process systems engineering phd

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Process Systems

Process Systems Engineering (PSE) is the scientific discipline of integrating scales and components describing the behavior of a physicochemical system, via mathematical modeling, data analytics, process design, integration, optimization, intensification, and control. The department has a large cluster of PSE faculty, experts and researchers making theoretical, computational and algorithmic advances in computer-aided systematic decision-making. PSE provides the ‘glue’ within chemical engineering science, and offers a scientific basis and computational tools towards addressing contemporary and future challenges in energy, environment, advanced chemical manufacturing, safety, circular economy, and sustainability.

Process Systems Engineering Faculty

M. m. faruque hasan.

• Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering
• Kim Tompkins McDivitt ’88 and Phillip McDivitt ’87 Faculty Fellow
• Assistant Director of Decarbonization, Texas A&M Energy Institute
• Office: 242 CHEN/ERB 333
• Phone: 979-862-1449
• Email: [email protected]

Costas Kravaris

• Professor, Chemical Engineering
• Office: CHEN 236
• Phone: 979-458-4514
• Email: [email protected]

Joseph Sang-Il Kwon

• Kenneth R. Hall Career Development Professor
• Office: 206 CHEN/ERB 331
• Phone: 979-862-5930
• Email: [email protected]

• ACES Assistant Professor
• Office: CHEN 220
• Email: [email protected]

Efstratios Pistikopoulos

• University Distinguished Professor
• Director, Texas A&M Energy Institute
• Dow Chemical Chair
• Office: CHEN 335
• Phone: 979-458-0259
• Email: [email protected]

Faisal Khan

• Department Head, Chemical Engineering
• Professor, Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering
• Mike O'Connor Chair II
• Director, MKO Process Safety Center
• Director, Ocean Energy Safety Institute
• Affiliated Faculty, Industrial & Systems Engineering
• Affiliated Faculty, Ocean Engineering
• Office: CHEN 246
• Email: [email protected]

Mahmoud El-Halwagi

• Bryan Research and Engineering Chair in Chemical Engineering
• Managing Director, TEES Gas and Fuels Research Center
• Office: CHEN 229
• Phone: 979-845-3484
• Email: [email protected]

Ph.D. in Systems Engineering

The Ph.D. is an advanced graduate degree for students wishing to contribute to knowledge creation through independent, original, cutting-edge research. 

The PhD in Systems Engineering provides a springboard for careers as an academician, as a researcher, as a consultant or in management/leadership within a university, institute, industry or government setting. SIE doctoral programs include three components:

• Coursework and Teaching to gain fundamental and advanced knowledge, as both student and GTA
• Research conducted in a collaborative environment leading to a doctoral dissertation and scholarly papers
• Engagement in UVA’s intellectual life

See below for information on the Systems Engineering PhD program, or download the SIE Graduate Handbook .

Admissions Criteria

The deadlines for PhD applications with financial aid requests are January 5 for fall semester and September 29 for spring semester. All SIE faculty are eligible to advise students enrolled in the SE PhD program. We accept applications from candidates with degrees from all engineering and some affiliated backgrounds. In some cases, candidates who do not have engineering or similar credentials will be offered conditional admission, which will require them to take selected undergraduate coursework in addition to the coursework required for their PhD. 

All candidates are evaluated by one or more of the SIE research subgroups. Some students are admitted directly into a specific research group with a specific advisor. Other candidates are admitted into a subgroup and are then connected with an advisor during the first year. 

Most accepted PhD students receive financial aid. Funding offers take the form of GRAs, GTAs and/or various fellowships. SIE is committed to acquiring the resources to fund PhD students for five years, contingent upon satisfactory progress toward the degree. The department’s default stipend for PhD students is $35,000 per year. 

Funded offers also include tuition and health insurance. Some PhD students are funded by third-party entities (e.g., their employer or government or military agencies), and a small number of students are self-funded. 

Join our vibrant community of graduate students!

Engineering School Requirements

Engineering School requirements for the PhD degree are described on the UVA Graduate School of Engineering’s information webpage . The page also addresses admission requirements, rules and regulations pertaining to financial assistance and outside employment, and other matters. The portion of the Engineering School’s website devoted to current graduate students contains many helpful resources, including required forms.

Time limit: All requirements for the PhD degree must be completed within seven years after matriculation to the program.

Coursework, Professional Development and Engagement

SIE has three general classes of PhD requirements: coursework, professional development, and academic engagement. These are described below. 

The SE program require relevant coursework to help students access foundational knowledge in their discipline while striking a balance between depth and breadth. All PhD students must take at least six credits of graduate coursework at UVA beyond the master’s degree. All PhD students, including those entering with an ME/MS from another institution, must complete at least six credits of SIE coursework. Students who earn an ME or MS degree at UVA en route to a PhD in SE may use SE credits from their master’s degree to meet this requirement. A minimum of 30 credits beyond the BS program is required for all Engineering School PhDs. The following requirements should be met: 

• Mandatory Courses: SYS 6001 and 2 semesters of SYS 7096
• Nine credit hours of foundation courses : 3 courses selected from SYS 6003, SYS 6005, SYS 6007, and SYS 6021.
• Twelve credit hours of methodological courses : Students must take four courses from at least two of the methodological areas listed here . The courses listed in each of the areas are only exemplars as course offerings change from year to year. Other courses in these areas may be used to fulfill methodological requirements as approved by the student’s doctoral advisory committee. Additionally, certain courses are listed in multiple areas. In these cases, the student must decide which area the course satisfies for their plan of study. Each course may only satisfy one area for the student’s plan of study.
• Nine credit hours of research elective courses : These can be any 6000 and 7000 level courses that are chosen in consultation with the advisory committee to support the student’s research program.

Special Circumstances 

Prerequisites: The student who does not have the prerequisites (i.e., calculus, linear algebra, probability and statistics, computer programming) should take articulation courses. These courses cannot be used to satisfy the degree requirements. 

Equivalent Courses: The student who, prior to enrolling in our graduate program, has already taken a course equivalent to a core course may petition the graduate program director for the substitution of the core course by an elective course. Students that received automatic bulk transfer credits that are applied towards SEAS’s credit requirements must complete the SE Coursework Petition Form to receive credit towards their degree program requirements. The form will need to be completed to have graduate courses taken while enrolled in a previous graduate program evaluated towards SIE Foundations courses to determine if they can be used to fulfill any of your course requirements. Other transfer coursework taken in another STEM program will count towards the methodological and/or research electives. 

Transfer Credit: PhD students who have earned a master’s degree in a STEM field will receive an automatic bulk transfer of 24 graduate course credits toward SEAS’s total graded coursework credit requirement. PhD students who have earned a master’s degree in a non-STEM field will receive an automatic bulk transfer of 12 graduate course credits toward SEAS’s total graded coursework credit requirement. Students who receive a bulk transfer of credit may not transfer any additional credits toward the PhD degree. PhD students, that didn’t earn a master but took graduate level course, may transfer a maximum of 6 graduate course credits into their program of study. Only courses with a grade of B or better that have not been applied toward another degree may be transferred. The request for credit transfer must include the following documents: a completed Request Approval of Transfer Credits form , a description of course content and level, and an official transcript. The documents are provided to the SIE Student Services Coordinator to facilitate processing of the request. If the student is already admitted into a UVA program, then the request for credit transfer must be preapproved before the course is taken. 

Professional Development and Academic Engagement

The ultimate goal of an SE PhD is to give students the best possible preparation for their careers in research, government, or industry. The following professional training requirements help students prepare for the full spectrum of career choices: 

• GTAs : Students typically serve as a GTA at some point over the course of their MS or PhD. GTAs will enroll for three credits (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory, or S/U, basis) of SYS 6097 or SYS 9997 in a section corresponding to their supervising instructor. Receipt of one or more U grades for graduate instruction may endanger a student’s eligibility to serve as a GTA in future semesters. More information about the Engineering School’s language-skills requirements for international students serving as GTAs can be found  here .
• Research Dissemination : Students will disseminate their research via journal and conference papers. Before scheduling the final defense, students must have at least one first-authored paper with their research advisor published or accepted by a journal or peer-reviewed conference paper approved by their advisory committee. To aid in supporting student travel to conferences, all SIE PhD students are able to apply to receive a travel grant if their research adviser or fellowship is unable to fund their travel, conference registration, and lodging. To receive a travel grant, the student must be the primary author presenting a peer-reviewed publication. Additionally, their advisor must write a statement that there are no research funds to support travel. See the Doctoral Student Travel Grant section below for more information. 
• Seminars and Defenses : SIE is committed to providing members of our community with the opportunity to learn from a wide range of scholars and practicing engineers through seminars. These seminars are organized as (a) our weekly Graduate Colloquium and (b) Distinguished Speakers invited by our faculty on an ad-hoc basis. As an essential component of graduate education, PhD students should register for at least two semesters (preferably in their first year) of SYS 7096 with zero credit hours. Students are expected to attend and participate actively in scheduled SIE and UVA seminars and student thesis/dissertation defenses. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, it is expected that seminars and defenses are held in person at the university. 
• Academic Engagement : Doctoral students are valued members of SIE’s community of scholars. They are expected to be good citizens by engaging in departmental and school-wide events (e.g., milestone defenses, symposiums, workshops, social events). 

Doctoral Student Travel Grant

Each SIE PhD student is eligible to apply for a one-time travel grant of up to $1,500 to present their research at a peer-reviewed conference once during their tenure at UVA. To receive a travel grant, the student must be the primary author presenting a peer-reviewed publication. Additionally, their advisor must write a statement that there are no research funds to support travel. The one- time grant can be requested by using the SIE PhD Student Travel Fellowship Request Form . The request should be submitted at least 6 weeks prior to the conference date.

The three main milestones toward completion of an SE PhD are the qualifying exam, the dissertation proposal, and the dissertation defense. 

The typical timeline for the completion of the PhD in SIE is listed below. This timeline assumes that students enter the PhD after first completing a master’s degree. However, SIE also routinely accepts students directly into the PhD program without first requiring them to complete an MS. For these students, it may be valuable to extend the initial timeline by one year, in which case students can delay the qualifying exam until the end of their second year. The rest of the timeline then proceeds as shown below.

Engineering School policy allows a leave of absence (an action students can take after the completion of a semester, indicating that the student plans to be away from the university for at least one semester) for parental leave or serious personal or family illness; this requires notification to and approval from the appropriate department or program and the Office of Graduate Programs. When considering these options, students are urged to talk with their advisor, their program’s graduate director and the Engineering School’s graduate registrar. These individuals are committed to helping students find and navigate their best possible paths. Students must first obtain the approval of their advisor and the graduate director of the student’s program.

Typical timeline for doctoral students entering with a master’s degree .  Students entering without an MS may need one extra year before taking the qualifying exam. Different research groups offer qualifying exams at different times of year.

• Establish a working relationship with the faculty advisor(s)
• Begin coursework
• Identify a research area and doctoral committee
• Prepare a plan of study*
• Pass the qualifying exam (August)

Year 2 

• Finish coursework
• Establish research
• Present and defend dissertation proposal (March–June)

Year 3 

• Continue research
• Submit a paper for publication
• Attend and present at a research conference

Years 4-5 (as needed)

• Complete research
• Publish additional papers or proceedings
• Defend dissertation

*The plan of study form is for departmental use only. Students should file the form with an SIE student services coordinator and maintain a copy for themselves to access it whenever they convene their committee and/or complete a requirement. Official tracking for SEAS and SIE requirements are done using the student's academic requirements report in SIS.

Qualifying Exam

The principal objective of the qualifying exam (also referred to as the comprehensive exam and PhD exam) is to assess a student’s research aptitude and confirm that they have the skills necessary to make a substantive contribution in their field. The exam also provides an opportunity for students to receive early, individualized feedback regarding their strengths and weaknesses in research and foundational knowledge. 

The goal of the qualifying exam is not to directly assess any content in required courses but to provide a comprehensive use of the foundational principles and methods in research. Thus, students must have already specified the required coursework they will take for their program before taking the qualifying exam. Required coursework varies by concentration, the student’s anticipated dissertation topic, and the recommendation of the student’s committee members. 

Successful students will demonstrate that they can:

• Understand, interpret and critically evaluate relevant literature.
• Analyze data (via experiments, observations, surveys, simulation, etc.) and draw meaningful conclusions.
• Apply technical/engineering tools, concepts, coursework and/or approaches to gain insight on real-world problems.
• Effectively communicate results in both oral and written formats.
• Answer questions and respond to critical feedback when sharing, defending and revising their ideas.

The examination consists of two parts, written and oral. The following guidelines apply.

Committee Composition

The examining committee will include three to five members. At least two of the committee members must be from the candidate’s main research area. At least three of the members must be faculty members with non-zero percentage appointments in SIE. External (non- SIE) or courtesy faculty may be a part of the committee but do not count toward the program requirement. In most instances, the qualifying committee contains many of the same members as the student’s dissertation advisory committee. However, this is not mandatory. 

