The requirements for the MS in Computer Science are listed below and are also described in the entry in the . All of these requirements must be satisfied in addition to the University requirements outlined under the in the Graduate Catalog.
Three options are available:
- Courses-only Option: A minimum of 34 credit hours is required, including 33 credits of course work and one credit of colloquium.
- Project Option: A minimum of 34 credit hours is required, including 30 credits of course work, three credits of project work and one credit of colloquium. The candidate is required to prepare a written report on the project and to present it orally. The project proposal must be approved by the GPD. For more information, see Master's Project details.
- Thesis Option: A minimum of 31 credit hours is required, including 24 credits of course work, six credits of thesis research and one credit of colloquium. The candidate is required to write a thesis and make an oral presentation of the results. For more information, see Master's Thesis.
The following core courses are required:
- CS 665 (Computer Architecture)
- CS 500 (Foundations of Computing) or CS 600 (Algorithms and Data Structures)
MS students in the thesis option are required to take CS 600 and CS 665 to satisfy the core requirements.
Two options are available:
- Courses-only Option: A minimum of 34 credit hours is required, including 33 credits of course work and one credit of colloquium. 18 credits (6 courses) must be CS graduate courses, and 15 credits (5 courses) must be IT graduate courses.
- Project Option: A minimum of 34 credit hours is required, including 30 credits of course work, three credits of project work and one credit of colloquium. 15 credits (5 courses) must be CS graduate courses, and 15 credits (5 courses) must be IT graduate courses. The candidate is required to prepare a written report on the project and to present it orally. The project proposal must be approved by both the IT GPD and CS GPD. For more information, see Master's Project details.
There are no core requirements for the ICT concentration.
For all options in the ICT concentration, at least 6 of the CS graduate credits must be taken at the 600-level or 700-level from courses other than CS 697, CS 791, and CS 796.
For more information on IT courses, contact the GPD for the IT program.
The following requirements are common to both the General MS and the MS with Concentration in ICT.
Colloquium: A one-credit course, CS 690, is required for all students. Register for it in any semester and attend 10 talks before you graduate over any number of semesters. Visit Colloquium Activities for more information.
Comprehensive Examination: Each student is required to pass both an oral and a written comprehensive examination. The outcome of each exam is Pass/Fail. A student who fails either exam will be advised of what to do to improve and must take the exam again. The format of the examination depends upon the option the student is completing. See Department of Computer Science Exit Exam for more information.
Course Restrictions:
- At most 12 credits of 500-level courses are counted for your Masters degree.
- At most 9 credits of any combination of CS 697, 791, and 796 are counted for your Masters degree.
- At least 3 credits must be taken at the 700-level from courses other than CS 791 and CS 796.
- Internship courses (such as CS 667, CS 668, CS 669) do not count towards your degree.
Independent Study:
- At most 6 credit hours can be taken as independent study (CS 697).
- The instructor should be an approved graduate faculty.
- The student must submit a plan (about one page) of the independent study which is to be signed by the instructor and the Graduate Program Director before registration. This plan should also include a schedule of required meetings between the student and instructor. A copy of this form is kept in the student's file.
- No more than three Seminar/Topics and Independent Study courses (CS 697, CS 791, CS 796) will be counted towards the MS degree course requirements.
Responsible Conduct of Research Training: Before completing 12 hours of graduate work, all graduate students must complete training on the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR). The most applicable RCR course is the one for Engineers.
Time Limit: All requirements for the master's degree must be completed within eight years.
Graduation: You must apply for graduation at least six months before you plan to graduate. For more information, see the ¹ÏÉñÍø Graduation Candidates page (make sure to view all of the tabs).
A candidate for the doctoral degree in computer science must meet all of the following requirements in addition to the University requirements outlined in the (see ).
- Complete a minimum of 78 credit hours beyond the bachelor's degree or 48 credit hours beyond the master's degree, including courses that meet the breadth requirement and 24 credit hours of CS 899 (Doctoral Dissertation).
- Develop a dissertation topic that is approved by the student's Ph.D. advisor.
- Pass the candidacy examination process.
- Ph.D. candidacy: Once coursework (not counting CS 899 credits) is complete, the candidacy exam process is passed, and the dissertation topic is approved, the student is considered to be a Ph.D. candidate and must register for at least 1 credit hour each semester until graduation.
- Write and defend the dissertation prospectus (proposal).
