Ph.D.
PhD students are advised to study the department's Graduate Regulations, in addition to the Institute's requirements for the PhD degree.
PhD-90 students are those admitted with with only a bachelor's degree, while PhD-60 students are those admitted with an MS degree. PhD-90 students must complete a CS MS degree as the first step towards the PhD. However, the PhD breadth requirement is more demanding than the MS breadth requirement. Consequently, a student should satisfy the PhD breadth requirement instead while obtaining your MS degree. All other requirements for the MS degree remain the same.
Upon admission, the student is assigned an Academic Advisor, and together they design a plan of study during the first semester of the student's PhD program.
The student must satisfy the PhD Qualifying Requirements, consisting of the PhD Breadth Requirement and a Directed Research Requirement. Upon successful completion of both of these requirements, the student becomes a computer science PhD "candidate".
The student's Dissertation Committee must be formed within the first year of candidacy. The student selects a Research Advisor from within the CS department, and together they select, with the approval of the CS Graduate Committee, three additional members, at least one of whom must be from outside the WPI CS department. The Dissertation Committee will be responsible for supervising the Comprehensive Examination, and approving both the dissertation proposal and the final dissertation.
The PhD degree consists of course work and research, which together must total at least 60 credit hours beyond the master's degree requirement. The course work component consists of at least 27 graduate credits, including 3 credits of graduate level mathematics.
The student may also enroll for research credits, but is only allowed up to 18 research credits prior to the acceptance by the Dissertation Committee of the written dissertation proposal . With the approval of the Dissertation Committee, the student applies for and takes the PhD Comprehensive Examination. This examination must be passed prior to the completion of the Dissertation Defense, and is normally taken after some initial dissertation research has been performed. With approval of the Dissertation Committee, the student applies for and takes the Dissertation Proposal Examination, usually within one year of the PhD candidacy.
The research component of the PhD degree consists of at least 30 credits (including any research credits earned prior to the acceptance of the Dissertation Proposal and excluding any research credits applied toward a master's degree) leading to a Dissertation and a public Dissertation Defense, both of which must be approved by the student's Dissertation Committee.
Maintained by webmaster@cs.wpi.eduLast modified: May 25, 2007 19:52:26