Course Descriptions

A continuation of Management Science I, combining operations research and management systems to model complex management problems to discover and apply optimal solutions. Topics include, but are not limited to, queuing models, non-linear optimization, heuristic techniques, and game theory.

In this course, the models for successfully organizing technologically-driven innovations, in entrepreneurial and established firms, are studied, and critiqued. Students learn to develop innovative-based strategies, which will cause entrepreneurial organizations to earn sustained competitive advantage. Students will also discover how to identify, build, and commercialize technological innovations. This course emphasizes the need for continuity in the building and commercialization of valuable innovations. It draws heavily from recent literature and models on entrepreneurial innovation and expects students, not only to critique these existing literature and models, but to design original technology-driven innovations that could aid organizations gain and sustain competitive advantage. The course is divided into 4 Modules, which will take the students from the formulation of innovative ideas to the building of innovative entrepreneurial firms. These modules will systematically guide the students to conduct a focused literature review on some advanced aspect of the studied material and produce a research paper.

Nanofabrication processing equipment and materials handling procedures with a focus on safety, environment, and health issues. Course is available only at The Pennsylvania State University – University Park campus.

Step-by-step description of equipment and processes needed in top-down, bottom-up, and hybrid nanofabrication. Course available only at The Pennsylvania University – University Park campus.

The use of materials for nanotechnology as well as the unique material properties available at the nano-scale. Course available only at The Pennsylvania State University – University Park campus.

Lithographic process from substrate preparation to exposure; process from development through inspection; advanced optical lithographic techniques. Course available only at The Pennsylvania State University – University Park campus.

Processing steps used in modifying material properties in nanofabrication. Course available only at The Pennsylvania State University – University Park campus.

Measurements and techniques essential for controlling device fabrication. Course available only at The Pennsylvania State University – University Park campus.

Blockchain technology is recognized worldwide as a serious disruptive force in both the history of money and in ledger technology. In a short period of time, hundreds of thousands of blockchains have emerged to cater to multiple problems whether they are monetary, business, economic, social, or even political problems. It brings forth serious issues of governance as well as the need to reorganize multiple enterprises like state entities, corporations, banks, court systems, etc. This course introduces the student to the significance of this paradigm shift with broad coverage of important changes and the agents of the change. It explores origins of Bitcoin, technical details of underlying blockchain technology, elements of cryptography, supportive technologies, predominant concepts of distributed computing, and emerging layering of internet protocols and their role in new wealth systems.

After the emergence of Bitcoin, hundreds of crypto-currencies have surfaced with a vast supportive infrastructure for exchange of this value. This has resulted in diverse responses from governments and other regulating bodies. This course contains a comprehensive history of crypto-assets and infrastructure built since 2012, including exchanges, wallets, prominent tokens, central bank-issued digital currencies, and the state of regulations. This course will give the student an introduction of top-rated blockchain assets, their security mechanisms, investment strategies, and crypto-trading modes, as well as explain how government jurisdictions are responding to this unique disruption.

Open blockchains, particularly Ethereum, have spawned a unique category of crowdfunding options that standardize the entire process of how capital is raised and allocated. Specific technical expertise and a detailed knowledge of how decentralized applications are fast emerging as the new players in the ecosystem are required to navigate Open blockchains. This course offers a specific understanding of how the Ethereum blockchain has become a standard mechanism for launching new ICO (Initial Coin Offering) projects and DApps. This course will take the student through multiple phases of building an ERC20 (Ethereum Request for Comment) standard token and its deployment in real-life conditions. This course offers not only a core developer experience that stands behind an ICO, but also offers a comprehensive survey of how the Ethereum and non-Ethereum smart contract platforms have contributed to a completely new offering of DApps as blockchain-as-a-microservice.

Blockchain Technology has ushered in a range of public and private chains. Both have serious trade-offs in terms of scalability, interoperability, and decentralization. While open blockchains have disrupted the capital market with ICO as a new way of borderless crowdfunding, private chains are building tokenization frameworks for existing assets like stocks, bonds, debt instruments, financial derivatives, land titles, etc. This course begins with a basic introduction to growth challenges faced by blockchains and how that has evolved into multi-blockchain ecosystem. It offers a detailed description of the state of deep-impact blockchains dominating in the current climate and what the scale of their applicability is at present. This course also teaches the student how governments/regulatory forces are accepting/reacting to these new forces and the major templates of this response.