- Attend at least 10 departmental colloquium events and take the 1 credit hour CS 690 Colloquium. Visit Colloquium Activities for more information.
- Write and successfully defend the dissertation - see Dissertation Format and Deadlines for more information.
The above must be completed within 8 years after admission to the Ph.D. program. Note that students with a degree in a discipline outside of computer science will be required to take prerequisite undergraduate courses that will not be counted towards the 78 credit hours requirement (see below).
Note: Forms mentioned below are available through the Graduate School. Please see the Graduate Program Assistant for additional information on submitting Graduate School forms.
Upon admission to the Ph.D. program, a faculty advisor will be assigned to the student for general guidance. The student, however, is expected to find a dissertation advisor by the time he or she completes the qualifying process. The guidelines for advising are outlined under Student Advising in the section of the Graduate Catalog.
Students with a master's degree in computer science or related field must complete at least 48 credit hours of coursework as specified below:
- A minimum of 24 hours of post-master's coursework (including the required CS 800) that meets the breadth course requirements. 3 credit hours of coursework at the 600-level may be included here.
- 24 credit hours or more of dissertation work (CS 899).
- A maximum of 6 credit hours may be transferred into the Ph.D. program from post-master's coursework done elsewhere.
Students without a master's degree in computer science or related field must complete at least 78 credit hours of coursework as specified below:
- 12 credit hours of core coursework approved by the GPD from a list of courses including CS 500, CS 517, CS 550, CS 555, CS 600, CS 665
- A minimum of 42 credit hours of coursework at 600-level or above, of which at least 30 credit hours must be at 800-level (including the required CS 800), that meets the breadth course requirements.
- 24 credit hours or more of dissertation work (CS 899)
- Demonstrate proficiency in Problem Solving & Programming, Introduction to Computer Architecture, Advanced Data Structures and Algorithms, Introduction to Theoretical Computer Science, and Operating Systems at an undergraduate level
All students must take and pass CS 800 Research Methods (P/F graded course) during their first year in the Ph.D. program (or within one year of completing required undergraduate prerequisites).
Excellence in breadth is assessed through graduate coursework at ¹ÏÉñÍø and evaluated by multiple faculty members. To demonstrate this, a student must take four (4) CS graduate courses at the 600 level or above that meet the following conditions:
- For breadth: At least one course in three (3) different research areas ("Foundations" does not count as a research area)
- For depth: At least three (3) courses at the 800 level (these courses may also be used to satisfy condition 1)
- Earn a GPA of at least 3.5 across these four courses.
- The four courses must be regular courses that also earn a letter grade (thus CS 697, CS 800, CS 891, CS 896, and CS 899 do not count towards this requirement). Most CS 895 Topics courses will count towards this requirement, and those eligible will be assigned to an appropriate research area.
- Courses transferred from another university do not count towards this requirement.
Upon completing formal coursework (not counting CS 899 credits), before becoming heavily involved in dissertation work, and no later than three years after acceptance into the Ph.D. program (preferably during the first 24 months after admission into the program), the student must pass the Candidacy Examination process. Students may satisfy this requirement either by passing the Candidacy Examination or by completing an acceptable Research Event. Both options require a written and an oral component.
When forming the Candidacy Examination Committee, the student must submit the D1 form. After passing the Candidacy Examination Process, the student must submit the D3 form.
After passing the Candidacy Examination Process, completing coursework (not including CS 899), and having an approved dissertation topic, the student must submit the D9 form. Once the D9 has been approved, the student is considered a Ph.D. candidate and must register for at least 1 credit hour each semester (including summer) until graduation.
Option 1: Candidacy Examination
The topics and papers covered in the Candidacy Examination are set by the student's Ph.D. advisor and other members of the appropriate research area committee. The student will be provided a set of 5-10 papers to review in their research area.
Written Component: The student will write a summary of the papers, highlighting their contributions to the research area, noting how they are related and how they are different. The student must also propose areas for potential future work. Ideally, this document could form the basis for the related work section of the student's dissertation proposal. The written summary should be 15-20 pages in the standard ¹ÏÉñÍø dissertation format.
Oral Component: After the written component has been approved by the area committee, the student will give an oral presentation (about 20-30 minutes long) on the subject to the area committee. At the end of the presentation, the area committee may ask questions to further assess the student's understanding of the papers. At the end of the examination process, the committee will make a pass/fail decision and report this to the GPD.
