Study Duration and Limits

The minimum period of study for the PhD-EM degree is six semesters, whereas the maximum period is 10 semesters. Three postponements before the final semester are allowed in addition to the regular 10 semesters. The time limit may be extended, through bylaws, by two additional semesters for publication and defense purposes. Readmission to the program is also possible for special cases.

Definitions:

PhD Program Steering Committee: Selected members from the IEEM department who are in charge of administering and coordinating the PhD program including the admissions, coordination of courses offering, approving course grades, qualification exams, proposals, defenses, curricular changes and other program level activities and duties. The PhD program steering committee shall be the authority that is in charge of any program level final decisions, appeals and approvals.

PhD Examination Committee: A special committee for each PhD student that consists of the student supervisor/supervisors and 2 other examiners, who are assigned to the student since the registration of the qualification exam until the PhD defense. The committee is responsible of preparing and grading the qualification exam part II, examining the PhD proposal, providing comments, evaluating and approving the proposal. The examination committee will continue to serve in the defense committee through examining the student in the defense stage, providing comments and dissertation evaluation and approval.

PhD Defense Committee: A committee which consists of at least three examiners, two of which are the members of the examination committee and one is an external examiner. The committee will examine the PhD student in the defense phase, provide comments, and finally form a decision on the student research thesis and defense.

External Reviewer: An anonymous external faculty member, selected by graduate studies, who will take the role of blind evaluation of the student work prior to defense. The student must secure the external reviewer approval to proceed to the defense phase.

External Examiner: A faculty member who may be nominated by the supervisor to serve in the defense committee. The PhD program steering committee can overrule the nomination of the supervisor according to the examiner qualifications/credentials/affiliations and the student area of research.

Program Procedures

• Qualification exam – General Information

1. The qualification exam consists of two written parts and may include an oral part. Each written part is prepared on a separate document(s) and should be given on a separate day. Each written part shall be 3 hours long.
2. The second part of the written exam should be held no later than a month after the first part.
3. The first written part covers the general background and basic knowledge of the student in the field of Engineering Management. Only the titles of the subjects from which the test questions for this part are derived may be supplied to the student. The student will not be given any study materials for part I.
4. The second written part includes specialized topics in the field of the student future thesis work, and may include chapters from specialized books and/or research papers. The student examination committee may choose to hand in a study material to the students (A Typical study material would consist of 9 to 12 sets in the form of articles, book chapters, reports, etc.)
5. The coordinator informs the students about the selected topics for the first part and each supervisor informs his/her student(s) about the topics of the second part. Upon the consent of the student examination committee, study material shall be delivered to students only for part II.
6. Each part counts as 50% of the final grade. The pass grade is 70% for each part and the student must pass both parts to proceed in his study.
   
    

• Registration in the PhD Qualification Exam (0405-709)

1. The student can register for the qualification exam if he/she has completed the program mandatory courses (9​​ credit hours) with a minimum CGPA of 3 out of 4 and has an approved supervisor through a signed and approved Supervisor Selection Form.
2. A student who cannot secure a PhD supervisor is not eligible to take the qualification exam.
3. The student has to fill out and submit the Qualification Exam Registration Form to the PhD program coordinator, after obtaining the endorsement from the student's supervisor. The form is available on the website of the PhD program in engineering Management.
4. After the approval of the PhD program coordinator, the PhD academic officer in IEEM requests to register the student in the Qualification Exam (0405-709) course (zero credit hours) through the form G-50A. Once the request is approved by the dean of graduate studies, the registrar in the graduate studies will register the course for the student.  
5. Step 3 should be accomplished before the beginning the semester in which the student plans to take the qualification exam.
   
    

• Preparation of the Qualification Exam

1. The PhD program steering committee assigns three faculty members from the IEEM department every semester to prepare the qualification exam part I.
2. The qualification exam part II should be prepared by the examination committee (which consists of the supervisors and two other members). The PhD program coordinator should liaise with the examination committee to facilitate this task.
3. The PhD program steering committee sets the exam dates and the PhD program coordinator informs all registered students about their exam dates. The student should be given at least one month in order to prepare for the two parts of the exam.
4. The faculty members in charge of both parts of the qualification exam are responsible for the preparation and grading of the student qualification exam questions and answers. All selected members should be engaged in preparing the questions and hence the grading process.
5. The PhD program coordinator and the PhD student supervisor(s) are in charge of the logistics and organization of the two parts of the written exam, in coordination with the program administrative assistant (room booking, timing, printing the exam questions, collecting the answer sheets, organizing the grading session(s)…).
6. The exam grades should be reported to the PhD program coordinator and then approved by the PhD program steering committee. The PhD program steering committee may decide the cases for which an oral exam needs to be considered in consultation with the examination committee.
7. The outcomes of the oral exam will be taken into account in the final grade of the student's qualification exam.
8. The PhD program coordinator submits the final “pass/fail" grade to the college of graduate studies using the online form G-50B.
9. The student may only sit for the qualification exam twice. If he\she fails the second time, he\she will be expelled from the program.

• PhD Thesis Proposal

0405-723 Decision Making and Analysis 3:3

Topics include basic theory of decision making under uncertainty; rationales of decision makers; the concept of the value of information; the Bayesian approach to decision making; decision trees, elicitation methods for model building, multi-attribute utility models; multi-criteria decision making; use of decision making software. 

