Research & Writing Courses
Doctoral students are expected to generate new knowledge that advances both the academic discipline and the world of professional practice. To support this objective, the Literature Review and the Research Design and Methods courses are designed to help learning partners develop and improve necessary research and technical writing skills. To enhance writing skills and provide the learning partners with the opportunity to contribute to the body of teaching knowledge in industrial and systems engineering, learning partners will draw on their years of relevant experience to develop and present two original teaching case studies. Successful development and defense of these two case studies will serve to satisfy the preliminary examination requirement of the Ph.D. program. Some past case study proposals have included:
- Automotive Hybrid Technology Decision
- Total Productive Maintenance
- Where Has All the IP Gone – Challenges in China
- Innovation, Regulation, and the Future of Commercial Innovation in the United States
The required Research Design and Methods courses are held on a two-year rotating cycle. Every calendar year, either the qualitative or quantitative version of the course will be offered. Both of the courses carry the option of continuing research through a two credit hour independent study, which is to be completed over the course of the calendar year. The independent study culminates in the submission of a research paper, which is to be presented at an elite conference or submitted to a scholarly journal in the field of industrial and systems engineering. This research paper may used in lieu of one of the two required teaching case studies.
In addition, the GET program requires all learning partners to propose and complete a formal dissertation. Learning partners will have the opportunity to tailor the dissertation research to their interests aligned with the program objectives. The learning partners are also required to disseminate the results of their dissertation research for publication in scholarly journals. The program requires the submission of at least two manuscripts to reputable international journals.