The goal of this exam is to assess the student's understanding of the content of the papers and the student's ability to critically analyze and articulate the important issues raised in the papers. The student should also be able to identify potential areas for future research that build off of these papers.
A pass decision means that the area committee believes that the student is prepared and qualified to undertake Ph.D.-level research in computer science.
A fail decision means that the area committee believes the student is not ready to undertake Ph.D.-level research in computer science. The area committee should provide recommendations to the student on how to improve their performance. A student who fails the Candidacy Examination may retake the exam once or may attempt the Research Event option once. Two failures will result in the student being dismissed from the Ph.D. program. The student may request a different set of papers to be assigned for a retake.
Option 2: Research Event
Students who enter the Ph.D. program with an acceptable MS thesis or are first author on a high-quality academic submission may be able to satisfy the Candidacy Examination process without taking the Candidacy Exam. Each research area committee determines its own set of conferences and journals in their research area that would be acceptable.
Written Component: The written component may be satisfied either through either an accepted publication or a high-quality, but rejected, submission to an approved conference or journal. For either option, the student must be the first author.
- Accepted: The research area committee may approve an accepted publication to count as the written component of the Candidacy Examination process.
- Rejected: The research area committee may approve a rejected, but high-quality, submission as the baseline for the written component of the Candidacy Examination process. In addition to the submitted paper, the student must construct a document that outlines how the student would address the reviewers' comments.
Oral Component: After the written component has been approved by the area committee, the student will give an oral presentation (about 20-30 minutes long) on the subject to the area committee. At the end of the presentation, the area committee may ask questions to further assess the student's understanding of the research and related work. At the end of the examination process, the committee will make a pass/fail decision and report this to the GPD.
A pass decision means that the area committee believes that the student is prepared and qualified to undertake Ph.D.-level research in computer science.
A fail decision means that the area committee believes the student is not ready to undertake Ph.D.-level research in computer science. The area committee should provide recommendations to the student on how to improve their performance. A student who fails the Research Event option may attempt the Research Event option once more or may take the Candidacy Exam once. Two failures will result in the student being dismissed from the Ph.D. program.
To use the Research Event option, the student must provide the GPD and the chair of the appropriate research area committee a copy of the document proposed to satisfy the requirement. The document will be evaluated by the area committee to determine if it meets the stated criteria. The chair of the area committee will notify the student and the GPD of the outcome of the evaluation (acceptable or unacceptable). If the publication is deemed unacceptable, the student may submit another publication or take the Candidacy Examination. This does not count as an attempt.
If a student is not first author on a submitted paper to an approved conference/journal before they have completed formal coursework, they must take the Candidacy Examination within the next 6 months.
Doctoral Dissertation Committee
After the candidacy exam has been passed and dissertation topic approved, the Doctoral Advisory Committee's responsibilities are completed. A new committee, the Doctoral Dissertation Committee, is formed to supervise the dissertation research.
A Doctoral Dissertation Committee is formed according to the following procedure:
- The faculty advisor selects the members of the Doctoral Dissertation Committee in cooperation with the student and the graduate studies committee.
- The Doctoral Dissertation Committee consists of at least three ¹ÏÉñÍø faculty members. At least two of these must be from the Computer Science Department and one must be from outside the Computer Science Department. All committee members must be certified for graduate instruction. The current research interests of the computer science members of the committee should be related to the research goals of the student.
- Additional members may be appointed to the committee. Adjuncts (approved for graduate instruction) and non-university members may be added with approval of the GPD.
- The student must submit the D2 form.
Dissertation Prospectus
The oral examination of the written dissertation prospectus, or proposal, is designed to test the student's knowledge of background material related to the dissertation topic and to determine if the student has identified a significant problem, has a plan of attack, and is ready to proceed with the dissertation research.
The examination committee will be made up of at least three faculty members, all of whom must be graduate certified. These are typically the members of the student's dissertation committee.
At least one week before the scheduled examination time (and preferably two weeks before), the student must provide the examination committee with a dissertation research proposal. The proposal should contain the following items (not necessarily in this order):
- a comprehensive literature review on the dissertation topic that should in particular discuss limitations of current approaches and open problems in the topic area
- a description of the research problem
- a discussion of how the problem relates to other work in the field
- a detailed research plan, including proposed tasks and a timeline for completion
- a list of expected contributions
During the examination, the student will give a 45-minute presentation of the proposal to be followed by questions from the committee. The exam is expected to last no more than 2 hours.
