All Ph.D. students in IEOR (joined on or after June 2008) are required to clear their Qualifying Examination, as part of their degree requirements. Students joining in July 2017 and thereafter should follow the new qualifier scheme. This page is only meant for the older scheme.
For QIP students, the exam will be an oral exam to be taken in the first semester of joining the programme full time, based on their proposed thesis topic and the relevant background.
For all other Ph.D. students, the exam will be an oral/written exam in 4 areas of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. The areas will be broadly based on some of the courses taught in our programme.
The areas are as follows:
Compulsory subject areas:
- Optimization Techniques
- Stochastic models
Two more areas to be selected from the following representative list:
Simulation modeling and analysis, Probability theory, Statistics, Game theory, Knowledge based systems, Systems dynamics modeling, Quality management and reliability, Network flow models, Scheduling theory, Neural networks and fuzzy systems, Applications of Stochastic Models, Financial Engineering, Facilities Planning, O.R. Applications in Infrastructure/service, Pricing and Revenue Management, Markov Decision Processes, Inventory theory, Supply Chain Management, Integer Programming, Project Management
In the second list, at least one should be based on an IE labeled course. Students can also suggest a topic based on their elective interests, and with approval, this can form part of the qualifying examination.
The exam should be taken within 3 semesters of joining. It will be held in the period November 15-December 15 and April 15-May 15 every year, as per requirement. The grades will be of the Pass/no-Pass variety. If a student fails in this exam, he/she is eligible for one more attempt within three months. If that attempt is unsuccessful, the student has to leave the programme.
The department will announce the nature of the exam (oral/written) for each academic year. The examination board for each student will be of four faculty members
- Convenor of IEOR IDP or his/her nominee
- Advisor (if already decided) or Ph.D. Faculty Advisor
- Two faculty members from outside (nominated by Dean AP, selected from a list provided by Convenor/IDPC as required)
The exam can be preceded by short presentation by the candidate.