Evolution of PhD Program - School of Systems & Enterprises, Stevens Institute of Technology

Institute Vision The Institutional Vision: Stevens believes that solutions to many of the critical problems that face humanity can be found in improved use and understanding of technology, and that it is the duty of the Institute to produce engineers, scientists and business leaders prepared for this challenge. Our five year vision is as follows: Stevens is recognized as a premier technological university noted for its distinctive educational and research programs and the impact it has on issues of national and global significance . © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

SSE Vision & Mission Vision: “Solving” critical national and global challenges of the 21st Century using Systems Approaches Mission: SSE to be the preeminent provider of systems-centered research, knowledge, tools, teaching/training and partnerships to significantly impact the most complex challenges of national and global significance © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Doctoral Student Objectives Educate thought leaders who will have an impact on Global challenges in… © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved R&D Policy & Strategy Entrepreneurial Innovative Academia Govt/Non-Profit Industry

Prepare our graduates for: Faculty, industrial, and government positions of leadership in systems engineering, enterprise systems, engineering management, infrastructure systems, financial engineering, software engineering programs worldwide: They will have a solid foundation in research methods and methodologies Core competencies (see core courses): They will have a solid foundation in system modeling and analysis They will have a unique “systems” perspective on how they address engineering and governance challenges They will have a track record of publication in peer-reviewed journals by the time they graduate They will have a teaching track record by the time they graduate They will have a track record in mentoring graduate students by the time they graduate Objectives & Expectations © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Need to ensure quality of graduates & integrity of SSE brand Graduating students need to be of uniformly high caliber independent of particular Graduate and/or Thesis Advisor Admissions Process: Efficiently select the “best” doctoral candidates Students must have the potential to advance the state of the art Research interests should align with available faculty & funding Process should be efficient & respectful Graduation Requirements: Develop students & ensure quality Examinations should diagnostic learning experiences, not “hurdles” Courses should provide both breadth in core competence and depth in selected areas of concentration Experiences should ensure that each graduate can research, teach, write and present professionally Doctoral Program Overview © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Statement of Purpose: which includes academic interests, proposed course work, research interests & rationale , general career objectives and desired full/part-time status Applicants should have accessed information on the available thesis advisors and their active areas of research Current Resume or curriculum vitae (CV) Official transcripts for all schools of higher learning (university, colleges, etc.) attended; typically >3.0 Undergrad and >3.5 Graduate Submit three recommendations A Masters Degree in a related area is strongly recommended GRE test scores TOEFL > 550 (scores for non-native speakers of English) Letter of endorsement from employer for part-time studies Evidence of written work: includes a technical document written solely by the applicant, published work is most desirable Doctoral Program Application © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Admission is based not only the qualifications of the applicant to meet this base requirements, but also on the interview results, the match in research and education objectives, available research funding, and the availability of faculty for supervision. Note that all accepted students must meet a minimal set of standards, but due to limitations on available staff and positions, all who have met these standards may not be accepted. Students who do not have the potential to advance the start of the art in their course of study should not be accepted into the Doctoral program. Accepted students will be assigned a Faculty Advisor (FA) who will both serve as a provisional academic and research advisor. Doctoral Program Acceptance Considerations © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Core Course Goals There should be a set of core courses for a Doctoral Degree from Stevens SSE to: Ensure that students have the skills they need to be successful Ensure consistency in skill set standards Provide a common experience between students Need to be consistent with reqs for course credits (15-30) and research credits (30-45) for total of 60 © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Core Course Standards All Masters Core courses, their equivalent, or an examination to show competency must be taken, preferably before taking PhD courses* 2 Core courses to be taken by all SSE PhDs: Systems Thinking Research Methods Select 1 course from the each of the following areas: Quantitative Methods Economics, Financials Systems & Policy Select 3 courses from domain Select 1 domain elective * This replaces the need for a General Examination © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Dissertation/Research Lifecycle Concept: Grant/Proposal Qualifying Exam Development: Project Review Proposal Defense Delivery: Presentations & Pubs Final Defense © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Qualifying Exams Validate: Background and capability to do Doctoral level research in chosen area of research* Eligibility Guidelines: (reviewed by Advisor/Doctoral Examination Committee (DEC)) Completion of core courses (includes core PhD courses; e.g. research methods) Minimum GPA (3.5) Must take by end of 3rd semester (tbd part-time student reqs)** Qualifying exam paper itself is up to the discretion of the Thesis Committee Chair (Thesis Chair) Document & follow current process Yearly SSE level review of Doctoral student progress **TBD check points; # of course based. * To be determined by the Doctoral Examination Committee (DEC) © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Proposal Defense Validate: Approve topic and approach, research capabilities Should take place after completing 15-18 research credits Follow current process, plus: 1 peer reviewed journal paper submitted © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Thesis & Defense Assessment Rubric © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved CRITERIA 0 1 2 3 4 Originality and novelty The work completely lacks originality Repeats work of others with only minor changes Work has not been done before, but is an obvious extension of previous work Work incrementally improves on previous approaches Work is cleverly designed and/or represents a significantly new direction or approach Advances the State of the Art No advance is evident Results are obvious or easily anticipated Incrementally advanced the knowledge in the field Significantly advanced the knowledge in the field Greatly advanced the knowledge in the field Literature survey Lacking Cursory Extensive but either not complete or not critical Complete and concise, but not adequately critical Comprehensive and critical Possesses Practical and/or Academic Utility (Potential Impact) Work is unlikely to be useful to others Work has a low likelihood to be used by others Work has some likelihood to be used by others Work is reasonably likely to be used by others Work has strong potential for use by others either in applications or in further research Uses new or advanced techniques Uses only primitive methods Uses only simple and long-established methods and techniques Uses standard methods commonly known in the field Uses the most advanced established methods Uses leading-edge methods not applied before in this field or newly developed methods Has elements of theory Does not involve any theoretical development or predictions Incorporates standard theory in the field Incrementally advances theory currently used in the field Significantly extends existing theory in the field Involves theory that represents a break with the state-of-the-art Has elements of experiment There is no data collection or useage Few data are collected or relies on data from others Data collection is a minor part of this work Data collection is a major part of this work Employs sophisticated and novel experimental methods

