What your mother didnt tell you about graduate school

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What your mother didnt tell you about graduate
school

• Barry L. Nelson
• Chair

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(No Transcript)
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Northwestern

• 11 Schools on Evanston and Chicago campuses
• Evanston Campus Arts Sciences (Weinberg),
  Business (Kellogg), Education Social Policy,
  Engineering (McCormick), Journalism (Medill),
  Music (Beinen), Communications, Continuing
  Studies, Graduate School
• Chicago Campus Law, Medical (Feinberg)
• Northwestern in Qatar
• Total 15,631 students 8100 undergrads, 7531
  grads
• NU 12 overall in the 2009 US News World Report
  ranking.

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McCormick School of Engineering and Applied
Science

• 8 Departments Biomedical, Civil Environmental,
  Chemical Biological, Elect. Engg. Computer
  Science, Engg. Science Applied Math., IEMS,
  Materials Science, Mechanical
• Segal, CEI, Transportation Center
• Total about 2737 students 1423 undergrads, 1314
  graduate students
• Total 180 faculty

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IEMS

• Approximately 20 faculty with full or partial
  appointments.
• US News World Rankings 5th in graduate and 9th
  in undergraduate programs.
• BSIE Program (Chair Prof. Smilowitz) 200
  students
• MS/PhD Program (Chair Prof. Hazen) 50 students
• MEM Program (Director Prof. Ankenman) 100
  students

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IEMS Faculty

• Applied Statistics Quality Engineering
  Ankenman, Apley, Nelson, and Tamhane
• Financial Engineering Linetsky, Nelson, Staum
• Healthcare Engineering Armbruster, Hazen, and
  Mehrotra
• Optimization Dolinskaya, Fourer, Klabjan,
  Mehrotra, Nocedal and Smilowitz
• Organizational Theory and System Analysis
  Contractor, Iravani, Leonardi, Thompson, and
  White
• Production Logistics Dolinskaya, Iravani,
  Klabjan, Smilowitz
• Simulation Ankenman, Nelson and Staum
• Entrepreneurship and Innovation Frey, Marasco,
  White

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There is an important message for you in the
previous slide

• Faculty are listed in multiple areas. This is
  because breakthrough ideas most often cross
  standard tool/application/topic boundaries.
• I have no patience for students who say I only
  want to work in area X, so all of these courses
  in area Y are useless for me.
• This is a prescription for being ordinary.

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IEMS Staff

• Beth Abbott (Business Administrator)
• Cathryn Timmers (Financial Assistant)
• Terri Pedersen (Program Assistant)
• Adam Cebulski (Graduate)
• Adam Langlias (Undergraduate)
• Johnathan Gaetz (Systems Administrator)
• Susan Fox (MEM Associate Director)
• Diane Kessler (MEM Program Coordinator)Treat the
  staff the same as you would the faculty.

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Recent PhD Placements

• Academic Arizona State, Berkeley,
  Carnegie-Mellon, Georgia Tech, HKUST, Illinois,
  Miami, Purdue, Rutgers, Texas,West Virginia,
  Wisconsin
• Industry AspenTech, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deutche
  Bank, Motorola, QRM, Rand Corporation, UBS,
  United, ZS Associates

We value BOTH!
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New this year

• Engineering Management Minor
• 3 course program offered through MEM
• Does NOT count as a Ph.D. minor
• Designed for M.S. students and Ph.D.s heading to
  industry
• New core exam structure
• Exam study and present a research paper to a
  faculty committee
• No matter what the 2nd-4th years say, this will
  not be easier.

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Now for the part your mother did not tell you
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The long and winding road
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Were not in Kansas anymore

• No one is completely ready.
• All of the classes are important, and focused.
• You must make Bs, but not just Bs.
• The standards are more absolute, less relative.
• You are expected to take charge of your
  education.

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Eyes on the prize

• You are getting ready to do research or
  M.S.-level work. This means you need to store up
  tools and techniques because no one can predict
  what you will need.
• You need to see the big picture in other peoples
  work, and get the little picture right in your
  own work. There is no partial credit when you are
  creating new knowledge.
• Take advantage of guests and seminars. Even
  though you are busy, you need to make time.

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When youre blue (or purple)

• Remember You did not come to Northwestern to be
  second best. There is a reason this is hard.
• Help is available Get help, and get it early.
• Hard work does pay off!
• Many before you have not only survived, but
  flourished.

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What does this have to do with graduate study in
IEMS?
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Mathematics is our science base

• Calculus, linear algebra, probability
  statistics, and mathematical analysis.
• Some important relations
• Proof ? Theory
• Hard Math ? Good Research
• Bad Math Bad Research
• You do NOT need to be a mathematician but you
  need to be able to do and recognize correct math.

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For Ph.D. students, you should expect your
advisor to

• answer your questions by saying What do you
  think?
• defend you from unfair and inappropriate
  questions, but not difficult ones, during oral
  exams
• beat you up when you practice for public
  presentations (much better in private than before
  a live audience).
• keep your research from going in completely
  hopeless directions, but not from going down all
  dead ends.
• understand that at least 2/3rds of your ideas
  will not work out.
• let you know what their standards are, and that
  being correct matters more than being published.

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and you should expect to

• take notes during or after meetings with your
  advisor, and keep track of the research.
• help write grant proposals, referee papers,
  teach and do some busy work (these are all great
  practice look at them as professional
  development opportunities).
• speak at professional conferences.
• eventually set the direction of the research
  (this is how we know that you are done).

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Nelsons keys to success

• Dont just do, also THINK.
• Take good courses, hard courses, and a broad
  selection of courses.
• Become a research risk taker and a fearless
  questioner.
• Master the facility to explain what you do to any
  audience.

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Pep Talk

• Everyone knows this is one of the best IE grad
  programs in the country.
• But not everyone knows that it is actually the
  best program.
• We are excited you are here, and your success is
  very important to us. Making you look good make
  us look good.