rice university capstone project

SOPA Capstone

The Social Policy Analysis (SOPA) Capstone is a two-semester course typically taken by SOPA majors in the senior year. The course provides students with hands-on experience in conducting research on social policy design, evaluation, and implementation and serves as the culminating experience within the SOPA major. Students enroll in fall (SOPA 400) and spring (SOPA 401) semester courses taught by SOPA faculty. Within those courses, students work in teams of 4-5 on an academic year-long project with a community partner organization.

If you are a potential host interested in partnering with the SOPA program, please reach to Libby Vann ([email protected]).

Current Projects

• Partner: Allyssa Abacan, MPH, Ph.D., Director of Public Health Programming, Baylor Teen Health Clinics
• Project Mentor: Sabrina Cuauro, Ph.D. student, VOCES Lab, Psychological Sciences, Rice University
• Partner: JJ Janflone, Partnerships Manager, Brady
• Project Mentor: Conner Joyce, Ph.D. student, Political Science, Rice University
• Partner: Fernanda Marrero Hi, Ed.M., Senior Policy Advisor, Harris County Judge’s Office
• Project Mentor: Gabi Fernandez, Ph.D. Student, Industrial Organizational Psychology, Rice University
• Partner: David McClendon, Principal, January Advisors
• Project Mentor: Salpy Kanimian, Ph.D. student, Economics, Rice University
• Partner: Alicia Lee, Director, MCH Collective Impact, March of Dimes Houston
• Partner: Karol Ann Moore, Ph.D., Director of Research Associate Vice President of Curriculum and Instructional Design, Neuhaus Education Center
• Partner: Jay Jenkins, Texas Principal, The Wren Collective

PROFESSIONAL MASTER'S PROGRAM

Master of Data Science

Rice University's Master of Data Science program is a professional, non-thesis degree designed to support the needs of interdisciplinary professionals. Taught by world-class faculty, the program offers students online or on-campus options.

Master of Data Science (MDS): Online & On-Campus Programs

Program Overview

The MDS degree will be offered with both an on-campus and an online option. Students must apply to either the online or on-campus program and will be explicitly admitted to one program or the other.

Rice’s Master of Data Science (MDS) program is designed to support the needs of interdisciplinary professionals who want to apply data science knowledge, theory, and techniques to solve real-world problems.

The program offers:

• Multidisciplinary, interdepartmental and intercollegiate instruction
• Customizable, specialized degrees comprised of 31 graduate credit hours
• Same online & in-person degrees

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon completing the MDS degree, students will have proficiency in:

• Understanding the computational and statistical foundations of Data Science
• Knowing and understanding how to use the core methods of Data Science as applied to an area of specialization or across a breadth of areas
• Applying Data Science knowledge, theory, and techniques to solve difficult, real-world problems, beginning with raw data and ending with actionable insights
• Effectively communicating written and orally about Data Science methods and results to a lay audience

Curriculum Overview

This non-thesis curriculum requires the completion of a minimum of 31 credits. It is a rigorous blend of courses that deliver the skills you need to collect, evaluate, interpret and communicate data for effective decision-making across a variety of industries.

• Core Courses: Your curriculum includes core courses designed to help you gain an understanding of the computational and statistical foundations of data science.
• Specialization: You’ll gain deeper knowledge in data science by choosing a specialization in business analytics, machine learning or image processing.* Currently, image processing coursework is only offered for the on-campus program.
• Electives: You’ll further customize your program of study with an elective in ethics, cybersecurity, or security and privacy.
• Capstone: Then, to give you experience applying your knowledge to a real-world problem, you’ll participate in a capstone project that will help you demonstrate your skill, collaborative ability and problem-solving acumen.

View the MDS Curriculum to learn more about core courses, specializations, electives and our data science capstone project.

Online or On-Campus, which is right for you?

The Online MDS is a part-time program that allows working professionals to get the same benefits and curriculum of a full-time, on-campus program in an online environment. Students have access to best-in-class materials and resources and can connect with peers and world-class educators. Learn More.

On-Campus MDS

The On-Campus MDS is a full-time program at the Rice University campus in Houston, Texas. The program hosts a lively and invigorating community of scholars in the Department of Computer Science, the largest academic department at Rice. Learn More .

Engineering Professional Master's Programs

The following professional master's programs also offer non-thesis, advanced degrees involving data science:

• Master of Computational and Applied Mathematics The Professional Master of Computational and Applied Mathematics (MCAM) is designed for students interested in a technical career path in industry or business.
• Master in Computational Science and Engineering The Professional Master in Computational Science and Engineering (MCSE) is offered jointly by the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics in the School of Engineering.
• Master of Computer Science The Professional Master of Computer Science (MCS) degree is a terminal degree for students intending to pursue a technical career in the computer industry.
• Master of Electrical and Computer Engineering The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering offers a Professional Master of Electrical and Computer Engineering (MECE) program with a focus in Data Science.
• Master of Industrial Engineering The School of Engineering offers a Professional Master of Industrial Engineering for students seeking a deeper understanding of how sophisticated decision models can optimize complex systems in any industry as well as the nonprofit sector.
• Master of Statistics The Department of Statistics offers a Professional Master of Statistics (MStat) program that includes a solid foundation in statistical computing, statistical modeling, experimental design, and mathematical statistics, plus electives in statistical methods and/or theory.
• Professional Science Master's Program The Subsurface-Geoscience Professional Science Master’s program offers a program focus area in Energy Data Management.

Challenge Convention

Experience rice university before college.

Rice is a community of curious thinkers, passionate dreamers and energetic doers who believe that improving the world demands more than bold thought and brave action. It takes unconventional wisdom. Our goal in creating Rice University's Precollege Program is to provide an experience for students ages 13+ that embodies these values. Our program is designed for high school students who wish to dive deeper into subjects that piques their interest, such as genome engineering, physiology, aerospace, law, and more. Each course features dynamic video lessons by renowned Rice faculty and access to mentors. Courses are available year-round, and the online format enables students to study anywhere, anytime, at their own pace. This flexibility allows students to take multiple courses and explore a variety of subjects. Upon successfully completing a course's capstone project, participants will earn a Certificate of Completion from Rice University.

Program Dates

Multi-length courses available throughout the year

Eligibility

For students ages 13 and up

Individual Course Fees

Current courses available.

Genome Engineering

Changing the Future of Medicine

What does your DNA tell you about your own genetic make-up? Delve into genome engineering and see how the human genome can be edited to treat diseases, like sickle cell and other hereditary disorders. Study the ethics of genome engineering and compare the design tools used in the medical field. If this is a potential college major or career, our course is the place to start.

The Foundations of Medicine

Studying how the nervous, muscular, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems work together is an important first step in understanding how the human body functions. Physiology is the foundation you’ll need if you aspire to a career in medicine. Plus, human anatomy and physiology are the basis for numerous jobs in allied health, emergency services, and the medical field.

Entrepreneurship

From Ideas to Impact in Fintech

Currently, there are *31 million entrepreneurs in the U.S., and 582 million worldwide. Within the world of finance, entrepreneurs are the creative thinkers with big ideas that result in creating the fintech market and other disruptive digital technologies. If you’re a high school student with a passion for entrepreneurship and a desire to know how it applies to the world of finance, our course is a great place to start. You’ll learn what drives the development of new disruptive platforms, how they are improving financial inclusion, and review case studies of fintech technologies like Apple Pay, Venmo, Paypal and Square. 

* SOURCE : ThinkImpact

Space Exploration: The Road to Mars

Think about human space exploration coupled with today’s tech innovations. Imagine the logistics needed to launch people from Earth to the Moon and Mars. Hear what some of today’s aerospace leaders have to say about the future of this compelling science. This course will examine space exploration from the early Apollo voyages to the Artemis program. You’ll learn about the evolution—and future—of space exploration, and discover if aeronautics could be in your future.

