Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial Engineering (Ph.D.) Degree Requirements
Matriculation from the M.S. Level
Students enrolled at the M.S. level should not assume that they can automatically continue for the Ph.D. degree. Only superior students may do so. Master’s students who wish to continue for the Ph.D. degree should make their desires known to their M.S. advisory committee, which is responsible for evaluating the student’s potential for Ph.D.-level research and for recommending continuation in the Ph.D. program.
As a procedural matter, M.S. students should write the Director of Graduate Programs requesting departmental review of their file for admission to the Ph.D. program. Usually this request should be made shortly after the student’s oral examination for the M.S. degree. The Graduate Admissions Committee in the Department of Industrial Engineering is charged with deciding whether or not continuation of an M.S. student is recommended to the Graduate School.
Letters from the student’s M.S. advisory committee members are an essential part of the decision process for admission to the Ph.D. program. These letters should be requested and provided at the time the student requests departmental review.
The M.S. Degree as a Prerequisite
Possession of a master’s degree as a prerequisite for doctoral study is not mandated by the Graduate School. Undergraduate students with superior credentials may apply for, and be admitted directly to, the doctoral program. It is also the responsibility of faculty to recognize superior ability and research potential among M.S. candidates, and to encourage those so identified to pursue this “direct track” route to the Ph.D.
Students who apply to the Ph.D. program and possess a nonthesis master’s degree are expected to demonstrate research potential; accordingly they may be required to complete the requirements for the M.S. degree with thesis.
Figure 1 illustrates the various paths leading to admission to the Ph.D. program in the Department of Industrial Engineering.
Basic Requirements
It is assumed that all entering doctoral students will have completed coursework equivalent to that required for the M.S. degree.
While the Ph.D. degree is, by its very nature, a rather focused degree, students earning a doctorate in Industrial Engineering should be familiar with most, if not all, aspects of the field. Accordingly, all Ph.D. students are required to take and pass with a grade of B or better, one course each from the four areas of concentration in the department—namely ergonomics, manufacturing, production, and systems analysis and optimization. In terms of the groups in the Breadth Requirement Course Listing, notice that the production area encompasses core-subject groups A and D. For students with a master’s degree from another institution, this requirement may be satisfied by equivalent courses taken at other institutions with approval from the Director of Graduate Programs.
The requirements described in the two paragraphs above must be met prior to scheduling the Preliminary Oral Examination.
Apart from the above requirements the student must demonstrate some advanced level of competency in the field. This requirement is met by passing a Qualifying Examination.
With regard to competency in statistics, a requirement for additional statistics courses shall be a decision of the student’s Ph.D. advisory committee—that is, the committee may decide not to require additional coursework, or it may require one or more courses.
For the policy concerning a minor in Statistics please refer to the Guidelines for Minors in Statistics.
Credit Hour Requirements
For Ph.D. students admitted after the spring semester of 1997, the Graduate School requires that their Ph.D. Plan of Graduate Work (POGW) must show a total of 72 hours of graduate credit beyond the bachelor’s degree, including graduate credit for the M.S. degree. For students who received the M.S. degree at another university, up to 18 hours of graduate credit for the M.S. degree may be counted toward the 72-hour requirement for the Ph.D. Typically the Ph.D. POGW will include 30 to 36 hours of graduate coursework beyond the M.S. degree plus sufficient hours of doctoral-level research and/or dissertation research (that is, IE 893 and/or IE 895) to reach the 72-hour limit. Some faculty would advocate that the bulk of doctoral work should involve research as contrasted with courses per se.
Total coursework hours for both the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees should range from 39 to 48 hours for the “Major” (Industrial Engineering). In the “Minor” (for example, Statistics or Operations Research), total coursework hours for both the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees should range from 15 to 21 hours. Depending upon the demands of the committee and the student’s previous work, the POGW may require more than the minimum. For the doctoral POGW it is expected that a significant portion of the coursework would be at the 700- or 800-level.
Doctoral students are encouraged to include “readings” and project courses (IE 837, 839) for credit in their plans as preparation for required written examinations and the dissertation proposal. At least 6 hours of graduate credit should be listed on the POGW for doctoral level research and/or dissertation research (IE 893 and/or IE 895).
