Use big data and models to assess risk and guide decisions
Mitigating losses and human impacts to a range of extreme events, including financial, public health, environmental, and climatalogical crises is far more cost-effective than paying for recovery, remediation, and reconstruction.
Duke's Master of Engineering (MEng) in Risk Engineering emphasizes a systems approach and the use of statistical decision theory to assess the potential for extreme events, and the costs and benefits of their consequences.
“We’re seeing events that we could have never previously predicted. Society needs to create systems that are robust in case things don’t turn out exactly as we expect.”
Mark Borsuk |Co-director, Duke Risk Engineering Program
Career Areas
Graduates from this program will be prepared to work in:
- Risk assessment
- Engineering and business consulting
- Insurance
- Financial engineering
- Infrastructure analysis, and more
Scholarships
We offer significant support for competitive applicants—typical scholarships range from
$20,000-$30,000
Concentration Areas
Our students explore concentration areas including:
- Energy and Climate Systems
- Environment and Population Health
- Financial Risk
- Materials and Structures
Degree requirements
- 30 course credits
- 1 Seminar
- Internship Opportunity
How to Apply
Application deadlines:
- For fall entry, visit the Duke Engineering MEng website »
Who Should Consider Applying?
- Practicing engineers and scientists with backgrounds in civil, environmental, or another branch of engineering who wish to earn a master’s degree providing them with expertise in risk analysis, added competence in an engineering specialty, proficiency in risk policy, economics, or law, and advanced leadership and management skills
- Duke undergraduates who wish to participate in a 4+1: BSE+Master’s program that builds on, and complements, their undergraduate education
- Other recent undergraduates in engineering (or a related mathematical or physical sciences, with appropriate catch-up courses) who wish to obtain a non-thesis master’s degree in preparation for professional work or as a first step towards subsequent graduate study.
How A Master's in Risk Engineering Will Differentiate You in Your Career
- Engineering positions in model-based risk assessment increasingly require masters-level training.
- Analysis and management of risks in the modern world requires knowledge of the economic, policy, and societal context, in addition to the technical and mathematical foundations.
- Expertise in probabilistic modeling, data analysis, risk assessment, and decision-making under uncertainty is critically important to a broad range of academic, industrial, and governmental career paths.
- Graduates from this program will be prepared to work in a wide variety of sectors including risk assessment, engineering and business consulting, insurance and re-insurance industry, financial engineering, and infrastructure analysis, among others.
- Students completing the program will be well-prepared to continue to doctoral programs in systems engineering, financial engineering, operations research, or infrastructure engineering.
Learn from World Leaders in the Field
Our faculty brings experience and expertise from engineering and data science. Leaders of the Master of Engineering in Risk Engineering are:
Mark Borsuk
Research interests include mathematical models for integrating scientific information on natural, technical, and social systems; Bayesian network modeling with application to environmental and human health regulation and decision-making; and novel approaches to climate change assessment.
Henri Gavin
Research interests include structural dynamics, earthquake engineering, seismic hazard mitigation for building contents, nonlinear dynamics, system identification, optimal control with application to systems with controllable damping.
Johann Guilleminot
Research focuses on uncertainty quantification, computational mechanics and materials science, as well as on topics at the interface between these fields.
Program Details
The Master of Engineering in Risk Engineering is a 30-credit degree distributed as:
- Core Industry Preparation Courses (6 credits)
- Core Engineering Courses (6 credits)
- Methodological Requirements (9 credits)
- Technical Electives in a Concentration Area (9 credits)
- Internship, Project or Equivalent (0 credits)
- Curriculum and Requirements
I. Course Requirements in Business Fundamentals, Leadership and Management (6 credits; 2 courses)
- MENG 540: Management of High Tech Industries (3 credits)
- MENG 570: Business Fundamentals for Engineers (3 credits)
II. Core Course Requirements in Uncertainty, Risk, and Systems Engineering (6 credits; 2 courses)
- CEE 690: Risk and Resilience Engineering (3 credits)
- EGRMGMT 580: Decision Models
III. Methodological Requirements (9 credits; 3 courses, each from a different area of:)
- Mathematical Modeling and Optimization
- CEE 690: Numerical Optimization
- PHYS 513: Nonlinear Dynamics
- MATH 551: Applied Partial Differential Equations and Complex Variables
