When asked about the MRSD program, recent graduates & current students responded:

I see applications for most, if not all, of the system engineering concepts learned during my Master’s on a daily basis. I cannot accentuate enough the importance/value of skills that I developed as part of the MRSD course.
– A. Goudar

I just completed an validation experiment-style live demo of the robot I built at my summer internship. It was a piece of cake after having such rigorous preparation during the project course.  I think my internship supervisors were surprised at the high level of system integration and cohesion of the demo. It speaks volumes about the quality and relevance of the MRSD project course to real world situations, and I’d ike to say thanks for preparing us so well.
– E. Terry

I have to draft budget requirements, scope, and personnel now. I’m seriously glad I took those business classes at CMU; I didn’t expect them to be so useful until right now.
– S. Ansari

[In my current job] I actually feel like I’m repeating [the] MRSD project with a different robot and a different team.  So kudos to the project course being realistic!
– S. Blass

[The] systems engineering course and business seminar are proving to be worth their weight in gold. If you wanted to send next year’s resume book to our internship coordinator, I think you’d find her quite receptive. Let me know when that time of year comes around.
– N. Chapman

I couldn’t be happier with the outcome [of my job search]. The day I was accepted into MRSD, my life changed. I wouldn’t be where I am without the hard work of this program and the people in it. I’m twice the engineer I was when I started this program.
– C. Gulino

First off, I’m having a better time than I could possibly have wished for. The work is amazing and my co-workers are unbelievably helpful and humble to a fault. I must say the timing for my internship was pretty perfect – the company just started a very ambitious five-year project and I’m playing an active role in shaping the design of this project.
My primary project involves designing a state-of-the-art state estimator; as part of this I have an opportunity to apply almost everything I did as part of my MRSD project and a large chunk of Robot Autonomy (and to some extent Manipulation/Mobility/Control). In the secondary (five-year) project I’m working on, we’re going through almost exactly the same motions I did as part of the system design phase of our MRSD project, but on a billion dollar scale. To be frank, it seems the people here didn’t really expect me to know this process, let alone contribute to its success!
– R. Sant

Thanks for an amazing education! If there’s ever anything I can do for you or the program, please let me know.
-A. Sher

I earned an internship at Microsoft as a Program Manager. I would really like to thank you, as this is a result of all the topics that were covered in the Systems Engineering class. Most of the questions that I was asked were based on concepts that MRSD taught me. The people at Microsoft said they were quite impressed by my consumer-based approach to every problem, which I believe is one of the key things that that class and the Business Seminar taught me.
-A. Sharma

Everything that I learned in MRSD is super useful these days, and I could not thank you enough.
-N. Soni

MRSD was a life-changing experience. I came with high ambitions and a good amount of tension, but I leave with a new set of ambitions, high confidence, and loads of wonderful memories.
-H. Suresh

“[The interviewer was] really impressed with the breadth of my knowledge in controls, planning, and perception. I wouldn’t have been able to develop all these skills without MRSD… Thank you.”
-R. Thakker