| |
Doctor of Philosophy Program
Program Requirements and Guidelines
Approved by the ISE Department Faculty August 14, 2000
Contents
Guidelines to Admissions Criteria
Application for admission must be made directly to the Registrar's Office (Office of Graduate Admissions,
Criser Hall, University of Florida), not to the department. To qualify for admission to the Graduate S
chool, the student must have maintained at least a 3.0 (B) average for the final two years of undergraduate
study at an accredited college or university and received a combined verbal and quantitative score of at least
1000 on the aptitude test of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) with at least 320 on the verbal part.
The following guidelines have been established by the faculty of the Industrial and Systems Engineering for
GRE test scores (note that admission is based on a combination of factors, only one of which is the GRE score;
in certain cases, students with outstanding prior academic performance may be admitted despite violating the
department's GRE score guidelines):
- For Doctoral level students:
- Old GRE Scoring System: Combined 1800 on Quantitative, Analytical and Verbal,
along with 1300 on Quantitative and Analytical, and at least 600 on each of the
Quantitative and Analytical parts.
- New GRE Scoring System: Combined 1100 on Quantitative plus Verbal parts,
with at least 650 on the Quantitative part, and at least 4.5 on the Analytical part.
Test results must be sent directly to the Registrar from the Educational Testing Service (ETS).
Foreign students, whose native language is not English, are required to take the Test of English as a
Foreign Language (TOEFL) examination and score at least 550.
<< Back to top
Ph.D. Specialization Areas in the ISE Department
- Linear optimization
- Combinatorial optimization
- Nonlinear and global optimization
- Supply chain management and e-commerce
- Financial engineering
- Manufacturing management
- Facility layout and location
- Quality engineering
- Stochastic processes
After completing the General Examination (discussed below), the student should identify a specialization
area and, in conjunction with a faculty supervisory committee, take Qualifying Examination courses related
to the specialization area chosen. The above list of specialization areas will be routinely updated to
reflect changes in the areas of interest and expertise in the department. The Ph.D. degree requires 60
credit hours of coursework for those entering with a Master's degree and 90 credit hours for those entering
with a Bachelor's degree. Unlike the Master's program, a significant degree of flexibility exists in the
Ph.D. curriculum, allowing the student, along with the advisory committee, to establish the set of courses
(over and above the requirements listed below) that will best prepare the student for Ph.D. research.
The following provides the basic requirements for the Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering,
which must be met by all Ph.D. student.
<< Back to top
ISE Required Background Courses
The following courses are required courses for Ph.D. students.
- STA 6326: Introduction to Theoretical Statistics I
- EIN 6357: Advanced Engineering Economy
- ESI 6529: Digital Simulation Techniques
Though the above courses are required for Ph.D. students, if a student can establish that he/she has
done similar courses elsewhere at the graduate level, the graduate committee can waive this requirement.
Students are expected to earn at least a B grade in these courses.
It is expected that students will complete this requirement within the first two years of the Ph.D. program.
<< Back to top
Computer Skills Requirements
Students must meet the following computer skills requirements:
- A basic, first-level computer programming course;
- An advanced, second-level computer programming course. One of the following courses
will satisfy the second-level requirements:
- COP 3530: Data structures and algorithms
- COP 5536: Advanced data structures
- ESI 6355: Database Applications for ISE
For students who have taken a first-level computer programming course during their undergraduate
and/or graduate studies, the graduate committee can waive requirement (i). For students who
have taken a second-level computer programming course at the graduate level, the graduate
committee can waive requirement (ii). Students must meet this requirement preferably during
the first two years of study.
<< Back to top
Breadth Requirement
Ph.D. students are required to do at least six credits of courses outside the ISE department to
enhance their breadth of knowledge. The required background courses or the courses done to meet the Qualifying Examination requirement
cannot be counted towards meeting the breadth requirement as well.
<< Back to top
Technical Presentation Skills Requirement
There is a technical presentation skills requirement, which can be satisfied by any one of the following:
- Enrolling in university courses in teaching, education, and/or communication;
- Presenting a technical paper in EIN 6918, ISE Graduate Seminar;
- Teaching at least one undergraduate course after being admitted to candidacy. As a prerequisite,
international students must score a minimum grade on the SPEAK test.
<< Back to top
English Writing Skills Requirement
It is important that Ph.D. students be able to write well. Many international students that do not score
sufficiently well on the verbal part of the GRE exam are required to take an exam in English writing
skills in the first semester of their study (these students are notified of this requirement prior
to enrollment, but after admission). Any student who does not pass this exam must take a course in
English writing.
<< Back to top
The Ph.D. Program of study consists of three phases
Phase I: Departmental Comprehensive Examination
- This examination consists of two parts, as shown below.