Global Affairs

Exploring Changing Political Systems

Did you know that only *42 percent of countries are considered democracies? A lot has changed over the past two decades, which is why global affairs remains an ever-evolving subject. In this compelling course, you’ll delve into the rise and fall of democracy. You’ll review democratic, semi-democratic, and authoritarian regimes through several case studies. Finally, you’ll identify the guardrails governments put up to protect political rights and civil liberties. 

*SOURCE: FreedomHouse.com

In Our Everyday Lives

Why do our brains interpret things so differently? Why is our health affected by our emotions? Psychology is the science that explains many “whys.” In this course, you’ll focus on how psychology is used to identify and address societal problems. You’ll learn how research and statistics provide answers to long-standing questions, such as why societies develop group-think, and how to use critical thinking and effective communication to grow in your personal life.

The Business of Economics

What are the factors that influence economic shifts in business? What is the role of the Federal Reserve, and what happens to the money supply? This course answers these questions and more. Get an introduction to the field, how market supply and demand drive prices, and how business competes when the economy faces inflation, supply chain disruptions, and international conflict. Want to understand the relationship between economics and business? This course is for you. 

Shaping a Just and Equitable World

How does the U.S. legal system impact our society? What aspects of the law support equal opportunity? In this course, you will explore the core principles of our legal framework and the complexities of ownership rights. You'll learn about workers’ rights, access to education, and the intersection of civil rights and the law. Finally, you’ll identify solutions to legal challenges around property ownership, employment rights, and education.

Engineering

Solving Real-World Problems

Whether mechanical, aerospace, or biomedical, engineering is at the very epicenter of innovation—the driving force behind change. In this course, you will explore some of the biggest challenges engineers are currently trying to solve, such as climate change, the need for clean energy, and more advanced tools to fight disease. You’ll explore the different engineering disciplines and the many exciting career paths engineering offers.

Diagnostics, Treatment, and Patient Care

For doctors and other medical professionals, each new patient presents unique challenges. In this course, you’ll explore the procedures that take patients and caregivers from initial diagnosis to treatment as well as the larger social impact of common diseases. Understand human physiology, emphasizing the heart, lungs, brain, and endocrine system. Identify the basic science of each pathophysiology and the clinical approach that enables medical professionals to work together effectively.

Learn About Our Courses

Hear From Our Students

"It was very well organized which made every lesson easy to follow along with. There were interactive and visuals as well as assignments that helped you visualize and apply the knowledge that you learned. It was very helpful and simple to learn with this structure. Having a mentor to ask questions to at the same time was very helpful too." - Chandani, Rice University Precollege student from TX.

"I really enjoyed how I was able to learn the material of the course from my own house, and how  I was able to do it at the time that was convenient for me. Also the course material was extremely interesting and I learned a lot, so since I enjoyed the course so much I would recommend it to my others." - Amir, Rice University Precollege student from FL.

"There are no in person classes or online meetings, so I was able to take this course while going on vacation for the whole summer. For someone who easily gets anxiety over zoom meetings and meeting strangers, I was able to learn about what I was interested in without any stress." - Elena, Rice University Precollege student from CA.

How You Will Benefit

• Help narrow your focus on what interests you to better determine subjects you might choose to study in college.
• Experience what it’s like to take a course designed by Rice University faculty while you’re still in high school.
• Flexible learning: lectures by professors are delivered through dynamic videos, so you can tune in whenever your schedule allows
• Work with mentors who can support you and answer questions as you deepen your learning experience.
• Complete a capstone project to demonstrate what you’ve learned.
• For each course, earn a Certificate of Completion from Rice University for your college application.

Three Learning Advantages Designed for You

Capstone project.

All courses culminate in a special capstone project that allows you to:

• Demonstrate what you’ve learned in a presentation.
• Get feedback from your mentors on your work.
• Choose from a variety of topics covered in your course to show what you’ve learned. 
• Use any media you prefer—text, video, photography, PowerPoint.

You’ll receive guidance from a mentor who can support you and answer questions as you deepen your learning experience. You can expect:

• Expertise in your course’s particular field.
• Encouragement and direction on all assignments. 
• Inspiration, motivation and confidence to help you excel in your studies. 
• Brainstorming to help you prepare for your capstone project.

Flexible Learning

• 100% online learning that works with your schedule.
• Flexible format: you’ll learn through video lectures. Tune in anytime that works for you.
• Multiple courses can be taken to maximize your learning experience.
• 20 to 30 hours of total instruction and activities per course, including engaging multimedia, simulations, and curated assignments for which you will receive guidance and support from mentors.

How to Apply

It’s easy. No transcripts or letters of recommendation are required. Just provide some basic information and tell us why you wish to take this program.

Note: Please submit all application materials in English.

Begin the guided application process. It should take only a few minutes of your time to answer the questions.

Want to Know More?

Sign up for more information and we’ll be in touch.

Our application process is easy. You can expect a prompt decision.

Frequently Asked Questions

How will you be graded? What are assignments like? How much time do you have to turn around a project? When do you find out if you’re admitted? Find answers to your questions here .

Scholarships

We offer need-based scholarships in each cohort to students exhibiting high potential and an inability to pay full tuition. If you would like to be considered for a scholarship but you:

• Haven’t applied to the program, complete your application now. The scholarship application is included.
• Applied to the program and didn’t fill out a scholarship request, resume your application and click “Apply for Scholarship”.
• Are unsure about whether or not you applied for a scholarship, reach out to us at [email protected] for assistance.

Oct. 3, 2023

Rice university data science grad students tap public datasets for ml models in capstone projects, chevron digital scholar mds teams predict renewable energy capacity, cancer markers, and technical documentation details.

On August 9, 2023, the newest cohort of Rice University data scientists presented their capstone projects to wrap up their Master of Data Science degrees. These MDS alumni were Chevron Digital Scholars , an initiative launched by the energy company in 2019 to develop change agents and leaders who integrate their business knowledge and experience with emerging skill sets. This is the third cohort of Chevron Digital Scholars to complete their MDS degrees at Rice.

“No other energy company sends their employees to graduate school for a data science degree that takes 12 months to complete. This is a unique program and an amazing opportunity for us,” said one of the Chevron participants. 

During their final capstone showcase, the teams presented projects to demonstrate their skills in machine learning, data analysis and visualization, and other tools for exploring and understanding big data. The audience of over 100 guests included the students’ colleagues as well as executives and the next cohort of Chevron Digital Scholars to begin their MDS degrees at Rice this fall.

Data Science students tackle medical, energy, and documentation datasets in capstone projects

The three teams chose projects that relied on databases of medical images, technical engineering documents, and renewable energy sources. One of the students said the cohort purposely chose projects that were not necessarily related to their own day-to-day roles or teams in the oil and gas industry. 

“We can learn from all kinds of data science problems,” they said. “These projects in technical documentation searches, medical imaging, and renewable energy forecasts allowed us to think outside the box and determine just how we could come to the answer; we deliberated which tools to choose and how to implement them.”

Improved identification of medical imaging markers for brain cancer 

Survival rates and mortality stats for brain cancer (glioblastoma) have been virtually unchanged for decades, prompting Todd Engelder, Keith Pulmano, Huafeng Liu, Ben Dowdell, Zida Wang, and Nicolas Osa to tackle this issue by applying computer vision to the field of medical imaging. 

Using machine learning via neural networks, the team focused on leveraging the growing amount of publicly available medical imaging data to improve early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of glioblastoma.

