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Graduate Students

Graduate Program Guide

As part of their program, all ISE Ph.D. students will be required to take IE 6623: Engineering Statistics II, and IE 6773: System Simulation I.

The student bears the basic responsibility for the progress of his/her program, including submission of proper forms, timing of examinations, preparation of examinations, insuring the meeting of deadlines, and completion of all requirements.

1. By consultation with the student and the affected faculty member(s), the ISE Graduate Coordinator assigns the student to a major professor, who will act as academic advisor to the student until a dissertation advisor is identified.
2. The student and major professor arrive at a mutually satisfactory tentative program and committee, calling upon the other faculty members and the Graduate Coordinator for assistance as appropriate. (See Guidelines for Selecting Graduate Committees and for Writing Thesis or Dissertation Proposals).
3. During the second semester of enrollment, the committee meets to approve the program.
4. All ISE doctoral students must take IE 89xx (ISE Research Design) no later than their third semester of fulltime Ph.D. study. Students who possess a thesis-option M.S. degree may be exempt from this requirement.
5. When the student has completed, or is within six hours of completing, his/her course work and has identified a tentative area for research, he/she must pass a preliminary examination. This examination will be both written and oral, and is designed to determine the student's ability to perform scholarly work in Industrial and Systems Engineering and to indicate the possible need for further course work or other necessary preparation for conducting the dissertation research. The subject areas covered by the examinations will be selected by the committee. All portions of the written exam must be completed within a time frame specified by the committee, not to exceed two months. The oral examination will follow the written examination, and will be used to clarify answers on the written examination, further investigate the student's knowledge, and discuss test results.
6. When course work is essentially completed, the student must select and have approved a dissertation topic. As soon as the dissertation advisor is identified, this faculty member becomes the student’s major professor. The procedure requires the following three steps:
   
   1. The student prepares a formal dissertation proposal outlining the proposed work. The proposal is expected to review the state of the art, and should clearly indicate that a substantial literature search has been completed. See “Appendix D: Guidelines for Selecting Graduate Committees and for Writing Thesis or Dissertation Proposals” for proposal writing guidelines.
   2. The major professor approves the proposal and copies are submitted to the committee members.
   3. A proposal meeting is held. The student presents his/her proposal and answer questions. The committee decides if the topic is or is not suitable and makes suggestions on scope, solutions, etc.
7. The student should become thoroughly familiar with the Graduate School Thesis and Dissertation Guide, and should adhere strictly to the specified format when writing the dissertation. Upon completion of the dissertation and its review by the committee, the final oral examination is held. The examination is essentially restricted to defense of the dissertation, but the student must expect and be able to answer questions that test his/her fitness to do research in the area of the dissertation.

1. Gain admission.
2. Have a temporary advisor assigned.
3. Have major professor and committee approved.
4. Develop Program of Study and have it approved.
5. Complete IE 89xx (ISE Research Design), unless student has been granted a waiver from this requirement.
6. Identify dissertation topic.
7. Change major professor (if required) to dissertation director.
8. Pass preliminary examination.
9. Prepare dissertation proposal.
10. Have dissertation topic approved.
11. Pass final oral examination.
12. Fulfill all course requirements.

General Discussion of the Test:

The graduate catalog states, "Non-thesis degree candidates must take a written or oral comprehensive examination or both, and must register for this examination with the Coordinator of Graduate Study for the major department. This examination should show three things: (l) the candidate's thorough familiarity with the literature in the field of major interest; (2) the relation of the special subject to allied subjects; and (3) the level of general knowledge and training, including the use of oral and written English."

In accord with this requirement, the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering requires that non-thesis degree candidates must pass a written examination that will be given once per semester (twice per year only) to all students hoping to graduate prior to the next examination. The examination will be on one four-hour session, and will be open book, open notes. The students may not loan or borrow materials during the examination.

