Degree Requirements

Master of Science in Information, Risk, and Operations Management

The Master of Science in Information, Risk, and Operations Management is offered only to students who are enrolled in the doctoral program in information, risk, and operations management. This degree is offered in three options: with thesis, with report, and without thesis or report. The thesis option requires at least thirty semester hours of coursework; the report option, at least thirty-three hours; and the option without thesis or report, at least thirty-six hours. All coursework must be logically related, and the student’s entire program must be approved by the student’s primary adviser and the graduate adviser. The Graduate Studies Committee’s approval is not required.

The Master of Science in Information, Risk, and Operations Management Option III program is a stand-alone program for students pursing specialization in business analytics. This degree requires thirty-six semester hours of coursework and should be completed within one academic year. Coursework is designed to include technical and quantitative methods from multiple disciplines, such as information management, statistics, optimization, and computer science, to solve business problems using large data sets. The program ends with a capstone project course.

Doctor of Philosophy

The doctoral program in information, risk, and operations management has three areas of concentration: information systems, risk and decision making, and supply chain and operations management. Degree requirements vary slightly among these. After the first year, each student must pass a qualifying examination that is based on the core courses in the appropriate area of concentration. Students concentrating in information systems must complete a first-year research paper.

In the second and third years of the program, students complete core coursework and take other methodological and contextual courses in the areas of their research interest. Although students are expected to begin working on research as soon as possible, they will spend increasing amounts of time on research as they progress through the second and third years. At the end of the second year, students in the information systems and risk and decision making areas of concentration complete a candidacy paper; students in the supply chain and operations management area of concentration complete a comprehensive examination that includes a research paper.

Following the candidacy research paper or the comprehensive exam, students undertake dissertation research, which concludes in a written dissertation and an oral defense before the student’s dissertation committee. Students in the risk analysis and decision making or the supply chain and operations management areas of concentration must also pass an oral defense of their dissertation proposal prior to the final dissertation defense. For students in the information systems area of concentration, the requirement for a dissertation proposal is left to the discretion of the student’s adviser.