Industrial and Systems Engineering (PhD)

Admission Standards

The admission standards for the PhD program in Industrial and Systems Engineering are as follows:

  1. All admission applications for the program shall include:
    1. A completed graduate application for the Graduate School
    2. An application fee
    3. At least two letters of recommendation
    4. Statement of Purpose (include intended area of study and/or research interests)
    5. Resume 
    6. Official transcript(s) for all previous post-secondary coursework. All transcripts not in English must be certified as authentic and translated verbatim into English.
  2. The minimum requirement for admission is the baccalaureate degree or its equivalent from an accredited institution.
  3. Calculus I or higher required.
  4. The successful applicant will typically have an undergraduate grade point average of 3.00 or above (on a 4.00 scale).
  5. International students whose primary language is not English must show English language proficiency by either TOEFL/IELTS/Duolingo score or demonstration of a degree awarded from an acceptable English language institution.  The successful applicant will typically have a TOEFL score of 79 or higher or overall IELTS score of 6.5 or higher or a Duolingo score of 105 or higher.

Program Requirements

Normally, it is expected that the student would have completed a master's degree before being admitted to the PhD Program. However, qualified applicants may be admitted directly to the doctoral program after receiving a baccalaureate degree. Such post-baccalaureate degree students will be required to complete an additional 30 credit hours of graduate coursework approved by the department's Director of PhD program. Also, remedial work may be specified for those applicants who, in the opinion of the faculty, do not have sufficient background.

The minimum curricular requirements in the doctoral program are:

Post-Baccalaureate Coursework 1
Approved Master’s Level Coursework 230
ISE 664Experimental Design in Engineering3
ISE 685Systems Engineering3
Technical Electives 312
ISE 700Dissertation Research in Industrial Engineering9
ISE 695PhD Seminar 42
Minimum Total Hours59
1

Prerequisite: ISE 560 Probability and Statistics for Engineers (or equivalent). Students without this background must either take ISE 560 in addition to the 59 required credit hours or pass a placement exam.

2

Master's level coursework must be approved by the Department.

3

Non-ISE Electives must be approved by the Department. Technical Electives must be chosen so that at least three (3) credit hours are in ISE.

4

75% attendance (or excused absence approved by the Department) is required yearly until graduation and one presentation a year (or excused absence approved by the Department) is required by a Doctoral candidate until graduation.

The PhD program has three different focus areas available: Data Analytics & Operations Research (DAOR), Human Factors (HF), and Advanced Manufacturing (AM).  Suggested courses in each focus area are mentioned below, however, the primary advisor will determine the needed courses based on each student's background. 

Data Analytics & Operations Research

ISE 561Decision Support Systems 3
ISE 646Operations Research Methods3
ISE 662Predictive Analytics for Decision Making I3
ISE 663Predictive Analytics for Decision Making II3

Human Factors

ISE 671Advanced Topics in Human Factors Engineering3
ISE 675Usability Engineering3
ISE 682Quality of Care and Patient Safety3
ISE 684Health IT and Clinician Support3

Advanced Manufacturing 

ISE 600Additive Manufacturing Processes3
ISE 601Additive Manufacturing Structure Design3
ISE 619Digital and Advanced Manufacturing Systems3