Doctoral Program in Industrial Engineering 

The UMass Lowell Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering offers a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.),Option in Industrial Engineering.

Ph.D. Option in Industrial Engineering

The intent of the Doctor of Philosophy program is to prepare engineers for leadership positions in industry, academia, and government. The program includes advanced graduate course work in engineering and allied subjects and research, culminating in a doctoral dissertation. 

Admission Requirements

Applicants must have a minimum of a B.S. in Industrial Engineering, or a closely related field with a minimum grade point average of 3.000 and a min GPA of 3.250 in science and engineering courses.

Applicants with a M.S. in Industrial Engineering, or a closely related field, must have a minimum graduate GPA of 3.250.

Applicants must meet all Graduate Admissions standards for this program, which includes three letters of recommendation, and official GRE scores.

Transfer Credits

1. A student with an earned master's degree in Engineering or a closely related field may apply to transfer coursework for the master's degree up to a total of 24 credits.
2. A student with graduate-level work completed at an accredited US or Canadian university may apply to transfer up to 24 course credits in acceptable graduate engineering courses (with an earned grade of B or better) towards the doctoral program, upon approval by the Department Graduate Coordinator.

Note: Students may be required to make up prerequisites which they lack in comparison to the equivalent Engineering curriculum at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Degree Requirements

A total of 63 credit hours of graduate level courses are required for the Ph.D. degree. The Ph.D. degree must involve a traditional research-based dissertation, plus:

• A minimum of 30 approved credit hours of graduate-level engineering courses, including Master of Science in Engineering core courses.
• A minimum of 21 credit hours of doctoral dissertation.
• The balance of the remaining 12 credits can be a mix of graduate-level engineering and science, including associated physic (PHYS), chemistry (CHEMS), production & operation management (POMS), public health (PUBH) and math (MATH) course and dissertation credits at the discretion of the department, faculty advisor and dissertation committee.
• At least two semesters of the 0 credit research seminar MECH.5010.

In addition to these 63 semester hours of approved graduate courses and thesis, the student must:

• have a minimum grade point average of 3.250 in order to graduate.
• take and pass the doctoral qualifying examination/dissertation proposal.
• Successfully defend and complete a dissertation.
• Meet all other University requirements for the degree.

Combined Qualifying Examination and Dissertation Proposal

The Doctoral Qualifying Exam will consist of a written dissertation proposal (a document of typically 20 to 50 pages without appendices) and associated oral presentation by the examinee to an audience of peers and the dissertation committee composed of faculty members (minimum of three) where one of whom must be the examinee's dissertation advisor. The committee may have in addition one or more members from outside UML.

At least one week prior to the date of the presentation of the dissertation proposal, an announcement document must be submitted to the department graduate coordinator and to the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Engineering.

The dissertation proposal is open to the public. The proposal will outline the motivation for the research, give a summary of the related past work in the area and present the scope of the proposed dissertation research. The presentation should be approximately 30 minutes. The proposal should clearly articulate the proposed contribution of the student to the knowledge base and how it differs from the past work. The examinee will be expected to answer questions from the audience to demonstrate his/her understanding of the proposed research, as well as his/her proficiency in the general research field related to the dissertation proposal.

Doctoral Core Requirement

Students must satisfy the following doctoral core requirement:

• Four core courses

1. IENG.5010 Advanced Deterministic Modeling & Analysis
2. IENG.5020 Advanced Stochastic Modeling & Analysis
3. IENG.5050 Industrial Automation
4. BMEN.5300 Ergonomics and Work

• Six courses from one the following four areas of concentration
• IENG.7530 / IENG.7560 / IENG.7590 Doctoral Dissertation Industrial Engineering

Industrial Engineering Concentration

1. Analytics and Operations 
2. Ergonomics and Safety
3. Health System Engineering
4. Manufacturing and Automation