Graduate Handbook

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The PhD program emphasizes preparation for research, teaching, and scholarly endeavor in academic settings or private, industrial, or governmental laboratories. It requires completion of a minimum number of course semester hours, satisfactory performance on qualifying and comprehensive exams, and the production and formal defense of a dissertation describing original research results. The requirements described here are in addition to the University-wide requirements for the PhD degree described in the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College, Section XII.

Advising

Every graduate student must have a faculty advisor. For PhD students, the academic advisor usually also serves as the research supervisor and thesis committee chair. Entering students are initially assigned to the Director of Graduate Studies, but students are encouraged to seek Computer Science faculty members whose research interests align with their own.

Advisor Selection

Each student should select an academic advisor and dissertation committee chair from among the Computer Science Department faculty. Once a faculty member has agreed to serve as a student's advisor, a Change of Advisor form should be filed with the Graduate Program Administrator. The faculty recognizes that an individual student's interests may change with time, and that this may result in a student changing advisors accordingly.

External Advisors

Students wishing to pursue a PhD with an advisor/chair who is not a member of the Computer Science Department faculty must also designate a co-advisor from within the CS faculty to serve on their comprehensive and dissertation committees. The co-advisor serves to ensure that all CS departmental requirements are met for both the comprehensive exam and dissertation defense.

Course Requirements

The PhD requires completion of 72 semester hours of coursework beyond the bachelor's degree.

Core Requirement

All PhD students are required to take both courses below for a total of 6 semester hours:
      22C:231 Design and Analysis of Algorithms
      22C:135 Theory of Computation

Breadth Requirement

All PhD students are required to select a total of 3 courses (9 semester hours total), with at least one course selected from each of the following three categories:

Systems and Software:
     22C:160 High Performance Computer Architecture
     22C:162 Advanced Operating Systems
Networks and Distributed Systems:
     22C:166 Distributed Systems and Algorithms
     22C:168 Computer Communications
Programming Languages and Compilers:
     22C:181 Formal Methods in Software Engineering
     22C:185 Programming Language Foundations
     22C:186 Compiler Construction

New or alternative offerings may, from time to time, be designated as also satisfying a given area requirement.

Practice Requirement

All PhD students are required to take at least one course (3 semester hours) having significant practical or implementation-oriented content. Courses satisfying this requirement will be so designated each semester, and some examples would include:

     22C:144 Database Systems
     22C:145 Artificial Intelligence
     22C:151 Computer Graphics
     22C:165 Parallel Programming
     22C:174 Optimization Techniques
     22C:177 High Performance Computing
     22C:180 Fundamentals of Software Engineering
     22C:198 Individual Programming Projects

Colloquium Requirement

All PhD students must accumulate at least 4 semester hours of 22C:399, the Computer Science Department colloquium series. Students enrolled in 22C:399 are graded S/U. The Department will offer approximately 10 talks each semester; of these, students much attend at least seven talks to get a satisfactory score for the course. (Note: if, for some reason the Department schedules significantly more or significantly less than 10 talks in a semester, the required number of talks that must be attended may be changed for that particular term.)

Cognate Area Requirement

All PhD students are required to select, in consultation with their advisor, a total of 9 semester hours constituting coherent coverage of an external cognate area. Reasonable choices include, but are not limited to, mathematics, statistics, genetics, biology, or an engineering discipline.

Elective Courses

PhD students should fill the remaining 41-44 semester hours with a combination of thesis hours, directed readings, CS graduate courses, and non-CS graduate courses, all approved by their advisor.

Transfer Credits

Graduate Admissions and the Department will review graduate coursework already completed that may warrant transfer credit. Advising sessions will determine how those credits will affect the student’s program requirements. Note: regardless of how many transfer credit are awarded, Graduate College residency requirements must always be satisfied. Also, transferred courses that are being used to satisfy program requirements must be less than 10 years old at the time of the comprehensive exam.

To have a program requirement waived on the basis of prior graduate coursework, the student must submit a petition to the CS Graduate Program Administrator seeking appropriate modifications to the PhD program requirements to reflect their prior coursework. Note that such students should expect that qualifying and comprehensive exam time requirements (i.e., when the student should take those exams) may also be changed to reflect previous coursework.

Qualifying Exam Requirement

The purpose of the qualifying exam is to demonstrate the ability to read and communicate current research results.

Qualifying Exam Timetable

Students must pass the qualifying exam by the end of their second year. Qualifying exams are given only twice a year, approximately the first week of September and the last week of January. PhD students should attempt the qualifying exam at the beginning of their second year (a student will typically prepare for the qualifying exam during the summer after their first year, and may elect to enroll for directed readings credit while doing so).

Qualifying Exam Structure

A qualifying exam is based on a small number of research articles selected in consultation with the student's advisor. The candidate prepares a 15-20 page summary/discussion of this material (alternatively, a student may elect to choose their own, externally peer-reviewed conference or journal publication as a basis for the exam if their advisor deems it appropriate).

Qualifying Exam Panel

Once the candidate has filed a Request for PhD Qualifying Exam form (along with the candidate's summary document) with the Graduate Program Administrator, a panel of three faculty will be selected by the Department in accordance with an area-based random drawing and a date will be assigned during the scheduled exam period for the candidate's 20-40 minute oral presentation (the exam will occur no sooner than a week after filing the request in order to give the faculty panel a chance to review the student's qualifying exam document). The three-member faculty panel, along with the student's advisor acting in an advisory (non-voting) capacity, will decide the outcome of the exam by majority vote.

