Masters Program in Operations Research
General Information
The Master of Science program in Operations Research provides students with the technical skills needed to formulate and solve problems that arise in fields such as computer modeling, data analysis, management of business operations, health care delivery, financial management and city and regional planning. To prepare students adequately, the degree requirements stress broad familiarity with the mathematical sciences rather than a specialized knowledge of one field. The spectrum includes mathematical optimization, stochastic modeling, probability and statistics, and computer science. The course work emphasizes the solution methodology for mathematical models and their application.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill imposes general requirements on all candidates for the Master of Science degree. These appear in the Record of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - the Graduate School. In addition, the Operations Research program requires each student to take the following courses:
- STOR 555 Mathematical Statistics
- STOR 612 Models in Operations Research
- STOR 614 Linear Programming
- STOR 641 Stochastic Models in Operations Research I
- STOR 642 Stochastic Models in Operations Research II
- STOR 664 Applied Statistics
- STOR 705 Operations Research Practice
- STOR 762 Discrete Event Simulation
- STOR 790 Operations Research Student Seminar (1 credit)
- STOR 992 Masters Paper
- Electives: One additional course, to be approved by the department.
To qualify for the Master of Science degree, a student also must write an expository paper or a thesis and pass an oral or written examination. Students can write their expository paper on a topic from the theory or application of operations research. Customarily the paper provides a comprehensive description of the topic and can serve as the basis for an oral examination. There is no language requirement for the Master of Science degree.
Students receiving financial aid in the form of a service appointment (teaching or research) normally take no more than three courses per semester. The Master of Science degree can be completed in three semesters, but four semesters is the typical completion time.
Program of Study
First Year
Fall | Spring
STOR 555 STOR 614
STOR 612 STOR 642
STOR 641 STOR 762
STOR 790
Second Year
Fall | Spring
STOR 664 STOR 992
Elective*
Elective*
*At least one of the electives must be in Operations Research.
Expository Papers
The following list is a representative sample of recent expository paper titles.
Theory
- Monotonicity Properties of Polling Systems
- An Implementation of a Quadratic Programming Algorithm
- A Review of Metric and Military Interest in Multi-Echelon Inventory Theory Transportation Problems and the OR Methods to Solve Them
- Threshold - The Transient Behavior of a Markov Chain
- Designing Public Standpost Systems
- Equilibruim Analysis for Transportation Networks using Mathematical Programming
Practice
- Optimal Mix of Bus Sizes and Trippers for the Chapel Hill Transit System
- Efficient Patrol Allocation through Improved Sector Design at the Chapel Hill Police Department
- Automatic Vehicle Maintenance Record Keeping for Chapel Hill Public Works
- Inventory Management at the University Purchasing Department
- Analysis of Routing and Sorting at University Mail Services
- Optimal Scheduling of Physician Resources in the Division of Community Pediatrics
Employment
The following organizations have employed recent graduates of the master's program in Operations Research.
- American Airlines, Dallas, Texas
- Bell Telephone Laboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey
- Center for Naval Analyses, Arlington, Virginia
- E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Wilmington, Delaware
- Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Michigan
- Honeywell, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota
- IBM, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
- Quaker Oats Corporation, Chicago, Illinois
- SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, North Carolina
- Xerox Corporation, Rochester, New York