Thesis & Defense Assessment Rubric © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved CRITERIA 0 1 2 3 4 Potential Intellectual Property (IP) No IP issues recognized or addressed Some recognition of IP issues IP issues considered but there is limited IP potential Significant consideration of IP issues and demonstrated IP potential Well defined IP context and strong IP potential Written presentation (Thesis) Missing significant details or very difficult to read Disorganized or lacking in some details All details are present, but requires some effort by reader All details are present, organization is adequate Comprehensive, elegantly and clearly written Oral presentation (Defense) Poor quality visuals or inarticulate presentation Some visuals need improvement or presentation is not confident All visuals adequate and presentation is confident Significant effort evident in visuals, and presentation is confident High production quality and articulate presentation Responsiveness to questioning “ Freezes up ” or generally unable to adequately handle questioning Often isn ’ t able to respond to questions, or requires prompting Makes satisfactory responses on his/her own to most questions Clearly understands the issues raised and always makes satisfactory responses Articulate and thorough, demonstrates complete mastery of the topic

Dissertation The following are guidelines, but should be the norm: Body of the thesis is 40-60 pages and points back to refereed papers in the appendices. 1 accepted peer reviewed journal article Plus 1 submitted peer reviewed journal article 2 presented refereed conference papers Use of peer reviewed journal articles provides broad review of quality and contribution to the field © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Dissertation Defense Follow current process Minimum time between defense and graduation should be 90-days Committee cannot be changed without approval by current and new committee member(s); appeals may be made to the Associate Dean of Research © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved

Recommended Full Time Student Timeline Fall Spring Summer 1 Summer 2 © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 3 Classes, e.g. 625, 612 & 710 2 Classes 1 SYS 801 Research Course 1 SYS 801 Research Course Qualifying Exam 3 SYS 960 Research Courses Teaching Assistant 1 SYS 960 Research Courses 1 SYS 960 Research Courses Thesis Defense C=9, R=0 C=15, R=0 C=18, R=0 C=21, R=0 2 Classes 1 SYS 960 Res Course 3 SYS 960 Research Courses 1 SYS 960 Research Courses 1 SYS 960 Research Courses Proposal Defense C=27, R=3 C=27, R=12 C=27, R=15 C=27, R=18 C=27, R=27 C=27, R=27 C=27, R=30 C=27, R=33

Recommended Part Time Student Timeline 1 Class 1 SYS 960 Research Course 1 SYS 960 Research Course 1 SYS 960 Research Course Qualifying Exam Thesis Defense Year 1 Year 3 C=27, R=0 C=27, R=3 C=27, R=6 C=27, R=9 1 SYS 960 Research Course 1 SYS 960 Research Course 1 SYS 960 Research Course 1 SYS 960 Research Course Proposal Defense C=27, R=12 C=27, R=15 C=27, R=18 C=27, R=21 C=27, R=24 C=27, R=27 C=27, R=30 C=27, R=33 Fall Spring Summer 1 Summer 2 Year 4 Year 5 © Stevens Institute of Technology, All Rights Reserved 1 SYS 960 Research Course 1 SYS 960 Res Course Teaching Assistant 1 SYS 960 Research Course 1 SYS 960 Research Course Year 2 1 Class 1 Class 1 SYS 801 Research Course 1 SYS 801 Research Course C=15, R=0 C=18, R=0 C=21, R=0 C=24, R=0 1 Class 1 Class 1 Class 1 Class C=3, R=0 C=6, R=0 C=9, R=0 C=12, R=0

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SSE PhDs: Taking the lead to “Solve” critical national and global challenges of the 21st Century using Systems Approaches

Evolution of PhD Program - School of Systems & Enterprises, Stevens Institute of Technology

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