“Our objectives included improving the segmentation of glioblastoma lesions using vision transformers and improving the classification of one biomarker that is associated with the effectiveness of chemical treatment,” said Liu.

The team also used convolutional neural networks (CNN) to investigate the robustness of 2D glioblastoma lesion detection; they wanted to improve the explainability of cancer classification through the application of Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM) to CNN.

"Our data set is curated and made publicly available by the University of Pennsylvania Medical System and is hosted on an amazing repository known as The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA), funded by the United States National Cancer Institute," said Dowdell. "The UPenn-GBM contains 3D multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) volumes for 611 unique pre-operative patients with four different imaging sequences for each patient. 

"Each of the four imaging sequences represent a slightly different 3D image of a patient's brain as each sequence type has different acquisition and recording parameters tailored to capturing different information. Additionally, 147 of the 611 patients have accompanying segmentation masks annotated by expert radiologists which define the sub-tumor regions as well as healthy brain tissue. We use the 3D imaging sequences to train MaskFormer, a recent state-of-the-art vision transformer model, to predict the expert-generated segmentation masks."

Wang felt drawn to image segmentation and classification and believes this aspect of data science –particularly medical imaging– has vast potential, although it also teems with challenges. He said, “Our team's decision to focus on brain cancer MRI image classification and segmentation for our summer capstone project was both a challenging and enriching journey. Applying our theoretical insights to a topic with such impactful real-world applications was truly fulfilling.”

Day-ahead prediction of Texas’ renewable energy supply

Texas has quadrupled the proportion of wind and solar power on its power grid in the last decade, but these renewable energy sources –like the natural forces they rely on—are intermittent and makes balancing the grid more difficult for its operators. Makamba Sackey, Kyle Sneed, Nasim Taheri, Taylor Chambers, and Arthur Ning worked to improve the ‘day-ahead’ market prediction for available renewable power generation by using tomorrow’s weather forecast with their data science innovation called WiSDOM: Wind and Solar Day-ahead operational model.

“WiSDOM is trained on historical weather data in key regions of Texas and the historical renewable power generation given those weather conditions,” said Ning.

Sneed added, “Our ultimate objective was to display a dashboard of the next 24 hours of renewable power generation, with an estimate of the most impactful weather conditions that generate that production.” 

Public data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) was supplemented by data from more than 40 weather stations. By incorporating traditional models and state-of-the-art tools, the team searched for patterns and variables that had the greatest impact on predicting available renewable energy availability, and discovered data from the previous 120 hours could be used to make a solid prediction for the next 24.

New ML search and find tool speeds up documentation research for engineers

“According to S&P Global, engineers spend 42% of their time searching for technical specs,” said Diyaz Yespayev. “So our team focused on Natural Language Processing (NLP), leveraging generative transformers and vector databases to improve information retrieval for engineering technical documents and specifications.” 

Yespayev worked with Andrew Meaux, Chris Leinweber, Rhett Johnson, Ruslan Kharko, and Zhanibek Issabekov to develop EnGenIR: Engineering Generative Transformers for Information Retrieval. Their initial project narrowed their scope to documents in the Facilities Engineering spectrum, especially in the pipeline design domain, with the expectation of creating an architecture that could generalize well across other technical domains and functions.

“Our pipeline combined vector-stored technical documentation, embedding models, cosine similarity-based information retrieval, and generative AI information synthesis. And yes, we incorporated GPT-4,” said Yespayev. 

Drawing on publicly available engineering code and standard documentation from sources like ASME and API, the team hoped EnGenIR would allow an engineer to get answers to questions like, “Does X, Y, and Z of my current pipeline design meet the required technical standards?” Their model performed well, but the team also recognized that creating appropriate questions or prompts was a critical component in achieving a usable answer.

Director declares MDS capstone showcase a success

Arko Barman , the director for Rice’s Data Science Capstone Program, expressed enthusiasm for the projects the MDS teams presented.

“The presentations we saw tonight are a culmination of a months-long project that each of the teams completed where they applied the skills and knowledge that the students and scholars have acquired through the duration of their master’s. Every person has contributed to their team for completing a challenging project to solve important problems and derive actionable insights from real-world data that is already publicly available,” said Barman.  He suggested that the students step back from their work and take a moment to look back on all they had accomplished. 

“You have taken all that you have learned in the courses throughout the degree program and applied it in your capstone project. You discovered holes or gaps in your knowledge and your faculty mentors have been there to help you bridge that gap. This may also have been the very first time you have written software with the goal of reusability and reproducibility that might be used by other people and data scientists.”

For more information about Rice University’s applied Master of Data Science program, offered both 100% online or on-campus, please visit:

• Rice University’s Master of Data Science (Online)
• Rice University’s Master of Data Science (On-Campus)

Carlyn Chatfield, contributing writer

Requirements for the Anthropology Capstone

The Anthropology Capstone provides an opportunity for students, over the course of a semester, to conduct an independent research project on a topic that interests them, while working one-on-one with a faculty supervisor. The project culminates in a research paper and a presentation to the faculty and assembled students. All Anthropology majors who are not pursuing the Honors Program must complete the Capstone project and must enroll in 2 courses, ANTH 493 and ANTH 495, in their senior year, unless they are December graduates. They will also participate in monthly group research support meetings with the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Spring semester of their final year. Detailed requirements for the Capstone can be found HERE .

The Anthropology Capstone includes the following classes:

• ANTH 493 (Senior Research Preparation), a one-credit course in the Fall semester
• ANTH 495 (Anthropology Capstone), a three-credit course in the Spring semester.

To take the Capstone Course, please consult a faculty member from the Department of Anthropology, ask if they would supervise your project and complete and turn in the Faculty Supervisor Registration Form . The signed form needs to be turned in to the Anthropology Office in 572 Sewall Hall. The deadline for turning in the form is 5:00 PM on the last day of the third week of classes.

Nov. 18, 2022

Sopa capstone project with herc aims to improve racial, ethnic and socioeconomic equity in hisd.

As part of Rice University’s School of Social Sciences, the Social Policy Analysis (SOPA) major focuses on evidence-based policy design, analysis and communication. Through in-depth coursework and research, undergraduate students aim to answer pressing questions, such as: Which early interventions lead to greater educational attainment for low-income children? Which juvenile rehabilitation programs are more likely to reduce the recurrence of criminal behavior? How does healthcare policy influence daily health behaviors? In a time of limited resources and rising demands, local and national leaders need the analytical expertise and comprehensive data to make a demonstrable, sustained impact on urgent matters facing their communities.

The SOPA major culminates in the completion of a hands-on community capstone project. Students work together in groups with a community organization, such as the Houston Food Bank or the American Heart Association, and conduct research that aims to inform policy and provide solutions to some of the nation’s most pressing issues. Many of these students will travel to the Texas State Capitol in the spring to attend legislative sessions that pertain to bills and matters of concern for their research and the respective community organizations with which they have been collaborating.

“The capstone course gives students the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge they’ve learned in the classroom over three years to real world problems and issues in a collaborative and dynamic setting,” said Melissa Marschall , director of SOPA. She continued, “It’s the kind of engaged learning experience that many Rice students are looking for because they want to make a difference.”

One Houston-based SOPA capstone project is in partnership with the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC) at Rice University. The two entities are engaged in The Equity Project, a large-scale collaborative research project with the Houston Independent School District (HISD). The purpose of this project is to identify the mechanisms through which HISD, and the broader Houston community, can work to improve racial, ethnic and socioeconomic equity in educational achievement and attainment.

“Over the years, SOPA teams have had great opportunities to get involved in research in partnership with HERC and HISD and, more importantly, share that research directly back with HISD,” said Erin Baumgartner , director of HERC.

