ACO Program Description

The ACO program is a joint venture of the College of Computing, the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and the School of Mathematics, with additional participation by the faculty of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The program is led by a director, who relies on the advice of a Coordinating Committee drawn from the participating faculty and representing all of the participating units. The program does not constitute an independent academic unit.

Each student in the program has a home department chosen from among the three sponsoring units.

Academic Requirements

The requirements listed below are in force as of Fall 2011. Students who matriculated prior to August 15, 2011 may elect to satisfy the previous requirements. Students must satisfy the Institute's requirements as described in the general catalog. However, specific requirements for the ACO program may vary significantly from those of other programs in the participating departments.

Regardless of the home department, each ACO student must complete the ACO core courses. At least 15 hours of course work beyond the program core must also be completed; some of these additional courses are specified by the student's home department. All required courses must be passed with a grade of B or better. Here is a list of past and current ACO-related courses. Other requirements include the minor field of study, passing the comprehensive examination, defending a research proposal, and successful defense of the dissertation. Currently enrolled ACO students should consult the FAQ page for more information.

Graduate level courses taken at other institutions may be used to satisfy ACO course requirements with the approval of the Coordinating Committee. However, the Committee may request passing an examination in the subject before granting this approval.

Core Courses

The ACO core curriculum consists of the following one-semester courses:

Computing

CS 6505 - Computability and Algorithms or CS 6520 Complexity (CoC students must select the latter)
CS 6550 - Design and Analysis of Algorithms

Industrial and Systems Engineering

ISyE 7661 - Theory of Linear Inequalities
ISyE 7686 - Advanced Combinatorial Optimization

Mathematics

Math 6014 - Graph Theory
Math 6121 - Algebra I (Students in ISyE may substitute Math 6112 Advanced Linear Algebra)
Math 7018 - Probabilistic Methods in Combinatorics

Additional Course Requirements

Each student must complete at least 15 semester hours of course work at the 6000 or higher level in addition to the courses that constitute the program core. The following courses are required, depending on the student's home department:

Computing

Two theory courses at the level of 7000 or above

Industrial and Systems Engineering

ISyE/Math 6761 - Stochastics I
ISyE 6663 - Nonlinear Optimization

Mathematics

Math 6337 - Real Analysis I
Math 6338 - Real Analysis II is not required but is strongly encouraged
Two of the following three:
Math 6112 - Advanced Linear Algebra
Math 6321 - Complex Analysis
A 6000 level or above topology/geometry course

Comprehensive Examination

ACO students are strongly encouraged to pass the written Comprehensive Examination by the end of their third academic semester in residence (that is, not counting the summer semester), and must take it before the end of their fourth academic semester. This examination will be based on the content of the courses in the program core.

Based on the results of this test as well as other measures of the student's performance, the Coordinating Committee may pass the candidate, fail the candidate with a recommendation that the test be re-administered in part or in whole after allowing at most one year for remediation of the student's deficiencies, or fail the student unconditionally. Upon passing the examination, students will be advised that they will be admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. upon satisfactory completion of all requirements and filing a statement naming the dissertation advisor and research topic.

Examination Syllabi

Samples of past Comprehensive Examinations can be downloaded in PDF format here. Note that only those from Spring 2001 on reflect the semester system. Others are from the quarter system, in which ACO requirements were slightly different:

Research Proposal

By the end of their third calendar year in residence, each ACO student must defend a Research Proposal. The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate that the student has adequate knowledge of a research area that would allow a thesis of the quality expected by ACO students, that the student is aware of an adequate supply of research problems, that he or she has a plan to pursue those problems, and that he or she is capable to carrying out his or her plan. Detailed guidelines are available here.

Minor Field of Study

Each student must satisfy the Institute's requirement of a minor program of study of at least 9 hours of course work chosen to the satisfaction of the Coordinating Committee and the student's home department. Courses in the ACO core curriculum may not be used as part of a minor program.

The Dissertation and Final Doctoral Examination

A student's thesis research may be carried out under the direction of any member of the program faculty. Research topics may therefore be chosen from a wide range of subjects in combinatorics, complexity and the analysis of algorithms, and combinatorial optimization.

The dissertation and final doctoral examination must meet the usual criteria of the Institute, and the additional requirements listed below. Dissertation advisory committees and doctoral examination committees must represent the student's home department and at least one other unit participating in the program.

Each ACO thesis must be available for public viewing at least one month prior to the scheduled defense. For each ACO thesis a recognized expert in the field (other than the advisor or coadvisors, if any) must be designated as "reader". The reader may or may not be from Georgia Tech, and may or may not be a member of the thesis committee. A report from the reader must be available to the thesis committee and the ACO Director prior to the defense. The reader's report should comment on the main research contributions, readability and publishability of the results. An ACO thesis should include results that in the judgment of the dissertation committee are publishable in top specialized journals in the corresponding field.

Expected Progress Toward the Ph.D. in ACO

Most items in this section are not a strict requirement, but a guideline as to how ACO students should progress. ACO students should strive for a cumulative GPA of 4.0. All required coursework must be passed with a grade of B or better.

Year 1: Classes, searching for prospective research advisement.
Year 2: Sit for and pass the comprehensive examination in the first semester. At the end of the second year, each student should have a formal dissertation advisor
Year 3: Independent research; defense of the research proposal. By the completion of the third year, students should have produced at least one result satisfying the following specification based upon their field of study:

CS: Accepted to a top tier conference/symposia.
ISyE: IPCO quality work; accepted by IPCO if same is held that year.
Math: Draft of a paper publishable in a top tier specialized journal.

In subsequent years students are expected to devote their efforts toward completing the dissertation. The expectation is that ACO students should complete their work in approximately five years. The quality of the dissertation is expected to meet the following specifications based on the respective field of study:

CS: One or two papers accepted by top conferences and the corresponding articles submitted to top journals.
ISyE: At least one paper accepted by Mathematical Programming or a journal of similar quality.
Math: At least one paper accepted by a top specialized journal, other papers submitted.

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Georgia Institute of Technology.

Last modified: March 23, 2012

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