SUNY Binghamton Online Ph.D. in Systems Science, 30 Credits?

I came across SUNY Binghamton University, which offers a Ph.D. in Systems Science. It surprises me that the program requires only 30 credits. I am wondering if they published inaccurate information or if it is a research degree similar to the British's. The research topics include a variety of selections; it is good for someone who wishes to upgrade from a Professional Doctorate to a Ph.D.

URL: https://explore.suny.edu/programs/binghamton-systems-science-doctor-of-philosophy-1700000000004

Selected Research Topics

• Complex Systems
• Mathematical Modeling of Systems
• Computer Simulation
• Soft Computing
• Machine Learning
• Intelligent Control
• Optimization
• Statistical Modeling
• Data Analytics
• Information Theory
• Decision Making and Management

• System Dynamics
• Nonlinear Dynamics
• Agent-Based Modeling
• Mathematical & Computational Biology
• Artificial Life
• Game Theory
• Computational Social Science
• Complex Networks
• Health Systems
• Sustainability
• Transdisciplinary Research

 

Very interesting. Colorado State's systems engineering requires 42 credit for those with a master and its focus is heavily on engineering. This one seems much more broad.

 

Great Find

Here are some more details:




Site/
https://www.binghamton.edu/ssie/graduate/systems-science.html

Graduate handbook
https://www.binghamton.edu/ssie/graduate/ssie_graduate_handbook_042522.pdf#page14

I could not find any mention of the 30 credits

Requirements for PhD Degree
A. General Information
The PhD program needs to be designed to meet the needs of each student through an
individualized learning program. The program requires a minimum of eight (8) courses beyond
the Master's degree (including at least three 600 level courses). To meet the Residency
Requirement, you must complete a minimum of twenty-four (24) course-credits at the University
(a few of which could be independent studies if that is acceptable to your advisor).
Note: PhD ISE students from non-engineering backgrounds and/or non-ISE backgrounds are
required to take more than 8 courses and should discuss this with the ISE Graduate Director.

 

It appears(at least to me) that if you take the minimum (24 credits) at the University - your Dissertation will likely add up to considerably more than 6, so your total will be way in excess of 30. It has to be. I looked around and general PhD requirements are 30 credits in dissertation research.

Maybe that's where the confusion lies. If you take 24 credits in coursework (mandatory) and HALF the usual credits in dissertaion research, that's still 39 total. If you take 30 credits in Diss. Research, that's 54 total. More in the normal ballpark for a PhD.

@Rafael Rodrigues da Silva - Obrigado, Rafa.

 

Por nada, Johann

 

"There is no Royal Road to Geometry." That's what Euclid told Alexander the Great, who wanted his son fast-tracked and taught by shortcuts. I don't see this (good) program as a "Royal Road" to a PhD., either.

Sorry, Your Majesty. No special treatment for Sons of Conquerors. At least, not in Binghamton. Try universities in Anatolia, Syria, Phoenicia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Afghanistan, and India. Any one of them should be duck soup, to a guy with your clout!

 

I submitted the admission application for Spring 2024. The reason I did it is because I requested more information, but I also got an email to recommending me to submit my application where a $75.00 admission fee is waived for Veterans and Active Military Members. I don't think I am going to be accepted, but it just cost me 2 hours and two former managers' recommendation letters.

 

Very tempting. I may consider this in 2025 after finishing the DBA at West Virginia University.

 

Any updates re: feedback for this?

 

Yes, it seems it is not for me. First of all, they don't supervise the research breadth in the areas of Data Science, AI, and ML, even though they are mentioned on the site. Secondly, the next group, 200 sloths, was full; he asked me if I had anyone outside the university willing to supervise my research. This is weird because I thought it only happened when you were closer to the dissertation phase, not at the beginning of the program. As of now, I will stick with the Cumberlands and finish it in the next two years, and taking Coursera's Professional Certificates.

• IBM Applied AI

• IBM AI Engineering

• IBM Machine Learning

• DeepLearning.AI TensorFlow Developer

• Google Cloud Machine Learning Engineer

• IBM Data Analyst

• IBM Data Analytics with Excel and R

• Google Advanced Data Analytics

• IBM Data Engineering

• IBM Data Science

• Microsoft Azure Data Scientist Associate

 

It's fairly common for U.S. science doctoral students to enter with a Ph.D. supervisor in mind, although quite uncommon for those supervisors to be from outside their university.

 

Usually, universities allow Doctorate candidates to have one or two dissertation committee members outside of the universities. However, getting a research sponsor from outside of the universities at the beginning of the program is quite interesting.

 

Recruiter committee members from DI. How interesting would that be?

 

You might never known, you might get a full-time tenure.

 

Just in case you are interested, here is the informational session about the program.

URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kZogMfJkCJDFluPLC41hgKfQLcyt0g6k/view

 

The next cohort is 200 slots!?

 

They admit sloths? To a doctoral program? That must be a slow-moving program. Might take forever! See your classmates here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=sloths

 

As always, The autocorrect is getting me. But who knows, they might have only 200 slots for sloths.

 

@TEKMAN You wrote:

Jahaza didn't say that. I did. No biggie.

 

TEKMAN, when you described your research interests to them, exactly how did you put it?

The reason why I'm asking is because I'm a data scientist who's interested in this program and looking at some of the research interests of several of the faculty members, I could see a lot of overlap between their work and data science.

It's not the fancy generative AI / large language model stuff. It's really more of the bread and butter standard data science topics.