Programming, Analytics and Technology Curriculum for GSAPP Real Estate Development Program

Patrice Derrington, Holliday Associate Professor and Director of the Real Estate Development Program at Columbia GSAPP

Hardeep Johar, Sr. Lecturer of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research

The M.Sc. Real Estate Development (MSRED) program is a 30+ year-old professional program in GSAPP. Approximately 125 MSRED students are graduated annually and take up positions in the real estate sector ranging from investment banking, securities analysis and private equity to private real estate development and investment and community urban projects. Recently, the real estate industry has shown significant interest in utilizing technology with approx. $12B raised globally in 2018. In recognition of this innovation,

Columbia’s MSRED program has incorporated, over the past two years, real estate technology (Proptech) courses – covering the awareness and utilization of the commonly adopted apps, investigating domain needs and proposing potential technology, as well as providing some instruction on basic coding. This offering has not only made all students in the program more aware of the relevant technology, but has also attracted to the program certain students dedicated to pursuing the Proptech avenue in their careers.

This proposal to the Collaboratory seeks funding to substantially advance “Proptech” learning in the MSRED program by creating a Proptech curriculum that will expose all the MSRED students to technology and programming foundations, and offer a set of electives that explore in depth the use of these technologies and analytical tools specifically in the real estate development domain. The courses will be designed to proceed in tandem with detailed instruction in the related domain content, initially with key courses and then 2 followed by “lab” courses around specific applications or methodologies. Additionally, to complete the process of integration, a Proptech Capstone project will be offered in the final semester, establishing important archives of the continuum of student progress in the Proptech area of the MSRED program.

This set of courses will be developed and overseen by the Director of the MSRED program, Dr. Patrice Derrington, with the assistance of Dr. Hardeep Johar, who is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) and has also been involved in establishing a successful Collaboratory program. Two current adjunct Proptech Professors in the MSRED program, Zach Aarons and Robert Entin, and an additional faculty in SEAS, will work with the director in building the curriculum and key courses.