The Ph.D. program in Operational Research offers an intensive curriculum that prepares students for a career as a scholar in Operational Research (OR) who are able to conduct independent research. The program consists of three major components. (1) Completing coursework that advances knowledge in OR (2) Taking the Ph.D. qualifying exam, which tests the student’s fundamental knowledge in the area and their scientific maturity. (3) Preparing a Ph.D. thesis, significant and original research in the area.

Course Code   
Course Title   
  METU Credit 
  Contact (h/w) 
  Lab (h/w) 
  ECTS Credit 
OR502 DISCRETE OPTIMIZATION 3 3 0 8.0
  or IE554 DISCRETE OPTIMIZATION 3 3 0 8.0
  or OR503 NONLINEAR OPTIMIZATION 3 3 0 8.0
  or IE555 NONLINEAR OPTIMIZATION 3 3 0 8.0
IE562 STOCHASTIC PROCESSES II 3 3 0 8.0
  or IE566 THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTS 3 3 0 8.0
  or IE568 STATISTICAL APPLICATIONS IN ENGINEERING 3 3 0 8.0
OR519 MATHEMATICS FOR O.R. 3 3 0 8.0
OR600 PH.D. THESIS 0 0 0
OR690 RESEARCH TOPICS IN O.R. 3 3 0 8.0
  or IE690 RESEARCH TOPICS 3 3 0 8.0
OR691 SEMINAR FOR PH.D. STUDENTS 0 0 2 10.0
  or IE691 SEMINAR FOR PH.D. STUDENTS 0 0 2 10.0
IE746 RESEARCH METHODS AND ETHICS IN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING 0 0 0 10.0

4 elective courses approved by the Department of Industrial Engineering.
Minimum total credit: 24
Minimum number of courses with credit: 8

Deficiency program for students from other disciplines
The deficiency program is customized based on every student's needs. This program includes OR501 LINEAR OPTIMIZATION (or IE553 LINEAR OPTIMIZATION) and IE561 STOCHASTIC PROCESSES I, if the student has not taken these or equivalent courses before.