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MULTIDISCIPLINARY

THIS PAST FALL, the University of California, Berkeley, launched a new, graduate-level certification program in the emerging discipline of SSME, or Services Science, Management and Engineering. SSME is a multidisciplinary approach that merges the skills of such seemingly disparate areas as economics, computer science, engineering and management. Many other schools are also dipping a toe into services science, including Stanford University, Georgia Institute of Technology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The aim is to bring improved skills to the service sector, which employs more than 75 percent of Americans, and to help manufacturers improve their marketing, …