The chair of the qualifying exam committee should be from the student’s home program but cannot be the student’s advisor. The chair will be responsible for collecting and delivering feedback to the student, as explained below. 

Committee Creation and Preliminary Scheduling

Students should work with their advisor to identify a qualifying exam committee and schedule their exam to take place no later than the end of their second year in the SIE department. Some students may be ready earlier, and if the committee is amenable, they may take the exam after completion of the required coursework for their program. The student should send a completed Recommendation and Certification of Doctoral Advisory Committee form to SIE student services coordinator by the end of the semester preceding the examination. The form should be submitted no later than two weeks prior to the date of the written exam component. 

The faculty recognizes that preparing for and taking the qualifying exam can be one of the more stressful periods of the PhD program. However, framing the exam as a research aptitude assessment is intended to make it such that “preparing for the exam” and “doing research” can be one and the same. Students should meet with each of their committee members prior to beginning t

Structure and Format of Exam

Students will work with their individual examination committees to identify dates for the written and oral components of the exam. They should then work backward from those dates to complete the activities summarized below. 

Once the written exam date has been selected, students should prepare a two-page document that (i)outlines their research area and explains how it will advance knowledge in their PhD discipline and (ii) provides a preliminary reading list (e.g., research papers, book chapters, policybriefs) organized by topic to be used in their qualifying exam. They should circulate thesematerials to their committee members no later than one month before their scheduled exam date.Committee members will have one week to respond to the student with suggested modificationsto their proposed reading list. The student will then circulate the final reading list to the wholecommittee no later than two weeks before the scheduled exam date. It is recommended thatstudents start this process early so they can have a thoughtful, engaged dialogue with thecommittee and prepare a comprehensive reading list.

The student’s examination committee will then prepare their questions based upon the research overview and finalized reading list. They will forward the questions to the advisor and other committee members before the exam with adequate time for everyone to evaluate the exam as a whole before it begins. 

The student will work on the exam for up to seven days; however, individual faculty may specify time limits for their own individual questions. Students will submit their solutions to the examination committee at the end of the exam period. Each committee member will score their own questions using the a-e criteria of the SIE Qualifying Exam Assessment Form. Each committee member should complete their own scoring prior to the oral exam. 

The oral exam will consist of two parts: 1) a brief prepared presentation summarizing the questions and the student’s responses to the questions and 2) follow-up questions from the committee. There is no stipulated duration for the oral exam. However, a one-hour oral exam period is recommended with approximately 30 minutes devoted to presentation and 30 minutes allotted for questions. Once the oral exam has concluded, each committee member will re-score their question, again using the a-e criteria and the SIE Qualifying Exam Assessment Form (see Table 4-4). The chair is responsible for collecting and organizing feedback from the committee and then communicating it to the student after the exam. A key objective for the exam is to give students individualized feedback on their unique strengths and weaknesses.

Exam Outcomes

The outcome of the exam is determined collectively by the examination committee choosing from four options: pass with distinction, pass, pass with remediation, or fail. The committee weighs both parts of the exam (written and oral) at its discretion when determining the outcome. The chair is responsible for communicating the outcome of the exam and delivering feedback from the committee to the student after the exam. 

Students who do not pass, or pass with remediation, can retake the examination within six months. After two unsuccessful attempts, the student is dismissed from the PhD program. 

• Engineering School’s Recommendation and Certification of Doctoral AdvisoryCommittee : This form is due to an SIE student services coordinator at least two weeks before the scheduled examination.
• Engineering School’s Report on Ph.D. Exam and SIE Ph.D. Qualifying Exam Assessment : These forms are sent to the chairperson of the committee by the SIE student services coordinator to be completed and returned to them after the exam.
• Academic Requirements Report from SIS: The student brings one copy for each committee member to the oral exam.

Note: A student must have approval from the academic advisor for forming their committee.

Dissertation Proposal

Formulation of a dissertation proposal is a key step toward completion of the PhD This milestone allows a student’s committee to make three important determinations:

• To assess whether the student’s knowledge of their chosen area and their understanding of relevant literature is adequate to complete a PhD.
• To recommend coursework, approaches/techniques and other resources that would facilitate or enhance the proposed work.
• To evaluate whether or not the proposed work, if completed, would constitute an acceptable basis for a doctoral dissertation.

Selection of a PhD committee is an important component of the dissertation proposal process, insofar as the committee is responsible for helping the candidate navigate their path to the PhD. The PhD committee approves a candidate’s plan of study, including coursework, teaching, dissertation proposal and the final dissertation. SIE faculty place high value on interdisciplinarity and crosscutting collaborative research. Accordingly, we are firmly committed to letting each student work with their research adviser to select a committee that best supports their scholarly and professional development. PhD candidates must adhere to both the committee composition rules set by SEAS as well as by the department. The requirements are outlined below: 

• SEAS Requirements: The final dissertation committee must include a minimum of three Engineering School faculty with a minimum of four UVA faculty and a minimum of five total members; one of the UVA members (the external member) must be from outside SIE. At least three of the dissertation committee members must have non-zero appointments in SIE.
• SIE Courtesy faculty member policy: Courtesy faculty members appointed by SIE may serve as the primary adviser of a PhD student. Courtesy faculty members that are not the primary adviser can count towards either an internal or external member.
• SIE Committee composition rules: Final committee composition should consist of no fewer two SIE faculty members with greater than 50% appointment. The committee chair should also have a primary appointment in SIE.

Finally, it is strongly recommended that the dissertation proposal committee consist of all five faculty members that would be on the final defense; however, it is acceptable for a dissertation proposal committee to have four instead of five members, in which case the fifth person is added before the final defense. 

The dissertation proposal consists of both a written document and an oral presentation. The written document should discuss the proposed work, contributions, preliminary results to date, and research timeline in a concise manner. Proposal documents should not exceed 15 single- spaced pages (or 30 double-spaced pages). The bibliography and any appendices (appendices are not required to be read by the student’s committee) are not included in this page limit. Significant departures from these guidelines must be approved in advance by the student’s proposal committee. The written proposal document must be submitted to the committee at least two weeks in advance of the proposal presentation.

All members of the committee evaluate the proposal and generate a preliminary assessment of the candidate’s achievement of the following research skills: a) identifying relevant problems of interest, b) interpreting existing literature, c) generating hypotheses, d) collecting data (via experiment, observation, modeling and/or simulation), e) interpreting results and drawing conclusions, f) communicating results (in oral and written formats), g) answering questions and defending their work, and h) commenting/critiquing on the work of others. 

The oral defense of a dissertation proposal is advertised within SIE and Engineering School. All interested parties are welcome to attend. The candidate gives a brief overview (20 to 30 minutes) of their proposed dissertation research, then takes questions from the audience and their committee. The committee then deliberates and decides whether the candidate has passed. The committee also reviews the student’s transcript and plan of study to recommend additional coursework or other relevant training if necessary. In this way, the emphasis of the dissertation proposal will be on supporting student growth, rather than just deciding who passes/fails. Candidates who fail the exam must take it again within six months. The chair of the candidate’s committee takes the lead in identifying an appropriate format and timeline for the second-chance defense. Students who do not pass on their second attempt are dismissed from the PhD program. 

It is the candidate’s responsibility to email the SIE student services coordinator their announcement information which consists of the committee members list with the chair and advisor identified, the meeting date, time, and location information, and the dissertation proposal title and abstract at least two weeks before the proposal. The SIE student services coordinator will provide the chairperson with the relevant forms ( Dissertation Proposal and Admission to Candidacy and Dissertation Proposal Assessment ) for the proposal defense. It is the candidate’s responsibility to bring their transcripts and plan of study. Each committee member is responsible for completing a research skills assessment and submitting it to the committee chair. The chair collates the feedback, submits an aggregated assessment form to the SIE student services coordinator (who sends it to the Engineering School registrar) and circulates the feedback to the candidate and their advisor within two weeks of the proposal. 

Finally, reiterating from Section 4.4 and Table 4-2, SIE students typically complete their proposal milestone at the end of Year 2, or the end of Year 3 if they enter the PhD without an MS. A revised Recommendation and Certification of Doctoral Advisory Committee form should be submitted to the SIE student services coordinator no later than two weeks before the scheduled proposal if the student has revised their committee since their qualifying exam and/or have added the fourth committee member. Proposal defenses are typically scheduled from March through June. 

Final Defense

The final dissertation defense is the culminating step of the PhD process. The main objective of this milestone is to confirm that the completed research constitutes a meaningful contribution to the body of knowledge in the student’s field of study. A secondary objective is to ensure that the written quality of the final document is adequate to highlight the value of the work and make it accessible for an educated audience. Often, there are intermediate meetings with the committee between the proposal and the defense to Students are eligible to defend their dissertation once they have completed all other requirements, including the publication requirement. The final defense committee must have five members (see Section 4.4.3). There is no required format for the dissertation. Rather, the candidate should work with their committee to prepare a satisfactory document. The candidate should circulate the final dissertation to their committee no later than two weeks before the oral defense date. Final defenses are advertised within the SIE and Engineering School. All interested parties are welcome to attend. The candidate gives a brief overview (30 to 35 minutes) of their dissertation research. The candidate then takes questions from the audience and their committee. The committee deliberates and decides about whether the candidate has passed. 

It is the candidate’s responsibility to email the SIE student services coordinators their announcement information which consists of the committee members list with the chair and advisor identified, the meeting date, time, and location information, and the dissertation defense title and abstract at least two weeks before the final defense. The SIE student services coordinators will provide the chairperson with the relevant forms( Report on Final Examination and Thesis and Dissertation Assessment ) for the final defense. The chairperson will return the completed forms back to them after the final defense. 

PhD candidates must apply for graduation in SIS at the beginning of the semester in which they’re expected to graduate. In addition, after successful completion of the final defense, the candidate must submit the dissertation via Libra  (see Graduation Procedure ) and complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates .

Administrative Forms

It is important that graduate students submit administrative forms related to degree requirements in a timely manner to the SIE student services coordinators. These forms can be found on the Engineering School’s webpage for current engineering graduate students.

The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only.  The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements. These publications may be found here .

Systems engineering, PhD

The systems engineering doctoral degree program advances students’ understanding of complex engineering systems. Students will learn how to manage systems that encompass technological, social, cultural and environmental components that impact the input, output and interactions within a system.

Program description

Systems engineering is the art and science of creating systems that meet requirements, often while managing opposing constraints. Systems engineering is a holistic, integrative field. Combined knowledge of several engineering disciplines lead to design and production of balanced, optimized systems.

Modern industrial systems must encompass the technological, environmental, social and cultural components that impact the input, output and interactions within a system. 

The systems engineering PhD program will prepare you to identify, model, analyze, interpret, optimize and manage the multidimensional interactions of modern technological challenges. 

Students will be required to complete a core of five courses, providing the foundation for

• systems thinking,
• systems identification,
• systems modeling,
• systems design and analysis, and
• perspective taking.

This program is designed for students who have completed a bachelor’s degree in engineering or a closely related field, and that have demonstrated excellent mathematical aptitude.

Career outlook

Graduates of the systems engineering doctoral program will possess the expertise to advance systems integration of key industry and government sectors. They will also be ready to contribute to the body of knowledge on interdisciplinary methods, techniques and strategies for designing and managing complex systems. 

Admission requirements

Applicants who meet the following requirements are eligible to apply.

• a minimum of a BS in engineering or a closely related discipline from a regionally accredited college or university in the United States or from appropriately credentialed institutions in other countries
• a minimum of 3.00 cumulative GPA (scale is 4.00 = A) in the applicable bachelor’s degree

Application process

The admission process begins by applying for graduate admission . The application requires that following items must be submitted:

• Two (2) Letters of Recommendation
• Statement of Purpose: Submit online a 300- to 500-word statement of purpose describing your motivation and rationale for obtaining a PhD in the Systems Engineering program at Arizona State University and how it relates to your long-term career goals.
• Official transcripts from each college or university attended.
• International applicants must also meet the  English proficiency requirements , as defined by Graduate Admissions. Please be sure to review the  TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE score requirements , as your application will not be processed without valid proof of English proficiency.

Graduate faculty and funding opportunities

More information.

ASU degree page

Schedule an advising appointment

Degree requirements

A minimum of 84 semester credit hours are required for the PhD degree, distributed as follows:

• A maximum of 30 credit hours of coursework from a previous master’s degree in engineering or a related field may be applied to the PhD.
• Three core courses, totaling 9 credit hours.
• One foundation course, totaling 3 credit hours.
• Additional coursework that is directly in support of the research area. This must total, at a minimum, 15 credit hours.
• 12 credit hours of EGR 792, Research.
• 12 credit hours of EGR 799, Dissertation

Application deadlines

August 15  Spring semester (January) January 15  Fall semester (August)

These are priority deadlines. Applications submitted after this deadline may still be considered.

Core courses

All students enrolled in the PhD in Systems Engineering must complete the following core courses* as early as is reasonable in their program. Students must also complete one course from their foundation area. Additional curriculum details are available in the PhD Systems Engineering program handbook .

