Purdue Engineering Professional Courses

Purdue University’s online engineering professional development and noncredit course catalog offer a variety of specialty courses and course series that allow professionals to expand their knowledge and skills in specific areas to advance their careers or to shift into a new field, and meet the changing needs of their organizations. The online programs – including offerings in hot fields like data science and cybersecurity – are designed to be accessible to working professionals, fit into their busy lives, and in some cases, fulfill professional development requirements.

Healthcare Technology Series 

A series of three online healthcare technology courses for engineering students and professionals aspiring to a career in the healthcare industry or those currently employed in the field and looking to expand their knowledge. The series offers a comprehensive view of the healthcare system and the critical importance of the medical products industry in supporting the delivery of care. The curriculum covers analytical approaches to healthcare delivery including emerging techniques such as precision medicine, digital health, and artificial intelligence; medical device development and application from the clinical, technological, policy, and commercial market perspectives; and the fundamental changes the COVD-19 era has prompted in medical technology development (drugs and devices).

Building Water Essentials 

A research-backed online short course designed to give public health professionals, building owners, managers, and regulators a unified resource with the information they need to restore water systems idled or damaged, for example by long-term building shutdowns in situations such as a pandemic or disasters such as fires or floods. The self-paced course teaches participants how to identify, address and remediate issues such as the buildup of biological pathogens, including Legionella pnuemophila, which causes a bacterial form of pneumonia, and heavy metals, including lead and copper, so buildings can be reopened safely. The course material functions as an encyclopedia of information designed to be immediately applicable in the field.

Design for Security Badge

This four-course cybersecurity program covers the foundations of secure design and lifecycle planning for both applications and operations, highlighting security principles for the infrastructure as a whole and the security of the hardware and software that underlie the infrastructure. The courses also discuss constraints and processes needed to support operational security covering topics such as authentication, authorization, confidentiality, data integrity, accountability, availability, and non-repudiation requirements. The curriculum demonstrates the importance of taking security into account throughout the life of a system, from conception to retirement, not just in the implementation and deployment phases. 

Data Science Series

Purdue’s Data Science Series is a collection of four courses that ground students in data analysis and modeling algorithms and techniques, as well as data visualization, before teaching them more advanced methods for analyzing large amounts of data to improve decision-making, including some inspired by the human brain. The series also covers technology for deploying and for collecting, analyzing, making sense of, and making use of data from connected devices – often referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT) – such as sensor networks. Finally, the series takes a dive into state-of-the-art deep learning and machine learning algorithms and how to implement, tune and optimize brain-mimicking neural network systems for running those algorithms.

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MSBE) Foundations and Applications to the Production Enterprise

The online Model-Based Systems Engineering Foundations and Applications to the Production Enterprise series has been designed to meet the industry’s need for a workforce prepared to perform efficiently in a model-based digital enterprise, especially in a production engineering context. The Purdue program consists of a set of seven modules that can be taken as a group or as a subset consisting of only those modules that align with an individual’s job responsibilities,  and/or interests. The modules are asynchronous but instructor-facilitated, providing learners with an opportunity to interact with both the instructor ad other students. Learners will watch short videos, read materials provided, participate in guided discussions, and complete online quizzes, and other assignments.   Learners will earn a Purdue certificate after receiving a score of at least 80% on all required assignments.