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Applications for the MS in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience for the Graduate Certificate in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience are now open, for the Summer and Fall 2024. Click the button below to start the process. Application fee waivers are available for all those who attend one of our webinars or schedule a conversation with one of our students or professors.
General information in bullet points
We offer the first degree programs specifically in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience. The Master of Science degree consists of 10 courses, the Graduate Certificate is only 4 courses and it can be combined with any other Master or PhD program.
Both programs (Certificate and Master) are accessible for students with different background and interdisciplinarity in the cohort of students is a great added value. The programs are open to graduates from any engineering program, math, computer science, economics, natural sciences, social sciences. Students with other backgrounds will be considered as well. In some cases, leveling courses will be recommended.
A number of partial scholarships are available for selected students.
Flexibility in topics. Some courses are required, but each student will define a personalized learning path with elective courses of their choice.
Flexibility in learning mode. The option for completely remote learning is available (not all elective courses are accessible in this form).
Flexibility in time. The Master's degree can be completed in as little as 11 months, typical time is 16 to 21 months, longer times are possible too (e.g., for working professionals). Similar flexibility is available for the Gradaute Certificate.
Flexibility in final product. Students choose if they want to write a master thesis, a project report, or opt for coursework only.
To learn more, keep reading or get in touch.
Master’s degree in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience
The Master's Degree program aims at providing a comprehensive training for the professionals of this growing and rewarding sector, focusing on engineering, but including aspects of data science, actuarial science, and social sciences. Graduates of the program will have a broad understanding of the many facets of catastrophe, risk, and resilience modeling, and deeper knowledge in a selected aspect and field of application, such as infrastructure resilience against disasters, forecasting of epidemics, or probabilistic modeling applied to engineering and science. Graduates of the programs will be ready to be hired by private companies in the (re)insurance sector, catmodeling firms, and general consulting firms focusing on resilience assessment. Moreover, they will be sought after for positions in the public sector, in emergency management agencies, local administrations, and government agencies, among others.
The program is hybrid and can be completed in one year or take more time, depending on the other duties of the student. It includes six required courses (spanning catastrophe modeling, resilience assessment, data science, numerical methods, and actuarial science), three elective courses from a broad portfolio that covers various fields of application to natural hazards and public health, and one free elective course.
The program will start accepting applications in the Fall 2023. The core courses are already being offered.
Example MS program of studies over 16 months (in person or remote)
The most common timeline to complete a Master of Science program at Lehigh is 16 months by taking three courses during the academic semesters and one course during the summer.
Fall 1: CAT 401 – Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience; DSCI 310 – Introduction to Data Science; BIOE 463 – Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers.
Spring 1: CAT 402 – Applications of Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience; CAT 403 – Mathematics of Actuarial Science; Approved Elective.
Summer 1: CAT 412 – Supervised Research in Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience.
Fall 2: CAT 411 – Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience Capstone; Approved Elective; Free Elective.
Other course options and program timelines are available.
Example MS program of studies over 11months (in person or remote)
For a dedicated student, it is possible to complete the program in only 11 months, by taking 4 courses per academic semester and two during the summer. This option is particularly convenient for Lehigh graduates who can transfer some credits from their undergraduate program.
Summer: DSCI 310 – Introduction to Data Science; Free elective.
Fall: CAT 401 – Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience; BIOE 463 – Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers; Approved elective; Approved elective.
Spring: CAT 402 – Applications of Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience; CAT 403 – Mathematics of Actuarial Science; CAT 411 – Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience Capstone; CAT 412 – Supervised Research in Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience.
Other course options and program timelines are available.
MS program for part-time students (in person or remote)
Part-time students will be able to take the core and elective courses of the program at a pace compatible with their other duties and needs. All core courses will be offered in a hybrid format, to enable remote participation and make the program compatibile with other committments. A set of approved elective and free elective courses will also allow remote/hybrid participation.
Graduate certificate in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience
The Certificate is a sequence of 4 courses that can be taken as a standalone degree or combined with any M.Sc. or Ph.D. degree. For instance, a student could take a Master of Science in Civil Engineering, with a Graduate Certificate in Catastrophe Modeling. The courses taken for the Certificate count also towards the M.Sc. or Ph.D. degree.
The Certificate program can also be completed as a milestone towards the Master of Science degree in Catastrophe Modeling.
The program is hybrid and can be completed over two semesters or take more time, depending on the other duties of the student. It includes two required courses on catmodeling and resilience, one course on data science or actuarial science, and one elective course from a broad portfolio that covers various fields of application to natural hazards and public health.
The program will be active in the Fall 2023. The core courses are already being offered.
Example Certificate program of studies over 9 months (in person or remote)
The Certificate program can be completed over one academic year (Fall + Spring) by taking two courses per semester.
Fall: CAT 401 – Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience; DSCI 310 – Introduction to Data Science.