Examination Structure for the Ph.D.
The Ph.D. student in the Department of Industrial Engineering will be required to pass three examinations a written “Qualifying Exam”, an oral “Preliminary Exam”, and a “Final Oral Exam”. (The latter two exams are also required by the Graduate School.) Depending on the student’s minor, a written minor exam may also be required. The student’s Ph.D. advisory committee may also wish to create and administer additional written or oral exams. Note that the “Minor” area examination, in accord with Graduate School policy, may be taken one semester before or after the Qualifying Exam. Normally such a minor examination is taken concurrently with the Qualifying Exam.
As indicated in Figure 1, Ph.D. students will pass through three phases on route to completing their degree:
- the prequalifying phase prior to passing the Qualifying Exam;
- the precandidacy phase after passing the Qualifying Exam and prior to passing the Preliminary Oral Exam; and
- the candidacy phase after passing the Preliminary Oral Exam.
During the prequalifying phase, the entire department has general responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the student’s progress. Following successful completion of the Qualifying Exam, the student’s Ph.D. advisory committee has primary responsibility for overseeing the student’s progress not only in research but also in all subsequent coursework.
During the prequalifying phase, the student may informally create a Ph.D. advisory committee and draft a POGW. During the semester following successful completion of the Qualifying Exam, students will formalize their committee and file a POGW with the Graduate School.
This structure is designed with the intention that the typical student should complete the Ph.D. within 5 years from receipt of the bachelor’s degree (or 3 years from receipt of the the M.S. degree).
The Written Qualifying Examination
The purpose of the written qualifying examination (QE) is to determine if the student has adequate skills, integrated knowledge, and potential for successful completion of the Ph.D. Students will be examined in four areas that represent the breath of industrial engineering: Ergonomics; Manufacturing Systems; Production Systems; and Systems Analysis and Optimization (SA&O). Students will take four out of five area examinations. One exam will be offered for each area except SA&O, which will offer two exams based on two different background courses. Students will select among one of the two SA&O exams. The specific requirements for the exam in each area will be determined by the faculty in those areas, but the exams should be roughly comparable in scope for all areas. Each of the five exams will be scheduled for up to a four-hour period on a separate day during the first full week prior to the Fall semester, and will be graded by the end of the following week. Students should indicate in writing to the Director of Graduate Programs their intent to sit for the QE no later than May 1.
With respect to the Qualifying Exam itself, the faculty in each area will prepare an Exam Review for each exam that provides a list of the topics to be covered, exam format (normally open book), relevant references, relevant courses, and previous examination questions. Copies of each Exam Review are available from the Graduate Secretary. Students may review these materials and make copies as they wish.
The relevant topics covered in each area exam will be based on the material from the following background courses:
Ergonomics. ISE 540: Human Factors in Systems Design
Manufacturing Systems. ISE 715: Process Engineering
Production Systems. ISE 723: Production Planning, Scheduling and Inventory Control
Systems Analysis and Optimization. Either ISE 505: Linear Programming; or ISE 760: Stochastic Processes
Each background course will be offered at least once each year. Students who deem themselves proficient in a relevant area are not required to take the corresponding background course and may decide to use just the Exam Review materials as background for studying for the exam.
Recommended timing for taking the QE is as follows:
- At the next offering for a continuing NCSU master’s student
- Within one year for a student entering with a master’s from another university/program
- Within two years for a student entering with a bachelor’s degree.
Each year the Director of Graduate Programs will designate a “coordinator” for each exam (normally the instructor who taught the exam’s background course during the previous year). The coordinator will be responsible for compiling the exam, soliciting review of the exam by other faculty, assuring that a faculty member is available to answer questions during the exam, and coordinating the grading of the exam. Each coordinator will submit the final draft of the exam to the Director of Graduate Programs for review (including screening for consistency with the published guidelines) no later than two weeks before the scheduled date of the exam.
Prior to taking the qualifying exam, each student will be assigned a number to be used in lieu of their name on each exam answer page in order to assure that grading will be “blind.” Each coordinator will evaluate each exam question and then convene area faculty to review the results for each student and assign a grade for the exam. Grading will be: High Pass, Pass, or Fail. However, in the event that the student performance is marginal, a Conditional Pass may be assigned.