• EGR 602: Principles of Independent Research
• EGR 608: Advanced Simulation
• EGR 611: Complex Engineering Systems

If a student needs additional preparation before taking one or more of the core courses the required deficiency courses may not be used as part of the Plan of Study, although the grades received in these courses will be used in computing the overall GPA. Additionally, PhD programs of study are dependent on both the background and the chosen specialization of individual students, and preparation beyond the minimum core requirements is occasionally necessary.

[email protected]

Graduate Program Chair:  Thomas Sugar

Graduate student resources

Academic calendar

Academic standards

Graduate College Policies

Resources and Forms

Process Systems Engineering

Processes and systems that surround us today are often characterized by complex interactions between components, subsystems, and subprocesses and their analysis and design transcend the traditional disciplinary boundaries. As a result, some of the world's most pressing grand technical challenges can be categorized as process/systems engineering problems. The process systems engineering (PSE) branch of chemical engineering is an interdisciplinary field that addresses the broad area of process design, operation, and optimization. At UC Davis, the Department of Chemical Engineering is proud to have a comprehensive program within PSE with faculty covering the full spectrum including process design, system modeling and simulation, dynamics and control, process analytics, optimization, and economics. Current research interests include control of large-scale, networked, nonlinear, and/or distributed parameter systems, optimization and optimal control, process monitoring, fault-detection and diagnosis, and fault-tolerant control, and process design and techno-economic modeling. The solutions and methods developed have many practical applications. The core applications include petrochemical process industries, energy systems, food/agriculture, and biomanufacturing.

Process Systems Engineering Faculty

Nael El-Farra

• Assistant Professor

Karen McDonald

Ahmet Palazoglu

• Systems Ph.D.
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Systems Ph.D. Admission

The application process is entirely online. Begin by going to the application page of the Graduate School website and creating an account. The online application is secure and can be immediately viewed by the Systems admissions committee upon submission. You can learn more about the application process and review additional guidelines on the Graduate School web site.

Admission Deadlines

Admission requirements, academic statement of purpose.

• Your Academic Statement of Purpose should state your reasons for undertaking graduate work, as well as an explanation of your academic interests, including their relation to your undergraduate study and professional goals. Visit the  Graduate School’s Academic Statement of Purpose Page  for detailed instructions.

Research Degree Programs

• Please use the Academic Statement of Purpose to describe (within 1,000 words) the substantive research questions you are interested in pursuing during your graduate studies, and explain how our program would help you achieve your intellectual goals. Additionally, detail your academic background, intellectual interests and any training or research experience you have received that you believe has prepared you for our program. Within your statement, please also identify specific faculty members whose research interests align with your own interests.

Academic Degree Programs

• Please use the Academic Statement of Purpose to describe, within 1,000 words: (1) your academic interests, (2) your academic background, preparation and training, including any relevant professional experiences, (3) your reasons for pursuing graduate studies in this specific program, and (4) your professional goals.

Unofficial transcripts from each college or university previously attended.

• Please note that there are only up to three fields for listing schools attended. If you attended more than three colleges or universities, you must upload those transcripts in the writing sample portion of the application.
• If you have appropriate supplemental documents such as an undergraduate research paper, resume, awards, etc., upload them in the writing sample portion of the application.

Three letters of recommendation

• Additional ones are allowed.
• Recommenders may submit their letters online. Once an application is submitted, recommenders receive an automated email soliciting their letter (you will be prompted to provide their contact information before you submit your application).
• Recommenders may also submit hard copies to the Systems office.

Official GRE general test scores

• The GRE requirement is waived for AY 2023-24.
• Please make sure to indicate the University code (2098) when submitting your scores. We cannot finalize admission offers to any applicant unless we have received your official scores.

Official TOEFL scores

• TOEFL is required from international applicants, unless they have previously studied for at least four years in an English-speaking country.
• Writing – 25 
• Listening – 25
• Reading – 25 
• Speaking – 22
• For further information on this requirement as well as exemptions, please visit the Graduate School website . 

Application fee of $105

• Cornell University expects all applicants to complete their application materials without the use of paid agents, credentials services, or other paid professional assistance. The use of such services violates University policy, and may lead to the rejection of application materials, the revocation of an admissions offer, cancellation of admission, or involuntary withdrawal from the University.
• In cases of extreme financial need, please contact the Graduate Field Assistant and request for a fee waiver.

The Admissions Process

All applications are due January 15 for the upcoming fall semester. Systems does not admit students for the spring semesters. The admissions committee begins reviewing applications at the beginning of January and continues throughout February. Decisions about admissions (and any financial aid) are communicated to applicants until the end of March. All applicants are notified of their decision by email. Applicants offered admission will receive an admissions letter and a deadline as to when they need to inform Systems about their enrollment decisions (usually April 15). After a student responds that they will enroll at Cornell University, they are sent an I-20 form if applicable.

Any questions, material, or correspondence may to be sent to our office at [email protected] , or at:

Systems Ph.D. Program 602 Frank H.T. Rhodes Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14583 USA

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Systems Engineering, Ph.D.

Online Ph.D. in Systems Engineering

A multi-disciplinary approach to solving complex problems.

As technological advancements and the rate of innovation continue to accelerate, a systems approach is required to address today's multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary challenges.

A complex system consists of diverse and individual factors, or components, that are interdependent and add up to more than the sum of its parts. That complexity drives the need for systems engineering as a formal discipline, providing both a framework and a rigorous theoretical underpinning for the design and management of challenges across industries. To solve problems within complex systems, engineers must utilize tools from a variety of fields including control systems, operations research, reliability and performance engineering, risk analysis, software engineering, and networking and security.

The development of systematic design and management processes, while integrating appropriate tools and requirements from all of the above disciplines, is at the heart of systems engineering. The online Ph.D. in systems engineering prepares students to work with multi-disciplinary teams and methods to solve complex problems in any industry.

A Ph.D. program for professionals

The online Ph.D. in systems engineering is a competitive program for working professionals, offering a flexible study format and applicable material. Students are encouraged to problem-solve current issues faced by their employers as part of their studies.

Designed for senior management and top-level executives, CSU's highly selective online systems engineering Ph.D. program only accepts a handful of students each semester to maintain the integrity and quality of the student experience.

Faculty expertise and applied research

Be a part of a community of engineers exploring the frontier of modern research, pushing the boundaries in the field of systems engineering. The online Ph.D. prepares students to become future leaders in systems engineering. As Ph.D.-level scientists in both academia and industry, you will contribute original research to the field throughout your coursework, driving advancements and leading to improvements in your area of focus for your company and the discipline as a whole.

Study with faculty who bring decades of experience in applying academic research to real-world situations, who are conducting groundbreaking research of their own that will help write the textbooks of tomorrow.

Learn from faculty with expertise in:

• Aerospace and Defense (A&D), including research, system and technology development, and operations;
• Systems architecture and engineering with emphasis on information- and software-intensive systems and enterprises;
• Technical management, production, manufacturing, lean engineering, life cycle management, test and analysis, transitioning technology into manufacturing; and
• Design and analysis of aerospace, energy, and automotive systems, design optimization, and environmental assessment.

Visit the Systems Engineering website to learn more about the faculty associated with the systems engineering Ph.D. program, and their research specializations.

What you will learn in the online Ph.D. in systems engineering program

In consultation with your advisory committee, you'll individually structure the systems engineering graduate program to fit your academic and research goals. Your Ph.D. experience culminates in a dissertation* which serves to heighten research and knowledge in your area of interest, and demonstrates a solid foundation of systems engineering theory and practice, as well as a multi-disciplinary understanding of systems concepts.

Topics of study include:

• Information technology and project management
• Systems engineering processes
• Engineering risk analysis
• Systems engineering architecture
• Simulation modeling and experimentation
• Dynamics of complex engineering systems

Review the Ph.D. curriculum .

The online Ph.D. in systems engineering offers the advantage of synchronous or asynchronous delivery, allowing you the flexibility to study when and where it works best for your situation, with options to:

• Watch and interact online while the lecture is happening live on campus.
• Watch a recorded version online after work or on the weekend.

*Dissertation does not require a campus visit.

Industries with opportunities for systems engineers

The online systems engineering Ph.D. prepares students for a wide-variety of careers in many industries, including, but not limited to:

• Research and development
• Systems engineering and optimization
• Government/Military
• Clean energy
• Environment

The volume of applicants far exceeds the number of students that can be accepted into this program. The highly selective nature of the program maintains the integrity and quality of the student experience.

Requirements

• A minimum of 72 credits must be completed. Students with an applicable master’s degree may have up to 30 credits apply, such that they take 42 credits at CSU for the Ph.D.
• The Ph.D. requires students to complete a qualifying process (B grade or higher earned in all coursework toward the degree), an oral preliminary examination, and an oral final examination in addition to the finished dissertation document. All Ph.D. students are considered provisional until they complete the qualifying process and preliminary exam.
• Course substitutions, if permitted, must be approved by your department and faculty advisor.

Once admitted, please stay in touch with your department and faculty advisors and reference Department Resources and the SE Handbook to ensure you are meeting all program requirements.

Advising and Faculty Mentor Expectations

All Ph.D. applicants are expected to create a formal advising arrangement with a faculty advisor before joining the Ph.D. program to assist with advising, course selection, and research. Doctoral students must complete an annual evaluation with their research advisor every year to continue degree progress. To explore options for a faculty advisor, visit the faculty list .

The Ph.D. program requires a minimum of 18 credits of SE coursework, selected to be relevant to your research project, and a minimum of 24 credits of SYSE 799A dissertation, taken over the duration of your program. Faculty advisor permission is required before your first semester of SYSE 799A registration.

Course delivery options allow you to study when and where it works best for you, whether that is streaming the lecture from your computer while it's happening live on campus or watching a recorded version at a time more convenient for you.

Please check with the SE department for a complete list of course options. When registration for a term is open, use our Credit Courses Page to search and register for online courses.

Jim Scheibmeir

“I was looking for a credible university with flexibility to study for my Ph.D. remotely. CSU Online provided both. I learned to make data driven decisions and remove my own bias in my thinking. I gained confidence, skills, enjoyment, and growth.”

“I deal with systems engineering daily at my job - building systems from conception to operation. I had tunnel vision to solving engineering problems. This program taught me creative ways to solve problems. I learned about fields that I had little experience in such as digital twinning. My performance and motivation have improved because of this program.”

Application Deadlines

The highly selective nature of this program is intentional and designed to maintain the integrity and quality of the student experience. Before applying to the degree program, it is strongly recommended that you contact us well in advance of the application deadline to understand and fulfill all requirements.

Full consideration is given to applicants who meet the given deadline. Applications received after the deadline will be reviewed as space within the program allows.

Start your application online and upload materials directly into the online system. You can save your progress and return any time.

1 Review Admission Requirements

Download the complete Systems Engineering Application Information Packet prior to starting the application process. This packet provides detailed information regarding CSU's Systems Engineering graduate programs, minimum application qualifications, criteria for admission, and more.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

• B.S. degree from a regionally accredited institution in engineering, mathematics, or a science discipline with a GPA of 3.0 or greater
• Basic Statistics

Note that meeting the minimum department standards does not ensure admission to the program. Admission to Colorado State University graduate programs is based on a number of factors, including prior academic and professional experience and the personal statement.

Start your application online and upload materials directly into the online system. You can save your progress and return any time. We recommend starting the application process at least 1 month before the deadline to ensure you submit all required materials on time.

2 Secure a Faculty Advisor

A faculty advisor must be secured before you begin your application. Please download and reference the Systems Engineering Application Information Packet for details.

3 Prepare Application Materials

Prepare the materials below and upload when you apply online.

• Three letters of recommendation Three professional recommendations are required. We recommend letters come from faculty, supervisors, etc. who can accurately speak to your skills. You will provide information about your recommenders in the online application. CSU will contact them with instructions and a link to a secure form they will submit on your behalf.
• Resume Outline your professional employment, collegiate work, and any publications, exhibitions, service activities, prizes, and awards.
• Statement of purpose (2 pages MAXIMUM) This is meant to address the Systems Engineering Admissions Committee and why you would be a good fit for the program. This is different from the Research Interest Summary you will compile, but some of the same information may be used. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
• Your relevant professional/academic background and skills
• Why you are interested in Systems Engineering — provide specific areas of interest and application
• Why you are interested in CSU's program and what you can contribute to CSU

4 Complete Online Application

Complete the online graduate application and pay the nonrefundable application processing fee (payable online). As soon as you have completed the required information, please submit your application. Your application will not be reviewed until it is complete and all required materials have been received.

• Select "Systems Engineering (Ph.D.) – Distance" when choosing the program of study

5 Request Transcripts

Request one official transcript of all collegiate work completed from all institutions attended. Transcripts from Colorado State University are not required. Transcripts must be received directly from the originating institution to be considered official.

Electronic (preferred): Digital Transcripts must be submitted by the originating institution using a secure service such as parchment, eScrip-Safe, the National Student Clearinghouse, or e-Quals. Transcripts received via emails are considered unofficial. Use institution code 4075 for Colorado State University or [email protected] if the secure service requires an email address.

