SYSEN at Cornell University

A suggested order for the 50 courses on the map, built from prerequisite chains and how often each course has run in fall and spring across the last 12 regular terms. It is not the department’s plan, and it is not a promise a course will run. Confirm against the department’s own advising material.

Gateway courses

Each of these unlocks the largest share of downstream work on this map. Courses from other departments can appear here when they genuinely gate SYSEN coursework.

• ENGRD 2700Basic Engineering Probability and Statisticsopens 8 courses (4 directly)
• CHEME 6800Computational Optimizationopens 4 courses (4 directly)
• SYSEN 5200Systems Analysis Behavior and Optimizationopens 3 courses (3 directly)
• SYSEN 5940Creativity and Innovation within Systems Engineeringopens 3 courses (3 directly)
• ORIE 3500Engineering Probability and Statistics IIopens 2 courses (2 directly)
• SYSEN 6800Computational Optimizationopens 2 courses (2 directly)

The map

Intro tiers at the top, advanced work below; arrows point from a prerequisite to the course it unlocks. Courses from other departments appear where they gate SYSEN work. Click any course to see what it requires and unlocks without leaving this page; hovering lights up its neighbors. The lists on this page carry the same courses in text form.

Showing the 50 SYSEN and feeder courses that have prerequisite links. 83 more SYSEN courses have no recorded prerequisites. They are listed under Tracks below, not drawn as loose dots here.

Tracks

Upper-level clusters, grouped by the gateway that opens them.

The longest ladders

The deepest prerequisite chains in SYSEN. These are the routes that take the most semesters to climb.

• 4 courses deep, ending at SYSEN 5400

  1. MATH 2940Linear Algebra for Engineers
  2. ENGRD 2700Basic Engineering Probability and Statistics
  3. SYSEN 5200Systems Analysis Behavior and Optimization
  4. SYSEN 5400Theory and Practice of Systems Architecture

• 4 courses deep, ending at SYSEN 5550

  1. MATH 2940Linear Algebra for Engineers
  2. ENGRD 2700Basic Engineering Probability and Statistics
  3. ORIE 3500Engineering Probability and Statistics II

• 4 courses deep, ending at SYSEN 5860

  1. MATH 2220Multivariable Calculus
  2. CHEME 6800Computational Optimization
  3. CHEME 6880Industrial Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning

• 3 courses deep, ending at SYSEN 5420

  1. CS 1110Introduction to Computing Using Python
  2. ECE 2200Signals and Information
  3. SYSEN 5420Network Systems and Games

Grade medians

Teaching in Fall 2026

Instructors on SYSEN sections in Fall 2026, from the registrar's schedule.

• Abir Ray
• Alexandra Strong
• Andreas Malikopoulos
• Cafer Avci
• Charlle Sy
• Chengxi Zang
• Clifford Whitcomb
• David Cuddihy
• David Schneider
• Fengqi You
• Gregory Falco
• Haiyan Deng
• Jacob Mays
• Jamol Pender
• John Meluso
• Peter Jessel
• Rana Zadeh
• Semida Silveira
• Sirietta Simoncini
• Tim Fraser
• Yiye Zhang

Cornell professor board

Clubs & organizations

No clubs or organizations on record under SYSEN yet.

Clubs students here join

Department events

SYSEN does not run a page here yet. When it does, its events show up here and on the Cornell campus feed.