In order to advance to the state of candidacy, all doctoral students must satisfactorily complete an Oral Preliminary Examination conducted by their graduate committee. An Industrial Engineering doctoral student's Oral Preliminary Exam is a presentation of the student's proposed doctoral research.
After successfully completing their qualifying examination, IE PhD students should work closely with their major professor and (as appropriate) other graduate committee members to define a problem area and complete a research proposal. When a student and their major professor agree that the research proposal is ready for distribution, the student shall prepare a document that should:
- Introduce and motivate the research topic,
- Include a literature review and clear research contribution statement,
- Clarify the research approach, research plan, and timing.
The document may be the initial chapters of the Ph.D. thesis.
The student shall then schedule an Oral Preliminary Exam through the OSU Graduate School that is a minimum of two hours in length to defend the proposal. Committee members should be given at least two weeks to read and review the proposal prior to the meeting.
In the preliminary exam, the student will make a 30-45 minute presentation on the content of their research proposal / preliminary exam document, and then the student’s committee will have the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback on the research.