- Part I: General Examination (Written) on the following courses:
- Linear Programming and Network Optimization (ESI 6417, 3 Credits - Fall)
- Stochastic Processes (ESI 6546, 3 Credits - Spring)
- Part II: Qualifying Examination encompassing:
- Three courses in the student’s area of specialization, chosen from a list of approved courses
provided below (nine credits; this part shall be written/oral).
- A technical paper written by the student in the area of specialization under the guidance of
the dissertation supervisor (this shall result in a public presentation of the material)
Ideally, the General Examination should be taken after the end of the first year of study.
The Qualifying Examination should be taken after the end of the second year of study.
The General and Qualifying Examinations cannot be taken in the same semester.
In addition, the following requirements will have to be satisfied:
- ISE required background courses (3 courses)
- Basic and advanced computer skills courses (2 courses)
- Breadth requirement courses (2 courses)
- Technical presentation skills
- English writing skills
- Phase II: Admission to Candidacy: Admission to candidacy occurs after completion of the
Qualifying Examination and upon acceptance of a thesis topic by the student's thesis committee.
This is typically done through a formal dissertation proposal defense.
- Phase III: Research and preparation of a dissertation. This phase is concluded by the Ph.D.
dissertation defense.
<< Back to top
Overview of course work requirements
| |
|
Courses |
Credits |
| |
|
Master’s degree* |
30
|
|
| |
|
General Examination |
6
|
|
| |
|
Qualifying Examination |
9
|
|
| |
|
Other required courses** |
21
|
|
| |
|
Advanced research/electives |
9
|
|
| |
|
Research for doctoral dissertation |
15
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
TOTAL |
90
|
|
*Those who enter the Ph. D. program without a Master’s Degree in IE/SE
or related disciplines need to satisfy this requirement by additional
course credits or research credits.
**These 21 credits correspond to the required background courses (9)
plus the breadth requirement (6) plus the computer skills requirement.
If any of these credits are waived, these credits must be replaced by
other courses so that the total adds up to 90.
<< Back to top
General Examination Courses
The following courses will be the part of the General Examination.
- ESI 6417: Linear Programming and Network Optimization
- ESI 6546: Stochastic Modeling and Analysis
The above courses are required for all Ph.D. students. However, if a student can establish that
he/she has done similar courses at the graduate level elsewhere, the graduate committee can waive
this requirement.
The General Examination will cover the topics covered in the syllabus of these courses, but will
not be limited to the course contents. Students are required to have a thorough understanding of
the subject material and are recommended to read related reference books to master the subject
material.
The Graduate Committee will prepare the list of topics for each of the above courses on which
the student will be tested. A list of reference books will also be made available.
The General Examination for each subject will be made and graded by a team consisting of at
least two faculty members.
Students are expected to earn at least a B grade in the General Examination courses.
The General Examination should normally be taken in August at the end of the first full year of
the Ph.D. program. For those joining in the Fall semester, it should be scheduled in August,
and for those joining in the Spring semester, it may be scheduled in January.
A Ph.D. student can make at most two attempts to pass the General Examination.
<< Back to top
Qualifying Examination
The Qualifying Examination is composed of course requirements, a technical paper, and a written/oral examination.
Qualifying Examination Committee: The Qualifying Examination Committee for each student must be formed
by the end of the second week of the third semester of study. The Qualifying Examination will take
place by the end of the last month of the fourth semester of study. Each student has the opportunity
to participate in the selection of his/her Qualifying Examination Committee by selecting three faculty
members, one of whom must be the dissertation supervisor.
Each student is required to meet with each member of his/her examining committee no later than the
start of the fourth semester. The purpose of these meetings is to provide information to help the
student better prepare for the exam and to ensure that the student and members of the examination
committee become acquainted prior to the written/oral exam.
The Qualifying Examination is taken on the three courses selected by the student among the
Qualifying Examination courses. The committee is formed on the basis of these courses since
the three subject areas must be within the expertise of the graduate examination committee.
Each member of the Qualifying Examination Committee will specify how he/she wants to test the person.
It could be a combination of written and oral examinations, or just an oral examination. The written
examination is optional but an oral examination is required for each subject being tested.
On the day of the Qualifying Examination, the student first delivers a public presentation of their
technical paper. The duration of this presentation is 30-45 minutes. After the presentation, the general
examination committee conducts an oral examination of the Ph.D. student. Each member can ask questions
for up to 30 minutes.
Based on the quality of the technical paper, its presentation, and performance of the student in the
oral examination, the committee will decide whether to pass the student unconditionally, conditionally,
or fail the student. Some options of conditional pass are (i) revise the technical paper, (ii) retake
part of the exam; (iii) take some additional courses; (iv) read some papers/books; or (v) any other
measure considered appropriate by the Qualifying Examination committee.