The presentation of the dissertation proposal is open to the public and will be publicized by the GPD at least one week in advance of the exam. Once the presentation has concluded and the audience has asked general questions, the audience will be excused. The examination by the committee will be held in private, but any graduate faculty member is welcome to observe the exam.
The defense is chaired by the chair of the Doctoral Dissertation Committee (student's advisor). The chair will act as moderator, ruling on questions of procedure and protocol that may arise during the examination.
After passing the Dissertation Prospectus, the student must submit the D3 form.
Dissertation
A minimum of 24 credit hours of dissertation work (CS 899) is required. The work must represent an achievement in research and must be a significant contribution in the field. Students are required to publish (or have in the revision process) at least one paper in a refereed journal or refereed conference proceedings based on their dissertation work. For more information, see Dissertation Format and Deadlines.
Dissertation Defense
The examination will be oral and the examination committee must have the completed dissertation at least two weeks before the examination date. In addition to the examination, students are required to give a public oral presentation on their dissertation results.
After passing the Dissertation Defense, the student must submit the D3 form for the oral exam. After having the dissertation approved by the Dissertation Committee, the student must submit the D5 form.
Ph.D .students should normally be full-time. A full-time student can be expected to satisfy all the Ph.D. requirements in three to five years when entering with an MS degree, or four to six years with a BS degree. No student (full-time or part-time) will be allowed to study for the Ph.D. degree beyond eight years from the date of admission into the program.
Example Timelines
The time required for Ph.D. study in computer science is largely dependent upon the research conducted by the student. Because of this, students are encouraged to become involved in research as soon as possible.
An aggressive timeline for a full-time student entering with an MS degree and no prerequisite requirements may look like this:
- End of 12 months: Complete the breadth course requirement
- End of 18 months: Complete the candidacy examination process (candidacy examination or research event)
- End of 24 months: Pass the dissertation prospectus
- End of 36 months: Successfully defend the dissertation
For the same student, a normal timeline may look like this:
- End of 12 months: Complete the breadth course requirement
- End of 24 months: Complete the candidacy examination process (candidacy examination or research event)
- End of 30 months: Pass the dissertation prospectus
- End of 48 months: Successfully defend the dissertation
The requirements for the MS in Computer Science are listed below and are also described in the entry in the . All of these requirements must be satisfied in addition to the University requirements outlined under the in the Graduate Catalog.
Three options are available:
- Courses-only Option: A minimum of 34 credit hours is required, including 33 credits of course work and one credit of colloquium.
- Project Option: A minimum of 34 credit hours is required, including 30 credits of course work, three credits of project work and one credit of colloquium. The candidate is required to prepare a written report on the project and to present it orally. The project proposal must be approved by the GPD. For more information, see Master's Project details.
- Thesis Option: A minimum of 31 credit hours is required, including 24 credits of course work, six credits of thesis research and one credit of colloquium. The candidate is required to write a thesis and make an oral presentation of the results. For more information, see Master's Thesis.
The following core courses are required:
- CS 665 (Computer Architecture)
- CS 500 (Foundations of Computing) or CS 600 (Algorithms and Data Structures)
MS students in the thesis option are required to take CS 600 and CS 665 to satisfy the core requirements.
Two options are available:
- Courses-only Option: A minimum of 34 credit hours is required, including 33 credits of course work and one credit of colloquium. 18 credits (6 courses) must be CS graduate courses, and 15 credits (5 courses) must be IT graduate courses.
- Project Option: A minimum of 34 credit hours is required, including 30 credits of course work, three credits of project work and one credit of colloquium. 15 credits (5 courses) must be CS graduate courses, and 15 credits (5 courses) must be IT graduate courses. The candidate is required to prepare a written report on the project and to present it orally. The project proposal must be approved by both the IT GPD and CS GPD. For more information, see Master's Project details.
There are no core requirements for the ICT concentration.
For all options in the ICT concentration, at least 6 of the CS graduate credits must be taken at the 600-level or 700-level from courses other than CS 697, CS 791, and CS 796.
For more information on IT courses, contact the GPD for the IT program.
The following requirements are common to both the General MS and the MS with Concentration in ICT.
Colloquium: A one-credit course, CS 690, is required for all students. Register for it in any semester and attend 10 talks before you graduate over any number of semesters. Visit Colloquium Activities for more information.