This project includes research that examines, across HISD, the equitable distribution of student advising and mentoring programs. HISD offers various resources, such as academic and non-academic mentoring, college advising and college preparation; however, ease of access to these programs for students may vary significantly across campuses in such a large district. The study’s findings will be presented to HISD leadership and used to improve access to advising and mentoring opportunities across the district.

“The district uses the research to plan and drive decision making, which ultimately works to improve equity for students in the Houston area,” said Baumgartner. She added, “It also gives students an opportunity to learn about research in a partnership setting, keeping partner needs in mind throughout the process, from analysis to presentation of findings.”

To learn more about SOPA, visit sopa.rice.edu .

Photo: ©Pgiam from Getty Images Signature via Canva.com

MASTER OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Capstone & Courses

The Master of Electrical and Computer Engineering (MECE) degree is a non-thesis capstone-based degree program offered through the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice. Central to the MECE program is the completion of a year-long capstone project which provides the opportunity for students to produce an advanced product or real-world data analysis that has societal impact. Overall, the MECE program is a bridge to industry, designed to provide advanced learning and training in the applied aspects of ECE technology beyond the typical undergraduate electrical and computer engineering degree program.

Students are admitted to the MECE degree program in the fall semester. The majority of MECE students complete the program in three semesters (fall, spring, fall) with the summer reserved for internship opportunities.

Upon joining the program, MECE students get to work with a faculty advisor. The advisor will counsel the student in developing a degree plan consistent with the student’s career objectives. The MECE may be pursued on a part-time or full-time basis.

Visit General Announcements for all up-to-date MECE requirements .

Courses & Requirements

Mece degree requirements.

• A minimum of 10 courses (30 credit hours) to satisfy degree requirements.
• A minimum of 30 credit hours of graduate-level study (coursework at the 500-level or above).
• A minimum of 27 credit hours must be taken at Rice University.
• A minimum of 24 graduate semester credit hours must be taken in standard or traditional courses (with a course type of lecture, seminar, laboratory, lecture/laboratory).
• A minimum residency enrollment of one fall or spring semester of part-time graduate study at Rice University.
• 1 course (3 credit hours) to fulfill the Capstone Foundations requirement.
• 2 courses (6 credit hours) to fulfill the Capstone Experience Project requirement
• A minimum of 1 course (3 credit hours) from the Engineering Communications Requirement.
• A minimum of 2 courses (6 credit hours) from the Engineering Software Development Requirement.
• A minimum of 2 courses (6 credit hours) in one area of specialization ( see PhD & MECE handbook here for areas of specialization.
• A minimum of 2 courses (6 credit hours) from the Elective Requirements
• ELEC 698 each semester in residence at Rice University.
• A maximum of 1 course (3 credit hours) of graduate-level coursework as transfer credit. For additional departmental guidelines regarding transfer credit, see the Policies tab on this page .
• A minimum overall GPA of 2.67 or higher in all Rice coursework.
• A minimum program GOA of 3.00 or higher in all Rice coursework that satisfies requirements for the non-thesis master's degree with a minimum grade of C (2.00 grade points) in each course.

Degree Plan Examples by Focus Area

• Computer Engineering
• Computer Vision
• Data Science
• Digital Health
• Neuroengineering
• Quantum Engineering
• Wireless Systems

MECE Research

ELEC 590 Electrical Engineering Research Projects is a course where MECE students can conduct theoretical and experimental investigations under ECE faculty direction. Students must complete the Independent Study Petition which requests a short one-paragraph abstract of the project at the start of the semester. This abstract should be discussed with the student's research advisor for approval. Once submitted it will be reviewed and subject to the approval of the ECE Professional Master's Committee.

About 3 hours of work per week per 15 week semester would translate to 1 credit hour. 30 hours of 500-level credits are required for the MECE degree. You may count 3 hours of ELEC 590, 591 or 599 as a Free Elective. MECE students taking less than 3 credit hours of ELEC 590 per semester will not be able to have the course counted towards their degree. ELEC 590 projects do not count towards ECE specialization credit, and the maximum total ELEC 590 is limited to 6 hours. Students can petition if they have a special project. If a student is being paid to work on the research project, then ELEC 590 credit cannot also be earned.

The student is expected to prepare a final presentation and report for the research advisor by the end of the semester so that the research advisor can assess the student's performance and give the student a grade. (The student's level of effort should be comparable to that in a traditional lecture/lab course.) The student's research advisor should then contact MECE Program Administrator regarding grading.

ELEC 591 Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) at Rice University. This program unites graduates and undergraduate education and faculty research in a team-based context. Students interested in VIP should meet and consult with the faculty lead of that project. Visit vip.rice.edu for more information.

ELEC 698 Seminar

The ELEC 698 seminar course broadens an MECE student’s exposure to activities and opportunities in all fields of electrical engineering, both in industry and research settings. All MECE students are required to take and successfully complete ELEC 698 for each semester in residence at Rice University. The course requires registered attendance at three (3) ECE sponsored or co-sponsored seminars per semester, and at the featured departmental events described in the following paragraph.

In addition to the attendance at three seminars, ELEC 698 requires that each student attend and sign in for the following events: ECE Corporate Affiliates Day, the Brice Distinguished Lecture, and the Chapman Distinguished Lecture in the years they are held. These featured departmental events provide each MECE student with excellent opportunities to expand their professional network by interacting with alumni and industrial affiliates of the ECE department.

Details of seminars are emailed and posted on the ECE website. Some seminars hosted by the Engineering Professional Master’s Program (EPMP) can count for one of the three seminars. Please check with the MECE Administrator for a list of approved seminars. Students are responsible for signing in during the first 10 minutes of the seminar. Attendance logged after that time will not be counted. If there are any difficulties with signing in, students should contact the MECE Administrator within 24 hours of the seminar.

Your first semester at Rice will begin with Orientation Week (or O-Week) where you will learn about Rice and ECE. The major events of this week will include presentations by several of the faculty with whom you will become familiar. You will meet your advisor, discuss your career objectives, and select your courses for your first semester.

In consultation with your advisor, you will determine a degree plan and timeline for completion. This must be submitted to the MECE Program Administrator.

MECE students are to consult with an academic advisor, usually a member of the MECE Committee each semester in order to identify and clearly document their individual curricular requirements or degree plan to be followed. A degree plan must be submitted for each semester in residence, but degree plans may be revised, re-approved, and resubmitted at any time.

Semesters 2 and 3

Students should consult their Degree Works audit through ESTHER to evaluate how they are meeting the university and departmental degree requirements. In the final semester of MECE studies, an “Application for Degree” is completed. The pre-printed form can be found on ESTHER and is submitted to the Office of the Registrar.

The MECE program must be completed within 5 years.

Academic Advisors

Each incoming MECE student is assigned an academic advisor, usually a member of the Professional Master’s Committee, to help with course selection and other initial academic concerns. Final course selection does not need to be completed until after the start of classes but must be completed before the ADD deadline, typically the Friday of the second week of classes. Students should submit their approved degree plans to MECE Program Administrator at least two days before the deadline.

2024-25 Academic Year MECE Faculty Committee

Joseph Young (Chair) Jose Moreto Yu Kee Ooi Michael Orchard

Staff: Aki Shimada, [email protected] 713-348-3597

General questions that are not related to admissions decisions may be directed to [email protected] .

Engineering Professional Master's Programs

Advance your career by studying at rice university's top-30-ranked engineering school., helpful links.

