2006–2007 - Florida Institute of Technology

defense is required. The nonthesis option requires a comprehensive
examination. Courses taken to satisfy admission prerequisites
cannot be counted toward the degree requirements.
Curriculum
The program’s curriculum is designed to provide breadth with
some flexibility to accommodate the diversity of backgrounds
typically found in an operations research program. Greater flexibility
is provided for the elective courses beyond the core. A
student has the choice of developing greater depth in one area of
specialization, aiming at eventual research in that area, or continuing
to develop breadth across more than one area. By choosing
courses in a related field of application, students can prepare
for careers in specialty areas such as management science, actuarial
science or economic modeling in addition to conventional
areas of operations research.
Each student will complete a program plan that satisfies the
requirements listed below, subject to approval of the adviser and
program chair. Substitutions are sometimes permitted.
Core Courses (12 credit hours)
MTH 5411 Mathematical Statistics 1
ORP 5001 Deterministic Operations Research Models
ORP 5002 Stochastic Operations Research Models
ORP 5010 Mathematical Programming
or
ORP 5003 Operations Research Practice
Restricted Electives (9 credit hours from the following list)
MTH 5051 Applied Discrete Mathematics
MTH 5102 Linear Algebra
MTH 5401 Applied Statistical Analysis
MTH 5412 Mathematical Statistics 2
ORP 5020 Theory of Stochastic Processes
ORP 5021 Queuing Theory
Computation/Computer Science Elective (3 credit hours
from the following list)
CSE 5100 Data Structures and Algorithms
CSE 5210 Formal Languages and Automata Theory
CSE 5211 Analysis of Algorithms
CSE 5290 Artificial Intelligence
CSE 5610 Computational Complexity
MTH 5301 Numerical Analysis
MTH 5305 Numerical Linear Algebra
MTH 5320 Neural Networks
ORP 5050 Discrete System Simulation
Free Electives (9 credit hours)
Nonthesis option: Three courses in areas of interest to the student
as approved in the student’s program plan.
Thesis option: At least one course plus up to six credit hours for
a thesis. The thesis should be an in-depth study of some topic and/or
problem in operations research, subject to the approval of the thesis
committee.
Doctor of Philosophy Degree Program
The doctor of philosophy program provides a more advanced level
of education, as well as demonstrated ability to perform independent
research. These additional strengths should qualify the
graduate for vital positions of leadership in industry, business,
government and academia.
Admission Requirements
An applicant for the doctoral program will normally have completed
a master’s degree in operations research or a related discipline.
If the master’s degree is not in operations research, then
the student will be required to take the core courses for Florida
Tech’s master’s degree in operations research. These courses may
be used toward fulfilling the credit requirements for the Ph.D. in
operations research. Students also will be required to take a written
qualifying examination equivalent to Florida Tech’s master’s
comprehensive examination.
General admission requirements are discussed in the Graduate
Information and Regulations section of this catalog.
Degree Requirements
A minimum of 48 credit hours beyond the requirements for the
master’s degree is required to earn the doctoral degree. These
credits include 24 credit hours of dissertation research in addition
to normal course work.
Each student must complete an approved program of study, pass
a comprehensive examination, complete a program of significant
original research, and defend a dissertation concerning the
research.
General degree requirements are presented in the Graduate
Information and Regulations section of this catalog.
Curriculum
The individual doctoral program of study must be approved by
the student’s doctoral committee and the program chair. Students
who have not taken MTH 5051 and MTH 5102, or their equivalents,
will be required to take them. Students are also required
to take at least two courses from the Computation/Computer
Science list above.
The doctoral program in operations research does not fall within
the traditional boundaries of a single discipline. The scope
is broad and interdisciplinary. Consequently, every course in
a student’s program of study is evaluated in terms of how it
complements other courses and provides breadth and depth to
the program. Considerable latitude is permitted in course selection,
provided the core requirements for operations research/
mathematics/computation are met. The remaining courses are
selected in collaboration with the Doctoral Committee according
to the interests and research objectives of the student.
Research
Current active research efforts include the modeling of controlled
queuing systems, stochastic processes, applied statistics, design
of experiments, neural networks, parallel processing and algorithms,
decision-making under uncertainty, simulation, engineering
management, quality control, optimization models and
methods, scheduling and timetabling algorithms, applied graph
theory and integer programming.
Physics
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND SPACE SCIENCES
Laszlo Baksay, Ph.D., Head
Bachelor of Science
Preprofessional Physics Option
Master of Science
Doctor of Philosophy
Professors
Marc M. Baarmand, Ph.D., experimental high-energy particle physics,
QCD at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, proton-proton collisions
at CERN.
College of Science–Mathematics Education, Operations Research, Physics 137