Comprehensive Examination: Each student is required to pass both an oral and a written comprehensive examination. The outcome of each exam is Pass/Fail. A student who fails either exam will be advised of what to do to improve and must take the exam again. The format of the examination depends upon the option the student is completing. See Department of Computer Science Exit Exam for more information.
Course Restrictions:
- At most 12 credits of 500-level courses are counted for your Masters degree.
- At most 9 credits of any combination of CS 697, 791, and 796 are counted for your Masters degree.
- At least 3 credits must be taken at the 700-level from courses other than CS 791 and CS 796.
- Internship courses (such as CS 667, CS 668, CS 669) do not count towards your degree.
Independent Study:
- At most 6 credit hours can be taken as independent study (CS 697).
- The instructor should be an approved graduate faculty.
- The student must submit a plan (about one page) of the independent study which is to be signed by the instructor and the Graduate Program Director before registration. This plan should also include a schedule of required meetings between the student and instructor. A copy of this form is kept in the student's file.
- No more than three Seminar/Topics and Independent Study courses (CS 697, CS 791, CS 796) will be counted towards the MS degree course requirements.
Responsible Conduct of Research Training: Before completing 12 hours of graduate work, all graduate students must complete training on the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR). The most applicable RCR course is the one for Engineers.
Time Limit: All requirements for the master's degree must be completed within eight years.
Graduation: You must apply for graduation at least six months before you plan to graduate. For more information, see the ¹ÏÉñÍø Graduation Candidates page (make sure to view all of the tabs).
A candidate for the doctoral degree in computer science must meet all of the following requirements in addition to the University requirements outlined in the (see ).
- Complete a minimum of 78 credit hours beyond the bachelor's degree or 48 credit hours beyond the master's degree, including courses that meet the breadth requirement and 24 credit hours of CS 899 (Doctoral Dissertation).
- Develop a dissertation topic that is approved by the student's Ph.D. advisor.
- Pass the candidacy examination process.
- Ph.D. candidacy: Once coursework (not counting CS 899 credits) is complete, the candidacy exam process is passed, and the dissertation topic is approved, the student is considered to be a Ph.D. candidate and must register for at least 1 credit hour each semester until graduation.
- Write and defend the dissertation prospectus (proposal).
- Attend at least 10 departmental colloquium events and take the 1 credit hour CS 690 Colloquium. Visit Colloquium Activities for more information.
- Write and successfully defend the dissertation - see Dissertation Format and Deadlines for more information.
The above must be completed within 8 years after admission to the Ph.D. program. Note that students with a degree in a discipline outside of computer science will be required to take prerequisite undergraduate courses that will not be counted towards the 78 credit hours requirement (see below).
Note: Forms mentioned below are available through the Graduate School. Please see the Graduate Program Assistant for additional information on submitting Graduate School forms.
Upon admission to the Ph.D. program, a faculty advisor will be assigned to the student for general guidance. The student, however, is expected to find a dissertation advisor by the time he or she completes the qualifying process. The guidelines for advising are outlined under Student Advising in the section of the Graduate Catalog.
Students with a master's degree in computer science or related field must complete at least 48 credit hours of coursework as specified below:
- A minimum of 24 hours of post-master's coursework (including the required CS 800) that meets the breadth course requirements. 3 credit hours of coursework at the 600-level may be included here.
- 24 credit hours or more of dissertation work (CS 899).
- A maximum of 6 credit hours may be transferred into the Ph.D. program from post-master's coursework done elsewhere.
Students without a master's degree in computer science or related field must complete at least 78 credit hours of coursework as specified below:
- 12 credit hours of core coursework approved by the GPD from a list of courses including CS 500, CS 517, CS 550, CS 555, CS 600, CS 665
- A minimum of 42 credit hours of coursework at 600-level or above, of which at least 30 credit hours must be at 800-level (including the required CS 800), that meets the breadth course requirements.
- 24 credit hours or more of dissertation work (CS 899)
- Demonstrate proficiency in Problem Solving & Programming, Introduction to Computer Architecture, Advanced Data Structures and Algorithms, Introduction to Theoretical Computer Science, and Operating Systems at an undergraduate level
All students must take and pass CS 800 Research Methods (P/F graded course) during their first year in the Ph.D. program (or within one year of completing required undergraduate prerequisites).