If enterprises are to adopt blockchain technologies, they need easy-to-implement blockchain platforms. Multiple players have emerged to offer such kind of solutions. Before any specific choice is made in this regard, it is critical to understand the sector and use-case specificity where blockchain needs to be applied. Since there are some standard responses to blockchain applications, this course offers a new way of approaching sectoral applications via building innovation templates. Once standard responses are stabilized, further nuances can be built over it. The major use cases to be covered are digital identity, supply chain, entertainment distribution, and provenance. This course not only offers a capacity building model for multiple industries, but also enables right platform choices in appropriate context.

Blockchain is a fundamental disruption in the history of ledger technology, and it will deeply impact the future of all ledger-centric institutions such as central banks, commercial banks, companies and exchanges, as well as the currencies and assets that are transacted and traded inside them. Since peer-to-peer settlement would always be efficient, cost-effective and risk-free as compared to third-party settlement, the future of money and value will be different from what it is now. This course explores how the new consensus mechanisms will emerge for exchanging value across borders, assets, and economic sectors, as well as the new avenues offered by AI and how blockchain can magnify its impact. This course is basically a bridge between what is present and what could be the future trends. It offers not only a meta-narrative of this potential change, but also elaborates on the new change agents and their strategies. Topics will include design of the business models for decentralization and scale, convergence of AI and blockchain, and design of projections-centric studies for blockchain systems.

This course will serve as a catalog of commonly used design patterns, prominent and dominant software patterns, and their applications. This course is divided into three modules. First, Software Architecture Patterns covers the various architectural patterns of object-oriented, component-based, client server, and cloud architecture. The need for software patterns is described. The various architectural patterns are listed and explained in detail in order to convey the what, where, why and how of architectural patterns. Second, Enterprise Integration Patterns covers enterprise application integration patterns and how they are designed. Patterns of service-oriented architecture (SOA), event driven architecture (EDA), resource-oriented architecture (ROA), big data analysis architecture, and microservice architecture (MSA) will be carefully studied. Finally, Patterns for Containerized and Highly Reliable Applications covers advanced topics such as Docker containers, high-performance, and reliable application architectures. Key takeaways include understanding what architectures are, why they are used, and how and where architecture design and integration patterns are being leveraged to build bigger and better systems.

This course allows the student to pursue an area of interest that is within the broad scope of Next Generation Technologies. A faculty member will supervise this study.

The course focuses on the basic of computer hardware, software, mobile computing, networking, troubleshooting, and emerging technologies. The student learns about configuring operating systems, file and folder management, networks and network configuration, and the role of the OSI model in networking and troubleshooting. A fundamental understanding of computer hardware, operating systems, computer application software, networking technologies and protocols, web browsers, identifying security risks, troubleshooting errors, and system maintenance is gained. The course also included an exploration of cutting-edge technologies such as cloud computing and virtualization. Offered as needed.

The skills needed to increase productivity with data management, scheduling, and email management in Microsoft Excel and Outlook are developed in this course. Offered as needed.

Confidently handle the most challenging technical support issues across a variety of computer hardware and operating systems. The course covers the essential principles of installing, building, upgrading, repairing, configuring, troubleshooting, optimizing, and preventative maintenance on desktop and laptop computers. Elements of the customer service and communication skills necessary to work with clients while providing technical support are also explored. Offered as needed.

The course combines fundamental networking and server administration concepts for broad knowledge and skills in network and server installation, maintenance, and basic security. Offered as needed.

The course combines fundamental networking and security concepts for broad knowledge and skills in network installation, maintenance, and security. Fundamental networking and security concepts are explored, and hands-on experience is applied to Windows Server, Windows-based networking, anti-malware, and firewalls. Offered as needed.

The course addresses the vital fundamentals of security to support the principles of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Security layers, authentication, authorization, and accounting are explored, along with network security to protect the Server and Client. The student also learns to install and configure systems to secure applications, networks, and devices; perform threat analysis and respond with appropriate mitigation techniques; participate in risk mitigation activities; and operate with an awareness of applicable policies, laws, and regulations. The student prepares to take the Microsoft Technology Associate: Security Fundamentals and the CompTIA Security+ certification exams. Offered as needed.

Nursing practice in promoting health and managing health concerns of the older adult. The course will explore the effects of the aging process on physical systems of the human body and includes examination of loss and coping, and legal and ethical issues.

