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The Ph.D. is a research degree offered through the Graduate School. It is awarded to a candidate who has demonstrated breadth in Computer Science in general, and depth in a research specialty within Computer Science. The latter is exhibited through the writing and defense of a dissertation that reports substantial original contributions in an approved area of research.
A student who has been accepted by the Graduate School is formally admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. by the University at the recommendation of the student's supervisory committee. Admission to candidacy occurs after the student:
An application for candidacy must be submitted to the Graduate School no later than the last day preceding the semester of graduation. For the degree to be conferred, the approved Program of Study form must be completed and the dissertation completed and publicly defended.
Each of these steps is described below. Most of the steps involve completing and submitting a properly signed form. Forms and assistance are available from the Graduate Coordinator.
Supervisory Committee. Each student forms a supervisory committee whose members guide the student's research program. The committee conducts the student's comprehensive examination, written qualifying examination, oral qualifying examination, and dissertation defense. A Ph.D. supervisory committee consists of five faculty members and must include a member from outside the Department of Computer Science. Any computer science regular faculty member may serve as a supervisory committee chair. Other faculty may chair supervisory committees if accorded that privilege by the regular faculty. Individuals who are not faculty members may serve on supervisory committees if nominated by the regular faculty on the committee, and endorsed by the Graduate Studies Committee and department chair.
Final approval of all supervisory committees is granted by the Dean of the Graduate School. Students must form this committee by the end of the second semester of study, although a committee may be revised later by petition to the Graduate Studies Committee.
Required Courses. The Computer Science Ph.D. program is not considered an ``entry level'' program; therefore, all incoming students will be expected to have demonstrated a basic understanding of fundamental concepts. Students with non-traditional backgrounds must show proficiency in or complete the courses listed as ``background''.
There are no specific required courses for Ph.D. students. The comprehensive examinations ensure that all students who receive a Ph.D. degree have a working knowledge of those topics in computer science that are deemed fundamental by the faculty.
Program of Study. Course work listed on the approved Program of Study form must comprise at least 50 semester hours of graduate course work and dissertation research, exclusive of independent study. Graduate course work applied toward an M.S. degree may be included. At least 14 semester hours of dissertation research (CS 7970) and 27 semester hours of graduate course work must be included.
CS courses on the Program of Study must be at the 6000 level or above, excluding independent study, seminars, and research credits. Of the required 27 semester hours, up to 6 may be graduate courses outside of CS.
Neither courses CS 6930-CS 6944 (Computer Science Seminars) nor Independent study (CS 6950 and CS 7950) can be included in the Program of Study for the Ph.D. degree.
One year of study must be spent in full-time residency at the University (i.e., the student must enroll for a minimum of nine hours per semester for two consecutive semesters, summer optionally excluded). After the residency requirement is fulfilled, registration for three semester hours of CS 7970 (Ph.D. Dissertation Research) is considered a full load.
A student may register for CS 6020 if that student writes and publishes a peer-reviewed article based on research performed in the University of Utah Department of Computer Science. The contribution of the student to the article should be equivalent to that conferred by first authorship. The paper should be published in a respectable outlet. It is the responsibility of the student's advisor to determine whether the student has made such a contribution, and whether the outlet is of sufficient quality. This paper must be accepted for publication prior to the end of the second year of study.
The Program of Study form should be filed with the department in the second semester of study and with the Graduate School prior to taking the qualifying examination. The Program of Study form must be submitted to the Graduate Records Office no later than the last day of the semester preceding the semester of graduation.
Comprehensive Examination. The Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination tests for breadth of knowledge across the core areas of computer science. A core area illuminates the ways that most applications are designed and implemented, examines the hardware and software systems that are needed to execute the applications, and analyzes the resulting performance of such applications. To demonstrate their knowledge of these topics, Ph.D. students are required to successfully pass a comprehensive exam in each core area. While core areas will correlate closely with courses offered by this department, the material deemed essential to each topic shall be defined by a reading list, not the coverage of any given class.
The comprehensive exams will be given once a year in the Fall. All parts of the comprehensive examination must be passed prior to completion of the fifth semester of study, not including summer enrollment. Subject to this time limit, failed exams may be repeated without the need to re-take those parts previously passed. Entering students are allowed to take the exams in their first semester.
The comprehensive exam will be prepared and graded by a faculty committee. This committee will be appointed in the spring semester prior to the offering date of the exam for which they are responsible. The committee will complete all work involved in writing examination questions and updating the reading list before January 1 of the year for which they are responsible. The same committee will be responsible for grading completed exams the following fall.
The comprehensive exam will be administered as a closed book exam.
The comprehensive exam committee is responsible for insuring that the core area exams satisfy the following criteria:
The comprehensive exam committee is responsible for determining a single score for the entire exam. It is important that this be based on an analysis of the overall quality of answers we expect from our Ph.D. candidates, not just on a numerical average of individual question grades. In particular, the exam committee should insure that passing exams demonstrate adequate knowledge across all major areas covered by the exam:
Further details about the comprehensive exams and the current reading lists can be found on the graduate studies web page at http://www.cs.utah.edu/grad-studies. Qualifying Examination. After passing the Comprehensive Examination, all Ph.D. students must pass a Qualifying Examination, as specified by the graduate school. The Qualifying Exam consists of two parts, a written examination covering the candidate's chosen area of specialization and an oral examination involving a defense of the candidate's written thesis proposal. Students should pass their qualifying exam, which includes receiving committee approval for their dissertation proposal, by the end if their sixth semester of study, not counting summer enrollment. A copy of the dissertation proposal will be retained in the student's departmental file. For guidelines on preparing proposals, consult "Discussion on PhD Thesis Proposals in Computing Science" by H.C. Lauer. Copies are available from the graduate coordinator and from the thesis editor.
The written portion of the Qualifying Examination will cover the candidate's general area of specialization in sufficient depth to demonstrate his/her preparation for conducting Ph.D. level research. Each member of the student's advisory committee will contribute one or more questions to this exam. The advisory committee will provide a written evaluation of this portion of the exam, including an indication of whether or not the student will be allowed to proceed to the oral portion of the Qualifying Examination.
The oral portion of the Qualifying Exam involves a defense of the candidate's written thesis proposal. At the advisory committee's option, it may also include follow-up questions relating to the written portion of the exam. All members of the candidates committee should certify that the proposal is ready to be defended prior to conduction the oral portion of the Qualifying Exam.
Consistent with the requirements of the Graduate School, the Qualifying Examination must be completed no less than two semesters prior to defense of the thesis.
Completing program of study. A Ph.D. student is expected to devote the necessary time to courses and research in order to make satisfactory progress toward the degree. Satisfactory progress includes personal participation in the research and teaching environment of the department on a day-to-day basis.
Dissertation. The completed dissertation must be published either in its entirety (through a legitimate publisher of the student's choice or through University Microfilms) or as one or more articles accepted for publication in approved scholarly journals. An abstract of each dissertation must be published in University Microfilms' Dissertation Abstracts International. Detailed policies and procedures concerning the dissertation are contained in ``A Handbook for Theses and Dissertations'' published by the Graduate School.
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