In addition to meeting the School of Engineering
requirements for the Ph.D. degree, candidates
for the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering
are required to satisfy the following:
Supervisory Committee:
The supervisory committee plays an important role in guiding the student and
monitoring his or her progress at all stages of the Ph.D. program. As such,
the committee should be constituted as early as possible after the student
has begun doctoral work, and before he or she has completed the course work.
The committee will be selected by the student in consultation with the dissertation
director, who must be a member of the regular (tenure-track) faculty of the
Electrical Engineering Department. The committee chair must be a member of
the regular faculty of the department and will normally be the dissertation
director. The committee must have a minimum of five members of the regular
faculty of the University and will consist of at least three faculty members
from the Electrical Engineering Department (including the chair and the dissertation
director, if different from the chair), as well as one member from each minor
field.
Qualifying Examination:
The qualifying examination for admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree
consists of both written and oral examinations. The written part will be
administered by the Doctoral Program Committee of the Electrical Engineering
Department and will normally be given once each fall and spring term on dates
to be announced by the committee. The exam must be taken no later than one
year after the student begins the Ph.D. program, or at the earliest time
thereafter that the exam is scheduled. The exam is based on course work in
the student's major area. In each term, the Doctoral Program Committee issues
a registration form for this exam a few weeks prior to its scheduled date.
A student who desires to take the written exam in that term must file this
registration form with the Doctoral Program Committee by the deadline indicated
on the form. The student is required to pass the exam in one area to be chosen
from the list below:
Digital Signal Processing
Communications
Systems and Control
Electromagnetic Theory and Optics
Solid-State Devices and Materials
Circuits
Each exam will be of three hours duration and
will normally be closed-book. The determination
as to whether a student has passed the written
exam will be made by the Doctoral Program Committee.
1. A student who does not pass the exam can
take it a second time.
2. A student who fails the exam both times will not be permitted to continue
in the Ph.D. program.
3. A student who repeats an exam must do so at the earliest possible time after
the first attempt.
4. If, after passing the written exam, the student decides to change his or
her research area, he or she will be required to pass another written exam
in the new area.
The oral qualifying exam will be administered
by the student's supervisory committee. The exam
will be taken after the student has passed the
written exam and has completed most of the required
course work, but no later than one year after
completing all course work. A student who does
not meet the deadline must petition the Doctoral
Program Committee for permission to take the
oral exam.
The main focus of the exam will be on the research the student proposes to
conduct for his or her dissertation. The student is expected to write up a
description of the research problem, previous results, and the approach or
approaches he or she proposes to consider in the investigation. The write-up
must be made available to the supervisory committee at least two weeks prior
to the scheduled date of the exam and should clearly indicate the significance
and originality of the research, the proposed approaches, and the expected
results.
The student will be admitted to candidacy upon
passing the oral qualifying exam. A student who
does not pass the oral exam may be permitted
by the supervisory committee to retake it once.
If, after admission to candidacy, the student
decides to change his or her research area, he
or she will be required to take the qualifying
exam again and be readmitted to candidacy before
being permitted to complete the dissertation.
Final Examination:
Upon completion of all other requirements, the student is required to take
a final examination conducted by his or her supervisory committee, in which
he or she will present the dissertation. The student will notify the School
of Engineering Graduate Division in advance of the date, time, and place
of the exam so that it can be publicized on campus. The student should provide
copies of the complete draft version of the dissertation to the supervisory
committee at least three weeks prior to the date of the final exam. It is
recommended that students submit the results of their research for publication
at conferences or in journals before taking the final exam.
The supervisory committee may ask questions
and make comments or require changes in the dissertation
to satisfy itself that the quality of the work
is in keeping with the highest standards of research.
If the dissertation requires substantial changes,
the student should submit the revised dissertation
to the supervisory committee for re-examination.
