Ph.D. Program

PhD Requirements
 
The requirements listed below are in addition to the general requirements of the Graduate School as detailed in the Graduate Catalog.
 
All students in the Ph.D. program must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above; pass a two-part general examination; complete a dissertation which represents a significant contribution to the field and pass a final oral defense.
 
Students must take a minimum of 33 credits of content coursework beyond a B.S. degree or 18 credits of content coursework beyond an M.S. degree. At least half the content coursework must be in ECE, with no more than three credits of ECE 6099 Independent Study in Electrical Engineering. In addition, a student must take at least two credits of ECE 6094 Seminar and at least fifteen credits of GRAD 6950 (Doctoral Dissertation Research) or GRAD 6960 (Full-time Doctoral Research).
In addition, students must meet the following minimum research publications requirements:
  1. One first-author full length papers (conference or journal) accepted by the time of the proposal presentation.
  2. Three journal papers with first authorship by the time of the dissertation defense, two accepted and one submitted. For computer engineering students, with the approval of the advisory committee, up to three journal papers may be replaced by full proceedings papers with first authorship presented at leading international conferences with a documented acceptance rate of under 30% based on data from the previous year.
The student’s Plan of Study must be approved by the graduate advisory committee and the Graduate School by the end of the second semester.  The student’s Advisory Committee has the final word on all Plan of Study matters.
 
The final defense must be taken at least six months after passing the proposal.