Courses & Seminars

 
In addition to individual requirements from the areas of study, known as major field requirements, all Ph.D. students are required to take 13 quarter courses from outside the major field of study.
School Year Summer Fall Winter Spring
YEAR June - August September - December January - March April - June
1st
Linear Programming
-
Applied Probability
-
Mathematical Methods in Economics
Convex Optimization
-
Stochastic Processes
-
Queueing Theory
Large-scale Optimization
-
Operations Management I
-
Real Analysis
2nd
Research Assistant Microeconomics
-
Econometrics
-
Network Flows & Integer Programming
Multivariate Statistics
-
Dynamic Programming
-
Operations Management II
Decision Theory
3rd
Research Assistant Electives Electives Electives
4th
Research Assistant Dissertation Dissertation Dissertation
5th
Research Assistant Dissertation Dissertation Dissertation

1st YEAR

Fall

September – December
 

Linear Programming
-
Applied Probability
-
Mathematical Methods in Economics

Winter

January – March
 

Convex Optimization
-
Stochastic Processes
-
Queueing Theory

Spring

April – June
 

Large-scale Optimization
-
Operations Management I
-
Real Analysis

2nd YEAR

Summer

June – August
 

Research Assistant

Fall

September – December
 

Microeconomics
-
Econometrics
-
Network Flows & Integer Programming

Winter

January – March
 

Multivariate Statistics
-
Dynamic Programming
-
Operations Management II

Spring

April – June
 

Decision Theory

3rd YEAR

Summer

June – August
 

Research Assistant

Fall

September – December
 

Electives

Winter

January – March
 

Electives

Spring

April – June
 

Electives

4th YEAR

Summer

June – August
 

Research Assistant

Fall

September – December
 

Dissertation

Winter

January – March
 

Dissertation

Spring

April – June
 

Dissertation

5th YEAR

Summer

June – August
 

Research Assistant

Fall

September – December
 

Dissertation

Winter

January – March
 

Dissertation

Spring

April – June
 

Dissertation

Core Courses

 

MGMT PHD 201A,B,C

Decision Theory

MGMT PHD 258

Network Flows & Integer Programming

MGMT PHD 231

Models for Operations Planning, Scheduling and Control

MGMT PHD 241A

Scheduling Models for Intermittent Systems

MGMT PHD 241B

Dynamic Programming

MGMT PHD 257

Stochastic Modeling with Applications to Telecommunication Systems

EE 232A

Telecommunication Switching and Queueing Systems

EE 232B

Linear Programming

EE 236A

Convex Optimization

EE 236B

Optimization Methods for Large-scale Systems

EE 236C

Mathematical Methods in Economics

ECON 200

Microeconomics: Theory of Firm and Consumer

ECON 201A

Seminars

 
Three different seminar series provide a collegial forum for accessing the intellectual capital you need to succeed. These seminars further prepare our Ph.D. students for research, presentation and job market success.

Faculty Seminars

These seminars are hosted by your Area of study and closed to the public; distinguished faculty from other universities present their latest papers and findings.

On June 6, 2014, Professor Georgia Perakis of MIT’s Sloan School of Management presented her paper “The Role of Optimization in Promotion Planning for Supermarkets.” The paper and talk centered on the Promotion Optimization Problem (POP), a challenging problem as the retailer needs to decide which products to promote, what is the depth of price discounts and finally, when to schedule the promotions. Introduced and discussed was an optimization formulation that captures several important business requirements as constraints. The formulation proposed solves fast in practice using actual data from a grocery retailer and that the accuracy is high. Research included calibrating the models using actual data and determined that retailers can improve profits by 3% just by optimizing the promotion schedule and up to 5% by slightly modifying some business requirements.

Recently, DOTM was also pleased to host Professor Francis de Vericourt from INSEAD. He presented his paper “Financing Capacity Investment Under Demand Uncertainty.” The paper studies the interplay between the operational and financial facets of capacity investment, and findings include that when higher demand realizations are more indicative of high effort, debt financing is optimal for any given capacity level. In this case, the optimal capacity is never below the efficient capacity level but sometimes strictly above that level.

Student-run Seminars

Our student-run seminars exist exclusively for Anderson and Economics Ph.D. students. They present their current research and receive feedback. With no faculty in attendance, your peers critique your work, becoming invaluable, supportive colleagues and friends in the process..

Job Market Papers

These seminars provide opportunity to defend your work, receive research career feedback and influence others’ work-lives. The toughest audiences you will ever face, the experience is all about preparing you for your professional life and positioning you for candidacy as a faculty member at one of the world’s highest caliber institutions.