This course builds on basic physical assessment knowledge of the Registered Nurse to include broadened assessment skills necessary to lead coordination of interprofessional care of the patient. The use of therapeutic communication skills when performing health assessment and the assessment of cultural and socio-economic aspects of health will be incorporated. The student learns to critically evaluate assessment findings and differentiate between normal and alterations indicative of actual or potential health problems. The student has lab experiences in the nursing learning and simulation laboratory where health assessment skills can be practiced.

This course covers emerging topics in nursing. It is an in-depth study of a selected specialized area and the content varies by semester.

An approved learning contract, permission of the Office of Experiential Programs, designation of an appropriate academic advisor, and a minimum of 60 earned semester hours. This first project in the student’s experiential program challenges the student to identify, investigate and analyze a particular topic in the program of study or a concentration. A key objective is to apply skills, methods, and knowledge obtained in prior courses with independent thinking and research; the final product represents the successful and purposeful application of knowledge. The project is undertaken with the close mentorship of a faculty member, and may involve a community partner. Projects can involve scientific-based research or laboratory experiences, needs analysis or development plans for external organizations, or market studies and business plan proposals.

This course focusses on an introduction to theory and concepts of community and population health nursing. Emphasis is on the professional nurse’s role in working with the community as the client. Care will be delivered based on community health and public health standards of nursing practice. The student will then explore the role of the nurse working collaboratively with the community as part of an interdisciplinary team. An introduction to conceptual frameworks that focus on population health care is included in both the classroom and practicum portions of the course. Selected community engagement will entail nursing practice focusing on population health as the physical, social, cultural, and economic community where one works and lives. The student will link community health status and health policy with the performance of health care systems.

This course will focus on the professional nurse’s role in applying the principles of leadership and management in clinical environments. The role of the nurse leader and his/her influence on safe nursing practice will be explored. Barriers to practice, regulatory, legislative, and political processes in reference to professional practice will also be examined. The course will also emphasize nursing leadership roles and interprofessional collaboration in the development/application of technology to increase efficiency of healthcare services and improve patient outcomes.

This project must be in the student’s program of study or concentration(s). It should demonstrate application of the skills, methods, and knowledge of the discipline to solve a problem or answer a question representative of the type to be encountered in the student’s profession. As with Project I, this is undertaken with the close mentorship of a faculty member and may involve a community partner. The ideal project has a clear purpose that builds directly upon the learning that occurs within the student’s first project and internship.

Description:This course is the first course in the core curriculum for Master of Science in nursing. It provides an overview of the theory in advanced nursing to prepare the graduate with a broad knowledge and practice expertise that builds and expands upon their entry-level nursing practice. After the completion of this course, the student will have a deeper understanding of the discipline of nursing to engage an advanced level of nursing practice and leadership in a variety of settings with the commitment to the lifelong learning philosophy.

This course will introduce the student to the quality and process improvement methodologies within different healthcare settings. After the completion of this course, the student will have a deeper understanding of nursing’s role in quality and processes improvement. The student will delve into the foundations of quality and process improvement practice through different standpoints, histories, frames of reference and interpretations of different views of the best practices.

This course will build upon the student’s current knowledge in healthcare policy and advocacy. This course will discuss theories and perspectives of the nursing Framework to support Population, communities, individuals to improve health outcomes. The student will draw on the policy and advocacy science literature; the course will present students with overviews of theories of information, action, sociality, conflict, and interaction within traditional and digital environments. Through readings and examples, the course includes attention to sociotechnical theories around communities of practice, online communities, social media, and enterprise knowledge management. This seminar course offers the student a better understanding of the advanced practice nurse responsibility in healthcare policy and advocacy.

This course builds upon the nurse’s knowledge of research theories and methods and evidence-based practices. This course will have some strong focus and data analytics and evaluation. Throughout readings, case studies and the application of data the student will have practical experience evaluating evidence-based solutions to improve the health outcomes of an individual or population.

This course builds upon the nurse’s knowledge of anatomy and physiology, pathology in the disease process, pharmacology, and health assessment associated with the human body systems. This course is an integrated approach to health assessment.

This course provides a foundation for the implementation of the clinical nurse leader role. The student focuses on the role and its contribution to improve patient outcomes, ensure quality care and reduce health care cost. Concepts, theories, and issues related to nursing leadership and care environment management are investigated in depth. End of program competencies for the Clinical Nurse Leader role will be discussed.

The student applies elements of the CL curriculum with a select cohort of clients. This course facilitates the development of skills for advocacy and leadership in a microsystem to promote positive change in a healthcare delivery system while putting best practices into action. This course will include assignments that will fulfill 25 hours of non-preceptee hours that is a part of the total clinical hours needed to fulfill program requirements.

