School of Industrial Engineering and Management 

PhD Degree Program 

The Doctor of Philosophy degree is designed for the student who desires to participate at the leading edge of knowledge in the profession of industrial engineering and management. The degree requires the completion of at least 66 credit hours beyond the master's (96 hours beyond the bachelor’s) degree, including a minimum of 18 credit hours of dissertation research, 6 credit hours of research tools/methodology, and 3 credit hours of IE&M Doctoral Seminar. 

IE&M Doctoral Seminar

The IE&M Doctoral Seminar is designed to train the doctoral student in the doctoral dissertation research process and is normally taken in the first semester of the student’s doctoral program.  The course will involve significant work outside the classroom, under the supervision of the student’s research advisor.   The class meetings will be used for some formal instruction on research methods/process, discussion of current research in IE&M led by select faculty, guest speakers, presentations by students, etc.  The main deliverable is expected to be a “mini” research proposal that the student will develop working closely with their research advisor on a topic that may or may not be related their dissertation research.  The student is also expected to make three to four in-class presentations and present the proposal in front of a faculty committee of three including the instructor and the research advisor.  

Plan of Study

The overall Plan of Study must include a minimum of 66 (96) graduate credit hours with at least 30 (60) graduate credit hours of coursework beyond the master's (bachelor’s) degree.  Courses for graduate credit are selected by the student with the approval of the advisory committee. 

The Plan of Study must also include 3 credit hours of IE&M Doctoral seminar (for students whose start date is Fall 2007 or beyond), at least 18 credit hours of dissertation research and 6 credit hours of research tools/methodology courses.  The specific number of credit hours allocated to courses and research is determined by the advisory committee and depends on the student's ability to accomplish the dissertation research objectives. 

Academic Qualifying Exam

A weeklong take-home qualifying exam is given near the completion of the coursework portion of the program.  This written and oral exam is used to determine the student's ability to proceed with the research portion of the program. 

Dissertation Proposal

The student's development of the dissertation topic and proposal should be an ongoing process following the completion of the Plan of Study meeting.  The student typically submits the dissertation proposal to the advisory committee after the successful completion of the academic qualifying examination.  This is followed by an oral defense of the proposal.  After successful completion of the proposal defense, the student applies for admission to candidacy. 

Final Defense

The final oral defense will normally occur no sooner than one week after each advisory committee member has received a copy of the student's completed dissertation.  The student will give a short presentation summarizing the dissertation results followed by a question and answer session with the advisory committee.  After successful completion of the dissertation defense, the student prepares the dissertation document for submission to the graduate college.

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