A student will get at most two attempts to pass the Qualifying Examination. Note that admission
to candidacy occurs after the student has both passed the Qualifying Examination, and has had
their thesis topic approved. The procedure for thesis topic approval is at the discretion of the
student's Thesis Committee.
<< Back to top
Qualifying Examination Courses
Students must take at least three courses from the list of following courses. The courses for the
Qualifying Examination will be specified by the Supervisory Committee to prepare the student for
his/her research area.
- ESI 6448 Discrete optimization theory
- ESI 6429 Introduction to nonlinear optimization
- ESI 6449 Global optimization
- ESI 6912 Topics in applied optimization
- ESI 6912 Introduction to stochastic optimization
- ESI 6418 Linear programming extensions and application
- EIN 6336 Advanced production and inventory control
- ESI 6912 Models for supply chain management and analysis
- ESI 6470 Principles of manufacturing systems engineering
- EIN 6392 Manufacturing management
- EIN 6367 Facility layout and location
- EIN 6227 Advanced total quality management
- EIN 6912 Design of experiments for engineers and scientists
- MAP 6467 Stochastic differential equations and filtering theory
- MAP 6468 Stochastic differential equations II
- MAT 6932 Mathematics of Financial Derivatives
- COP 5536 Advanced data structures
- COT 5405 Analysis of algorithms
- CAP 6836 Advanced concepts in computer simulation
- STA 6934 Statistical Computing
- STA 6857 Applied Time Series Analysis
- STA 6208 Regression Analysis
- FIN 7446 Financial Theory
- FIN 7808 Corporate Finance
- FIN 7809 Market Microstructure
These subjects should be taken by the end of the student's fourth semester.
The subject requirements for a course can be satisfied by either taking the subject
and receiving at least a B grade, or by satisfying the requirement through a waiver.
If a student can establish that he/she has taken similar courses at graduate level,
the graduate committee can waive this requirement.
The list of Qualifying Examination courses will be routinely updated to reflect changes
in the course offerings.
The department will endeavor to offer these courses at least once every two years.
Upon the recommendation of a faculty supervisor, a course not present in the Qualifying
Examination list can be treated as a Qualifying Examination course for a particular
student if it is approved by the Graduate Committee.
<< Back to top
Technical Paper Requirement
Each Ph.D. student is required to submit a Technical Paper at the end of the fourth semester.
The student chooses a topic for the technical paper, in consultation with the dissertation
supervisor. The student must submit a one-page proposal outlining his/her plan for the
technical paper to the Qualifying Examination Committee by the end of the second week
of the third semester. The technical paper is due one week prior to the beginning of
the Qualifying Examination period, and will be read and graded by the student's Qualifying
Examination Committee.
The purpose of the technical paper is to give some indication or evidence of the
capability of the student for doing research and documenting it. The student under
the guidance of his/her supervisor will write the technical paper.
Contents of the Technical Paper:
- The technical paper should be distinct from any jointly authored papers and
demonstrate a student's independent abilities to conduct and document research.
The technical paper must be entirely written by the student, and must be based on
research done at the University of Florida. The technical paper must also contain a
literature review and ideally should lead to a publishable journal paper.
- The topic of the technical paper must be any suitable topic that has a research
orientation. The technical paper could contain research already completed by the
student at the University of Florida, or the technical paper could be a survey
paper on a topic related to student’s intended dissertation. The technical paper
must contain a literature review.
- There are several ways to accomplish the above-mentioned objectives. For example,
the technical paper could describe the student's own research experiences, identifying
pertinent research questions, answers, investigations, etc. Alternatively, it could
expand on the presentation in a jointly authored paper by presenting additional perspectives
on the literature and positioning the research within that literature. The technical paper
could also present or suggest extensions to some jointly authored paper.
<< Back to top
Seminar Attendance
The course EIN 6918 is offered in each fall and spring semester and Ph. D. students are expected to
attend these seminars. Ph.D. students on assistantship are expected to maintain at least 80 percent
attendance in this course in every fall and spring semester while in residence, regardless of whether
they are registered in the course or not. On-campus Ph.D. students are required to REGISTER for EIN
6918 during the fall of their second year and the spring of their third year. During the spring
semester of the third year, Ph.D. students are REQUIRED TO PRESENT at one of the seminars.
<< Back to top
Supervisory Committee
The supervisory committee must be formed as soon as possible after the student enrolls in doctoral
work, but in general no later than at the end of the first year of full-time study.
The supervisory committee (or at least the departmental members thereof) will meet with the student
at least once a year to:
- Ensure that student is making satisfactory progress towards satisfying the requirements of the Ph.D. Program;
- Review the research direction and progress of the dissertation; and
- Offer recommendations to improve the student’s education.
<< Back to top
|
|