Mail (if necessary) Graduate Admissions Colorado State University – Office of Admissions 1062 Campus Delivery Fort Collins, CO 80523-1062

Find answers to frequently asked questions .

Check Your Application Status

View your application status at any time to ensure your application checklist is complete or to check on updates.

Once your complete application, including supporting materials, is received, the department admission committee will review your application and notify you of their decision.

For International Applicants

Proof of English language proficiency is required for applicants from countries or United States territories where there are official languages other than (or in addition to) English. This includes the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico.

Learn more about English language proficiency requirements .

We love learning about your goals and answering any questions you have.

Program Details

• 3.0 GPA on all undergraduate coursework

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Doctoral Program in Industrial & Systems Engineering

PhD Application Deadline DECEMBER 15 View Application Steps

How to Apply

Funding & resources, usc graduate application, dissertation topics, phd alumni snapshot, research topics database.

Nathan Decker

Anthony Nguyen

Christopher Henson

Industrial & systems engineering doctoral students citizenship, industrial & systems engineering doctoral students age, tour one of our research labs, recent department videos.

Published on June 8th, 2021

Last updated on August 18th, 2023

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Nathan Decker PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

I've received a lot of great advice over the years, (including from my faculty advisor here at USC), but my favorite advice comes from my grandfather, who passed away last year at the age of 100.  He would often remind me to cultivate a heart of gratitude by not taking for granted the small things that God blesses us with each day.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?

What's your favorite impulse purchase from the past 12 months?

During the height of the pandemic, I decided to splurge - and prioritize self-care - by getting a set of adjustable-weight dumbbells, since I couldn't go to the gym.  It took 3 months for them to arrive, but when they finally did, it upped my home-workout game immensely!  I'm also way less likely to skip a workout, since there's no excuse now.

Please describe a little about your research and what excites you about it.

My research focuses on the application of artificial intelligence to 3D printing.  I try to make printers smarter by enabling them to learn from their past mistakes and leverage diverse sources of sensor data, resulting in parts that are more accurate.  This is important for applications where the part must be functional, which are increasing in frequency as 3D printing becomes more utilized.  I love my research, since it forces me to work across a number of fields and learn a little bit about everything to solve problems.

If you could choose any other profession outside of engineering or computer science, what would it be? 

Before I realized that I have a passion for engineering, I was a Philosophy major for a year during my undergraduate studies, and really enjoyed the experience.  Had I not come to that realization, I might have tried to pursue a career as a Philosophy professor.

What are some factors that helped you decide to pursue your PhD at USC?

My love for USC began from a young age!  Sadly, from 1995 (the year I was born) to 2015, Los Angeles lacked an NFL team, meaning that if you wanted to cheer for a football team, USC and UCLA were the only game in town.  Thankfully, my dad chose correctly, and decided that our family would root for USC.  He took me to watch open football practices on campus growing up, where you could meet players and coaches, as well as a good number of games in the Coliseum.  When it came time to decide where I would go to grad school, I could say that it was USC's outstanding reputation, the fantastic resources that my department offers, the amazing Trojan family, or the great fit with my advisor and lab that sealed the deal, but deep down, I think it was the memories with my father that convinced me I couldn't be anywhere else.

If you were to recommend to an incoming student 3 places to go in California/Los Angeles, what would they be?

What is a memory you'll cherish about your time at USC?

What's one thing about you that might surprise me?

What are your plans after graduation?

In my career, I hope to continue working on challenging problems and learning from brilliant people, wherever that may be.

Hometown (city, country):

La Mirada, CA

Personal Website (if any):

www.nathanidecker.com

Faculty Advisor:

Prof. Qiang Huang

Anthony Nguyen PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

You can't optimize life. Don't be afraid to pivot and embrace opportunities that present themselves.

Completing my Eagle Scout when I was growing up. This accomplishment helped shape my mindset and gave me the courage and confidence to be ambitious with my goals.

I recently purchased my first set of golf clubs and a new pair of rock climbing shoes. I love spending my free time participating in sports activities.

My research is focused on decision making in healthcare settings. This includes clinical, operational, and policy level decisions. Most of my recent work has been on building infectious disease models for HIV and COVID-19 that incorporate human behavior to help local policymakers make more informed decisions for LA County. What excites me most about this research is the cross disciplinary and collaborative nature of the work as well as the fact that it is directly applicable to the local community.

If you could choose any other profession outside of engineering or computer science, what would it be? 

If I was not an engineer, I would likely be a physician specialized in either surgery or emergency medicine. I have always been interested in improving patient care and patient quality of life. Engineering allows me to do this at a systemic level. Being a physician enables attaining this goal at a patient level. 

My main reasons for selecting USC were: (1) I had an instant connection with my faculty advisors (2) Being located in Southern California, I knew I would enjoy the environment and lifestyle beyond time spent doing research, and (3) Knowing that USC excels in a wide range of fields, I knew I would be able to engage in interesting cross-disciplinary research. 

(1) Korea Town, Little Tokyo, and other food hubs in LA, (2) San Diego (3) San Francisco.

Department happy hours! It's always great enjoying a drink with your professors, admin, and classmates. 

I try to balance my time between research and playing sports. Even after starting my PhD, I have taken time almost every week to surf, climb, train for races, and now to play golf! A great week is a week when I can manage to do all of these activities.

I plan to go into management consulting with a focus on health related sectors. 

Yorba Linda, California.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ anthonycnguyen/ 

Co-advised by:

• Professor Sze Chuan Suen (ISE)
• Professor Shinyi Wu (Social Work)

Christopher Henson PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering

Do all things unto the Lord.

Getting honorable mention in the ASME best student presentation competition for my work on failure detection in additive manufacturing.

I purchased a Le Creuset dutch oven which has been so enjoyable to work with in the kitchen.

I work on quality improvement software for additive manufacturing. I am most excited about the commercial application of research in my field. 

If I were not an engineer I would most likely be working in finance.

The research area was unique among the schools I applied to and was by a wide margin the most exciting and the best fit. I was also excited about the research providing me with relevant expertise to an industry research setting.

Griffith Park/Observatory (at night) the view of the city is incredible. LA Live has great nightlife/food. Grand Central Market is a very neat place to go for good street food and it is in a cool part of down town. Bonus: California Science Center is right across the street from campus and has a lot of great exhibits.

Going to USC football games with friends after stressful weeks.

I love to cook and entertain for guests.

I hope to work for NASA in a research capacity.

Escondido, California.

Qiang Huang

The Process Systems Engineering (PSE) Group

Technical systems of ever-increasing complexity are changing our environment to a dramatic extent. Research on these systems is ultimately triggered by the key question: How can Earth’s resources be utilized in a sustainable manner?

In recent decades, we have seen continuous progress in increasing the productivity and selectivity of (bio-)chemical and energy conversion processes. Nevertheless, in order to cope with the grand challenges of the future, new breakthroughs in Process Systems Engineering are necessary in order to achieve drastic performance improvements in existing processes, to invent dream process technologies for synthesizing chemicals and transforming energy to the highest level of efficiency, to strongly accelerate the transition from fossil to renewable raw materials, to make process operation much more flexible, to organize a comprehensive circular economy for as many material streams as possible, and - at the same time - to achieve even higher product quality and functionality objectives.

For this purpose, scientifically-founded process systems engineering methodologies that are able to deal with the inherent multi-level structure of chemical production systems need to be developed. Highly efficient process systems can be designed if engineers succeed in considering each hierarchical level involved in a process system simultaneously, i.e. from the molecular level up to the level of an interconnected system of production plants (see Fig.1). A multi-level design workflow must be fed with reliable thermodynamic and kinetic models and be validated and parameterized by use of experimental data at different levels of the process hierarchy. Harvesting experimental data is also indispensable for discriminating between rival models, for example of reaction kinetic networks, and for achieving uncertainty quantification of model predictions. Hence, only by closely combining mathematical modeling and systematically collecting experimental data can an advanced quantitative understanding of complex process systems be accomplished in order to open up new pathways for translating scientific advance¬ments into practical solutions.

Furthermore, natural living systems feature unique properties, which have so far never been observed in the world of technical systems, for example the ability of cells to self-replicate, the self-adaptivity of living cellular communities to large perturbations of environmental conditions, or the high specificity of many enzymes acting as catalysts in metabolic reaction networks. Long-term, it would be fantastic to mimic the functional principles of biological systems in order to understand how they work, and to create new “screwdrivers” for the toolboxes of systems engineering. This might become reality if systems engineering principles could be combined successfully with bottom-up synthetic biology approaches.

Figure 1: The research strategy of the PSE group combines process analysis and process design, thereby using process models which are identified and calibrated by use of experimental data harvested at different levels of the process hierarchy. The group’s research activities are organized in ten major research projects which are clustered in three main research areas: chemical production systems, energy conversion systems, and biological production systems.

The above vision forms the background to the PSE group’s long-term research strategy:

• Development of a generalized multiscale process design methodology, the Elementary Process Functions (EPF) methodology [1-4], which systematically considers all available decision variables on the different hierarchical levels of a production system. More recently, it has evolved towards the FluxMax approach [5, 6]. Moreover, we also developed novel concepts and methods for enabling the molecular selection and design of process materials (e.g. solvents, adsorbents), as well as for integrating molecular, material and process design [7-11].
• Computer-aided design of sustainable processes for the production of bulk and platform chemicals (e.g. for Cl2 [12], and aldehydes [13]), chemical conversion of renewable energy (e.g. syngas [14], CH4 [15, 16], CH3OH [6]), and innovative biotechnology (microalgae-based biorefinery [17, 18], synthetic cells [19-21]). We are focusing on processes operated with renewable feedstock (biomass, water, air, recyclates), driven by energy from renewables (sun, wind), equipped with environmentally friendly materials, featuring high flexibility, safety and economical attractiveness.
• Experimental evaluation of promising novel process concepts (derived with the theoretical and computational methods mentioned above) by use of advanced inline/online/offline analytical tools, automatized miniplants, and microfluidic devices. In the last few years, amongst others, our group has constructed and operated several complex miniplants (hydroformylation of alkenes [22], CO2 methanation [23]) and has presented a novel microfluidic chip design for producing cell-like compartments [24, 25].

Selected Publications of the PSE Group

[1]    Freund, H., & K. Sundmacher (2008). Towards a methodology for the systematic analysis and design of efficient chemical processes – Part 1: From unit operations to elementary process functions. Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification 47, 2051-2060.

[2]    Freund, H., & K. Sundmacher (2011). Process intensification: 1. Fundamentals and molecular level, 2. Phase level, 3. Process unit level, 4. Plant level, in: Ullmann´s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim.

[3]    Peschel, A., Freund, H., & K. Sundmacher (2010). Methodology for the Design of Optimal Chemical Reactors Based on the Concept of Elementary Process Functions. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 49 (21), 10535-10548.

[4]    Kaiser, N. M., Flassig, R.J., & K. Sundmacher (2018). Reactor-network synthesis via flux profile analysis. Chemical Engineering Journal, 335, 1018-1030.

[5]    Liesche, G., Schack, D., & K. Sundmacher (2019). The FluxMax Approach for Simultaneous Process Synthesis and Heat Integration: Production of Hydrogen Cyanide. A.I.Ch.E. Journal, 65 (7), e16554.

[6]    Schack, D., Liesche, G., & K. Sundmacher (2020). The FluxMax approach: Simultaneous flux optimization and heat integration by discretization of thermodynamic state space illustrated on methanol synthesis process. Chemical Engineering Science, 215: 115382.

[7]    Song, Z., Zhang, C., Qi , Z., Zhou, T., & Sundmacher, K. (2018). Computer-aided design of ionic liquids as solvents for extractive desulfurization. A.I.Ch.E. Journal, 64 (3), 1013–1025.

[8]    Zhou, T., Song, Z., & Sundmacher, K. (2019). Big Data Creates New Opportunities for Materials Research: A Review on Methods and Applications of Machine Learning for Materials Design. Engineering, 5 (6), 1017–1026.

[9]    Zhou, T., McBride, K., Linke, S., Song, Z., & Sundmacher, K. (2020). Computer-aided solvent selection and design for efficient chemical processes. Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, 27, 35-44.

[10]    Zhang, X., Ding, X., Song, Z., Zhou, T., & Sundmacher, K. (2021). Integrated ionic liquid and rate-based absorption process design for gas separation: global optimization using hybrid models. A.I.Ch.E. Journal, 67 (10), e17340.

[11]    Zhang, X., Zhou, T., & Sundmacher, K. (2021). Integrated metal–organic framework and pressure/vacuum swing adsorption process design: Descriptor optimization. A.I.Ch.E. Journal, e17524; doi.org/10.1002/aic.17524.

[12]    Bechtel, S., Vidaković-Koch, T., & K. Sundmacher (2018). Novel process for the exergetically efficient recycling of chlorine by gas phase electrolysis of hydrogen chloride. Chemical Engineering Journal, 346, 535–548.