The questions will be reasonable. The faculty will write this exam, and they know what questions you should be able to answer and which you shouldn't. The faculty wants you to pass this exam. However, you should not take this mean that you will pass regardless of your performance. It is the firm policy of the faculty that students who fail the exam will be failed on the exam. Typical exam questions will be those you saw on hour exams and final exams during the courses in question.

In addition, note that you are expected to be familiar with the literature of your area of concentration. This means that you should know the names of the major journals that publish material in ISE-related areas and know something about the general types of articles published in each of these (highly mathematical and/or theoretical, very low level and applied, a mix, etc.).

The graduate students taking this examination should not fear this examination, but should rather have a healthy respect for it. This means that they should expect to pass it. After all, having spent a year or more studying industrial and systems engineering at the graduate level, having paid attention in classes, having done extra reports and projects for graduate credit, having made B's or better in your classes, each graduate student should have confidence that he/she has knowledge of his/her field at the Master's level.

On the other hand, the healthy respect means that the student should expect to prepare for this test, rather than walk in cold. After all, nobody has all of the facts he/she has ever learned at his/her fingertips, and a thorough review is necessary in order to proceed with the test at the necessary pace.

The Test Itself: The comprehensive examination is composed of two parts of four questions each. These two parts are the basic and advanced portions of the exam. Each part of the exam is expected to take two hours, and each question is expected to take about 30 minutes to properly answer. The basic part is to cover four of the following: (1) Systems Simulation I, (2) Linear Programming, (3) Industrial Ergonomics, (4) Engineering Economy I, (5) Production Control Systems I, and (6) Engineering Statistics I. The student is allowed to select the four basic areas to be covered. The second part is to cover four 8000-level IE courses taken during the Master's program. These will be selected by the student, subject to the approval of the Graduate Coordinator.

Specific Rules:

1. The student's committee is named by the major professor in consultation with the student. This should be done prior to the written examination.
2. The examining faculty will be named by the Graduate Coordinator.
3. The advisor and the major professor will be the same person. The student may request that the Graduate Coordinator assign a different advisor at any time.
4. The examining faculty may attend the oral examination and participate in the questioning of the student, but will not vote on the results of the comprehensive examination. Attendance of the examining faculty is not expected unless requested by the major professor.
5. The comprehensive examination is to be treated as a whole, and the determination of whether the student passes or fails will be based on all eight parts of the exam, and both the written and oral.
6. The examining faculty should each meet with the student and discuss the results of the written examination with the student. These meetings should take place prior to the oral, but only at the initiative of the student. The student should be given a copy of the graded exam. At the option of the individual examining faculty member, the student may be supplied with a list of reference work that he/she should (student's option) complete prior to the oral.
7. The oral examination is to be scheduled as soon after the written examination as the student requests, but not sooner than one week. Scheduling is subject to faculty availability. It is the responsibility of the student to schedule this examination and to determine which faculty members intend to be present.
8. The student's committee may either pass the student, recess the oral, or fail the student. In case of a disagreement, the decision within the committee will be by majority vote, with the major professor casting a second vote in the case of a tie. If a student fails the comprehensive examination, the student may re-take this examination the following semester. Only one re-take is allowed.

1. First consider the area of ISE that you find most interesting. All of the graduate courses you have taken, are taking, or will take, offer possibilities for theses. So to find a topic you will find interesting and enjoyable to work on, pick the area you most like.
2. Check the journals of the area in which you are interested. Try to pick specific subject matter in the area, such as scheduling in Production Control, and look through the journal articles published in this subject. Often, authors point out unanswered questions in their articles. An unanswered question is a potential topic. Also, a thesis can often be an extension of an article. If he/she makes restricting assumptions in his/her solution, you may be able to relax those assumptions as the basis for your research. If you do not know what the journals are for your area, ask a professor who normally teaches in that area.
3. After completing the above process (both steps), visit with a professor who normally teaches in your area of interest. Take with you a list of literature reviewed, as well as any ideas you may have come across for possible topics. Sometimes, he/she will have a topic in mind for a thesis or dissertation, and is waiting for a graduate student to express an interest. But you can't count on this! You have the responsibility for identifying a topic, and the professor's job is to provide you advice while you are determining a topic.