Excellence in breadth is assessed through graduate coursework at ¹ÏÉñÍø and evaluated by multiple faculty members. To demonstrate this, a student must take four (4) CS graduate courses at the 600 level or above that meet the following conditions:
- For breadth: At least one course in three (3) different research areas ("Foundations" does not count as a research area)
- For depth: At least three (3) courses at the 800 level (these courses may also be used to satisfy condition 1)
- Earn a GPA of at least 3.5 across these four courses.
- The four courses must be regular courses that also earn a letter grade (thus CS 697, CS 800, CS 891, CS 896, and CS 899 do not count towards this requirement). Most CS 895 Topics courses will count towards this requirement, and those eligible will be assigned to an appropriate research area.
- Courses transferred from another university do not count towards this requirement.
Upon completing formal coursework (not counting CS 899 credits), before becoming heavily involved in dissertation work, and no later than three years after acceptance into the Ph.D. program (preferably during the first 24 months after admission into the program), the student must pass the Candidacy Examination process. Students may satisfy this requirement either by passing the Candidacy Examination or by completing an acceptable Research Event. Both options require a written and an oral component.
When forming the Candidacy Examination Committee, the student must submit the D1 form. After passing the Candidacy Examination Process, the student must submit the D3 form.
After passing the Candidacy Examination Process, completing coursework (not including CS 899), and having an approved dissertation topic, the student must submit the D9 form. Once the D9 has been approved, the student is considered a Ph.D. candidate and must register for at least 1 credit hour each semester (including summer) until graduation.
Option 1: Candidacy Examination
The topics and papers covered in the Candidacy Examination are set by the student's Ph.D. advisor and other members of the appropriate research area committee. The student will be provided a set of 5-10 papers to review in their research area.
Written Component: The student will write a summary of the papers, highlighting their contributions to the research area, noting how they are related and how they are different. The student must also propose areas for potential future work. Ideally, this document could form the basis for the related work section of the student's dissertation proposal. The written summary should be 15-20 pages in the standard ¹ÏÉñÍø dissertation format.
Oral Component: After the written component has been approved by the area committee, the student will give an oral presentation (about 20-30 minutes long) on the subject to the area committee. At the end of the presentation, the area committee may ask questions to further assess the student's understanding of the papers. At the end of the examination process, the committee will make a pass/fail decision and report this to the GPD.
The goal of this exam is to assess the student's understanding of the content of the papers and the student's ability to critically analyze and articulate the important issues raised in the papers. The student should also be able to identify potential areas for future research that build off of these papers.
A pass decision means that the area committee believes that the student is prepared and qualified to undertake Ph.D.-level research in computer science.
A fail decision means that the area committee believes the student is not ready to undertake Ph.D.-level research in computer science. The area committee should provide recommendations to the student on how to improve their performance. A student who fails the Candidacy Examination may retake the exam once or may attempt the Research Event option once. Two failures will result in the student being dismissed from the Ph.D. program. The student may request a different set of papers to be assigned for a retake.
Option 2: Research Event
Students who enter the Ph.D. program with an acceptable MS thesis or are first author on a high-quality academic submission may be able to satisfy the Candidacy Examination process without taking the Candidacy Exam. Each research area committee determines its own set of conferences and journals in their research area that would be acceptable.
Written Component: The written component may be satisfied either through either an accepted publication or a high-quality, but rejected, submission to an approved conference or journal. For either option, the student must be the first author.
- Accepted: The research area committee may approve an accepted publication to count as the written component of the Candidacy Examination process.
- Rejected: The research area committee may approve a rejected, but high-quality, submission as the baseline for the written component of the Candidacy Examination process. In addition to the submitted paper, the student must construct a document that outlines how the student would address the reviewers' comments.
Oral Component: After the written component has been approved by the area committee, the student will give an oral presentation (about 20-30 minutes long) on the subject to the area committee. At the end of the presentation, the area committee may ask questions to further assess the student's understanding of the research and related work. At the end of the examination process, the committee will make a pass/fail decision and report this to the GPD.
A pass decision means that the area committee believes that the student is prepared and qualified to undertake Ph.D.-level research in computer science.
A fail decision means that the area committee believes the student is not ready to undertake Ph.D.-level research in computer science. The area committee should provide recommendations to the student on how to improve their performance. A student who fails the Research Event option may attempt the Research Event option once more or may take the Candidacy Exam once. Two failures will result in the student being dismissed from the Ph.D. program.
