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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.

 

 Modified: Jul 31, 2008  

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