Industrial Engineering, PhD

Program Overview

Arizona State University's Industrial Engineering PhD program equips students with advanced problem-solving skills, research capabilities, and expertise in designing and managing sustainable systems. Through rigorous coursework, research projects, and collaboration with leading researchers, graduates are prepared for careers in academia, government, and industry, where they can address complex engineering and systems challenges. The program is consistently ranked among the top 20 graduate programs in the U.S. and offers a STEM-OPT extension for international students.

Program Outline

It emphasizes developing qualitative and quantitative skills to design and manage sustainable organizations and systems.

• Educational Objectives: Improve students' abilities in identifying, defining, and solving problems, performing original research, addressing the causes of problems, and utilizing qualitative and quantitative approaches to design and operate sustainable organizations and systems.
• Program Focus: This doctoral program offers rigorous education, research opportunities, and educational experiences.
Students engage in applied research projects funded by government and industry, collaborate with leading researchers in their specialization, and potentially graduate with significant accomplishments resulting from their research work.
• Program Length: 85 credit hours
• Program Structure: Research-oriented with coursework and research requirements.
• Research and Internship Coursework (16 credit hours): Conference and Workshop, Research Methods, Teaching Internship, Research, and Reading and Conference.
• Electives (42 credit hours): Students choose electives aligned with their research interests and career goals.
• Culminating Experience (12 credit hours): Dissertation research and defense.

Assessment:

• Written Comprehensive Exam: After completing 57 credit hours, students take a written exam on three of the five core courses.
• Oral Comprehensive Exam: Following the written exam, students participate in an oral examination.
• Dissertation Prospectus Defense: Students defend their dissertation research proposal.
• Dissertation Defense: Completion and defense of the dissertation is required for graduation.

Teaching:

• Faculty: The program boasts internationally recognized researchers with expertise in various industrial engineering subfields.
Students interact with leading researchers in their areas of specialization.
• Teaching Methods: The program employs a variety of teaching methods, including lectures, seminars, research projects, and workshops.
Students also gain valuable teaching experience through the Teaching Internship course.

Careers:

• Career Opportunities: Graduates are prepared for careers in academia, government, and industry.
They can pursue roles in teaching, advanced research, development of advanced techniques, and management of complex systems.
• Industry Examples: Analytics, Healthcare, Information Management, Logistics, Operations Research, Quality Assurance, Six Sigma, Statistician, and others.

Other:

• STEM-OPT Program: This program may be eligible for a 36-month STEM-OPT extension for international students, providing post-graduation work experience in the U.S.
• Program Ranking: consistently ranked among the top 20 graduate programs in the U.S.