[13]    Rätze, K., Jokiel, M., Kaiser, N. M., & K. Sundmacher (2019). Cyclic Operation of a Semi-Batch Reactor for the Hydroformylation of Long-Chain Olefins and Integration in a Continuous Production Process. Chemical Engineering Journal, 377, 120453.

[14]    Maggi, A., Wenzel, M., & K. Sundmacher (2020). Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) Approach for the Synthesis of Efficient Power-to-Syngas Processes. Frontiers in Energy Research, 8, 161.

[15]    Zimmermann, R. T., Bremer, J., & K. Sundmacher (2020). Optimal catalyst particle design for flexible fixed-bed CO2 methanation reactors. Chemical Engineering Journal, 387, 123704.

[16]    Zimmermann, R. T., Bremer, J., & K. Sundmacher (2022). Load-flexible fixed-bed reactors by multi-period design optimization. Chemical Engineering Journal, 428, 130771.

[17]    Fachet, M., Hoeffner, K., Barton, P. I. & K. Sundmacher (2016). Dynamic flux balance modeling to increase the production of high-value compounds in green microalgae. Biotechnology for Biofuels, 9, 165.

[18]    König-Mattern, L., Linke, S., Rikho-Struckmann, L. & K. Sundmacher (2021). Computer-aided solvent screening for the fractionation of wet microalgae biomass. Green Chemistry, in press, doi.org/10.1039/D1GC03471E.

[19]    Rollié, S., Mangold, M., & K. Sundmacher (2012). Designing biological systems: systems engineering meets synthetic biology. Chemical Engineering Science, 69, 1-29.

[20]    Schwille, P., Spatz, J. P., Landfester, K., Bodenschatz, E., Herminghaus, S., Sourjik, V., Erb, T., Bastiaens, P., Lipowsky, R., Hyman, A. A., Dabrock, P., Baret, J.-C., Vidaković-Koch, T., Bieling, P., Dimova, R., Mutschler, H., Robinson, T., Tang, T.-Y. D., Wegner, S., & K. Sundmacher (2018). MaxSynBio: Avenues towards creating cells from the bottom up. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 57 (41), 13382–13392.

[21]    Ivanov, I., Lopez-Castellanos, S., Balasbas, S., Otrin, L., Marusic, N., Vidaković-Koch, T., & K. Sundmacher (2021). Bottom-Up Synthesis of Artificial Cells: Recent Highlights and Future Challenges. Annual Reviews in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 12, 287-308.

[22]    Jokiel, M., Kaiser, N. M., Kováts, P., Mansour, M., Zähringer, K., Nigam, K. D. P., & K. Sundmacher (2019). Helically coiled segmented flow tubular reactor for the hydroformylation of long-chain olefins in a thermomorphic multiphase system. Chemical Engineering Journal, 377: 120060.

[23]    Bremer, J. (2020). Advanced Operating Strategies for Non-Isothermal Fixed-Bed Reactors, Exemplified for CO2 Methanation. PhD Thesis, Magdeburg, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität.

[24]    Weiss, M., Frohnmayer, J. P., Benk, L. T., Haller, B., Janiesch, J.-W., Heitkamp, T., Börsch, M., Lira, R. B., Dimova, R., Lipowsky, R., Bodenschatz, E., Baret, J.-C., Vidaković-Koch, T., Sundmacher, K., Platzman, I., & J. P. Spatz (2018). Sequential bottom-up assembly of mechanically stabilized synthetic cells by microfluidics. Nature Materials, 17, 89–96.

[25]    Krafft, D., Lopez-Castellanos, S., Dimova, R., Ivanov, I., & K. Sundmacher (2019). Compartments for Synthetic Cells: Osmotically Assisted Separation of Oil from Double Emulsions in Microfluidic Chip. ChemBioChem: A European Journal of Chemical Biology, 20 (20), 2604–2608.

PhD in Systems Engineering Online

Traditional PhD programs are designed to support full-time, primarily on-campus students. WPI’s Online PhD in Systems Engineering program is different. We expect the majority of our students to be part-time, off-campus professionals who have full-time jobs and have been or are involved in systems engineering related work.

The implications of this expectation are that the WPI systems engineering program faculty and administrators will:

• Offer all program courses online, without a traditional on-campus residency requirement.
• Offer the required research seminars in a virtual classroom setting where all participants can readily interact with each other.
• Support student research by strongly encouraging our students to submit papers and presentations to national conferences.
• Expect regular, well-documented, research advisor(s) interactions.
• Utilize best-practice methods to enhance student engagement and encourage professional development.

While we accept applications at any time, faculty review applicants for this program only twice per year – March 1 and November 1.  Click here to apply now .

Refer a Friend

Do you have a friend, colleague, or family member who might be interested in Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s (WPI) graduate programs? Click below to tell them about our programs.

On-Demand Webinar: Systems Engineering and SE Leadership Info Session

View our on-demand webinar to be introduced to WPI's online Systems Engineering graduate programs. Get an overview of program logistics, what online learning looks like, the application process, and more!

PROGRAM OVERVIEW (a minimum of 60 credits beyond MS)

DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS Selected in consultation with the Research Advisor Focus Area 1: A minimum of 12 credit hours of thematically related graduate courses selected from the areas of Science (including Computer Science), Mathematics, and Engineering excluding Systems Engineering (which can be waived for students with an MS in Science, as defined above) Focus Area 2: A minimum of 9 credit hours of thematically related courses, as defined above and different from the first Focus Area

RESEARCH REQUIREMENTS A minimum of 30 credits registered as SYS 699. Dissertation Research

EXAM REQUIREMENTS Qualifying Exam: Successfully completed no later than 18 credits beyond the MS degree Area Examination: Successfully completed after the Qualifying Exam and no later than 42 graduate credit hours after matriculation into the PhD program Defense: A public defense after certification of the final PhD dissertation research is required. The defense can be scheduled any time after the end of the semester in which the Area Examination was completed

RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS Students must establish residency by being a full-time online graduate student for at least one continuous academic year. Full-time graduate students are required to take a minimum of 6 credits per semester.

Admissions Qualifications

Preferred program applicant.

The preferred program applicant will have an MS in systems engineering with a minimum GPA of 3.5. Applicants who have earned an engineering master's degree, but not in systems engineering, and who have demonstrated systems engineering work experience, are also strongly encouraged to apply. All applicants will be considered for admission into the PhD program based on a thorough review of their application materials.

Students who have not yet earned an MS degree will not be considered for the WPI Systems Engineering PhD program until completion of the MS program.

PhD Application Process

We are now accepting applications for the online part-time se phd program. if you are interested in a full-time se phd, please contact prof. shams bhada ..

• Non-refundable $70 application fee (waived for WPI alumni and current WPI students)
• Official transcripts in English from accredited institutions
• Three letters of recommendation (can be done through the application portal)
• Statement of purpose (to be submitted with the online application )
• A statement of relevant and related SE work experiences
• Proof of English language proficiency from all applicants for whom English is not their first language: TOEFL or IELTS

Note: GRE scores are not required; we strongly encourage applicants to submit their GRE scores though if they are still current (3 years or less)

For specific application requirements, visit  our admissions for online programs  page.

Experiential PhD: Working Full-Time While Pursuing Your PhD Degree

WPI supports individuals working full-time in industry to pursue PhD degrees either part-time or full-time on topics related to their employment. Want to learn more about this opportunity and how to obtain this industry-based PhD degree, visit the WPI Experiential PhD program page.

Other online graduate programs in Systems Engineering: 

• Online graduate certificate in Systems Engineering
• Online MS in Systems Engineering

See all the events and webinars that the Graduate Studies team are hosting and attending.

View the Calendar

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Systems Engineering

Studying systems at uc berkeley in the civil and environmental engineering department.

• About systems
• Students and alumni
• Prospective students

The focus of the Systems Program is understanding complex large-scale systems and developing tools for their design and operation. Such systems encompass built elements in the broad sense (infrastructures transportation, structures, etc.), societal systems (social networks, populations enterprises), and natural systems (land water, air, etc.). These systems are at the core of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the 21 st  Century.

The understanding of how such systems work requires knowledge about the constitutive laws that govern them, such as traffic flow, fluid mechanics, structural mechanics, and smart networks. It also requires an understanding of the theoretical paradigms that are used to model, control and optimize such systems. These include the theories of computation, control theory, optimization, behavioral economics, sensor networks, statistics, and signal processing.

In response to these challenges, the Systems Engineering program provides courses that cover both field knowledge and technical/theoretical tools. This is reflected in the curriculum. We offer masters and doctoral degree programs providing the key skills, e.g. technological, mathematical, or social scientific, as well as the knowledge for a broad range of engineering domains.  Our graduates lead the next generation of research, start-ups, industrial corporations, and public-sector organizations.

Degrees and Curricula

The program in Systems Engineering is flexible, and students can tailor their programs in consultation with a graduate advisor in any of a variety of areas of interest. Students have to get their curriculum approved by the Graduate Advisor of the Systems Program in the CEE Department. Below are a few examples of the types of areas of interest that can be pursued.

• Computational Intelligence in Natural Systems 
• Control Theory
• Energy Systems
• Intelligent Infrastructure
• Systems Reliability, Risk Assessment and Decision
• Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Mobile sensing
• Nano-seismology
• Smart Cities 
• People in Complex Systems
• Water Informatics

Upon arriving on campus a student will need to define an area of interest and in consultation with a graduate advisor design the necessary curriculum.  While the examples shown in the list above provides a number of possibilities, we strongly encourage students to build their own curriculum based on their personal goals.  

This structure and its inherent flexibility   enables our program to accommodate the needs of a fairly diverse population of students. Our students come from a wide variety of backgrounds: civil, mechanical and electrical engineering; physics, mathematics, computer sciences, architecture, economics, aerospace, and more. Our graduates have gone on to leading positions in green consulting firms, various start-ups, NASA, companies such as Apple, Facebook, IBM, and Google, and major universities such as MIT, University of Michigan, University of Illinois, Georgia Tech, Purdue, Texas A&M.

The Systems Engineering program offers several classes at the undergraduate level, which are part of the curriculum, as well as an entire graduate program, spanning the MS, MS/PhD and PhD. The Systems Engineering program offers a unique environment in which the breakthroughs of research permeate directly into the classroom environment through the different classes proposed by the curriculum .

While taking the courses required for the MS program, students will be exposed to numerous exciting research projects and be given the ability to participate to them. These projects have taken our students  to exciting deployments and experiments all over the US (New York, Sierra Mountains, Yosemite National Park among many others) and all around the world (Singapore, China, Israel, France, Sweden, India, and numerous others).

In the program, students are encouraged to take courses and get exposure to other fields, such as Electrical Engineering and Computer Science , Mechanical Engineering , Industrial Engineering and Operations Research in particular. Several of our students have started their own companies using their experience in this very rich environment, and benefiting from the Silicon Valley ecosystem. 

Systems Engineering Studying systems at UC Berkeley in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Civil and Environmental Engineering,  UC Berkeley

• Research Areas

Process Systems Engineering

Professors Christofides, Davis, and Manousiouthakis

Low cost availability of computer software and hardware, and increased computing power have led to the ever increasing computerization and automation of manufacturing operations employing chemical engineers.  This trend permeates both established (chemical, petroleum) and developing (microelectronics, biotechnology) industries and has led to the significant growth of process systems engineering. Indeed, process modeling and simulation have become so accurate, fast and inexpensive so as to reduce reliance on plant scale-up.  The scope of process design has been expanded to include evaluation of a large number of design alternatives from economic, safety and environmental viewpoints as well as hazard and reliability analysis.  Process optimization is routinely pursued in the context of both on-line and off-line applications.  Finally, process control and automation projects have become a major vehicle for increasing plant efficiency and abnormal situation management.

UCLA Chemical Engineering has positioned itself to take advantage of the aforementioned trends.  There are several factors that bode well for this choice.  The large manufacturing base of Los Angeles with its many engineering, simulation, control and environmental design firms (e.g., Fluor, Parsons, C. F. Braun, Simulation Sciences, Profimatics, Environ); California’s forward thinking on environmental issues as it pertains to the design and control of environmentally benign plants; the strong presence of microelectronics industry in California, and UCLA’s tradition and academic recognition in the systems area.

UCLA’s efforts span the gamut of Process Systems Engineering from process modeling, simulation, design, optimization and control, to data analysis and decision support, and to computational and applied mathematics.  They have five focal points:

•  Fundamental studies on the theory of Process Systems Engineering.
• Process Systems Engineering aiming at green manufacturing.
• Process Systems Engineering for the microelectronics industry.
• Intelligent decision support systems in process operations and design.
• Computational modeling and simulation of complex biological systems, advanced materials processing, and fluid flows.

