Program Requirements
The requirements for the Ph.D. program emphasize mastery of a field of knowledge, familiarity with allied areas, facility in the use of research techniques, responsibility for the advancement of knowledge, and effective communication of ideas. These competencies are assessed primarily through comprehensive examinations and the defense of the dissertation, rather than through a summation of courses, grades, and credits.
Learning Outcomes
Graduates of the CISE Ph.D. program are expected to demonstrate the following core competencies:
- Independent Research. Demonstrate the ability to conduct independent research by generating original ideas and producing contributions recognized by other researchers as non-trivial and significant additions to the field.
- Disciplinary Mastery. Demonstrate mastery of the discipline through the ability to recall, comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate ideas with intellectual rigor, drawing on the major concepts and results of computer and information science and engineering.
- Written Communication. Communicate ideas effectively in writing, as evidenced by papers, a dissertation, and research proposals that are judged to be well written, clearly organized, and persuasively argued.
- Oral Communication. Deliver technical presentations that are judged to be clear, concise, and informative to both specialist and general academic audiences.