0405-760 Leadership and Innovation Management 3:3

This course focuses on the classical and modern aspects of organizations and the role of managers as leaders. The main focus of the course is to provide students with knowledge and skills on different approaches to leadership. The course deals with different forms of leaderships in a corporate setting, and their importance in achieving the organization's strategies. The course also focuses on main issues in innovation management. It equips students with tools and techniques for managing innovation. It includes basic terms related to innovation; development of innovation strategy; factors influencing innovation; sources of innovations, managing intellectual property, development of new product and services within a firm; strategic alliances and networks; contemporary issues in innovation management; case studies.

0405-762 Total Quality Management 3:3

This course introduces definitions, history, dimensions, and principles of Total Quality Management (TQM); quality management philosophies and pioneers (Deming, Juran, Crosby, Ishikawa, Taguchi, Feigenbaum); customer satisfaction and customer relationship management; quality awards (Deming, EFQM, Malcolm Baldrige); SPC tools, benchmarking, QFD, and use of software.

0405-712 Engineering Modeling and Optimization 3:3

This course introduces the concepts of optimization by presenting different classes of problems and engineering applications. Topics include the art and science of modeling and solving engineering decision making problems using a variety of frameworks ranging from linear programming, goal programming, integer programming, nonlinear programming, network programming, and heuristic methods. Applications include product and process design, production planning, logistics, sustainable logistics, transportation, and scheduling in both industrial and service systems. Notions of stochastic optimization and sensitivity analysis are also covered to deal with uncertainties and data fluctuations.

0405-724 Engineering Design of  Experiments 3:3

Review of basic statistical methods; Introduction to designed experiments; Analysis of variance (ANOVA), model adequacy test, determining sample size, regression approach to ANOVA; Single-factor design, two factor designs; 2^k factorial designs; Fractional factorial designs; Introduction to factorial survey experiments; Response surface methodology; Taguchi's methods; Demonstration of the implementation of the methods explained in the course using computer software packages.

0405-763 Advanced Engineering Project Management 3:3

This course includes a review of project management concepts including planning and scheduling; strategic planning for project management; human resources management, managing multiple projects, contemporary issues in project management; case studies.

0405-765 Management of Technology 3:3

This course examines a wide range of topics and issues involved in the management of technology including planning tools and techniques in strategic planning for different technologies, technology capability assessment, technology forecasting; the development environment and infrastructure, R&D management, product development process; technology transfer; licensing, joint venture and other forms of alliances; technology protection; case studies and project.

0405-725 Data Analytics

The course covers the fundamentals and key concepts of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques. The course presents several supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques, in addition to techniques used to select and process input features. Students will also learn how to understand the data and visualize it.

0405-731 Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Logistics and supply chains constitute the backbone of production systems and of international trade. They are essential elements in order to understand and analyze production systems in both

manufacturing and service firms. They study the flows of materials, information, and funds from the suppliers, to the manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and customers, and vice versa. This course

covers classical topics of logistics and supply chain management including understanding the supply chain and logistics systems, designing networks, and studying the operations that are necessary to manage supply chains and logistics. Contemporary topics such as digitalization, sustainability, and circular economy in the context of logistics and supply chain management are also covered.

0405-781 Special Topics in Engineering Management 3:3

This course examines advanced and emerging topics in engineering management. The course may be offered to suit the academic need of the student based on the supervisor recommendation and the program coordinator approval.

0405-782 Independent Studies in Engineering Management 3:3

This course helps the student in exploring specific areas of interest or enables him/her to develop in-depth research in a field of interest. The topic should be related to the area of interest in which the student is planning to prepare his/her thesis. The course intends to complete the knowledge of the student while allowing him/her to develop his/her critical thinking and analysis. The registration in this course and its topic should be approved in advance by the student's potential thesis supervisor and the PhD program coordinator.

0405-791 PhD Seminar 1:0

Students are required to attend seminars given by faculty members, visitors, and graduate students. Students must submit reports of the seminars they attended. They are also required to present one seminar on a timely research topic.

0405-709 Qualification (Comprehensive) Examination 0:0

The examination aims to measure the student's ability to understand and demonstrate a general understanding of his/her discipline, show the ability of critical, analytical, and creative thinking and employ them in solving problems and proposing appropriate solutions. It is not another test in the courses studied by the students. This exam consists of both written and oral parts.
Pre-requisites:  Completion of all mandatory courses and approval of the program coordinator and dean of graduate studies.

0405-792 PhD Research Proposal 0:6

Students must submit a research proposal topic under the supervision of a faculty member. The proposal should layout the literature survey of related work to the proposed research topic to be undertaken.  Methodology and expected results should be presented in the proposal. The proposal should be approved by the supervisor and defended before an examination committee. Recommendation of the committee should be considered in the implementation phase of the thesis. Pre-requisites: 0405-709 Qualification (comprehensive) Examination.

0405-799 PhD Thesis 0:21

Students must undertake and complete and independent industrial-oriented and/or theoretical research under the supervision of a faculty member. Students are required to submit a thesis documenting their research and defend it in an oral examination before a committee. The thesis work must make a significant contribution to knowledge in the field of engineering management and innovation.  Students are required to produce at least two refereed journal publications (at least class B) of their work before defending the thesis.

 Pre-requisites: 0405-792 Ph.D. Research Proposal and 0475-791 PhD Seminar.