The Operations Research / Management Science Blog

In order to express my excitement about being accepted by the department of Management Sciences at University of Waterloo, I decided to write an article to briefly talk about education in the field of Operations Research / Management Sciences here at UW.

The Engineering District at University of Waterloo (Photo by Mike Seliske)

First of all, a little bit about University of Waterloo. UW is a comprehensive public university located in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Waterloo and two neighboring cities, Kitchener and Cambridge, are together referred to as “Canada’s Technology Triangle” due to the fact that many high-tech firms, such as Research in Motion, Maplesoft and Google Canada, have their headquarters or offices in this area. In 2007, Intelligent Community Forum (IFC) named Waterloo as recipient of its 2007 “Intelligent Community of the Year” award.

UW was founded in 1957. It was the first accredited university in North America to create a Faculty of Mathematics, and for having the largest co-op program in the world. The university has been known as the “Silicon Valley of the North”, due to the fact that it has more company spin-offs than any other Canadian university. UW is well-known for its strength in mathematical and computer sciences and its close relationship with the high-tech industry. Today UW has over 30,000 students, faculty and staff and graduates in 140 countries. UW routinely places in the top three in the numerical Comprehensive ranking by Canada’s Maclean’s magazine. In the reputation survey UW placed first as best overall 13 out of 15 times. Maclean’s describes the university as “strong in math, engineering and computer science,” as well as being “internationally recognized for the unparalleled success of its more than 100 undergraduate and graduate co-op programs.”

As far as I know, UW offers four programs (in both undergraduate and graduate levels) that are related to ORMS. All of these programs allow students to enroll in co-op programs to gain valuable work experience before they graduate. The program I have been accepted into is called Management Sciences, which is clearly an ORMS program. The other programs are Systems Design Engineering, Operations Research and Management Engineering.

Management Sciences (Grad level)
Management Engineering / Management Sciences Option (Undergrad level)

The department of Management Sciences is in the Faculty of Engineering. At the graduate level, the department offers three degrees: Master of Applied Science (MASc), Master of Management Sciences (MMSc), and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in three areas of specialization which include Applied Operations Research. At the undergraduate level, the department offers a program called Management Engineering which involves education in Operations Research and Supply Chain Management as well as a Management Sciences option designed to allow undergraduate engineering students in other departments to learn about OR.

The MMSc degree is obtained primarily through coursework, while the MASc degree involves both coursework and a thesis. Most students are first admitted to the MMSc program to prepare themselves by taking courses. Once in the program, students may choose the thesis route by finding a supervisor in the department and start doing research. Master’s students can also enroll in co-op programs to mix traditional academic terms with paying work term jobs in industry or government.

To be accepted into the Master’s programs, applicants must demonstrate background in Calculus, Linear Algebra and Statistics. Some courses offered to graduate students are Principles of Operations Research, Probabilistic Models in Operations Research and Discrete Event Simulation.

The department also offers an on-line Master’s program in Management Sciences.

Operations Research (Undergrad level)

There is also an Operations Research program / specialization offered by the Faculty of Mathematics to undergraduate Math students. In this program, which is housed at the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization, students get to learn about topics such as inventory control and scheduling theory. Co-op is also available in this program and students get to work in companies like Canadian Pacific Railway ( a past Franz Edelman award winner ) to improve train efficiency.

Systems Design Engineering (Both undergrad and grad levels)

This program is actually more about sensor systems and MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems) than Operations Research. There are some faculty members in this department who do research related to OR and there are courses related to Optimization. However, I am not sure how much OR you will learn by taking this program.

As far as I know, some other universities in Canada offer programs related to ORMS. For examples, University of Toronto offers a really strong Industrial Engineering program in which students can specialize in OR; University of British Columbia offers a Master of Management program in Operations Research. Management Sciences at UW, in my opinion, is definitely one of the best ORMS programs in Canada, since UW is renowned for its strength in mathematics and ORMS is closely based on applied math.