- MATH 555: Ordinary Differential Equations
- MATH 561: Numerical Linear Algebra, Optimization and Monte Carlo Simulation
- MATH 577: Mathematical Modeling
- Or another Engineering, Math, or Physics course at the 500 level or above with significant mathematical modeling or optimization content (approval required)
- CEE 644: Inverse Problems in Geosciences and Engineering
- CEE 690: Uncertainty Quantification
- ECE 555: Probability for Electrical and Computer Engineers
- ECE 581: Random Signals and Noise
- ECE 585: Signal Detection and Extraction Theory
- COMPSCI 571: Machine Learning
- COMPSCI 579: Statistical Data Mining
- MATH 541: Applied Stochastic Processes
- STA 502: Bayesian Inference & Decision
- STA 601: Bayesian and Modern Statistics
- STA 611: Introduction to Modern Statistics
- STA 623: Statistical Decision Theory
- Or another Engineering, Math, Statistics, or Computer Science course at the 500 level or above with significant uncertainty analysis, probability, statistics, or data science content (approval required)
- Valuation, Assessment, and Decision Making
- CEE 679: Environmental Engineering Project Management
- ENERGY 590: Applied Energy Economics
- ECON 753: Natural Resource Economics
- ENVIRON 520/521: Resource and Environmental Economics
- ENVIRON 638: Environmental Life Cycle Analysis & Decision
- ENVIRON 717: Markets for Electric Power
- ENVIRON 640: Climate Change Economics
- Or another Engineering, Economics, or Environment course at the 500 level or above with significant economic, evaluation, or decision content (approval required)
- Policy Analysis
- PUBPOL 504: Counterterrorism Law and Policy
- PUBPOL 505S: National Security Decision-Making
- PUBPOL 580S: Water Cooperation and Conflict
- PUBPOL 582: Global Environmental Health: Economics and Policy
- PUBPOL 583S: Energy and U.S. National Security
- PUBPOL 585: Climate Change Economics and Policy
- PUBPOL 607: Cost-Benefit Analysis for Health and Environmental Policy
- LAW 590: Risk Regulation
- Or another Engineering, Public Policy, or Law course at the 500 level or above with significant policy or law content (approval required)
IV. Concentration Area Requirements (9 credits; 3 courses)
- Environment and Population Health
- CEE 560: Environmental Transport Phenomena
- CEE 561: Environmental Aquatic Chemistry
- CEE 563: Fate and Behavior of Organic Contaminants
- CEE 571: Control of Hazardous and Toxic Waste
- CEE 581: Pollutant Transport Systems
- CEE 667: Chemical Transformations of Environmental Contaminants
- CEE 683: Groundwater Hydrology and Contaminant Transport
- CEE 684: Physical Hydrology and Hydrometeorology
- ENVIRON 539: Human Health & Ecological Risk Assessment
- ENVIRON 563: Cost-Benefit Analysis for Health and Environmental Policy
- Materials and Structures
- CEE 525. Wave Propagation in Elastic and Poroelastic Media
- CEE 621. Plasticity
- CEE 642. Environmental Geomechanics
- CEE 520. Continuum Mechanics
- ME 527. Buckling of Engineering Structures
- ME 555. Computational Materials Science
- ME 742. Nonlinear Mechanical Vibration
- BME 590. Viscoelastic Biomechanics
- Energy and Climate Systems
- CEE 575: Air Pollution Control Engineering
- ENERGY 716: Modeling for Energy Systems
- ENERGY 711: Energy and the Environment
- ENERGY 630: Transportation and Energy
- ENERGY 631: Energy Technology and Impact on the Environment
- ENERGY 635: Energy Economics and Policy
- EOS 512: Climate Change and Climate Modeling
- Financial Risk
- Two courses from the Duke FinTech Technology Track
- One course from among the following:
- ECON 571: Financial Markets and Investments
- ECON 572: Asset Pricing & Risk Management
- ECON 623: Forecasting Financial Markets
- ECON 671: Financial Markets and Investments
- ECON 672: Empirical Methods in High-Frequency Financial Econometrics
- ECON 673: Mathematical Finance
- ECON 674: Financial Derivatives
- ECON 678: Derivatives for Speculation and Risk Management
- ECON 823: Forecasting Financial Markets
- Or another Engineering, Financial Technology, or Economics course at the 500 level or above with significant quantitative finance content (approval required).
V. An internship, applied research experience or project (0 credits)
- MENG 550: Internship or Applied Research Project
- MENG 551: Internship/Project Assessment
Sample Curriculum: MEng in Risk Engineering
(This table does not reflect choice of specialization.)
| Fall Year 1 | Spring Year 1 | Summer Year 1 | Fall Year 2 | |
| Core Industry Preparation Courses | MENG 570: Business Fundamentals for Engineers | MENG 540: Leadership & Management Principles for Technology-Based Organizations | MENG 550: Internship or Applied Research Project | MENG 551: Internship/Project Assessment |
| Core Requirements | EGRMGMT 580: Decision Models | CEE 690: Risk and Resilience Engineering | ||
| Departmental Requirements | Methodological Requirements | Methodological Requirements | Methodological Requirements | |
| Departmental Requirements | Application Area Requirements | Application Area Requirements | Application Area Requirements |