In the first area, studies are pursued on nonlinear and robust process control, process monitoring and identification, model reduction, optimization and control of nonlinear distributed parameters systems, hybrid control and hybrid systems, and analysis and synthesis of constrained control systems and global optimization of nonconvex nonlinear programs.  Green manufacturing studies include the synthesis of thermodynamically feasible reaction clusters; the synthesis of molecules with environmentally benign properties; the design of energy efficient distillation networks; the development of heat and mass integration techniques and the integration of process design and control.

The microelectronics research focuses on the development of comprehensive and simplified models for the simulation, design and control of plasma reactors, rapid thermal processing systems, chemical vapor deposition reactors and crystal growth processes. In the intelligent systems area, studies are directed toward the development, application, and integration of knowledge-based and neural reasoning techniques into data analysis and decision support systems. Finally, research also focuses on computational modeling and simulation of complex biological systems, and dynamics and control of fluid flows for drag reduction in aerospace vehicles. The above research activities are supported from a variety of governmental and industrial sources. Research assistantships are available from various sources including NSF, ONR NASA, EPRI, PRF AND AFOSR. Industrial internships, from a three to six month period, from engineering companies as well as internships at US Air Force research labs are available.

In addition to books and numerous publications in high-quality journals, the research activities of the UCLA group have been recognized by numerous national and international awards, and the consistent placement of doctoral graduates in faculty positions in highly-ranked chemical engineering departments in the United States and abroad. UCLA’s group is widely regarded today as one of the leading Process Systems Engineering groups in the world.

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• Admissions & Policies
• Requirements

This doctoral program offers a unique integration of systems engineering and operations research. This integration gives students a strong analytical and computational capability combined with an overarching systems perspective that is well-grounded in application. No other department in the nation offers a PhD degree program that covers systems engineering and operations research in this integrated manner. The program prepares students for leadership positions in research and development in government, industry, and academia.

All general Mason and specific College of Engineering and Computing admissions requirements apply. Candidates for the PhD program typically must hold an MS degree from an accredited institution of higher education in systems engineering, operations research or related areas in engineering, mathematics, and computer science with a minimum graduate GPA of 3.50 and a minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.00. In addition, well-qualified candidates holding a BS degree in these areas may apply directly to the PhD program.

All applicants should have a strong background in engineering mathematics, which includes three semesters of calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, and probability. In addition, students entering the doctoral program must have a sound working knowledge in computing.

The admission process involves submitting the application for admission, undergraduate and graduate transcripts from previous colleges and universities attended, GRE test results, three letters of reference, a résumé and a statement of career goals and aspirations, and a self-assessment of past background. Translations of international credentials must be provided if they are not in English; in some cases, applicants will be required to have documents evaluated by an external agency. A satisfactory score on the TOEFL examination is required for non-native English speakers. All of an applicant's background is examined before an admission decision is made.

For policies governing all graduate programs, see  AP.6 Graduate Policies .

Program Requirements

The program includes: course requirements; a qualifying exam that tests fundamental concepts in systems engineering and operations research; a comprehensive exam that tests the research competency of the student; dissertation proposal defense; dissertation research; and dissertation pre-defense and defense. All general Mason and specific College of Engineering and Computing requirements apply to this program.

PhD dissertations are extremely time intensive, and successful completion requires full time focus. It is expected that students who have reached candidacy (that is, successfully presented their dissertation proposal) will spend full time on their research for at least one academic year and will attend the majority of the SEOR departmental seminars throughout that period.

Reduction of Credit

The doctoral program is a 72 credit hour program; however, students entering with a master's degree in a related discipline may be given a reduction of credit up to 24 hours. Reduction of credit requires the approval of the program director or designee and the dean or designee of the school. They determine whether the credits are eligible for reduction of credit and applicable to the degree program and the number of credits to be reduced.

The 72 hours of required doctoral-level credits typically consist of 48 credits of coursework and 24 credits of dissertation research. Students who receive a reduction of credit will complete a minimum of 48 credits as outlined in Degree Requirements.

All decisions concerning the student’s course requirements and plan of study must be approved by the dissertation committee chair, as well as by the department’s doctoral coordinator.

Banner Code: EC-PHD-SEOR

Degree Requirements

Total credits: 72

Doctoral Coursework

A GPA of 3.50 is required, and no grade of C is allowed in doctoral coursework. Students lacking prerequisites for their courses or lacking the coursework to complete the qualifying exams or their dissertation may need to take additional courses.

A list of approved courses is available from the SEOR department. Approved courses for the concentration in Mechanical Engineering are available from the ME department.

No more than 3 credits are allowed for a directed reading course.  All courses and course substitutions must be approved by the student's dissertation committee chair and the SEOR doctoral coordinator.

Excluding SYST 699  and OR 699 .

Students must register for the 0-credit SEOR 800  three times before being able to take SEOR 997 . Students in the Mechanical Engineering concentration may take ME 500 in place of SEOR 800 . 

Additional Coursework Requirements

Students entering without a master's degree are required to complete an additional 24 credits of Master's level courses, including the following:

Consult the SEOR Department for the list of allowable courses.

Students in the Mechanical Engineering concentration who enter without a masters are required to complete an additional 24 credits of Master's level courses, including the following:

See the "Specialized Coursework" section of the INFT, PhD program. Students should reference the Mechanical Engineering (ME) list of courses for this requirement.

Consult the SEOR Department and ME Department for the list of allowable courses.

With appropriate selection of courses, students may obtain the MS degree in systems engineering or operations research by completing 6 additional credits, including 3 approved credits from the advanced emphasis courses (which may also apply towards the PhD degree advanced emphasis requirements) and 3 credits of either SYST 699 Masters Project  or OR 699 Masters Project . Consult the SEOR Department for further detail. Credits taken in the courses SYST 699 or OR 699 may not be applied towards the PhD degree program requirements.

Qualifying Exams

The exams are primarily for testing the students' familiarity with fundamental concepts.  Each student must take the following four exams within two years of enrolling in the program:

• Systems Engineering Principles
• Systems Engineering Design
• Deterministic Models
• Stochastic Models

Students in the Mechanical Engineering concentration must take three of the four exams (systems engineering principles, systems engineering design, deterministic models, and stochastic models) plus one ME qualifying exam corresponding to a Fundamental Knowledge course.

A student who passes three of the four exams in the first attempt must retake and pass the failed exam within one year. A student who passes fewer than three exams in the first attempt must retake and pass an entire set of four exams within one year. After two unsuccessful attempts, a student is terminated from the PhD program.

Systems Engineering and Operations Research Colloquium II 

SEOR 997  must be taken after coursework is completed, after three semesters of  SEOR 800  are completed, and along with  SEOR 998 . Students should also have a dissertation advisor and a dissertation topic prior to registering. The colloquium presentation in SEOR 997 must be given at least one month prior to the proposal defense.

Dissertation Research

Doctoral supervisory committee.

Students should identify a potential dissertation director and approach them to see if they are willing to work together, and identify a doctoral supervisory committee as soon as possible. It is recommended that the committee be formed by the end of the second or third semester of study.

The dissertation director must be a member of the SEOR graduate faculty or a member of the Mason graduate faculty with approval from the SEOR department chair. The doctoral supervisory committee must include at least three members from the SEOR department-approved graduate faculty, and at least one non-SEOR member from the Mason graduate faculty. The composition of the doctoral supervisory committee is to be approved by the doctoral coordinator. At least four members of the committee must be members of the Mason graduate faculty.

For students in the Mechanical Engineering concentration, the dissertation director must be a member of the Mechanical Engineering graduate faculty. The doctoral supervisory committee (including the dissertation director) must include at least four members of the Mason graduate faculty. The committee must include at least one member from ME graduate faculty and at least one member from the SEOR graduate faculty. At least three committee members must be from either the ME graduate faculty or the SEOR graduate faculty. The composition of the doctoral supervisory committee is to be approved by the doctoral coordinator.

Comprehensive Exam

The comprehensive exam is taken after the student has satisfactorily completed all the advanced emphasis coursework requirements in the approved plan of study filed by the student. The examiners will include the supervisory committee plus any outside examiners considered appropriate. However, the supervisory committee determines whether the student passes or not. The comprehensive exam consists of a written examination of 8 hours in length and an oral examination. The committee will determine if the student has a mastery of the advanced emphasis coursework. If a student fails the comprehensive exam, the student may request a re-examination within 60 days of receiving notice of the exam result. The request should be made in writing to the doctoral coordinator. If the student fails the re-examination or does not request a re-examination within 60 days, the student may be terminated from the PhD program. In such a case, with recommendation of the supervisory committee and approval of the SEOR Chair, the student may apply his/her coursework towards a master's degree.

Dissertation Proposal

After passing the comprehensive exam, each doctoral student prepares a written dissertation proposal, which is presented to the doctoral supervisory committee. After successfully completing  SEOR 997 Systems Engineering and Operations Research Colloquium II , this requirement, and with the dissertation supervisory committee's recommendation, the student is formally admitted as a candidate for the PhD degree.

Dissertation Defense

When the central portions of the research have been completed to the point where the student is able to describe the original contributions of the dissertation effort, a candidate submits the written dissertation to the supervisory committee and schedules an oral predefense with the committee. The predefense is attended by the supervisory committee. The supervisory committee must approve the work or the student must schedule a second predefense.

Once the committee believes the student is ready, a final public oral defense may be scheduled no sooner than one month after the conclusion of the predefense, with an announcement posted for at least two weeks. The defense must be attended by the supervisory committee and the department’s doctoral coordinator, unless an exception has been approved in advance by the doctoral coordinator. Following a satisfactory evaluation of the oral defense of the dissertation by the supervisory committee, the student must prepare, with supervision from the dissertation director, a final publishable dissertation that represents a definitive contribution to knowledge in systems engineering and operations research. This document must meet format guidelines specified by the Guide for Preparing Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Projects. If the student fails to successfully defend the dissertation, the student may request a second defense, following the same procedures as for the initial defense. There is no time limit for this request, other than the general time limits for the doctoral degree. An additional predefense is not required, but the student is strongly advised to consult with the committee before scheduling a second defense. If the student fails on the second attempt to defend the dissertation, the student will be terminated from the PhD program.

Concentration in Mechanical Engineering (ME) (Optional)

This concentration is suitable for students who wish to pursue doctoral research in areas related to mechanical engineering with a foundation in systems engineering and operations research. The concentration has modified requirements for coursework, qualifying exams, and the doctoral supervisory committee, as described in the relevant sections.  

Students whose primary research interests are in systems engineering and operations research should follow the standard program requirements for the PhD/SEOR without enrolling in this concentration.

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Process Systems Engineering

Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research: Raman Paranjape , PhD

Graduate Program Coordinator: Paitoon Tontiwachwuthikul, PhD

For more information about Graduate programs, contact [email protected] .

Faculty Listing

Student Advising

Department Description

The major areas of specialization are in Chemical Process Engineering, Materials Engineering, Petroleum Process Engineering, Environmental Process Engineering, Process Modeling, Simulation & Control, Energy & Environment, Fuels & Biofuels, Process Optimization, Application of Artificial Intelligence in Process Systems Engineering.

Joint International Program

The Faculty of Engineering offers a unique program with international partners in China. In 1998, the University of Regina entered into exchange agreements with Hunan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China. The program consists of a first year (maximum of five management courses) of graduate study being undertaken at the partner institutions. The second year of courses, the project and the seminar are undertaken at the University of Regina. Students who successfully complete the program qualify for a Master of Engineering degree from the University of Regina. 

Course catalogue and current course offerings

Normally a student will enter the PhD program following the completion of a Master's program. The PhD program will consist of the following minimum requirements. 

*Up to two courses may be taken from the list of approved courses: ENGG 811, 813-819; ENIN 833, 835; ENPE 821, 861; ENEV 831, 832, 863, 864; ENEL 831; ENIN 880AA-ZZ; ENEV 886AA-ZZ; MATH 8XX; STAT 8XX; CS 8XX; CHEM 8XX; GBUS 8XX.

The program requirements for a student with a Master of Engineering degree from the University of Regina who is admitted to the PhD progam in Engineering will be:

The Master of Applied Science is a research-oriented program with a thesis requirement.

*Students may only take one selected topics, special topics, or directed reading.  Up to one course may by taken at the 300/400 level, subject to PSENG approval.

The Master of Engineering degree program with a project report attracts practicing engineers. It complements the Graduate Cooperative Education Program which seeks to integrate the academic experience with professional, on-the-job experience to facilitate professional development.

*Students may only take one selected topics, special topics or directed reading. Up to one course may be taken at the 300/400 level, subject to PSENG approval.

The Master of Engineering (Co-op) Program seeks to integrate the academic experience with professional, on-the-job experience to facilitate professional development. It consists of the following requirements:

*Approved Courses for PSENG: ENEL 831, ENEV 831, 832, 863, 864, 886CF, ENGG 811, 813, 814, 815, 816, 817, 818, 819, ENIN 835, 880BF, ENPC 869, ENPE 831 (subject to approval of PSENG).

*Additional electives may be permitted with approval of program chair. Only one course may be at the undergraduate level. 

Systems Engineering Department

Phd se (581) - systems engineering department, systems engineering phd program, (581).

