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In addition to meeting the Lyle School of Engineering requirements for the Ph.D. degree, candidates 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 coursework. 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 has two parts. The first part is called the Research-based Exam:

• Six credit hours (dissertation or special topic under the advisor) are to be taken during that first year, which are focused on the student’s research area. These 6 credit hours should be taken in addition to courses that teach or solidify fundamentals related to the student’s research area.
• The exam will be oral and will be administered by the end of the first year, by a committee consisting of at least three regular faculty members, two of which must be from the ECE Department.
• The student will submit a written report describing the research results from the first year, followed by an oral presentation and exam. At the oral presentation, the Committee will ask the student questions about the research results as well as questions on fundamental topics underpinning the research area, to be chosen by the student and his/her advisor. The student will be able to use a whiteboard to respond. The committee will assess the student’s aptitude for doing research, as well as the student’s knowledge of the fundamental topics required for this research.
• If the Committee concludes that the student has passed the exam, with the Department Chair’s approval, the student may continue in the PhD Program. In addition, the Committee may recommend that one or more courses be taken, that will enhance the student’s likelihood of success in the PhD program.
• If the Committee decides that the student did not pass the exam, the student will not be allowed to continue in the PhD program.
• The exam may be waived provided the student has previously successfully defended an MS thesis in the ECE department and the student’s PhD advisor agrees to the waiver.

The second part of the Qualifying Examination is the Oral Dissertation Proposal, which will be administered by the student’s supervisory committee. The exam will be taken after the student has passed the Research-based Exam, and has completed most of the required coursework, but no later than one year after completing all coursework. A student who does not meet the deadline must petition the doctoral program committee for permission to take the oral exam.

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 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.