OPEN POSITION: Rice Bioengineering invites applications for Tenure-Track Assistant Professor. Click here to apply

RICE BIOENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATE

Research & Internships

The bioengineering field integrates skills across the physical and life sciences, mathematical and computational sciences, and medicine. Many Rice bioengineering students attend local and national conferences, symposium events, and design competitions to present their research and design projects. They also author or co-author a manuscript(s), and earn awards at local and national conferences. Students who participate and excel in independent research or engineering design are recognized through engineering programs and competitions.

Highly competitive national awards bioengineering students have received within the last decade for undergraduate research include 17 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, 11 Goldwater Scholarships, 4 Hertz Fellowships, 6 Whitaker International Fellowships, 3 Marshall Scholarships, 3 Fulbright Scholarships, 1 Beckman Scholarship, 1 Morris K. Udall Scholarship, and 1 Truman Scholarship.

Student teams have also received top engineering design grants and awards at global health and national competitions to advance their prototype or help them forge a path that leads to the deployment of a manufactured product. This has included 9 Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development and three VentureWell grants.

Research Opportunities

To be successful, students should begin to proactively identify their interest areas and search for faculty mentors as early as their freshman year. Research opportunities in bioengineering involve cutting-edge projects in our focus areas , including biomaterials and drug delivery, biomedical imaging and diagnostics, cellular and biomolecular engineering, computational and theoretical bioengineering, systems and synthetic biology, and tissue engineering and biomechanics.

Over 70% of Rice bioengineering undergraduates participate in research either in faculty member laboratories, in research centers and institutes at Rice, or in the Texas Medical Center.

The Center for Civic Leadership (CCL) offers multiple curricular and experiential learning opportunities that enhance bioengineering research and engineering design, such as the Discover Research Fair , and the Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium (RURS) , which sponsors the Century Scholars Program for freshmen and the Undergraduate Scholars Program for upperclassmen.

Bioengineering faculty and students also benefit from Rice's many research centers, institutes, and groups .

Undergraduate research courses (BIOE 400/401)

These courses are offered for undergraduate students who want to get involved in research. Through this course students perform an independent investigation of a specific topic or problem in modern bioengineering research. Under the direction of a selected faculty member, students gain hands-on research experience in a bioengineering laboratory. Students are often mentored by graduate students or postdoctoral fellows in the lab.

Engineering Design

Rice's Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) has many project-based courses that teach engineering design. Some of these courses are capstone design projects for seniors, underclassmen design courses and other courses taught in the OEDK. The minor in Global Health Technologies (GLHT) and an Engineering Design minor complement existing BS and BA degree programs in the George R. Brown School of Engineering and are open to students earning a major in any department in the school of engineering.

Bioengineering design courses follow a systematic process in which students learn and work with faculty members at the OEDK, researchers, professionals in industry, or clinicians and health care professionals in the Texas Medical Center, who serve as project sponsors as students complete a prototype; conduct tests and safety evaluations; and follow FDA requirements and logistics, engineering ethics, intellectual property rights, business planning and marketing, and/or publication.

Courses include:

• Capstone design projects for seniors (BIOE 451 and 452),
• Introduction to Engineering Design for freshman or underclassmen (ENGI 120 and ENGI 220),
• Engineering Design Studio (ENGI 200),
• Prototyping and Fabrication (ENGI 210), and
• Engineering Design Workshop (ENGI 300).

Internships & Professional Development

Many bioengineering students take on real-world challenges and strengthen their classroom studies through summer internships or study abroad programs, professional mentorship, and accelerator startup/entrepreneurship programs. Examples include:

• International engagement through Rice 360° Global Health Technologies Summer Internship program. The summer internships are held in a number of national and international locations, exposing students to health care challenges and solutions in the developed and developing world.
• The Summer Cardiovascular Research Internship Program (SCRIP) offers a unique opportunity for undergraduates to perform cutting-edge cardiovascular research ranging from fundamental science and translational medicine to community health.
• New entrepreneurship programs, such as the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) and OwlSpark, add project-based courses and startup mentorship while building a business acumen. The Startup Career Fair is a one-day event that connects local startups with entrepreneurial-minded students seeking internships and experienced professionals pursuing full-time opportunities.
• The Center for Civic Leadership combines academic rigor, experiential learning, and volunteer service through programs such as Engineers Without Borders .
• The Doerr Institute for New Leaders provides tailored leadership coaching to students.
• In partnership with Doerr Institute for New Leaders, the Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI) recruits undergraduate students to work on research projects with graduate mentors in its SCI-STAR program .
• The Rice Center for Engineering Leadership (RCEL) provides focused academic training and real-world problem-solving. Students can earn an RCEL Certificate in Engineering Leadership, the only four-year engineering leadership certificate in Texas and one of only a handful of educational innovations like it in the United States.
• The Center for Career Development offers enhanced programs, services, and resources to guide students pursuing career goals. The Owl Edge Career Mentoring Program matches alumni and students for externships and internships.

Aug. 25, 2023

Rice meml alumnus pitched his own tech startup for capstone project, rice university alumnus and entrepreneur rohit chetla '23 syncs device warranties and repair options.

Rohit Sai Chetla founded the device management platform  Warranty Me , raised seed funding in India in the middle of a pandemic, and turned down several acquisition proposals in order to grow his own company. To develop his leadership skills, he turned to Rice University’s Master of Engineering Management and Leadership ( MEML ) program.

“A program at the intersection of product management and engineering leadership is what I needed and what my company needed at that point,” said the MEML alumnus. Already a committed lifelong learner and avid reader, Chetla had been influenced by Rice alumnus and venture capitalist John Doerr’s book, “Speed & Scale.”

“The Doerr connection and Rice’s high ranking prompted me to join an information session led by  Fred Higgs ,” said Chetla. “Those slides and stories showed me exactly what I would be learning as a MEML student. The further I looked into it, the more interested I became--but I was already running a small company. Could I really become a full-time student while managing four employees?” 

The 11-hour time difference between Houston and Hyderabad helped make his decision. Chetla was accepted into the MEML program, moved to Houston, and registered for all morning classes. Each day, he dove into homework immediately after class then switched gears. Starting in the early afternoon in Houston (about 9:30 p.m. in India), Chetla put in a full workday while his WarrantyMe employees were sleeping.

“I was already committed to becoming a better leader through a rigorous program of study, and my Rice lessons were immediately applicable to WarrantyMe,” said Chetla. 

Learning to lead with MEML courses

“Early on, Professor  Steve Gomez asked us what we thought leadership was and I responded it was all about psychology. He told us it was not just psychology, although there were good lessons there. Instead, we would learn to lead through empathy. 

“I thought hard about that and looked at the kind of pressure I was putting on my employees, believing that was the right way to lead. But Steve gave me the ability to see it from my engineers’ viewpoint. I applied his lessons immediately, even changing my voice and how I spoke as I worked to become a better, more empathetic manager.”

 He said Gomez and other MEML instructors brought a wealth of industry experience and anecdotes to their classes and shared product insights and perspectives that Chetla felt he would not have discovered on his own. In his final semester, he was ready to capitalize on all his lessons and experiences with the capstone project.

Developing a startup as capstone project  

“I went to my professor,  John Via , told him I’d been working on my own company for the last two years and asked if I could use it for my capstone,” said Chetla. His company, WarrantyMe, is a device management platform that allows its users to track the warranty of every electronic device they own and raise service requests with every brand with the tap of a button. 

Chetla said, “John was really gracious and helped me shape WarrantyMe into a project that could meet the capstone requirements. One of the most important things I learned in that capstone project was how to really look at the future of my company while remaining grounded in the present. 

“Just like Amazon began with books --even if they considered selling music CDs or other items in the future, they still had to focus on being excellent at selling books. So, keep your mind in the present even as you contemplate your future expansion.”  