The Systems Engineering Department of the Naval Postgraduate School offers study and research leading to the award of the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Systems Engineering.  The Ph.D. degree involves required coursework, comprehensive qualifying examinations, and a research-based dissertation.  The Ph.D. degree may be pursued via resident or hybrid study (distance learning plus periodic temporary residence).

Students take graduate level course in systems engineering (as needed to pass the oral and written qualifying examinations), advanced graduate courses in systems engineering and an application domain, and perform research that leads to a dissertation involving some aspect of systems engineering.

Research topics may be selected from a broad variety of studies of the systems engineering process, applications of systems engineering to solving complex problems, systems level modeling and simulation, and systems suitability assessment.

Subject to approval of the student's dissertation committee chairman, dissertation research may be conducted away from NPS at cooperating facilities.

Admission Requirements

US Military Officers

US Government Civilians (GS)

International Students**

Students must satisfy a one-year residency requirement. This may be met by completing an NPS M.S. degree plus periodic extended stays (nominally two weeks per quarter) at an NPS campus spread throughout the duration of the student's program. The M.S. degree may be completed before enrollment in the Ph.D. program.

Applicants should possess an M.S. degree in Systems Engineering. Applicants with only a B.S. degree or an M.S. degree in another discipline will be required to take a number of systems engineering courses (equivalent to the coursework portion of an MSSE degree program) to pass the qualifying examinations.

Applicants must submit a completed online application form and provide:

Certified copies of all undergraduate and graduate transcripts. Transcripts from NPS are not necessary, but transcripts from other schools may be required of current and former NPS students.

Results of a Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test taken within the past five years. The SE Department Doctoral Committee desires GRE information to support development and improvement of the doctoral program. However, applicants with graduate degrees and solid justification for not taking the exam may request (through the Admissions Office) to submit a proxy letter instead of taking the GRE. The SE Department Doctoral Committee will evaluate such letters to determine if the GRE requirement can be waived. 

A brief outline (200 words or fewer) of specific areas of interest within the proposed major field of study. This does not commit the student to those areas. 

Two letters of recommendation regarding academic potential. 

Current results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the Test of Written English, only for international applicants not currently enrolled at NPS whose native language is other than English or whose primary language of instruction was other than English. For specific test score requirements, see the NPS Catalog section pertaining to “International Students.”

Attestation by the student's sponsoring agency or nation that they are committed to tuition and salary support during the student's residence at NPS. 

**International Students:   Ensure that you read and understand the  eligibility requirements and application process .

Degree Requirements

Nominal systems engineering phd student timeline and process​​             .

Students may take more or less time to complete the program based on their individual circumstances. Students often take 5-6 years to complete the program, although some students take significantly longer and some complete the program more quickly.  Program progress is marked by successful completion of coursework, successful completion of exams, forming a dissertation committee, developing and presenting a dissertation proposal successfully, writing a dissertation manuscript that is accepted by the dissertation committee, and successfully completing a dissertation defense among other activities.  Each step along the way may take more or less time for a specific individual based on many factors.

Systems Engineering PhD Program Exam Process ​​​​​​ ​​​​​                  

Students take five written exams including two mandatory exams in probability & statistics, and in the fundamentals of systems engineering, and take three topic exams based on coursework.  Upon successful completion of the written exams and formation of a dissertation committee, students then take an oral exam.  Students are allowed to retake any specific exam only once.  Failing a specific exam twice terminates the PhD program for the student; however, there are options for students in this situation to move into a variety of other programs.  Sufficiently prepared students are generally successful in passing the exams.

For additional questions please download the SE PhD Handbook

Points of Contact: Further technical information on the SE Ph.D. program may be obtained by contacting Dr. Douglas Van Bossuyt.

UCL Centre for Systems Engineering

• About our PhD students

We are inviting applications for PhDs in Systems Engineering, Technology Management and Project Management.

• The programme typically consists of three to four years' full-time study, with some taught courses offered throughout the course (particularly in the first year).
• We expect our PhD graduates to have as their goal an academic career as a faculty member in a leading university, or to be an expert in Systems Engineering while continuing their industrial role.
• PhD applications are reviewed once a completed application form and research proposal have been submitted to the UCL Admissions Office. We are not able to accept CVs or any other document without a completed application form.
• More information about the department's current research activities can be found on the  research page .

Our PhD Students

Our research themes

Dr Michael Emes Centre for Systems Engineering 3 Taviton St. London, WC1H 0BT, UK [email protected]

Systems Engineering

Program overview .

The 100% online systems engineering (SYS) concentration offers an area of specialization for students in the Interdisciplinary Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) / Master of Science (MS) degree.  The concentration aims to develop professionals who are both well-grounded in interdisciplinary engineering as well as prepared to create and execute trans-disciplinary processes that result in engineered systems that are responsive to stakeholders' needs.   

Graduates will be able to apply state-of-the art methods in designing, analyzing, and controlling the next generation of complex systems that respond to rapidly changing environments.  Application areas include next-generation air traffic management, sustainable buildings, intelligent healthcare devices, healthcare delivery systems, flexible manufacturing integrated with design, next generation transportation systems, and next generation intelligent systems.   

Purdue University's online graduate engineering program is consistently ranked among the top three online programs by  U.S. News and World Report, 2024 .  

Students pursuing the systems concentration have the opportunity to earn a  Graduate Certificate in Systems  without taking additional courses. A separate application is required  to be considered.   

Interested in learning more?  Contact an enrollment counselor .  

Course Topical Areas: 

Degree requirements with the systems concentration.

The Interdisciplinary Engineering (MSE or MS) degree requires a total of 30 credit hours with at least 18 credits of Purdue, graduate level, engineering courses.  The Systems Engineering (SYS) concentration must be completed within these degree requirements.  

Core Systems Courses - 6 Credit Hours

• Required:  SYS 50000 Perspectives on Systems
• SYS 53000 Practical Systems Thinking 
• SYS 51000 Tools and Methodologies for Designing Systems

Systems Related Elective Courses - 6 Credit Hours

Students must take 2 system related elective courses or 6 credits. Below is a a current list of options.

• AAE 55000 Multidisciplinary Design Optimization
• AAE 56000 Systems of Systems Modeling and Analysis
• AAE 57100 Complex System Safety
• ECE 58000 Optimization Methods for Systems & Control
• IE 53000 Quality Control
• IE 53200 Reliability
• IE 53600 Stochastic Models in Operations Research
• IE 54500 Engineering Economic Analysis
• IE 54600 Economic Decisions in Engineering
• IE 57700 Human Factors in Engineering
• IE 57800 Applied Ergonomics
• IE 58000 Systems Simulation
• IE 59000/AAE 59000 Science Technology & Policy
• IE 59000/BME 59500 Complex Systems: Theory & Applications
• SYS 59000 Systems Engineering Processes and Professional  Competencies
• ME 55300 Product & Process Design
• ME 55700 Design for Manufacturability  (3 on-campus, Saturday labs required)
• ME 57100 Reliability Based Design
• ME 57500 Theory & Design of Control Systems
• SYS 53000 Practical Systems Thinking

Engineering Courses - 6 Credit Hours

Visit our  courses page.

Elective Courses - 12 Credit Hours

Any courses listed on our  courses page  will fulfill this requirement, including available non-engineering courses.

All questions regarding courses and transfer credits should be directed to a student’s academic advisor. 

Creating  Your  Plan of Study  

The MSE/MS master's program offers a wide range of flexibility in course options. After you begin your studies at Purdue, an academic advisor will help you create an Electronic Plan of Study (EPOS) to best fit your educational needs and career goals.   

The student is ultimately responsible for knowing and completing all degree requirements. This website is a knowledge source for specific requirements and completion.  

Department of Chemical Engineering

• Master's programmes in English
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Språkvelger

Process systems engineering.

Research activity

Person-portlet, johannes jäschke professor, people in process systems engineering, employees in process systems engineering, centres and projects.

We host the following centres/projects:

• SUBPRO-Zero
• Horizon Europe “iCulture”

Finalized centers/projects:

• Horizon 2020 "iFermenter"

Academic Staff

Nadav bar professor, idelfonso nogueira associate professor, heinz adolf preisig professor, sigurd skogestad professor, adjunct professors, leif krister forsman professor, ivar johan halvorsen, systems group email list.

Group members can subscribe by sending an email to: [email protected]

If you no longer want to receive emails, please send an email to: [email protected]

Process System Engineering - Incubating Sustainability for Industrial Revolution 4.0

Doubletree resort by hilton, penang, malaysia, 5 - 8 august 2024.

The PSE Asia series is a biennial international symposium in Asia bringing together researchers and practitioners to discuss recent developments in Process Systems Engineering. PSE Asia 2024 is the 11 th symposium following previous events at Kyoto (2000), Taipei (2002), Seoul (2005), Xi’an (2007), Singapore (2010), Kuala Lumpur (2013), Tokyo (2016), Bangkok (2019), Taipei (2020) and Chennai (2022).

Important dates

• International delegate
• International student
• Malaysian delegate
• Malaysian student

5% discount for 5-9 pax, and 10% for 10 and more pax from the same organisation

Registration, invited speakers, plenary speakers.

Prof Iqbal M. Mujtaba

Computational process engineering, faculty of engineering & informatics, university of bradford.

Iqbal M. Mujtaba is a Professor of Computational Process Engineering and is currently Associate Dean (Learning, Teaching & Quality) of the Faculty of Engineering & Informatics at the University of Bradford. He was Head of the School of Engineering at the University of Bradford from 2016-2018. He obtained his PhD from Imperial College London in 1989. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the IChemE, a Chartered Chemical Engineer. He was the Chair of the European Committee for Computers in Chemical Engineering Education from 2010-2013 and the Chair of the IChemE’s Computer Aided Process Engineering Special Interest Group from 2012-2019.

Professor Mujtaba is a world leader in batch distillation, wastewater treatment and desalination He has developed process models for a range of processes that have delivered impact for many companies internationally, for example in oil separation, industrial scale desalination, fluid catalytic cracking, naphtha isomerisation, crude oil hydrotreating, along with chlorination reactor and process for titanium dioxide production which radically improved production and reduced CO2 emissions. He leads research into dynamic modelling, simulation, optimisation and control of batch and continuous chemical processes with specific interests in distillation, industrial reactors, refinery processes, desalination, wastewater treatment and crude oil hydrotreating focusing on food, energy and water. He has managed several research collaborations and consultancy projects with industry and academic institutions in the UK, Italy, Hungary, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Qatar, South Africa, Iraq, Algeria, China, Libya, Jordan, Bangladesh, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. He has published over 400 technical papers and has delivered more than 80 invited lectures/seminars/plenaries/keynotes/short courses around the world. He has supervised 41 PhD students to completion and is currently supervising 9 PhD students. He is the author/co-author of (1) ‘Batch Distillation: Design & Operation’ (textbook) published by the Imperial College Press, London, 2004 (2) ‘Wastewater treatment by Reverse Osmosis’ published by CRC Press, 2020 (3) ‘Desalination technologies: Design & Operation’, Elsevier, 2022. He is one of the co-editors of the books (1) ‘Application of Neural Networks and Other Learning Technologies in Process Engineering’, Imperial College Press, London, 2001 (2) ‘Composite Materials Technology: Neural Network Applications’ CRC Press, 2009, (3) ‘The Water-Food-Energy Nexus’, CRC Press, 2017, (4) ‘Water Management: Social & Technological Perspective’, CRC Press, 2018.

Prof Fengqi You

Roxanne e. and michael j. zak professor, cornell university.

Fengqi You is the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor in Energy Systems Engineering at Cornell University. He also serves as the Chair of Ph.D. Studies in Systems Engineering, Co-Director of the Cornell University AI for Science Institute (CUAISci), Co-Lead of the Schmidt AI in Science Program at Cornell, and Co-Director of the Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture (CIDA). He has an h-index of 81 and authored over 250 refereed articles in journals such as Science , Nature Sustainability , Nature Communications , Science Advances , and PNAS . He is an award-winning scholar and teacher, earning over 20 major national and international awards over the past six years. He is an elected Fellow of the AAAS, AIChE, and RSC.

Prof Thokozani Majozi

Faculty of engineering and the built environment, wits university, south africa.

Thokozani Majozi is the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment and a professor in the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at Wits University, South Africa. Majozi was a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in the United Kingdom where he completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering (Process Integration). He serves in the editorial boards of various chemical engineering journals, including Process Safety and Environmental Protection Journal and Digital Chemical Engineering Journal. A member of various scientific academies, including African Academy of Sciences and Academy of Sciences of South Africa. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and a Chartered Engineer, UK. He has received numerous awards for his research including the British Association Medal (Silver), the South African Institution of Chemical Engineers Bill Neal-May Gold Medal and the National Order of Mapungubwe bestowed on him by President of South Africa. Majozi is author and co-author of more than 300 scientific publications, including 4 books in Chemical Process Integration.

Keynote Speakers

Prof Lei Zhang

School of chemical engineering, dalian university of technology, china.