This course prepares the prospective nurse educator with the foundational principles necessary for teaching in various settings: classroom, clinical, and college laboratories, and health care agencies.

The purpose of this course is to offer the student applications in nursing curriculum design, including the development of a teaching/ learning philosophy, mission statement, programmatic goals, learning objectives, teaching plans, and individual courses.

Description:The student will apply principles of epidemiology using public health and population health theories using data and other variables to determine the best possible clinical or population outcomes This course will include assignments that will fulfill 25 hours of non-preceptee hours that is a part of the total hours needed to fulfill program requirements.

The student will use quality improvement and process evaluation techniques to track and evaluate health outcomes to ensure the best possible clinical or population outcomes. This course will include assignments that will fulfill 25 hours of non-preceptee hours that is a part of the total clinical hours needed to fulfill program requirements.

This course provides an overview of teaching methods utilized in nursing education to support the student learning in clinical, didactic and online learning environments. The student will examine various teaching/learning technologies, including simulation, and integrate these technologies with select teaching methods in the design of coursework to support learning.

This course explores the theories, principles, and practices that underpin the measurement and evaluation of educational settings and programs. This course includes content on approaches to giving feedback, test construction, and psychometric evaluation, development, and grading of written assignments, evaluation of clinical performance and self-evaluation for personal teaching effectiveness.

This experiential course synthesizes the key concepts of the program extending and applying these concepts to real-life practical problems or research investigation.

This course is a continuation of the experiential component. The course synthesizes the key concepts of the program extending and applying these concepts to real-life practical problems or research investigation.

This course introduces students to the principal factors that can impact absorption, distribution, and elimination of drugs in the body. Specifically, mathematical approaches to characterizing pharmacokinetics (PK), the study of factors influencing drug concentrations in the body, and pharmacodynamics (PD), the study of the physiologic action of drugs in the body, will be discussed with an emphasis on small molecule and protein therapeutics. The clinical and non-clinical applications of PK and PD will be discussed. Students will participate in simulations of real-world pharmacokinetic monitoring of various drugs used clinically to treat infections, control seizures, and suppress arrythmias.

This course covers multiple aspects of drug transport, from simple diffusion to protein-mediated active transport of drugs and other xenobiotics. Specific transporters will be discussed in the context of clinical and pre-clinical effects on drug disposition. Distribution, substrates, and mechanisms of relevant drug transporters will be discussed, as well as how they can mediate potentially toxic effects of drugs.

This course focuses on multiple aspects of drug metabolism. Specific content includes instruction on phase 1 and phase 2 drug metabolism. While the majority of the course will involve examining hepatic drug metabolism and extrahepatic metabolic pathways, drug metabolism in preclinical drug development will also be covered. This course will also expose students to the role drug metabolism plays in potentially toxic drug effects and interactions.

Ethics and Trends in Pharmaceutical Science presents current challenges, trends, and controversies concerning pharmaceutical science. Lectures will be generally composed of presenting current (within the calendar year) articles from around the world that introduce a topic of interest. Such topics may include industry news, education trends, and regulatory controversies.

This course allows the student to pursue an area of interest that is within the broad scope of Pharmaceutical Science. A faculty member will supervise this study.

This course focuses on Population Health Management’s principles as a pro-active and implementation-based management approach to tackle health disparities, foster health equity, and improve population health outcomes. Population health management has emerged as an essential strategy for healthcare providers and payers. This course examines the challenges and opportunities to improve health within and across populations and value-driven accountable care models. This course will discuss the basic principles of Population Health Management that will help students (future) health care professionals or policymakers analyze current healthcare challenges and design possible solutions using the Population Health Management Approach.

This course aims to introduce the social, economic, and political factors that impact individual and population health. The course presents the student with theories and evidence supporting multiple underlying determinants of health in populations. We will consider how health is affected by various determinants, and we will explore how social influences affect population health. Social influences include socioeconomic status, environment, policy
(political influence), gender, race, sexual orientation, and neighborhood quality. We will examine structural factors that impact population health globally as well as in the United States. We apply the research and practice-oriented competencies and explore the potential for structural interventions and research to address health inequities and improve population health outcomes. The student will be encouraged to consider how they can make a difference in reducing or closing the health inequality gap that otherwise results from flawed understandings of patients’ health ecologies.

