Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering

(On-Campus only; courses can be taken online)

Ph.D. Minimum 60 hours

There are four required courses:

• INSY 6600 (Prerequisite Information) – Engineering Economic Systems (Offered Spring and Summer semester)  
• INSY 7300 – Advanced Engineering Statistics (Fall semester only)
• INSY 7420 – Linear Programming and Network Flows (Spring semester only)
• INSY 7950 – Seminar (1 Credit Hour) (Spring semester only)

Background Course Material

We assume that you have the equivalent of an undergraduate ISE degree:

• Calculus-based probability and statistics (STAT3600/3610)
• Operations research (INSY 3400/3410)
• Engineering Economy (INSY 3600)
• Other IE background (methods engineering, work measurement, safety, ergonomics, simulation, operations, manufacturing systems, quality control, etc.)

For more information about the required background, please click here.

There are three additional required INSY Electives. An INSY Elective is any 3-hour graduate course with INSY pre-fix.

Advance approval from the Graduate Program Officer is required to enroll in the following courses:

• INSY 7940 ISE Problems
• INSY 7980 ISE Project

*If unable to register for a course, please complete the INSY Course Request Form.

An INSY-related Elective may have an INSY prefix or other prefix, such as BUSI 7140. Students can take all of their courses as INSY courses and are recommended to do so if they do not have an undergraduate degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering. STAT 7000 may not be counted for this degree.

All graduate level courses are numbered 6000 and above, e.g. INSY 6600, INSY 7300, or INSY 8250.  There is no substantive difference in the level 6xxx and level 7xxx courses. The courses numbered 8xxx are usually only taken by Ph.D. students; individual instructors can make exceptions. Distance courses are delineated by the section number beginning with the letter D, such as INSY 6600-D01. All graduate level courses are 3-semester hours unless otherwise specified.

Click here to see a listing of all INSY courses.

All of our required courses are offered at least once per year; most elective courses are offered less frequently. Generally around five elective courses or more are offered each semester, including Summer.

The courses in our program can be taken in any order and prerequisites are generally not enforced at the Graduate level. Taking three courses (9 hours) is considered full-time for a Graduate student. Students have 10 years to complete the degree.

The courses for the Ph.D. are the same courses as for the MS-ISE. Most Ph.D. students earn an MS-ISE degree while completing their Ph.D. Students also have to complete a minimum of 10 hours of research and dissertation (INSY 8990). The content of the remaining 19 hours is determined by the student in consultation with the major professor and committee. Ph.D. students complete a research-based dissertation supervised by the advisor and the advisory committee. Ph.D. students should refer to the Graduate School section of the Bulletin regarding the requirements for the doctoral degree.