The Director of Graduate Programs will be responsible for the overall coordination of the QE, including scheduling, location, and informing students and faculty of the results. The five exam coordinators along with the Director of Graduate Programs will constitute the “examination committee.” After grades are assigned for each exam by the respective area faculty, the committee will meet to review the grade for each area exam and decide the outcome for each student for the QE.
In the event of a Conditional Pass grade in one area exam, while the other three exams have passing grades, the examination committee will decide the conditions to be met by the student along with the verification process to determine that the conditions have been satisfied. The Director of Graduate Programs will bring the decisions to the faculty for notification. However, if a student receives a grade of Fail in one or more area exams or Conditional Pass in more than two area exams, this will automatically constitute failure of the QE.
Students will have two opportunities to pass the qualifying exam. Students failing on the first try will need to repeat the entire qualifying exam on the second try.
The Dissertation Proposal
The development of a written dissertation proposal and its review by a student’s graduate committee is clearly desirable for two viewpoints:
- It avoids later misunderstandings.
- It encourages the student to move ahead with his research planning.
Thus, prior to scheduling the Preliminary Oral Exam, students are required to write a dissertation proposal and circulate it to the members of their committee for review. This proposal should contain a problem description, literature review, research objectives, solution approach, and research plan.
The Preliminary Oral Examination
The primary purpose of this event is to examine the student on his dissertation proposal to determine whether the research objectives are reasonable and achievable. At its discretion the committee can also question the student on material from the Q.E. (or from the minor area), especially in the case where written performance has been marginal. For this latter purpose a separate session, if deemed to be desirable, should be scheduled. Conduct of the Preliminary Oral Exam should permit the committee to answer such questions as the following:
- Is there a “hole in the technology” as demonstrated by the literature review?
- Do the proposed problem and research objectives adequately address this hole?
- Is the problem adequately structured for solution?
- Will the proposed solution approach solve the problem?
- Can the student solve the problem with his background capabilities?
- Can the problem be solved in a reasonable time period or should the scope be narrowed?
- Is the research worthy enough to recommend award of the doctoral degree?
The student should take the Preliminary Oral Exam within twelve months of passing the Q.E. A student who fails the Preliminary Oral Examination shall be granted one opportunity for re-examination no earlier than the next semester in residence.
Journal Paper Requirement
The student shall be required to prepare at least one paper, based on their graduate work in the Department of Industrial Engineering at NCSU, in a form suitable for submission to a professional, refereed journal, prior to scheduling the Final Oral Exam (dissertation defense).
The Final Oral Examination (Dissertation Defense)
A final oral examination on the dissertation administered by the committee is required. At the discretion of the committee, if the student has been judged to have failed the oral exam, one re-examination—to be taken at least one semester later—may be permitted. The final oral examination is also open to other interested faculty who may, at the discretion of the committee chairman, be permitted to ask relevant questions of the candidate.
The dissertation itself is the document presenting the results of the student’s original investigation in the field of primary interest, and must represent a contribution to knowledge and be written in a manner consistent with the highest standards of scholarship. Publication is expected and encouraged.
Notification of Graduate School
Approval for Preliminary and Final Oral Examinations must be requested of the Graduate School using the Request for Approval Form. It is imperative for the graduate student and the student’s graduate advisory committee chair to arrange the examination time to accommodate the Graduate School Representative before asking the Graduate School to schedule the examination. The examination should be scheduled at a time when the Graduate School Representative, as well as each regular committee member, can be available for the examination. In order to avoid embarrassment and/or inconvenience, the graduate student should reconfirm the schedule with all concerned faculty members the day before the exam. Graduate School policy does not permit an examination to start with one or more committee members absent. If all are not present within 30 minutes of the scheduled time, the examination must be rescheduled and the Graduate School so notified. At the time of scheduling the dissertation oral defense the candidate must provide a half-page abstract of the research to the Graduate Secretary.
Contact Information: For more information please contact Ms. Cecilia Chen, Student Services Assistant.