Lei Zhang is a Professor of School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology since 2024. He was an Associate Professor during 2017-2023 at Dalian University of Technology. He was a Postdoctoral research fellow at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Technical University of Denmark (2014-2017), and a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University (2013–2014). He received BS and PhD degrees from Tsinghua University in China (2009-2014). His current research interests include development of methods and tools for chemical product and process design integrated with information and computing technologies, AI models, computational chemistry and molecular simulation. He received the 2017 best paper award from the Computers and Chemical Engineering journal and the 2019 PSE Young Researcher Award by PSE — Systems Engineering Society of China.

Dr Arnab Dutta

Department of chemical engineering, birla institute of technology & science (bits) pilani, hyderabad campus.

Dr. Arnab Dutta is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani-Hyderabad Campus. He obtained his B.E. (Chemical) from Jadavpur University, M. Tech. (Chemical) from IIT Bombay, and PhD (Chemical) from National University of Singapore (NUS). Prior to joining BITS Pilani-Hyderabad, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at NUS. His major areas of research interests include process simulation, optimization, technoeconomic assessment, machine learning, sustainable energy systems, materials informatics, computer-aided molecule design, and cheminformatics. Till date, Dr. Dutta has published 27 technical papers in various internationally reputed journals like Molecular Systems Design & Engineering, Journal of Polymer Science, Computers and Chemical Engineering, Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, Digital Chemical Engineering, Amino Acids, Journal of CO2 Utilization, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, among others. His current research is funded by the Department of Science & Technology, India as well as BITS Pilani. Dr. Dutta is also serving as the editorial board member of the International Journal of Energy Research and Process & Energy Systems Engineering (Section of Frontiers in Energy Research) journals.

Assoc Prof Ir Dr Viknesh Andiappan

Swinburne university of technology sarawak campus.

Dr. Viknesh Andiappan is an Associate Professor at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus. He is the author and lead editor a book titled Optimization for Energy Systems and Supply Chains: Fundamentals and Applications, published in 2022 by CRC Press. His area of specialisation centres on developing process systems engineering tools to design and optimise net-zero energy systems and supply chains. His research interests also include process synthesis and analysis of energy systems via Process Integration techniques, integrated biorefineries, process simulation, industrial symbiosis planning, energy economics, and energy planning for greenhouse gas emission reduction. His work also aims to create software, techniques and algorithms to solve large-scale problems relevant to decarbonisation of the energy sector. Dr. Andiappan is well-published and well-cited for a young researcher (over 95 publications with an h-index of 19) and presented several papers at various conferences. He has also won several accolades for his research. In 2020, he was awarded the IBAE Young Researcher of the Year Award for his research contributions. After this, he was awarded the Processes Journal 2022 Young Investigator Award and he entered the world’s Top 2% of Scientists for a single year. Most recently, in 2023, he was awarded the National Outstanding Young Researcher award by EduCoop. On top of this, he was inducted into the I&EC Research Journal’s 2023 Class of Influential Researchers – Asia and Pacific.

He is an editorial board member for Process Integration & Optimization for Sustainability (Springer Nature) and International Journal of Energy Research (Wiley). Aside from research, he also volunteers with IChemE as a trained Chartered Engineer assessor and currently serves as the Chair of the IChemE Palm Oil Processing Special Interest Group.

Prof Hiromasa Kaneko

Department of applied chemistry, school of science and technology, meiji university, japan.

I got my PhD in Chemical System Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan in September 2011, including a significant research at Imperial College London, UK, from January to March 2010. In October 2011, I commenced my professional career as an assistant professor in chemical system engineering at the University of Tokyo. In April 2017, I transitioned to Meiji University, Japan, serving as an associate assistant professor in the department of applied chemistry until March 2020. My role extends beyond academia with several concurrent appointments. Since December 2018, I have been a Guest Principal Researcher at RIKEN. I also hold positions as a Visiting Associate Professor at Osaka University and Hiroshima University since April 2019. In the corporate sector, I have been the President of Future Science Research Institute LLC since November 2020 and the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at Data Chemical Co., Ltd., since October 2021. My contributions to the field are acknowledged by numerous awards, including the Chemical Engineering Society Research Encouragement Award in 2015 and the Symposium Award at the International Congress on Pure & Applied Chemistry in 2023. Additionally, I have engaged in editorial and advisory roles, serving as an editor for the Journal of Chemical Engineering of Japan and as a committee member in various NEDO research projects.

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore

Zhe Wu is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS). He received his B.S. in Control Science and Engineering from Zhejiang University, China, in 2016 and received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA, in 2020. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Los Angeles before he joined NUS. His research interests are in the general area of process systems engineering with a focus on process dynamics, optimization and control as well as on data science and machine learning and their application to chemical engineering. He has written more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, and received over $SGD 2 million in external research funding from the ASTAR, NRF, MOE and chemical and pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Wu is on the editorial board of Digital Chemical Engineering journal, and is an associate editor for American Control Conference.

Assoc Prof Dr Jia-Lin Kang

Department of chemical and materials engineering at national yunlin university.

Jia-Lin Kang was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1986. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan, in 2008 and 2010, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in chemical and engineering from National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 2016. From 2016 to 2017, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at NTHU. From 2017 to 2018, he was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at Tamkang University, New Taipei City, Taiwan. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Douliu City, Taiwan. His current research interests include process design and control, data analytics, process fault diagnosis, soft-sensor and AI-MPC techniques, computational fluid dynamics, first principle modeling, etc.

Dr Boram Gu

School of chemical engineering, chonnam national university.

Dr Boram Gu has been an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at Chonnam National University since 2020. She received her BSc and MSc degrees in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Korea University in the Republic of Korea in 2009 and 2011, respectively. She then eared her PhD in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London in the United Kingdom in early 2017. She was awarded a fully funded PhD scholarship from an industrial-funded research centre, BP International Centre for Advanced Materials (BP-ICAM). After completing her PhD, she worked as a Research Associate at Imperial College London until 2019, and then as a postdoctoral researcher at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) until 2020. During these positions, she broadened her expertise by applying her theoretical and computational knowledge to the areas of biomedical engineering, in addition to deepening her understanding of chemical and environmental engineering. Her research interests lie in the broad areas of chemical, environmental and biological systems. She focuses on numerical modelling of bio/chemical reactions and transport phenomena, as well as on model-based optimisation.

Assoc Prof Dr Frederick Tapia

Department of chemical engineering, gokongwei college of engineering, de la salle university, manila, philippines.

John Frederick D. Tapia is an Associate Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department of De La Salle University- Manila, Philippines. As an early-career researcher, his research interests include process systems engineering (PSE) of low-carbon energy systems, mathematical modelling of biomass value chains, specifically oil palm value chain and geographical information system (GIS)-based analysis of suitable lands for oil palm. His expertise is on applications of neutrosophic sets in process systems engineering and decision analysis, specifically on data envelopment analysis and mathematical programming for process synthesis. He was awarded by the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) of the Philippines as one of the Outstanding Young Scientist in 2022 in the field of chemical engineering. He is an editor of two journal in the field of neutrosophic sets: Neutrosophic Sets and Systems, and Neutrosophic Systems with Applications.

Industrial Speakers

Dr Eduardo Luna-Ortiz

Global operations director and technical director - pace ccs ltd..

Dr. Shahrul Azman Zainal Abidin

Director of product management - honeywell industrial innovation, usa.

Dr Zulfan Adi Putra

Exxonmobil business support centre malaysia sdn bhd.

Ir Rafil Elyas

Tentative programme, monday 5 aug, registration & afternoon tea, tuesday 6 aug, opening ceremony & plenary speech, parallel sessions (afternoon), conference dinner (evening), wednesday 7 aug, parallel sessions (morning), thursday 8 aug, parallel sessions & closing ceremony (afternoon), plant visit, organising committee, professor dominic c. y. foo, conference chairman, prof. dr. hon loong lam, conference co-chair, ir. mohamad anwar ahmad, mohd fauzi zanil, ir. wei dong leong, ir. razmahwata mohamad razalli, ir. dr. chien hwa chong, ir. dr. eunice s. w. phang, ir. dr. jully tan, ir. dr. tin sin lee, ir. thayananthan balakrishnan, ir. prof. dr. thomas s. y. choong, ir. vincent w. c. khaw, nur amira mohidin, international scientific committees, masahiko hirao, the univ. of tokyo, yoshiyuki yamashita, tokyo univ. of agriculture & tech., manabu kano, kyoto univ., cheng-liang chen, natl taiwan univ., shi-shang jang, natl tsing-hua univ., chuei-tin chang, natl cheng-kung univ., jongmin lee, seoul natl univ., jin-kuk kim, hanyang univ., prof moon il, yonsei university, xigang yuan, tianjin univ., jinsong zhao, tsinghua univ., zhejiang univ., gade pandu rangaiah, natl univ. of singapore, min-sen chiu, mohd azlan hussain, univ. of malaya, zainuddin abdul manan, universiti teknologi malaysia, mohamed i.b. abdul mutalib, universiti teknologi petronas, paisan kittisupakorn, chulalongkorn univ., soorathep kheawhom, renanto handogo, institut teknologi sepuluh nopember, arief budiman, gajah mada univ., rajagopalan srinivasan, ravindra d. gudi, raymond tan, de la salle university, publication.

Full conference paper is option. If you do required to publish your paper in conference proceeding, please kindly inform the conference secretary.

Selected papers will be invited for special issue with the following journals when the conference is over:

• Computers and Chemical Engineering (Elsevier)
• Process Integration and Optimization for Sustainability (Springer Nature)
• PROCESSES (MDPI)
• Digital Chemical Engineering (Elsevier)

About Penang

Penang is located in the northwest of Peninsular Malaysia. It is a state comprising mainland (Seberang Perai) and the Penang Island.  Its capital George Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (together with Melaka), is truly a melting pot of eastern and western cultures. UNESCO reported that the city represents an exceptional example of a multicultural trading town in Southeast Asia, forged from the mercantile and civilisation exchanges of Malay, Chinese, Indian along with European influences. More about Penang tourism, → click here .

Penang International Airport is the third largest airport in Malaysia. Apart from domestic flights, there are more than 15 cities in Asia with direct flights to Penang, such as Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Taiwan. More information on flights, → click here .

Supported By

Secretariat

The institution of engineers, malaysia.

www.pseasia2024.org

+60 (3) 78900 130/134

[email protected] / [email protected]

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Systems Engineering Graduate Certificate

The graduate certificate in Systems Engineering is a 15-credit interdisciplinary program that offers courses focused on the modeling, creation, and analysis of systems. Upon completion of the certificate, students will be able to take a project from conception to completion, as well as manage teams throughout a system lifecycle. This certificate is Ideal for working professionals and those interested in learning how to develop and manage complex systems.

Systems engineering spans industries like manufacturing, aerospace, defense, healthcare, electronics, automotive, education, software, government, and other Students in the Systems Engineering certificate program can select courses in their discipline and customize the curriculum to suit their professional goals. 

Student success

University requirements for graduate admissions.

• Submit an application via the online portal. Be sure to provide your full legal name and to capitalize the first letter of all proper nouns.
• Pay non-refundable $60 application fee (American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa) via the online portal. For Nursing applicants, the non-refundable application fee is $75.
• Statement of Purpose, minimum 300 words. Unless otherwise indicated in the program requirement details, indicate your graduate study objectives, research interests and experience, and business or industry experience if applicable. If you are applying for a teaching or research assistantship, include any special skills or experience that would assist us in making assistantship decisions.
• Transcripts for all post-secondary institutions attended (regardless of whether a credential is earned or not). Unofficial transcripts are accepted for admissions application review, once enrolled a final official transcript is required. International students applying with an transcript evaluation, please submit that document with your unofficial transcripts. International applicants for Data Science must submit semester-by-semester transcripts as well as consolidated transcripts. 
• Many programs have specific recommendations/requirements, please see the additional program-specific requirements for more information.
• International students : official TOEFL iBT, IELTS, Pearson PTE or Duolingo (if accepted by program) score. Unofficial scores are accepted for admissions application review, once enrolled official scores are required and must be sent by the testing agency (copies/scans not accepted). This is required of any applicant who did not earn a bachelor’s degree or higher degree from an accredited academic institution in the U.S. or accepted English-speaking country, see exemptions for more details . We require an overall/total minimum score of 72 on the TOEFL iBT or BAND 6.0 on the IELTS or a 52 on the Pearsons PTE Academic for entrance to any program and a minimum score of 79 on the TOEFL iBT or BAND 6.5 on the IELTS for consideration for a teaching assistantship. Some programs require higher minimum scores (see program-specific requirements). Most programs also accept the Duolingo with a minimum score of 95. The following programs do not accept the Duolingo: Art Education, Biology/Marine Biology, Nursing (MS, DNP, PhD), Psychology: Clinical, and Public Policy. 
• All official documents are required for enrollment, please have documents (ie. test scores) sent prior to the expiration. 

Program deadlines

Systems Engineering faculty

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• UMassD Course Catalog

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