Undergraduate Certificate – About the Program
**ANNOUNCEMENT: Starting from the fall semester of 2027, the name of the certificate will change to Certificate in Science, Technology, and Society (STS)**
The Integrated Studies in Science, Engineering, and Society Undergraduate Certificate Program (ISSuES) offers undergraduate students an opportunity to interact with the social sciences and humanities in a way that emphasizes the relationship between science, technology, engineering and society.
ISSuES was designed to help engineering and natural science majors fulfill their liberal arts requirements, but is highly flexible and is available to all undergraduate students interested in exploring the complex interplay between science, technology, engineering and society.
Students enrolled in ISSuES will:
- Take interesting courses from across campus that will encourage them to think critically about the connection between science, technology and society.
- Get help choosing courses to fulfill the liberal arts requirements of their majors and their own personal educational goals.
- Have one-on-one contact with leading faculty from across campus.
- Interact with students and faculty interested in the broader impacts of social, political and ethical concerns related to engineering.
Engineering Undergraduates enrolled in ISSuES will:
- Use their required electives to gain the interdisciplinary skills necessary to become creative and effective engineers in a rapidly changing environment.
The ISSuES Undergraduate Certificate program requires a total of 12 credits.
All students enrolled in the ISSuES program take STS 201 “Where Science Meets Society,” a 3-credit course designed to give students the tools and language with which to approach the relationship between science, engineering and society in an integrated and interdisciplinary fashion. (STS 201 need not be the first certificate course you take.)
Students also complete 9 additional credits (typically 3 courses): an introductory course (3 credits) and two elective courses (6 credits). See the Course Guide for introductory and elective options.
Introductory and elective courses aim to provide students with the tools to rigorously consider the ethical, social and public policy issues that are raised by engineering and scientific research and by the commercialization of the products of that research.
Students in the ISSuES program will work with the Certificate Advisor (Holtz Center Associate Director) to create a course contract. This course contract is designed to help students fulfill the ISSuES Certificate requirements and the liberal elective requirements of their majors with a single set of classes. This certificate program will not typically increase a student’s time to graduation.
More information about program requirements and completion is available on the Continuing Students page.
More information about getting started is available on the Getting Started page.