The most flexible area of specialization, the Applied Operations Research concentration, requires no specific electives giving students the opportunity to pursue different interests within the curriculum. The engineering design project is done as the MEng project in ORIE 5980. Teams form in October and team composition is based on obtaining an appropriate mix of skills and student preferences.

Each project has a sponsor — a corporation, governmental agency, or other enterprise. Each team visits its sponsor to:

• Learn about the context of the project
• Define the project's goals
• Get to know key individuals
• Plan how the team will proceed with its project.

This process continues throughout the fall semester and ends in a written project proposal submitted to the corporate sponsor before the fall semester ends.

Students return to campus in early January, about two weeks before the beginning of the spring semester. They spend these two weeks working full-time on their projects which they continue to work on throughout the spring semester. Each project team meets with a faculty advisor once a week to review its progress and its plans. Communication and additional visits with the corporate sponsor can be frequent or infrequent, depending on needs and circumstances. At the end of the spring semester, students make an oral presentation of their project to the corporate sponsor. The team also submits a written project report that is bound and archived.