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The MS/OR Curriculum

To obtain the Master of Science degree in Operations Research, completion of an approved plan of study with a minimum of 30 semester hours (10 courses) of graduate level coursework is required. The program contains four core courses which provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the basic techniques and applications of operations research. (Grades of B or better are required in OR 541 and 542.) Students must also complete an applied team project under the course OR 680. The remaining five courses are chosen by the student and faculty advisor to reflect the student's interests, and must include at least one of 600 level or above course in each of deterministic and stochastic OR.

Core Courses:

  • OR 541 Operations Research: Deterministic Model
    (Students who have taken a similar course such as OR 441 within two years prior to commencement of their M.S. studies are encouraged to substitute a deterministic elective.)
  • OR 542 Operations Research: Stochastic Model
    (Students who have taken a similar course such as OR 442 within two years prior to commencement of their M.S. studies are encouraged to substitute a stochastic elective.)
  • STAT 544 Applied Probability
    (Students who have performed well in their undergraduate calculus-based probability class OR 645: Stochastic Processes.)
  • OR 635 Discrete Event Simulation

Applied Project

  • OR 680 Project Course in Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Computational Modeling
    (This course should be taken in the last Spring semester of the student's studies.)

Elective Courses:
The five elective courses must include at least three 600-level or higher OR courses, including at least one Deterministic Methods course and one Stochastic Methods course. . Up to two additional elective courses may be chosen with the written concurrence of the student's advisor. These courses should be taken in an area appropriate to the student's interests, such as operations research, systems engineering, statistics, computer science, electrical and computer engineering, economics, and mathematics. At least one of these electives must be taken from SEOR's course offerings. Students interested in developing expertise via a concentration should choose the electives from the appropriate concentration area courses.

Deterministic Methods Courses:

Stochastic Methods Courses:
  • OR 645 Stochastic Processes
  • OR 647 Queueing Theory
  • OR 648 Production and Inventory Systems
  • OR 675 Reliability Analysis
  • OR 677 Statistical Process Control
OR Elective Courses:
The following is the full list of the OR elective courses, Here S indicates a Stochastic Methods course, D indicates a Deterministic Methods course.
  • OR 640 Global Optimization and Computational Intelligence (D)
  • OR 641 Liner Programming (D)
  • OR 642 Integer Programming (D)
  • OR 643 Network Modeling (D)
  • OR 644 Nonlinear Programming (D)
  • OR 645 Stochastic Processes (same as STAT 645) (S)
  • OR 647 Queueing Theory (S)
  • OR 648 Production and Inventory Systems (S)
  • OR 649 Topics in Operations Research
  • OR 651 Military Operations Research: Cost Analysis
  • OR 652 Military Operations Research: Effectiveness Analysis
  • OR 671 Judgment, Choice and Decision Analysis (same as SYST 671)
  • OR 675 Reliability Analysis (same as STAT 678, SYTS 675) (S)
  • OR 677 Statistical Process Control (same as STAT 677, SYST 677) (S)
  • OR 681 Contemporary Issues in Decision Analysis (same as SYST 573)
  • OR 682 Numerical Methods in Engineering & Statistics (same as STAT 682, MATH 685, CSI 700)
  • OR 683 Principles of Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C3I)-Part I (same as SYST 680, ECE 670)
  • OR 741 Advanced Linear Programming
  • OR 750 Advanced Topics in Operations Research

Electives Within IT&E:

  • Any OR course > 600
  • Any SYST course >500
  • Any STAT course ≥ 554
  • Any CEIE course > 500 but not 601
  • Any CS course > 500
  • Any ECE course > 500 but not 528
  • Any INFS course > 600

Electives External to IT&E:

  • Any MATH course > 601 and permitted for Math majors
  • Any CSI course > 610
  • any ECON course > 611
 



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