During this process, keep the following in mind:

1. Your must find the topic.
2. No professor is required to direct your thesis or dissertation. It is solely his/her decision. Often, a professor may already have commitments, which will not allow him/her to take on another thesis advisee.
3. You are responsible for your thesis and its progress. The professor will not (and should not) do your research, will not write your thesis, will not take the responsibility for your mistakes, nor is he/she responsible for seeing that you finish by the date you desire.
4. The date of completion is a function of how many hours you work on your thesis, the quality of work you do on your thesis, and how well your research goes. Research has unknowns. That's why it is research, and your advisor cannot determine how long it will take you to finish.

The Industrial and Systems Engineering Department requires nine hours of IE graduate courses for a minor at the M.S. or Ph.D. level. The specific courses for the minor are to be approved by the ISE Graduate Coordinator and the student’s ISE minor professor.

The Graduate Faculty of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering views the selection of a graduate committee as being among the most important decisions in a graduate student’s career. The Major Professor is expected to provide a significant level of advice to the student in this matter. Although the Faculty recognizes that it is generally desirable for the student to be well-acquainted with the committee members (e.g., through having taken courses from them), the most important consideration in the selection should be the technical assistance that the faculty members can provide during the course of the student’s research. When seeking the Graduate Coordinator’s approval when the committee is formed, the student should be prepared to justify the selection of each of the committee members.

The thesis/dissertation proposal should ordinarily contain at least the following topics:

1. Introduction (including an establishment of the need for the research)
2. Literature review
3. Detailed problem statement
4. Tasks to be completed, and expected methods
5. Timetable for tasks

Note that the thesis/dissertation proposal is not an additional requirement in itself, but that it represents the initial work on the actual thesis/dissertation. That is, the proposal serves not just to organize and plan the work that is to be done, but it becomes the first one or two chapters of the thesis/dissertation itself. Also, it serves as an agreement between the student and the committee in that, if the proposal is approved, the thesis/dissertation is completed when the tasks outlined in the proposal have all been satisfactorily accomplished.

Office of Admissions P.O. Box G 160 Allen Hall Mississippi State, MS 39762 Phone: (662) 325-7393
Housing and Residence Life Mail Stop 9502 Herbert Hall Mississippi State, MS 39762 Phone: (662) 325-3557
Assistantships Contact the ISE Department Head (see address below) for information.
Office of International Services Mail Stop 9742 15 Morgan Avenue Mississippi State, MS 39762 Phone: (662) 325-8929
Bagley College of Engineering Mail Stop 9544 250 McCain Building Mississippi State, MS 39762 Phone: (662) 325-2270	Dr. Glenn Steele, Dean Dr. Roger King, Associate Dean of Engineering
Industrial and Systems Engineering Department Mail Stop 9542 260 McCain Building Mississippi State, MS 39762 Phone: (662) 325-3865	Dr. Royce O. Bowden, Department Head Dr. Stanley F. Bullington, Graduate Coordinator

NOTE: All faculty members in the department can be reached at the departmental address shown on the previous page.

Dr. Kari Babski-Reeves, Assistant Professor
Phone: (662) 325-1677

Dr. Royce O. Bowden, Jr., Professor and Head of the Department
Phone: (662) 325-7623

Dr. Stanley F. Bullington, Professor and Departmental Graduate Coordinator
Phone: (662) 325-7621

Dr. Burak Eksioglu, Assistant Professor
Phone: (662) 325-7625

Dr. Sandra Eksioglu, Assistant Professor
Phone: (662) 325-9220

Dr. Mingzhou Jin, Assistant Professor
Phone: (662) 325-3923

Dr. Allen G. Greenwood, Professor
Phone: (662) 325-7216

Dr. William N. Smyer, Associate Professor
Phone: (662) 325-9181

Dr. Lesley Strawderman, Assistant Professor
Phone: (662) 325-7214

Dr. John M. Usher, Professor
Phone: (662) 325-7624