PhD Program in the School of Systems and Enterprises @ Stevens Institute of Technology

1. PhD Program in the School of Systems and Enterprises@ Stevens Institute of Technology Dr. Arthur Pyster Distinguished Research Professor, Director Software Engineering Program, Co-Director Applied Systems Thinking Institute School of Systems and Enterprises

2. Systems Engineering was launched at Stevens Institute of Technology in 2000 – in the form of the SDOE Program and the Systems Engineering and Engineering Management Department, within our Schaefer School of Engineering • SE/EM program has grown to 400 MS students, 75 PhD students, and 800 professional development students • 85% of PhD students are industry sponsored • 30 full-time faculty (10 tenure/tenure track, 20 industry) • School of Systems and Enterprises launched in March 2007 with SE, EM, and Financial Engineering • Software engineering integrated into SSE in Sep 2008 2

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4. SDOE Modular Format Dominates • Pre-reading before class begins • A full semester of lectures delivered in one week • On-site at customer location • Followed by 10 weeks of homework and projects administered over the Internet • Allows delivery anywhere in the world • Source of most PhD students 4

5. Participants, Sponsors and Partners Buskerud University College General Dynamics Växjö University Scandinavian Summer School Volvo SUN Microsystems Nokia Boeing Sandia National Labs Mediterranean Spring School L-3 Communications Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense ITT Lockheed Martin MS2 Northrop Grumman Defense Acquisition University Nanyang Technological University NASA Indian Winter School ANSER NSA ATK OSD FAA IBM U.S. Army U.S. Navy 5

6. World of Complex Systems • Technology • Constantly evolving technology and related standards • Multitude of interfaces (hard and soft), distributedprocessing nodes and platforms, security implications • Information and knowledge intensive • Business • Constantly changing scope, business processes, requirements, and expectations • Global relevance, scope, and application • Evolving marketplace and related vendors and suppliers • Organizational • Numerous stakeholders, with conflicting preferences • Legacy organizational structures impose constraints 6

7. School of Systems and Enterprises:Positioning 7

8. The SDOE Program Curriculum Structure and Focus Areas 8

9. PhD Requirements • Admission • Master’s degree, 3.5 GPA at Master’s level, 550 TOEFL for international students, GRE, 2 page Letter of Intent stating (a) long term career goals and how a PhD supports these goals and (b) broad statement of research interests • PhD Requirements • 90 credits graduate work beyond Bachelors • Up to 30 credits in Master’s program included toward doctoral program • Minimum 30 credits of dissertation work • Statement of research interest • Written and oral qualifying exam • Dissertation + defense • Typically, several publications prior to defense 9

10. Our Thoughts on the PhD • Our PhD students range in age from 23 to 80, dispersed world-wide in industry and government • Most students – and certainly most of our best students – have strong industrial or government experience • Companies are sponsoring mid-career engineers to become leaders, such as chief engineers • Many are hand-picked by corporate leadership • Excluding full-time students, most are pursuing a PhD because (in order) • Career enhancing • Committed to life-long learning • Interested in 2nd careers 10

11. Geographically Dispersed Student Population • Most students are far from campus • Generally not supported as classic research assistants • Companies provide institutional support – travel funds to campus, participation in conferences • Research often based on proprietary information • Institutional ties between Stevens and company • Many must learn the difference between a “project” and a dissertation 11