作为一个全球社会，我们面临着复杂的挑战，需要创新的，多方面的解决方案，这些解决方案只能从跨不同学科和规模的工作中分离，理解和解决人与系统要素。设计工程硕士（MDE）计划是由两家学校（哈佛大学设计研究生院（GSD）和哈佛大学约翰·保尔森工程与应用科学学院（SEAS））共同构思和建造的。通过培训新一代创新者来满足这些关键需求。GSD拥有悠久，杰出的历史，曾培养过世界上最佳的建筑，景观和城市环境设计师，而SEAS长期以来在工程，基础科学和创新领域培养了卓越的才能。MDE程序将GSD的分析，可视化，概念询问和开放
The Master in Design Engineering (MDE) program prepares the next generation of leaders to create transformative solutions that positively impact society. The integrated fields of design and engineering are uniquely positioned to address the world's toughest challenges. Our world faces increasingly complex, often unpredictable dilemmas of consequence to human lives and living environments, including rapid urbanization, ecological changes, and resource scarcity. These and other problems demand a deep understanding of the underlying problem architecture, which in turn enables innovative, multi-faceted solutions that transcend disciplines and scales. By bridging the gaps between academic fields and practical, real-world stakeholders, the MDE program prepares a new generation of innovators who operate both creatively and analytically, think strategically, and collaborate broadly. MDE graduates are capable of leading change and advancing novel, real-world solutions. The newly integrated fields of design and engineering are uniquely positioned to address challenges that involve interactions of natural, social, and informational systems. The design engineering toolkit encompasses multi-layered, analytical approaches, networked objects and environments, soft and hard infrastructures, and strategic plans, all of which can be applied to address grand challenges and mitigate threats to our built and natural environment. Never before have two Harvard schools established a collaborative degree of this nature, built from the ground up by design and engineering faculty, and guided by an External Advisory Board of industry leaders. The structure of the program, from its curriculum to community, is designed to foster interaction and critical thinking across disciplines, which in turn means graduates better equipped to face complex problems.