Chetla hopes to expand WarrantyMe to the United States by the end of the year but he’s remaining grounded in becoming excellent at warranty and repair management. It was his own dismal experience that provided inspiration for his company. 

When his laptop failed, he spent several weeks tracking down a repair facility only to learn he needed an original invoice. Chetla returned with the invoice and was told the warranty had expired. Discovering his TV and phone warranties were about to expire, he rushed to find repair facilities for those devices which had begun experiencing performance issues. 

“I began wondering why this was so complicated. Why couldn’t I do all this on my phone? Track the warranties, find the repair center, and sign up for a slot. And that is how WarrantyMe began,” he said.

Learn more about Rice University's Master of Engineering Management and Leadership program at our upcoming  information sessions . 

• Internship & Capstone Course
• Areas of Study

Graduate Field Internship

In the final phase of the degree program, students will be involved in an extensive field experience in which they intern for a semester in one of a variety of internationally based or internationally focused governmental and nongovernmental organizations, international commissions, embassies, agencies, or corporations. These internships provide students invaluable entrée to international entities or internationally focused entities with the goal of facilitating their employment in these organizations and/or the development of their skills and network as they seek other employment.

All Graduate Field Internships must be approved by the Assistant Director for Employer Relations and must be conducted after the student has completed a minimum of 18 credit hours in the program.

Please see our database to see where students have completed internships.

Capstone Course

Students summarize their internship experience and area of study in a final capstone project that investigates, analyzes, and provides policy-based solutions to real-world problems.

Examples of Past Capstone Projects:

• “The Islamic State Online: Ideology, Radicalization, Policy and the Need for Counternarratives”
• “Organized Crime and the Illicit Wildlife Trade in Mexico”
• “Challenges for the Colombian Oil and Gas Sector in the Post-Conflict Era”
• “How Drug Trafficking Organizations Innovate”
• “A New Cuban Constitution: Institutions for Democratic Stability”
• “From the Inside Out: The Role of Host Organizations in The Sustainability of International Development”
• “Basic Income Against the Competition”
• “Russia’s Nuclear Modernization: The Quest for Non-Proliferation”
• “North Korea’s Cyber Capabilities and China’s Involvement: An Analysis and Policy Prescriptions”
• “What Complimentary Methods Have Developed Recently to Permit Rural and Remote Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa to Benefit from this New Mobilization?”
• “Social Media in Public Diplomacy: A Case of Embassy Jakarta’s Facebook Efforts”
• “How to Increase China’s Discourse Power in World Politics”

Sep. 18, 2024

Native plants and trees add character, color to rice quad.

With last week’s unveiling of Rice University’s redesigned Academic Quadrangle came the introduction of a few new residents – the 42 species of plants that are breathing new life into the biodiversity at this beloved campus hub.

What was once a scorching four acres of grass with no place to sit has now transformed into a lush, vibrant landscape, teeming with trees, blooming flowers and refreshed sod. The internationally acclaimed landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz (NBW) was chosen to work with Rice on this yearslong project.

“I believe that the land holds our human story and the energy associated with those stories,” said Thomas Woltz, senior principal at NBW. “Place matters. This is what the students and faculty wished to address in calling for the reimagining of the Rice quadrangle. What we have created here is a variety of spaces that welcome student life and encourage interaction with community, faculty and alumni.”

NBW worked with George Ristow, university architect and assistant vice president for campus planning and design, along with a planning team to incorporate the university’s needs and desires into the firm’s suggestions.

“Rice selected NBW in part because of their outstanding work, some of which can be seen locally at Memorial Park, the Rothko Chapel and in the Ismaili Center project taking shape near Buffalo Bayou,” Ristow said. “Furthermore, their unwavering efforts to align the design with input from across the Rice community signified a shared value system and commitment to serve as Rice’s thought partners in the space’s evolution.”

NBW used feedback gathered from faculty, staff, students and alumni for several months to inform a blueprint for the campus’ new architectural centerpiece. The iconic academic quad now brims with an enhanced attention to nature’s beauty and symbiotic relationship to Rice Owls.

Just inside the Sallyport, flora and lines of bald cypress trees dot the area flanked by Sewall, Lovett and Herzstein Halls.

“We've transformed [what was formerly] the grass in front of the building into a vibrant garden of flowering plants, most of which are native to Texas, and all of which support pollinators and bring a dramatic increase of biodiversity to the quad,” Woltz said.

Butterflies, bees, ants and myriad other arthropods may be found crawling, marching or fluttering from one plant to the next.

Moving along the quad, deciduous trees populate a middle section and will provide aesthetically pleasing views and a respite from the sun alongside long, curving benches that invite engagement from all members of the community. On the opposite end of the quad, a serene community-focused area is surrounded by loblolly pines that transform the student space into an outdoor living room, replete with natural cover.

The emphasis on native and Texas-friendly plants was a crucial one as plans took shape during the final stages of construction.

“When it comes to landscaping, thinking about native species is probably the most important topic,” said Cassidy Johnson, assistant teaching professor of biosciences. “The major reason that using indigenous plant species is important for landscaping projects is that they fully support the native wildlife that exists in our area. All of those native plants coevolved with the pollinators, and quite a few of those insect species are then recruited to pollinate our foods. A lot of our crops continue to be insect pollinated, so having a good, robust population of those insects is vital for agriculture.”

Additionally, native plants are accustomed to Texas heat, so they remain less thirsty while simultaneously reinforcing draining patterns.

“The tree species that have been planted have a very significant impact with drainage,” Johnson said. “Not only does the root system break up the soil where the soil itself will absorb more water, the roots also trap more water.”

Now complete with the new planting, the landscape has morphed from a lawn monoculture into a landscape that now features a wide variety of shade trees, perennials and shrubs. In total, more than 24,000 new plants have been introduced to the quad, all of them either native or adapted to the climate of Houston. Native Texas wildflowers, such as purple coneflower, mealy blue sage and Brazos penstemon, bloom in hues of blue and purple, echoing school colors.

More than 90 trees were added, and two large mature oaks at the quad’s west end were preserved and used to determine the landscape’s ecology. The new, arcing path across the quad is lined with Monterrey oaks that provide an awning along the primary circulation route. As the trees continue to mature, the space beneath them will become a contiguous body of shade.

The opening of the academic quad, with all of its foliage, elevates the splendor of the Lynn R. Lowrey Arboretum , a teaching and research resource at Rice. The Lowrey Arboretum includes a collection of trees and woody plants dispersed throughout the nearly 300-acre campus that represent native and introduced plant species which are suitable to the wet prairie climate of the Houston area. As an outdoor classroom spanning the full campus, the arboretum supports environmentally-focused programs in biology, engineering, architecture and literature.

Dedicated on March 18, 1999, the Lowrey Arboretum honors the distinguished horticulturist whose life and work were dedicated to spreading knowledge and cultivating appreciation for the trees and plants of the American Gulf Coast and northern Mexico. Two of the plants growing in the quad were brought to Texas from Mexico by Lowrey: the Monterrey Oak (Quercus polymorpha) and the Mexican Scullcap (Scutellaria suffrutescens).

“Our entire campus is an arboretum, and we're very unique in that our peer institutions have arboretums, but their entire campus is not the arboretum,” Johnson said. “This revision to the quad is going to connect all of those elements together. People know there is an arboretum on Rice's campus, and they generally are thinking about the canopy of the inner loop. This quad is going to bring all of that together in the heart of campus as well. I think the refined quad helps connect all the dots.”

For more information about the new academic quad, visit rice.edu/quad .

Maximizing Value with the RICE Framework Prioritization Model

The RICE framework empowers product teams to make data-driven decisions and focus their efforts on high-value work. By evaluating initiatives based on Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort, product managers can systematically prioritize projects that customers love.

