GW School of Engineering & Applied Science

The Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering program leads to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.). All courses and research are to be undertaken at the GW Virginia Campus in Loudoun County. A cohort of 12-15 students begins Spring 2010, with a target graduation date of Spring 2013.

The EMSE doctoral program at the Virginia Campus, Loudoun County enables professionals who are employed full-time to pursue doctoral study and research on weekends in an intense, focused environment in cohort style-alongside like-minded fellow students. The program leads to award of the Ph.D. degree in Engineering Management or in Systems Engineering.

The program consists of a minimum of 54 credit hours, divided into a one-year classroom experience of ten graduate-level three-semester-hour courses culminating in the doctoral qualifying examination, and an approximately two-year research effort of at least 24 semester hours of dissertation research culminating in the dissertation defense. After completing the course work and passing the doctoral qualifying examination, the student writes an original dissertation in one of two fields of study: (1) Engineering Management, which focuses on innovation in the management of organizations; or (2) Systems Engineering, which focuses on innovation in theories governing the structure, operations, and management of technical and scientific organizations.

Sessions will be nine weeks long. Classroom courses will meet every Saturday. Two classes will meet each session, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from l:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Research courses will meet on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to l:00 p.m. about once each month.

While taking the classroom courses, the student's aim should be to bring focus and direction to the selection of a topic for the dissertation, to write the topic up into a 10- to 15-page proposal, and to prepare to defend the dissertation proposal in the doctoral qualifying examination (DQE).

To begin the second phase of the program, the student must have a grade point average of 3.4 in the classroom courses taken for the doctoral program, and the student orally defends her or his dissertation proposal before a committee of three faculty members. This presentation is the principal means of determining that the proposed dissertation topic is adequate for the field of study, that the student understands the topic, and that the student's background and intellectual development are adequate to support research for the second stage of the program-the doctoral dissertation.

Upon favorable report of the faculty committee to the dean through the department chair, the student is admitted to candidacy for the degree to begin specialized study and research under the supervision of a member of the faculty. Professor Shahram Sarkani, Ph.D., P.E., Faculty Adviser, Director and Head of EMSE Off-Campus Programs, and Professor Thomas A. Mazzuchi, D.Sc., supervise all accelerated Ph.D. candidates' dissertations. Work on the dissertation encompasses a minimum of 24 credit hours and is completed within two years.

The faculty research directors meet with the students as needed to develop and refine the dissertation. The dissertation should embody the results of an extended original study and include material deemed worthy of publication in recognized scientific and engineering journals.

Within the first year of dissertation research, the student is expected to present results of the research at an engineering professional society conference, such as INCOSE's, subject to the advisor's approval. Engineering professional societies usually announce their conferences on the world-wide web.

In the second year of research, the student is expected to submit an article to a refereed scholarly journal. Credit must be given in the publication to the fact that the material is abstracted, summarized, or developed from a dissertation submitted to The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Before the student defends the dissertation, his or her original article must be accepted for publication.

Throughout these two years, the student conducts the literature search, research, and writing of the dissertation. The student then defends the dissertation in the Final Examination before a committee of five members, including Professors Sarkani and Mazzuchi, two other EMSE Department faculty members, and one expert from outside GW. The candidate should schedule the examination in consultation with Professor Sarkani. When the Final Examination committee is convinced of the quality and originality of the candidate's contribution to knowledge as well as his or her mastery of the scholarship and research techniques of the field, the committee recommends the candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

All classes and research advising meetings will be held at the GW Virginia Campus, located at 20101 Academic Way, Ashburn, VA 20147-2604. The Virginia Campus classrooms are some of the most up-to-date at the University, and the campus has its own library fiom which all other libraries in the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area may be accessed. Tuition will be billed at $995 per credit hour, and textbooks will cost roughly $100 per semester.

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering
Off-Campus Programs Office
1776 G Street, N.W., Suite 145
Washington , D.C. 20052
Tel: 1-888-MY-GW-OCP (1-888-694-9627)
E-mail: emseocp@gwu.edu


Copyright © 2005. The George Washington University. All Rights Reserved.

Cohort 3 of the Accelerated Ph.D. Degree Program in Engineering Management and in Systems Engineering at the GW Virginia Campus, Loudoun County Start date Spring 201 0