To use the Research Event option, the student must provide the GPD and the chair of the appropriate research area committee a copy of the document proposed to satisfy the requirement. The document will be evaluated by the area committee to determine if it meets the stated criteria. The chair of the area committee will notify the student and the GPD of the outcome of the evaluation (acceptable or unacceptable). If the publication is deemed unacceptable, the student may submit another publication or take the Candidacy Examination. This does not count as an attempt.
If a student is not first author on a submitted paper to an approved conference/journal before they have completed formal coursework, they must take the Candidacy Examination within the next 6 months.
Doctoral Dissertation Committee
After the candidacy exam has been passed and dissertation topic approved, the Doctoral Advisory Committee's responsibilities are completed. A new committee, the Doctoral Dissertation Committee, is formed to supervise the dissertation research.
A Doctoral Dissertation Committee is formed according to the following procedure:
- The faculty advisor selects the members of the Doctoral Dissertation Committee in cooperation with the student and the graduate studies committee.
- The Doctoral Dissertation Committee consists of at least three ¹ÏÉñÍø faculty members. At least two of these must be from the Computer Science Department and one must be from outside the Computer Science Department. All committee members must be certified for graduate instruction. The current research interests of the computer science members of the committee should be related to the research goals of the student.
- Additional members may be appointed to the committee. Adjuncts (approved for graduate instruction) and non-university members may be added with approval of the GPD.
- The student must submit the D2 form.
Dissertation Prospectus
The oral examination of the written dissertation prospectus, or proposal, is designed to test the student's knowledge of background material related to the dissertation topic and to determine if the student has identified a significant problem, has a plan of attack, and is ready to proceed with the dissertation research.
The examination committee will be made up of at least three faculty members, all of whom must be graduate certified. These are typically the members of the student's dissertation committee.
At least one week before the scheduled examination time (and preferably two weeks before), the student must provide the examination committee with a dissertation research proposal. The proposal should contain the following items (not necessarily in this order):
- a comprehensive literature review on the dissertation topic that should in particular discuss limitations of current approaches and open problems in the topic area
- a description of the research problem
- a discussion of how the problem relates to other work in the field
- a detailed research plan, including proposed tasks and a timeline for completion
- a list of expected contributions
During the examination, the student will give a 45-minute presentation of the proposal to be followed by questions from the committee. The exam is expected to last no more than 2 hours.
The presentation of the dissertation proposal is open to the public and will be publicized by the GPD at least one week in advance of the exam. Once the presentation has concluded and the audience has asked general questions, the audience will be excused. The examination by the committee will be held in private, but any graduate faculty member is welcome to observe the exam.
The defense is chaired by the chair of the Doctoral Dissertation Committee (student's advisor). The chair will act as moderator, ruling on questions of procedure and protocol that may arise during the examination.
After passing the Dissertation Prospectus, the student must submit the D3 form.
Dissertation
A minimum of 24 credit hours of dissertation work (CS 899) is required. The work must represent an achievement in research and must be a significant contribution in the field. Students are required to publish (or have in the revision process) at least one paper in a refereed journal or refereed conference proceedings based on their dissertation work. For more information, see Dissertation Format and Deadlines.
Dissertation Defense
The examination will be oral and the examination committee must have the completed dissertation at least two weeks before the examination date. In addition to the examination, students are required to give a public oral presentation on their dissertation results.
After passing the Dissertation Defense, the student must submit the D3 form for the oral exam. After having the dissertation approved by the Dissertation Committee, the student must submit the D5 form.
Ph.D .students should normally be full-time. A full-time student can be expected to satisfy all the Ph.D. requirements in three to five years when entering with an MS degree, or four to six years with a BS degree. No student (full-time or part-time) will be allowed to study for the Ph.D. degree beyond eight years from the date of admission into the program.
Example Timelines
The time required for Ph.D. study in computer science is largely dependent upon the research conducted by the student. Because of this, students are encouraged to become involved in research as soon as possible.
An aggressive timeline for a full-time student entering with an MS degree and no prerequisite requirements may look like this:
- End of 12 months: Complete the breadth course requirement
- End of 18 months: Complete the candidacy examination process (candidacy examination or research event)
- End of 24 months: Pass the dissertation prospectus
- End of 36 months: Successfully defend the dissertation
For the same student, a normal timeline may look like this:
- End of 12 months: Complete the breadth course requirement
- End of 24 months: Complete the candidacy examination process (candidacy examination or research event)
- End of 30 months: Pass the dissertation prospectus
- End of 48 months: Successfully defend the dissertation