Qualifying Exam Failure

A student who fails the qualifying exam will be permitted to repeat the exam one additional time. PhD students who do not pass the qualifying exam by the second semester of the second year (regardless of the number of attempts undertaken) will be automatically dropped into the MCS program. Financial support for students changing to the MCS program is not guaranteed beyond their second year.

Master of Computer Science Degree (MCS) En Route

Students may request that an MCS degree be granted when all course requirements (32 s.h.) for the MCS have been satisfied. If an MCS degree is to be awarded, please be aware of the appropriate deadlines (e.g., Application for Degree and Plan of Study Summary Form). Note that students who opt for the MCS may not request an MS degree at the time of their comprehensive exam (see Master's Degree (MS) at Comprehensive Exam).

Comprehensive Exam Requirement

The comprehensive exam will consist of a review of the literature and preliminary outline and investigation of a research problem that will be pursued for the PhD thesis. Students should plan to pass their comprehensive exam before the end of their third year and certainly by the end of their fourth year to remain in good standing.

Comprehensive Exam Structure

The structure and evaluation of the comprehensive exam follows the procedures outlined in the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College, Section XII (K). The student should file a Request for PhD Comprehensive Exam form with the Graduate Program Administrator, who will help ensure that the appropriate paperwork (including an up-to-date Graduate College Plan of Study summary form and a proposed exam committee) is submitted to the Graduate College for approval. Students must be registered for classes at the time of their comprehensive exam.

The exam may be written, oral, or both, at the discretion of the student's committee. A typical student might prepare a 20-30 page survey/discussion (along the lines of the introduction and literature review from an eventual thesis) for distribution to their faculty committee, followed at least a week later by a brief 20-40 minute oral presentation.

Master’s Degree (MS) at Comprehensive Exam

Students may request that the MS degree be granted at the time of the comprehensive exam by indicating this on the Request for PhD Comprehensive Exam form and filed with the Graduate Program Administrator. The MS degree without thesis is awarded upon successful completion of the comprehensive exam but may, at the examination committee's discretion, be awarded even if the student does not pass the exam. Students may also choose to complete the thesis requirements and be awarded an MS with thesis degree. Note that students who opt to receive the MCS (see Master of Computer Science Degree (MCS) En Route) may not elect to receive the MS. If an MS degree is to be awarded, please be aware of the appropriate deadlines (e.g., Application for Degree and Plan of Study Summary Form).

Post-Comprehensive Exam Registration

After completion of the comprehensive exam, the student is required to maintain continuous registration (fall and spring semesters) through completion of the dissertation. Note that there are special rules for postcomprehensive exam registration, as students will typically not be enrolled in classes, but rather will be working exclusively on the thesis requirement (see Section XII [L] of the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College).

Dissertation Requirement

The dissertation must describe original research performed by the PhD candidate and must be defended before a faculty committee.

Dissertation Committee and Proposal Defense

At least six months prior to the final exam, a student must form a dissertation committee and circulate a formal thesis proposal to the committee. The proposal should describe the research performed to date, any related work, and outline the expected thesis results. The student must, in essence, argue the originality and significance of the expected results to the committee in a manner consistent with their advisor's counsel (this may or may not include an oral presentation). Students should complete the form, Request to Appoint a PhD Committee/Proposal Defense, when all members have agreed to serve on the committee and a date has been set for the defense.

Dissertation Defense

The structure and evaluation of the final exam will follow the procedure outlined in the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College, Section XII (M) through XII (P). A committee of at least five faculty members, with a majority being Computer Science Department faculty, is proposed by the candidate and his or her advisor, approved by the Department Chair, and appointed by the Dean of the Graduate College. Be aware that the appropriate paperwork, especially thesis deposits, must be filed with the Graduate College within the specified time constraints.

Residency Requirement

The Graduate College has additional explicit residence requirements that must be satisfied in order to obtain the PhD. For full details, see the Manual of Rules and Regulations of the Graduate College, Section XII (C).

Academic Standing

Students must maintain a minimum 3.0 grade point average to remain in good standing. Furthermore, each PhD student must, at a minimum:

• demonstrate academic progress in their coursework;
• demonstrate capacity and aptitude for research;
• pass the qualifying exam by the end of their second year; and
• pass the comprehensive exam by the end of their fourth year.

PhD Departmental Plan of Study Form

Each student is responsible for maintaining an up-to-date PhD Plan of Study document on file with the Graduate Program Administrator. The PhD Plan of Study is used to track student progress throughout the program, and should be updated each semester in collaboration with the student's advisor. It is also used to prepare the Graduate College’s Plan of Study summary document when requesting permission to take the comprehensive examination.

Academic Review

The faculty will meet each fall to review all aspects of each student's progress towards a degree, with student standing ultimately determined by the faculty on the basis of coursework, exams, and research. Typically, students having a relatively weaker record in one aspect should demonstrate exceptional strength in other measures of achievement, or risk being placed on departmental probation.

Departmental Probation

A student placed on departmental probation shall be given a written explanation of the reasons for this action, along with a reasonable period of time (typically one year) within which the student shall take corrective action or be dismissed from the graduate program.

Petitions

Students may submit petitions to the Computer Science Department Graduate Program Administrator for deviations from the requirements outlined here. Petition forms are available at the front desk and as a pdf.

Last modified: September 7, 2007