In this core course, the student will explore in-depth the development and implementation of public health and health-related policy to demonstrate measurable public health improvement. The student will be provided with a public health context of the private, non-profit, and governmental institutions that impact population health (both de facto and de jure) and health equity including policy, administration, education, and research. The student will
conduct an international comparative study of public health systems, placing the U.S. system within an international context; will learn tools of writing white papers, policy briefs, and policy evaluation. Further, using an integrated team-based leadership model, the student would be able to carry out a `real world’ analysis of a state or local health policy in partnership with state or local policymakers or other public health institutions. The student will conduct `vantage point’ policy reviews (both de facto and de jure) to recognize and appreciate various stakeholder points of view, perceptions, and interests.

The healthcare informatics and data science field are a growing industry in the United States that is expected to grow more than $18.7 billion by 2020. Like many other fields, the healthcare industry increasingly relies on data to improve patient outcomes, lower costs, drive care coordination, foster quality clinical and preventive care, enhance healthcare delivery system performance, and optimize strategic business decisions. Whether you are gathering
data or analyzing it to make recommendations, this course is designed to provide analytical literacy to understand, handle, organize, and visualize healthcare data, eventually informing and influencing research and policy decisions. It focuses on the most common types of data used in health care measurements and different ways to gather and analyze it. It enables the student to interact effectively with informatics specialists to define priority subject areas, evaluate data sources, data reporting, performance improvement, apply diverse data science methodologies, and effectively communicate data insights to diverse audiences.

This course will introduce the student to the package of innovation perspectives and research methods employed within both design thinking and systems thinking approaches to population health innovation. The course will focus on the individual and collective experience of human health, via individual choice models and systems level structures and policies. Design thinking provides a flexible and disciplined innovation model that prioritizes public health needs at the patient level of engagement within health service offerings. Systems thinking in healthcare considers the ways large communities organize themselves to achieve collective health goals. When integrated together, both approaches to population health improvements leads the student to visualize population health as one holistic issue with multiple levels of focus and impact. The student will be able to fully synthesize population health issues at the micro and macro levels, to recommend a framework or model for improvements that can inform research and policy-related decision making and service innovations.

The practicum is a population-level focused project conducted in a practice context. This course intends to engage the student in real-world population health activities, which enables them to demonstrate application of their population health concepts in the areas of their professional and research interests. This course requires that the student integrate and synthesize their population health knowledge and skills to develop and implement professional public health-related research, intervention, policy, or any practice activity. Each student is expected to complete a minimum of 140 hours of practicum and prior approval of the practicum from the program lead. The practicum will be supervised by the preceptor, who is qualified to evaluate the student’s professional competence and supervise the student throughout the project. The preceptor needs to be engaged in population health practice-related activities, research, intervention, or policy directly. The preceptor can be within the university or outside the university (non-profits, community-based organizations, health departments, private corporations, other academic institutions, etc.) The program lead will be informed about the student’s progress on pre-defined learning objectives. As part of the course, it requires the student to define their learning objectives following the practicum commencement competencies. It is recommended that the student links their practicum experiences to their career or professional goals. Upon completing this practicum, the student will be able to provide evidence of their applied population health knowledge and skills to potential employers.

This course provides an introductory treatment of classical Newtonian physics and covers kinematics in one and two dimensions, vector forces, Newton’s laws of motion, uniform circular motion, work, conservation of energy, momentum and angular momentum, rotational kinematics and dynamics, and simple harmonic motion. Emphasis is placed on the application of basic concepts through mathematical problem-solving. Applications of physics to problems in medicine are presented and medical technology is highlighted throughout the course.

This laboratory course provides hands-on experience with various measurement technologies and reinforces the theoretical concepts developed in PHYS 121. Emphasis is placed on correct setup of experimental equipment to obtain valid results, troubleshooting errors, and data analysis in support of a hypothesis.

This course extends the study of classical physics and covers topics in electrostatics, magneto statics, electric circuits, electromagnetic waves, optics, interference and diffraction, and the quantum theories of atomic and nuclear physics. Mathematical problem-solving skills and applied problems in medical technology are emphasized.

This laboratory course provides hands-on experience with various measurement technologies and reinforces the theoretical concepts developed in PHYS 131. Emphasis is placed on correct setup of experimental equipment to obtain valid results, troubleshooting errors, and data analysis in support of a hypothesis.

This course is designed for the student who has an interest to apply knowledge gained in calculus, physics and chemistry to the physics of energy sources, storage, generation, and end-use. The course rolls advanced topics in physics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics and nuclear physics into one to teach the student how to apply physical principles to energy-related topics that include both renewable and non-renewable energy sources.