2012–2013 UNIVERSITY CATALOG - Florida Institute of Technology

Each student must complete an approved program of study, pass a
comprehensive examination, complete a program of significant original
research, and defend a dissertation concerning the research.
General degree requirements are presented in the Academic
Overview section.
Curriculum
The individual doctoral program of study must be approved by the
student’s doctoral committee and the program chair. Students who
have not taken MTH 5051 and MTH 5102, or their equivalents,
will be required to take them. Students are also required to take at
least two courses from the Computation/Computer Science list.
The doctoral program in operations research does not fall within
the traditional boundaries of a single discipline. The scope is broad
and interdisciplinary. Consequently, every course in a student’s
program of study is evaluated in terms of how it complements
other courses and provides breadth and depth to the program.
Considerable latitude is permitted in course selection, provided
the core requirements for operations research/mathematics/
computation are met. The remaining courses are selected in
collaboration with the doctoral committee according to the
interests and research objectives of the student. The student may
opt to concentrate study in the area of human-centered design
(described below).
Computation Electives
MTH 5301 Numerical Analysis
MTH 5305 Numerical Linear Algebra
MTH 5320 Neural Networks
ORP 5050 Discrete System Simulation
Human-Centered Design
The program in human-centered design (HCD) is offered for
students who wish to carry out advanced research, innovation and
leadership in the academic world, as well as fill equivalent positions
in industry and government. The program may be completed
through one of three areas: aerospace engineering, operations
research or computer science. Other research areas within the
field may be pursued depending on current trends in the Human-
Centered Design Institute (HCDI) of Florida Tech.
The program is designed to attract students who have the greatest
potential for expanding the frontiers of knowledge and art of
HCD, and in transferring this knowledge and art to others. It is
open to graduate students who have a strong interest in people and
are ready to learn about applied human and social sciences. HCD
requires significant breadth and depth of understanding in engineering,
mathematics and science, the mastery of several specialized
subjects and the creativity to extend the body of knowledge
and art on a particular subject through significant original research.
Each candidate is expected to publish major portions of their dissertation
in refereed conferences and journals, and is strongly encouraged
to actively participate in research activities of the HCDI while
pursuing the degree. The student’s advisory committee and the
director of the HCDI must approve the doctoral program of study.
218 Florida Tech
research
Applied Mathematics
Active areas of research in the mathematics program include methods
of nonlinear analysis, qualitative and quantitative properties of
nonlinear evolution equations (including differential equations with
delay), integro-differential equations and stochastic differential
equations, spectral theory of operators, reaction-diffusion equations,
approximation theory, applied statistics, sequential analysis,
mathematical programming, combinatorial optimization, operations
research, queuing theory, stochastic processes, mathematical modeling,
neural networks, numerical and computational mathematics
with emphasis on numerical methods for ordinary and partial differential
equations, numerical algorithms and parallel processing.
Operations Research
Current active research in operations research include the modeling
of controlled queuing systems, stochastic processes, applied
statistics, design of experiments, neural networks, parallel processing
and algorithms, decision-making under uncertainty, simulation,
engineering management, quality control, optimization models and
methods, scheduling and timetabling algorithms, applied graph
theory and integer programming.
Human-Centered Design
The Human-Centered Design Institute (HCDI) members are
faculty, permanent and visiting research scientists and graduate
students conducting research in cognitive engineering, advanced
interaction media, complexity analysis in human-centered design,
life-critical systems, human-centered organization design and management,
and modeling and simulation.
DePARTMenT OF PHYSiCS AnD SPACe SCienCeS
Terry D. Oswalt, Ph.D., Head
Degree Programs
Physics, B.S.
Premedical Physics, B.S.
Physics, M.S., Ph.D.
Space Sciences
Astrobiology, B.S.
Astronomy and Astrophysics, B.S.
Solar, Earth and Planetary Sciences, B.S.
Space Sciences, M.S., Ph.D.
Undergraduate Minor Program
Physics
Professors
Marc M. Baarmand, Ph.D., elementary particle physics: experimental highenergy
physics at CERN (CMS experiment), hadroproduction of heavy quarks
in pQCD, Higgs physics, particle detector technology, grid computing.
Samuel T. Durrance, Ph.D., space exploration research: instrumentation
development, UV spectroscopy, atmospheric physics, nuclear physics, space
environment and human space exploration, NASA astronaut.
Joseph R. Dwyer, Ph.D., space physics and instrumentation: thunderstorm
and lightning physics, x-rays from lightning, solar and heliospheric energetic
particle observations.
T. Dwayne McCay, Ph.D., materials science: materials processing in space.
Terry D. Oswalt, Ph.D., stellar and planetary astronomy: late stages of stellar
evolution, binary stars, stellar activity and age determination, small solar
system bodies.