Spring: CAT 402 – Applications of Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience; CAT 411 – Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience Capstone.
Other course options are available too.
Example Certificate program of studies over 16 months (in person or remote)
The Certificate program can be completed over 16 months by taking one course at a time.
Fall 1: CAT 401 – Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience.
Spring: CAT 402 – Applications of Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience.
Summer: DSCI 310 – Introduction to Data Science.
Fall 2: CAT 411 – Catastrophe Modeling & Resilience Capstone.
Other course options are available too.
Undergraduate minor in Actuarial Science
Lehigh's undergraduate minor in Actuarial Science includes 15-17 credits of coursework to prepare students for a career in this sector. The program is administered by the Department of Mathematics and includes courses to prepare specifically to the “Actuarial Exam”, in addition to general courses in Mathematics, Economics, and Accounting.
Example courses
CAT 401: Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience
The course introduces students from a diverse set of backgrounds (engineering, natural sciences, computer science, math, economics) to the fundamental concepts, terminology, methods, tools, and general framework of this growing field. Students learn how to model hazard, fragility, vulnerability, disaster recovery, and losses in a probabilistic way. They also learn how to present and communicate their results in a way that is useful for decision making, to have a direct impact on policies, prioritize investments, plan mitigation actions, and implement adaptation and preparedness strategies. Throughout the course, students learn how to use catastrophe risk and resilience modeling software and databases. The course provides training also on general topics like research methods and scientific communication. Special lectures address complementary topics, such as the effect of climate change, as well as societal impact and ethical concerns raised by catastrophe insurance and resilience enhancement. Guest lectures offered by experts from the public sector and private sector provide insight on how the concepts and tools learned in class are applied every day in various contexts and inspire the students on potential career options. A term project replaces the final exam and completes the course, offering the student the opportunity to showcase what they learned during the semester.
CAT 402: Applications of Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience
Advanced analyses of various applications of catastrophe models, such as natural disasters or health-related threats to inform management and policies. Course activities include
Reading recent publications on catastrophe model development, application and limitations
Practical exercises, in-class and as homework, about deterministic and stochastic model construction
Result visualization of disaster impacts via geographic information systems.
Theory and context-dependent practical problems on catastrophe model parameterization are covered.
CAT 403: Mathematics of Actuarial Science
Introduces tools from financial mathematics necessary for insurance applications. It presents the basic mathematics of interest rates and investments, such as present value, annuity calculations, and bond valuation. An introduction to modeling claims with Markov chains and Poisson processes will be presented. In a second part, the course will also introduce some of the standard models used in risk modeling, such as no-arbitrage pricing for derivatives and the Black-Scholes model. Fixed-income markets models are also discussed briefly. The course will focus on the interpretation of the models, and some practical numerical aspects.
CAT 411: Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience Capstone
Students work individually or in teams, integrating knowledge and skills acquired in their prior course work, to develop catastrophe models or perform resilience assessment for realistic scenarios and applications. Projects will be inspired by and possibly conducted in collaboration with partners from private sector, public sector, or academia. The students will produce written reports and/or oral presentations, as appropriate for the project.
CAT 412: Supervised Research in Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience
A study of selected topics in catastrophe modeling and resilience, applied to any field of interest to the student. The research may include methodological advancements, new findings, or extensions to the scope of application of known techniques.
DSCI 310: Introduction to Data Science
The computational analysis of data to extract knowledge and insight. Exploration and manipulation of data. Introduction to data collection and cleaning, reproducibility, code and data management, statistical inference, modeling, ethics, and visualization. Not available to undergraduate students.
Approved electives
A broad portfolio of approved elective courses is available for the Master's Degree and the Graduate Certificate.
BSTA 395 – Applied Machine Learning for Health Sciences
BSTA 396 – Advanced R Programming
BSTA 402 – Health Data and Computational Science
CEE 326/426 – GIS for Civil and Environmental Engineering
CEE 358/458 – Random Vibrations
CEE 406 – Reliability of Structural Components and Systems
CEE 419 – Structural Behavior Laboratory
CEE 431 – Life-Cycle of Structural Systems
CEE 432 – Structural Safety and Risk
CEE 466 – Advanced Finite Element Methods
CEE xxx – Hazards on Structures (no permanent number yet)
CEE xxx – Resilience of systems (no permanent number yet)
ES 404 – Socio-cultural Foundations of Environmental Policy
MATH 310/STAT 410 – Random Processes & Applications
MATH 430 – Numerical Analysis
MATH/STAT 463 – Advanced Probability
MATH 464 – Advanced Stochastic Processes
MATH 467 – Stochastic Calculus
MATH 468 – Financial Stochastic Analysis
POLS/ES 319/419 – Mapping Data for Policymaking
STAT 438 – Linear Models in Statistics with Applications
STAT 439 – Time Series and Forecasting