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Ph.D. in Computer Science
90.0 credits

General Requirements
The following general requirements must be satisfied in order to complete the Ph.D. in Computer Science:

• 90.0 credit hours total
• 10 breadth requirement courses
• 3 advanced courses, plus 3 additional independent study courses (approved by student’s advisor) toward the depth requirement
• qualifying exam
• candidacy exam
• approval of dissertation proposal
• defense of dissertation

Students entering with a master’s degree may be exempted from some or all of the courses in the breadth requirement; however, they are still required to take and pass the qualifying exam. In addition students may receive up to 45 transfer credits for an existing M.S. degree in Computer Science or related field. Individual
courses may also be transferred with approval of the Graduate Advisor.
The total credit amount, candidacy exam, and dissertation are University Requirements. Additional requirements are determined by the department offering the degree.

Curriculum

Breadth Requirement Courses			Credits
CS 521	Data Structures and Algorithms I		3.0
CS 522	Data Structures and Algorithms II		3.0
CS 525	Theory of Computation		3.0
CS 550	Programming Languages		3.0
CS 543	Operating Systems		3.0
CS 544	Computer Networks		3.0
In addition, all students are required to take an additional four courses and develop background knowledge in an area of particular interest. These courses are organized into the following seven areas. Students must take courses from at least two different areas:
Artificial Intelligence
CS 510	Artificial Intelligence		3.0
CS 610	Advanced Artificial Intelligence		3.0
CS 612	Knowledge Based Agents		3.0
CS 613	Machine Learning		3.0
CS 614	Natural Language Processing		3.0
CS 615	Intelligent Time-Critical Reasoning		3.0
Algorithms and Theory
CS 621	Approximation Algorithms		3.0
CS 623	Computational Geometry		3.0
CS 759	Complexity Theory		3.0
CS 680	Special Topics: Parallel Algorithms		3.0
CS 680	Special Topics: Topics in Algorithms		3.0
Human Computer Interaction and Computer Graphics
CS 530	Developing User Interfaces		3.0
CS 536	Computer Graphics		3.0
CS 630	\Cognitive Modeling		3.0
CS 636	Advanced Computer Graphics		3.0
PSY 612	Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction		3.0
Numeric and Symbolic Computation
CS 680 / MATH 540	Numeric Computing		3.0
CS 680 / MATH 521	Numerical Analysis II		3.0
CS 680 / MATH 522	Numerical Analysis III		3.0
CS 567	Applied Symbolic Computation		3.0
CS 668	Computer Algebra I		3.0
CS 669	Computer Algebra II		3.0
Programming Languages and Compilers
CS 551	Compiler Construction I		3.0
CS 552	Compiler Construction II		3.0
Software Engineering
CS 575	Software Design		3.0
CS 576	Dependable Software Systems		3.0
CS 675	Reverse Engineering		3.0
CS 680	Special Topics: Formal Methods		3.0
Systems
CS 643	Advanced Operating Systems		3.0
CS 644	Computer Networks II		3.0
CS 645	Network Security		3.0
CS 676	Parallel Processing		3.0
Depth Requirement Courses
Doctoral students are required to complete at least three CS courses beyond the breadth requirement. These courses should be advanced courses listed in the areas under the breadth requirement, appropriate special topics courses, or advanced topics courses covering current research in selected areas. All students must take at least one advanced topics course. Course selection must be made with the student’s advisor. Independent Study Courses Students are required to take 9 additional credits of independent study work. Selection of independent studies should be made in consultation with the student's advisor. This work is intended to prepare the student for later research.
Thesis Proposal
After completing the candidacy examination successfully, the Ph.D. candidate must prepare a thesis proposal that outlines, in detail, the specific problems that will be solved in the Ph.D. dissertation. The quality of the research proposal should be at the level of, for example, a peer-reviewed proposal to a federal funding agency, or a publishable scientific paper. The candidate is responsible for sending the research proposal to the Ph.D. committee two weeks before the oral presentation. The Ph.D. committee need not be the same as the candidacy exam committee, but it follows the same requirements and must be approved by the Office of Graduate Studies. The oral presentation involves a 30-minute presentation by the candidate followed by an unspecified period during which the committee will ask questions. After the question and answer period, the candidate will be asked to leave the room and the committee will determine if the research proposal has been accepted. The research proposal can be repeated at most once. A thesis proposal must be approved within two years of becoming a Ph.D. candidate.
Thesis Defense
After completing the research proposal successfully, the Ph.D. candidate must conduct the necessary research and publish the results in a Ph.D. dissertation. The dissertation must be submitted to the Ph.D. committee two weeks prior to the oral defense. The oral presentation involves a 45-minute presentation by the candidate, open to the public, followed by an unspecified period during which the committee will ask questions. The question-and-answer period is not open to the public. After the question and answer period, the candidate will be asked to leave the room and the committee will determine if the candidate has passed or failed the examination. The candidate will be granted one more chance to pass the final defense if (s)he fails it the first time. Paperwork selecting the thesis committee and indicating the results of the thesis defense must be filed with the Department and the Office of Graduate Studies.