Overview
In 2006, the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley initiated a bold, new professional master's degree program – the Product Development Program (PDP). The central objective of the PDP is to fulfill the unmet need at the national and international levels for professionals with chemical engineering and related backgrounds in the chemical sciences who have knowledge and field experience in the complex process of transforming innovations into commercially successful products.
Within 9 months (with optional extensions), PDP graduates will gain exposure to real-world product development practices in a range of chemical process-intensive industries such as alternative energy, biotechnology, consumer products, microelectronics, nanoscience, and new ventures. As a professional degree program aimed at preparing its graduates for their careers, the PDP does not require a research thesis, but students find completing the extensive coursework and team-based field-project study assignment with a local company challenging. Students who successfully complete the program's graduation requirements will be awarded a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering.
Our 400+ PDP alumni have gone on to exciting new career opportunities in a diverse range of industries and companies such as: Abbott Laboratories, Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, Apple, Applied Materials, Baxter, Bloomberg, Dow, Facebook, Flextronics, Foxconn, Gilead Sciences, Illumina, Intel, Schlumberger, and many more. Several of our graduates have also launched successful start-up ventures that received substantial funding from the venture capital community.
The PDP is a proven alternative graduate school experience for those students with backgrounds in the chemical sciences who want to take a non-traditional path to building a fulfilling career.
PDP Fills A Specific Niche
By combining elements of advanced technical knowledge with focused business-related training, the PDP aims to fill a specific niche in the "choice space" of graduate education options for engineering graduates.