Are you struggling with prioritizing projects and making informed decisions about where to allocate your resources?

What if there was a framework that could eliminate guesswork and gut feelings from the project prioritization process? A data-driven model that empowers product managers to make strategic decisions with confidence.

The RICE framework brings this vision to life - a tool to compare initiatives objectively and identify high-impact work that creates delightful customer experiences. With RICE, product teams can leverage data and structure thinking to build products people love.

Read on to unlock the power of this revolutionary framework and learn how it stands to improve your team's prioritization and decision-making capabilities. RICE provides the ingredients for critical thinking, beautiful products, and customer success.

RICE Template

Copy this Google Sheet to quickly get started – no need to buy custom software or overcomplicate this simple framework.

Key Takeaways

• The RICE framework enables data-driven prioritization using 4 factors: Reach, Impact, Confidence and Effort. This eliminates guesswork and provides objective initiative comparison.
• Implementing RICE involves gathering ideas, accurately scoring projects, and regularly analyzing results to focus on high-value work.
• Adopting RICE brings strategic alignment, maximized value, and customer-centric products. The framework leads to building delightful experiences people love.

The RICE Framework Explained

The RICE framework, short for Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort, is a prioritization model that helps product managers evaluate projects based on these four factors, providing a data-driven approach to decision-making. Teams can objectively compare initiatives and prioritize those offering the greatest potential value by calculating the RICE score for each project. Gone are the days of relying solely on gut feelings and personal biases. With the RICE framework, you can make better informed decisions and focus on high-impact projects that maximize value.

In essence, RICE stands for the following components:

• Reach (how many users will be affected)
• Impact (the potential effect on individual users)
• Confidence (the certainty of a project’s success)
• Effort (the time, resources, and expertise required)

Next, let’s delve deeper into each component of the RICE framework and understand their significance.

Reach, an essential component of the RICE framework, estimates the number of users or events a project will affect within a specific timeframe. Quantifying Reach in terms of people or events per time period allows product managers to effectively evaluate different project ideas and make informed decisions about resource allocation. Considering Reach helps prevent catering to a small, unrepresentative segment of users and ensures that the project delivers a more massive impact on a broader audience.

To assess the reach of a project, the RICE framework employs three classifications: all members of the existing product (4 points), some of the users in the existing product (2 points), and new users not currently in the product (1 point). These classifications help product managers prioritize projects that cater to the majority of the user base, ultimately improving user satisfaction and driving growth.

While Reach measures the number of users affected, Impact focuses on the potential effect of a project on individual users or customers. Factors such as user satisfaction, revenue growth, and cost savings play a vital role in determining the Impact score. Accurately assessing Impact ensures that product managers prioritize projects with a significant positive influence on users and the organization’s bottom line.

The RICE scoring model uses a multiple choice scale to evaluate Impact, considering both the extent and the duration of the impact. Product managers can make more informed decisions and prioritize projects with significant potential for success and growth by assigning Impact scores based on comprehensive user feedback and quantitative metrics.

Confidence is a crucial aspect of the RICE framework, assessing the certainty of a project’s success based on market research, user feedback, or historical data. The Confidence scale in the RICE framework is measured in percentages, with 100% being “high confidence”, 80% being “medium” and 50% being “low”. To calculate the confidence score, product managers must consider their level of assurance with the idea, as well as the scores assigned for Reach and Impact.

When determining confidence levels, it’s essential to consider the amount of data and evidence available to support the confidence scores assigned.

• High confidence (80%) indicates comprehensive qualitative feedback and quantitative metrics
• Medium confidence (50%) reflects either qualitative feedback or quantitative metrics
• Low confidence (30%) suggests limited qualitative feedback and/or quantitative metrics.

Factoring in Confidence helps the RICE framework counterbalance overly optimistic Impact scores and account for uncertainty.

Effort score evaluates the time, resources, and expertise required for a project’s implementation, with higher scores indicating greater difficulty. Accurate effort estimates are crucial to the RICE framework, as they help product managers prioritize projects that deliver high value with fewer resources.

Collaboration between tech leads and software engineers is necessary to generate realistic estimates and estimate Effort scores based on valid information. High effort can adversely affect a project’s RICE score, even if it has high reach and impact. Therefore, it’s essential to consider the effort component when prioritizing projects and allocating resources.

Implementing the RICE Framework

Now that we understand the components of the RICE framework, let’s discuss how to implement it effectively. The implementation process involves brainstorming and collecting ideas, scoring projects based on the RICE components, and analyzing and prioritizing the results. Following these steps enables product managers and teams to streamline the prioritization process, make data-driven decisions, and focus on high-impact projects that maximize value.

To ensure a successful implementation, it’s crucial to:

• Gather input from various stakeholders and team members during brainstorming and idea collection
• Accurately score projects based on Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort
• Regularly analyze and prioritize results to maintain alignment with changing circumstances and new information.

Brainstorming and Idea Collection

Brainstorming and idea collection is the first step in implementing the RICE framework, gathering input from various stakeholders and team members to generate a list of potential projects and initiatives. Surveys, interviews, focus groups, and other methods can be utilized to collect input from stakeholders and team members, ensuring that a diverse range of ideas and perspectives are considered in the prioritization process.

Brainstorming sessions, mind mapping, and affinity diagrams are examples of brainstorming and idea collection techniques that can be employed to gather valuable input and generate new ideas. The benefits of brainstorming and idea collection include generating new ideas, recognizing potential issues, and forming a collective understanding of the project.

Scoring Projects with RICE

Scoring projects with RICE involves assigning scores to each component (Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort) and calculating the overall RICE score. This process helps teams objectively compare initiatives and prioritize those that offer the greatest potential value. Accurate scoring is crucial for effective prioritization and decision-making.

To score projects using the RICE framework, product managers should consider each component’s definitions and use a consistent scoring method across all projects. By assigning scores based on comprehensive user feedback, quantitative metrics, and other factors, product managers can make more informed decisions and prioritize projects with the most significant potential for success and growth.

Analyzing and Prioritizing Results

Analyzing and prioritizing results using the RICE framework helps identify high-priority initiatives and make informed decisions about project sequencing. To do this, teams should evaluate the scores of each project, considering the Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort components.

Utilizing the RICE framework to analyze and prioritize results offers improved decision-making, enhanced resource allocation, and greater efficiency. By conducting a cost benefit analysis, this systematic approach allows product managers and teams to focus on high-impact projects that maximize value and drive growth.

Overcoming Common RICE Framework Challenges

While the RICE framework offers numerous benefits, it’s essential to acknowledge and address common challenges that may arise during its implementation. Overcoming common RICE framework challenges includes ensuring accurate scoring, balancing trade-offs, and updating scores regularly to maintain relevance.

This section will discuss several strategies for overcoming these challenges and ensuring a successful RICE framework implementation. By addressing these challenges, product managers and teams can maximize the benefits of the RICE framework and make informed, data-driven decisions.

Ensuring Accurate Scoring

Ensuring accurate final score in the RICE framework requires careful consideration of each component and avoiding biases or personal preferences. To ensure accurate scoring, product managers should gather all pertinent data, make subjective evaluations, and take into account the emotional context of the decision-making process.

When a project or feature idea is met with low confidence in the RICE framework, product managers should reflect on the reasons for the low confidence and seek to validate the idea with data. Ensuring accurate scoring enables teams to make more informed decisions and prioritize projects that truly maximize value.

Balancing Trade-offs

Balancing trade-offs in the RICE framework involves considering dependencies, essential features, and other factors that may affect prioritization. Weighing the complexity and time requirements of the framework, it may be beneficial to use it in conjunction with other frameworks or prioritization techniques.

