FAQ

A graduate certificate allows students who are actively enrolled at USC to pursue a specialization. Upon successful completion, students will receive a diploma for the ORAI Graduate Certificate.

All USC PhD students for which at least part of their PhD research will fall broadly in the areas of Operations Research (OR),  Management Science (MS), Industrial Engineering (IE), Artificial Intelligence (AI), or Machine Learning (ML), are eligible. There are no citizenship requirements for trainees, so students from all countries are welcome. We particularly welcome applications from candidates from groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields.

Graduate certificates must be completed in conjunction with coursework for the primary program in which you are enrolled. The applicability of these courses to your primary program is determined by your home department.

Coursework previously completed for your primary program may be applied retroactively toward the certificate as long as your primary degree has not been awarded.  If your primary degree at USC is awarded prior to completion of the certificate, it’s no longer possible to double count units between your primary degree and the graduate certificate. 

Required Courses (12 UNITS):

Take the following courses: 

ISE 616 / CSCI 616: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Data-Driven Decision-Making (Fall 2025)

ISE 617 / CSCI 617: Machine Learning for/with Mixed-Integer Optimization (Spring 2026)

CSCI 619 / ISE 619: End-to-End Learning and Optimization (Spring 2026)

Note: you may request to replace any of the above courses with the following:

CSCI 699:  Trustworthy Machine Learning from an Optimization Lens (Fall 2025)

Required Seminar (1 UNIT):

ISE 613 / CSCI 613: Seminar in Operations Research and Artificial Intelligence

Interdisciplinary Research Requirement:

In addition, to receive the certificate, you must engage in interdisciplinary research in AI/OR. Formally, you need to satisfy the following requirements:

• The Faculty Advisor for your dissertation research must have core expertise in Operations Research (OR), Management Science (MS), Industrial Engineering (IE), Artificial Intelligence (AI), or Machine Learning (ML).

• Part of your Dissertation research must have been co-advised by one research active faculty member with core expertise in OR, MS, or IE and one research active faculty member with core expertise in AI or ML.

• If your Faculty Advisor has core expertise in OR, MS, or IE, you should have a Dissertation Committee member with core expertise in AI or ML. PhD students whose Faculty Advisor has core expertise in AI or ML should have a Dissertation Committee member with core expertise in OR, MS, or IE. Ideally, ORAI students should be co-advised, with one advisor with core expertise in OR, MS, or IE and one advisor with core expertise in AI or ML.

ORAI Research Symposium:

You must present in the annual ORAI research symposium at least twice.

Year 1: take classes that provide the required training (e.g., one in optimization from ISE and one in machine learning from CS)

Year 2, Fall: take ISE 616 / CSCI 616 and ISE 613 / CSCI 613; ORAI seminar

Year 2, Spring: take ISE 617 / CSCI and CSCI 619 / ISE 619

Years 1-4 (or a subset of them): engage in interdisciplinary research in OR/AI and participate in the social activities of the program

Years 3 and 4: present in the annual ORAI research symposium.

Year 4 or 5: graduate

The program offers: 

1. The 4 new PhD level courses above; 

2. A seminar series including workshops in team building, ethics in AI/OR, entrepreneurship, interdisciplinary research, and advanced training on human subjects (beyond just Citi training)

3. An annual research symposium, and 

4. The opportunity to network and socialize with students and faculty with similar interdisciplinary research interests.

We have designed the ORAI program in a way that it fits within the requirements of the Computer Science and Industrial & Systems Engineering PhD degrees, so that ORAI course units can count as electives that are anyway required to graduate from these programs. In short, the ORAI program does not increase the number of classes that students in either the CS PhD program or ISE PhD program need to take to graduate and will not increase time to graduation. For PhD students in other departments, we are happy to work with you to check whether ORAI courses can count towards your PhD degree requirements.

We recommend that you apply to be part of the ORAI program before the end of the Summer semester preceding the start of your second year in your PhD program to make sure you can participate in all the activities that the ORAI program has to offer and to make sure you receive all the relevant correspondence related to the program (e.g., social events, research symposium). 

That said, you may apply for the ORAI program at any time before the Final Examination period of the semester in which you will complete your primary program.

For students who are currently in our programs, follow instructions here.

For prospective applicants, first apply to a USC PhD program (most of our trainees come from Computer Science, Industrial & Systems Engineering, or from Data Science and Operations but other programs work too) and indicate in your personal statement your interest in joining the ORAI program. Upon admission to the PhD program, you will be able to apply to ORAI.

All students admitted to USC PhD programs in either Computer Science or Industrial & Systems Engineering are guaranteed at least four years of funding provided they make good progress towards their PhD. ORAI trainees who are US citizens or permanent residents may additionally apply for the prestigious ORAI program fellowships. Fellows may also apply for travel support to present their ORAI research at conferences. See here for all related application forms and other resources for trainees.

All students admitted to the ORAI PhD Certificate Program are ORAI Trainees. Funder ORAI Trainees are called ORAI Fellows. Information on how ORAI Trainees can apply to become ORAI Fellows can be found here.

Yes, all graduate students can register for the classes. Please check out the recommended preparation for each class. The classes are mostly suited for PhD students or for masters students interested in pursuing technical career paths (e.g., PhDs).

Yes, you may petition to replace some of the courses in the program with other ISE/CS graduate courses that are relevant to interdisciplinary research in AI and OR. In your application, under course plan (last question), please state explicitely which course(s) you would like to have count towards your certificate. The co-directors will reach out if they have questions.