
Industrial and operations engineering alumna Lisa Thee recently worked with the ME-OPE team to design and launch a new certificate course: Responsible AI.
“Creating the University of Michigan Engineering’s Responsible AI course with the team has been incredibly fulfilling,” Thee said. “Reflecting on my experience as an AI for Good solution owner with a large tech company, entrepreneur, and management consultant, I am so glad I can take my real world experience deploying AI systems at scale and share that wisdom to empower business leaders globally to succeed in the age of AI.”
Thee is one of many ME-OPE instructors who share their expertise through professional education.
Flexible degree programs
The College offers five masters degrees that are available both online and on campus: Automotive Engineering, Energy Systems Engineering, Global Automotive & Manufacturing Engineering, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering & Design.
Recent master’s graduate Brynna Kelly completed her degree online in Fall 2024.
“I chose Michigan Engineering for my graduate degree because of their great reputation in industry,” said Kelly.” I knew I wanted to study manufacturing and Michigan was the best name for this degree! I was able to look through the curriculum online and fell in love with all of the course offerings available for online students. Of the universities I looked into, Michigan had the largest selection of online-available courses.”
Earning her degree online worked well for Kelly, who was able to continue working while learning. “I took six credits per semester, two to three semesters per year while working full time. The schedule was very manageable thanks to the online-friendly design of the courses. All of my professors were very understanding of career demands and the courses I took provided many opportunities to integrate my job-specific knowledge into my courses. The Michigan Engineering programs are designed with working students in mind! The workload was as expected for a high-quality master’s degree but the hours spent were well worth it!”