DTI uOttawa Program Review | Digital Transformation Studies

DTI uOttawa – What you need to know. What they don’t tell you. An objective review of the University of Ottawa’s Doctorate in Philosophy Digital Transformation and Innovation Program – i.e., the PhD in DTI uOttawa Program at uOttawa engineering – by a PhD graduate of the program, Dr. Baha Abu-Shaqra.

I completed my PhD in Digital Transformation and Innovation (DTI) at uOttawa’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), Faculty of Engineering, in the e-Society stream under the supervision of Professor Rocci Luppicini on April 17, 2020, the day I archived my uOttawa PhD thesis on ethical hacking sociotechnology in uO Research (titled Technoethics and sensemaking: Risk assessment and knowledge management of ethical hacking in a sociotechnical society). My PhD thesis advisory committee was comprised of uOttawa professors Liam Peyton, Andre Vellino, and Rocci Luppicini.

Before we dive in, you’re invited to read my letter to uOttawa President Jacques Frémont about why and how to implement policy reforms to prevent supervisor bullying of students: Letter to uOttawa President Jacques Frémont: Supervisor bullying and policy reforms. You may also be interested in How to end supervisor bullying at uOttawa.

After completing the PhD program Rocci Luppicini suddenly stopped responding to my messages. Subsequently, when I complained, I was denied any academic support (e.g., reference letters) from members of my doctoral thesis advisory committee. Professor Andre Vellino even took the trouble to remind me that “academia is very political” and that I should acquiesce to tyranny.

Embarking on a PhD degree is a significant life investment. University and departmental politics will shape your educational experience. Yet, the political dimension of doctoral studies is often omitted in promotional material. Personally, I think academia is 60% meritocracy and 40% nepotism and cronyism.

After some background about the nature and history of the program, I outline the courses I took during my studies. Finally, I offer some insights from personal experience about the political nature of the program and graduate studies in general. Links to other relevant information about the program, program requirements, and key milestones are listed below.

Some background

The PhD in DTI is an interdisciplinary program of cross-faculty collaboration between the academic units: Telfer School of Management, Faculty of Arts, and Faculty of Engineering (where it is based, in the School of Electrical and Computer Science).

The PhD in DTI was launched in fall 2014. The core foundling faculty group included professors Liam Peyton and Andre Vellino, and others. The program’s name was changed in 2020 from E-Business (the PhD program) and EBT (the master’s streams) to Digital Transformation and Innovation.

The program is comprised of 9 course units, which translates to 2 interdisciplinary seminars (compulsory courses) 3 credits each and either 2 optional half courses (1.5 credits each) or one optional full course for a total of 9 course units. The main remaining program requirements are DTI 9998 Comprehensive Exam; DTI 9997 Doctorate Thesis Proposal; and THD 9999 Doctoral Thesis. The class size in 2015 was 18 students. Now in 2021 it’s 50 students (EBC is now DTI).

My courses

I started the program in fall 2015, taking:

DTI 6220 Data Analytics and Business Intelligence (1.5 unit): Introduction to business data collection, data pre-processing, data warehouses, data marts, and online analytical processing. Data mining tasks including classification, clustering and association rules. Data mining model building, tools and techniques including decision trees, neural networks, and regression analysis. Application of these techniques in business including CRM, target marketing, credit scoring, churn, survival analysis, and fraud detection.
DTI 8101 Interdisciplinary Doctoral Seminar in Digital Transformation and Innovation I (3 units): Recent developments in Digital Transformation and Innovation research. Critical analysis of theories, models, and methods. Critical synthesis of the field literature from different perspectives. Students will write a systematic survey paper of the literature relevant to their research in one of the three fields of the program.

In winter 2016 term, I took:

DTI 6240 Mobile Commerce (1.5 unit): M-Commerce business models and strategies, Wireless technology standards and evolution. Industry analysis and value creation frameworks. Diffusion and adoption of M-Commerce technologies. Demand-side and supply-side enterprise applications of M-Commerce.
DTI 8102 Interdisciplinary Doctoral Seminar in Digital Transformation and Innovation II (3 units): Recent developments in Digital Transformation and Innovation research. Critical analysis of theories, models, and methods. Critical synthesis of the field literature from different perspectives. Students will write a systematic survey paper of the literature relevant to their research in one of the three fields of the program.

The seminars are an opportunity to hone in on your thesis proposal topic which must normally be successfully completed by the end of the fifth term. You will have one supervisor for Area 1 (your main area or stream, e.g., e-Society) and another supervisor for Area 2 (e.g., e-Business). Ideally, the research papers that you work on for the seminars and comprehensive exams will become part of your actual thesis.

I successfully submitted my PhD thesis manuscript for evaluation on Dec. 20, 2019.

My PhD thesis submission email timeline DTI uOttawa

My PhD thesis completion timeline DTI uOttawa

Some politics

Professors work in groups. They form alliances and through alliances advance through the ranks. You’re really part of a group – know thy group.

Identify your group members. Ask about what happened to their graduates. How long did their students take to finish the program? What kind of support did their students receive during and after the program?

Ask about the average program completion timeline, 4 or 6 years? My guess is it’s around 6 years (from seeing my cohort). The professors are overworked and unless you’re persistent and deserving (goes without saying), there’s a good chance you may not finish in 4 years even if you put in the work.

There are two groups of students: domestic and international. The domestic students are likely to get into the PhD program after completing a master’s with their supervisor who is affiliated or associated with the PhD program. It’s unlikely I think that a domestic student who finished a master’s from another university and does not know an affiliate professor to get into the PhD in DTI Program.

From personal experience, the PhD in DTI Program has “a strong commitment to industry relevance” (their wording) and is rich in resources (software programs, library references, etc.), but is not particularly strong in the quantitative research approaches.

According to the DTI program’s website, the employment rate for program graduates is 95%, which sounds good. But you need to ask about the other 5%, and specifically about former graduates of your prospective supervisor(s). By now (2021), the program has been running for 8 years or so.