Alternatively contact Karen Fishler, (206) 685-6447, kfishler@uw.edu
Announcement
The new degree prepares planners and managers to master methods and core skills required to sustain and ensure resiliency of major infrastructures against both man-made and natural disasters, including adaptation to imminent global challenges that range from climate change to mass urbanization, smart networks, the consequences of aging infrastructure, and extreme weather events. While graduate programs in infrastructure often examine one or two particular systems, the IPM program deepens understanding of the interdependency of the major infrastructures that sustain communities -energy, health, food, water, transportation and data/communications.
Students will learn a rigorous set of core planning, management, and governance methods, coupled with a set of technical skills including applied geospatial analysis, risk assessment, carbon accounting, project finance, epidemiology, business continuity planning, and emergency management. Application and mastery of these methods give graduates the ability to advance in a field where infrastructure continues to expand, age and require greater expertise to manage.
The program concludes with a multi-quarter project to allow participants to focus their mastery and application to the specific infrastructure systems and management challenges that suit their career interests, supported by our program's professors, instructors practicing in their respective fields, and a council of professionals with an interest in this degree. Program graduates will be able to plan, finance, and implement change to reduce vulnerability and enhance infrastructure resilience in the face of sea level rise, extreme weather events, water scarcity, desertification, food insecurity, health risks, cyberterrorism, and volatility in the energy sector from peak oil and climate change.
We anticipate interested applicants from government organizations, including those within and transitioning from the military; private sector organizations; nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); and infrastructure systems consultancies. We also anticipate that students from schools of business, architecture, engineering, planning, landscape architecture, urban design, real estate, public policy, construction management, and the natural sciences will find that this program complements their current education, offering significant and unique content and added value that warrants a separate graduate degree.
The first cohort for the new degree will begin in September. The application period will open this month; applicants will be accepted on a rolling basis beginning on March 15th. Applications will close on May 31st.
We will send out the application link, along with the link to our new website, this month - applicants will submit virtually all materials online, including two application forms (a short one to the Graduate School and another, longer one to the host department for the degree, the Department of Urban Design and Planning).
IPM Curriculum:
The IPM program will consist of 15 courses. Most students will complete the program in two years, but there will be an option to take one course at a time and earn the degree over four years, or a combination over three years.
First-Year Courses:
Core courses . . . to be taken first, along with or before the methods courses
• Introduction to Critical Infrastructures
• Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis
• Climate Change and Infrastructures
• Finance in Critical Infrastructures
Methods courses . . . to be taken along with or just after the core courses
• Risk Assessment and Business Continuity
• Applied Geospatial Analysis
• Epidemiology
• Comprehensive Emergency Management
Second-Year Courses:
Systems courses . . . (students must take at least a selection of 5 out of 6 courses, though they will be permitted to take all 6 if they wish)
• Energy Systems
• Water Systems
• Food Systems
• Transportation Systems
• Public Health Systems
• Communications and Cyberinfrastructure Systems
Capstone - 2 courses