By evaluating the trade-offs between different initiatives and categories, product managers can strike a balance between the potential benefits and drawbacks of each project, leading to more effective prioritization and decision-making in the realm of product management. As a product manager, they use their judgment to make informed decisions.

Updating Scores Regularly

Updating scores regularly in the RICE framework ensures that priorities remain aligned with changing circumstances and new information. To maintain accuracy, it is recommended to re-evaluate and update RICE scores as new information is acquired or when organizational goals and priorities are altered.

In addition, it is beneficial to review and revise RICE scores periodically to ensure that they accurately reflect the current state of the organization and its projects. Regularly updating scores allows product managers and teams to maintain alignment with changing circumstances and make informed decisions based on the most up-to-date information.

RICE Framework in Action: Real-World Examples

Having gained a thorough understanding of the RICE framework, it’s time to examine some real-world examples of its effective use. These examples will showcase the RICE framework’s versatility and demonstrate its practical applications across various industries.

In one example, a software company used the RICE framework to prioritize new product features based on user feedback and market trends. Systematically scoring each potential feature enabled the company to focus on high-impact projects that addressed their users’ needs and maximized their product’s value in the market.

In another case, a marketing team employed the RICE framework to prioritize their marketing campaigns. By evaluating each campaign’s potential reach, impact, and effort, the team was able to allocate resources effectively and focus on campaigns with the highest potential for success and return on investment.

These real-world examples illustrate the power of the RICE framework in driving informed decision-making and effective prioritization across different industries and use cases.

Customizing the RICE Framework

While the RICE framework offers a robust and effective prioritization model, some teams may find it beneficial to customize the framework to better suit their specific needs and circumstances. Customizing the RICE framework, or exploring other prioritization frameworks, can involve adjusting weightings, creating different feature buckets, or adding granularity to the scoring process.

However, it’s essential to avoid unnecessary complexity and evaluation problems when customizing the RICE framework. When customizing the framework, product managers should strive to maintain uniformity and consistency across the organization to ensure accurate scoring and effective prioritization.

Integrating RICE with Other Prioritization Techniques

Integrating RICE with other prioritization techniques can enhance decision-making by providing a more comprehensive view of project value and potential impact. Combining the scoring or evaluation criteria of different frameworks, such as the MoSCoW method or the Kano model, allows for multiple factors and perspectives to be taken into account when making prioritization decisions.

Integration of RICE with other prioritization techniques allows product managers to gain a more holistic understanding of each project’s potential value and make more informed decisions about resource allocation and project sequencing. This integration can lead to more effective prioritization and improved decision-making across the organization.

Benefits of Adopting the RICE Framework

Adopting the RICE framework offers numerous benefits, including:

• Systematic evaluation
• Informed decision-making
• Effective prioritization
• A focus on high-impact projects

By providing a structured approach to evaluating and prioritizing projects based on Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort, the RICE framework enables teams to make data-driven decisions and allocate resources more effectively.

In summary, the RICE prioritization framework is a valuable tool that can help product managers and teams make informed decisions, improve resource allocation, and ultimately drive growth and success for their organization. You can unlock the potential of the RICE framework and transform your prioritization process by understanding and implementing it.

The RICE framework holds the potential to revolutionize the way product teams work. By providing a consistent, structured approach to decision-making, RICE can transform product development.

With this framework, product managers tap into the wealth of data at their fingertips. No longer do teams have to rely solely on intuition. RICE enables data-inspired thinking infused with human insight.

By adopting RICE, teams can focus their precious time on high-impact work that moves the needle. Initiative by initiative, projects add up to products that customers rave about.

RICE provides the ingredients for product teams to think critically, create beautifully, and act strategically. With this framework, product managers can lead their teams to unlock innovation and grow customer delight. The possibilities are endless when product teams embrace the RICE framework and unleash its full potential.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the rice framework.

The RICE scoring model is a prioritization framework designed to help product managers prioritize initiatives based on four factors - reach, impact, confidence, and effort.

What is the formula for RICE framework?

RICE is a framework for prioritizing product features and making decisions based on reach, impact, effort, and confidence level. As a PM, your job is to do the scoring and calculations required to rank the list of features in order of importance.

What is the difference between WSJF and RICE?

Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) and RICE are both prioritization methodologies used in product management to help teams prioritize tasks and projects. However, they differ in the factors they consider when assessing the value of work. WSJF is a prioritization model used in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and is based on the idea that work should be prioritized based on the "Cost of Delay" (CoD) while taking into account the job duration. The WSJF formula is calculated by dividing the CoD by the job size or duration. This methodology focuses on maximizing economic benefits and considers factors like the cost of delay and the value of the work.

WSJF and RICE are both prioritization frameworks for product management teams, but they differ in terms of their key components: WSJF focuses on cost of delay and value of the work, while RICE emphasizes potential impact and team confidence. Teams will typically find that it is easier to calculate rice scores than WSJF. Either framework helps eliminate gut feeling or indexing on a single score.

How can I ensure accurate scoring when using the RICE framework?

The RICE framework is a project prioritization tool that helps teams make informed decisions about where to focus their efforts. RICE stands for Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. Here's a step-by-step guide to ensure accurate scoring when using the RICE framework:

• Define Your Factors – Firstly, establish clear definitions for each factor: Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. It's crucial that everyone on the team understands these definitions and how they apply to the projects being evaluated.
• Use Data to Inform Your Estimates – Whenever possible, use data to support your estimates for Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. This practice can help reduce subjectivity and improve the accuracy of your scores.
• Calibrate Scores with Team Members – Share your RICE scores with other team members or stakeholders to ensure consistency and alignment. This process can help identify any discrepancies or biases in the scoring process.
• Regularly Revisit and Revise Scores – As new information becomes available or project conditions change, update your RICE scores to ensure they remain accurate and relevant.
• Document Your Assumptions and Calculations – Keep a record of the assumptions and calculations used to determine your RICE scores. This practice can enhance transparency and make it easier to update scores as needed.
• Automate Calculations with a Tool or Spreadsheet – Using a tool or spreadsheet can help streamline the RICE scoring process and reduce the likelihood of calculation errors.

By following these steps, you can improve the accuracy of your RICE scores and make more informed decisions about which tasks and projects to prioritize.

To ensure accurate scoring when using the RICE framework, gather relevant data, make subjective assessments, and take into account the emotions associated with the decision-making process.

Can I customize the RICE framework to better suit my organization's needs?

Yes, you can customize the RICE method framework to better suit your organization’s needs by adjusting weightings, creating different feature buckets, or adding granularity for more specificity when prioritizing features. Here are some suggestions for customizing the RICE framework:

• Define Criteria for Your Product or Niche : Ensure that the definitions of Reach score, Impact, Confidence, and Effort are clear and correspond with your organization's goals and context.
• Incorporate Custom Factors : If there are additional factors crucial to your organization, such as customer feedback or customer requests or user research or other quantitative data, consider integrating them into the RICE framework. This will create a more personalized prioritization model.
• Modify Factor Weighting : If certain factors carry more significance for your organization, adjust their weighting in the RICE formula. This adjustment will better represent your priorities.
• Utilize Organization-Specific Data : When estimating Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort, use data and insights specific to your organization. This approach ensures more precise and relevant scoring.
• Regularly Review and Update the Framework : As your organization evolves and its priorities shift, make sure to review and update the RICE framework. This ensures it continues to align with your goals and objectives.

By tailoring the RICE framework, you can create a prioritization model that aligns closely with your organization's unique needs and objectives. This will aid in making more informed decisions about which tasks and projects to prioritize.