Departmental Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Program
The following provides details specific to the Computer Science Department for the four PhD requirements that the student must satisfactorily complete:
- Qualifying Requirements
- PhD Breadth Requirement
- Research Qualifying Requirement
- Comprehensive Examination
- Dissertation Proposal
- Dissertation Defense
Admission to the PhD degree
Applicants who are accepted into the PhD program with a Bachelor's degree only (PhD-90) are required to complete a minimum of 90 credits in the PhD program, at least 30 for the MS component and at least 60 for the PhD component. Applicants who are accepted into the PhD Program with a Master's degree (PhD-60) are only required to complete 60 credits in the PhD program. For acceptance into the PhD-60 program, the applicant's previous Master's degree must be judged by the Department to be relevant for our PhD program. Once accepted into the PhD-60 program a student cannot transfer to the Computer Science MS program.
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, those students should satisfy the PhD breadth requirement instead while obtaining the MS degree. All other requirements for the MS degree remain the same.
Certain graduate courses, such as CS 5007, may be offered for non-majors and may not count towards the required credits for an MS or a PhD degree in Computer Science. Such prohibitions will be listed in the course description in the catalog.
WPI Computer Science MS students in good standing may apply to the PhD program (PhD-60). This may be done before or after satisfying the Qualifying Requirements.
Qualifying Requirements
The Qualifying Requirements consist of a Breadth Requirement and a Research Qualifying Requirement, each of which the student must successfully complete before being allowed to continue in the PhD program. Once both portions are passed, the student becomes a "PhD Candidate". Any student admitted into the Computer Science graduate program at WPI may attempt this requirement.
Breadth Requirement
The PhD degree Breadth Requirement involves students taking courses from different areas or "bins". This provides students with graduate level breadth in Computer Science.
Essential Bins (9 credits)
- Theory (3 credits)
- Algorithms (3 credits)
One course from either bin: (3 credits)
- Systems
- Networks
Breadth Bins (3 credits)
- Design
- Compilers/Languages
- Graphics/Imaging
- AI
- Databases
- Cybersecurity
- Applications of CS
Ph.D. students are required to achieve at least a B grade in courses from six different bins. These six bins must include all three essential bins. Students must achieve an A grade in at least four of the six bins, including an A grade in at least one essential bin.
Courses with a 5000 number (e.g., 5003, 5084) are “preparatory courses”, designed specifically for students with insufficient background knowledge or skills. While graduate credit can be earned for these courses, they cannot be used by Ph.D. students to satisfy a bin requirement.
The Ph.D. breadth requirement must be satisfied by the time the student achieves the following number of graduate credits: for PhD-90: 54 credits (18 courses); for PhD-60: 36 credits (12 courses).
Students admitted to the CS Ph.D. program with only a bachelor’s degree (i.e., PhD-90) must complete a CS MS degree as the first step towards the Ph.D. However, the Ph.D. breadth requirement is more demanding than the MS breadth requirement. Consequently, those students should satisfy the Ph.D. breadth requirement instead while obtaining the MS degree. All other requirements for the M.S. degree remain the same.
For each bin, a bin committee consisting of full-time CS faculty is responsible for the administration of requirements related to that bin. These responsibilities include: recommending courses to be added or removed from their bin, determining which independent studies and special topics courses should be included in their bin, and deciding on student petitions concerning their bin. The membership of the bin committees will be reviewed annually by the Department Head.
Students who have already completed graduate work elsewhere may petition the appropriate bin committee to use that work to satisfy the requirement of taking a course from that bin. If the content of that graduate work is considered acceptable by the bin committee, then the grade the student received for that work will be used to determine whether the petition is approved.
Students who do not achieve at least a "B" grade in a course from a bin, or the required number of "A" grades within the bins, can either retake the course, take a different course within the bin, or, if it is in a non-essential bin, take courses in other bins to satisfy the breadth requirement.
BS/MS students who received BS/MS credit for an undergraduate course can have that undergraduate course satisfy the appropriate bin requirement.
Research Qualifying Requirement
The Research portion of the Qualifying Requirements tests the student's ability to conduct research. Only one attempt may be made to satisfy this requirement. This requirement must be completed no later than one year after completing the breadth (PhD Bins) requirement. The research qualifier may precede completion of the breadth requirement. The student must satisfy one of the two research qualifying options listed below. The student may pass, fail, or be required to do additional work before passing this requirement.
- The student registers for three credits of Directed Research (CS 598) with at least one faculty advisor. Before the directed research begins the student must notify the department, through the graduate secretary, that it is part of the Qualifying Requirements. The student should also identify the general area of the work. The graduate committee, or its designee, will then appoint a co-advisor for the directed research. The primary and appointed advisors will evaluate the student's work at the end of the semester to determine if the student has shown sufficient research potential to become a PhD Candidate. The student will typically submit a written report.
- The student uses a research paper to satisfy the Research Qualifying Requirement, with the support of a faculty advisor. The research paper must satisfy all of the following conditions:
- The research described in the paper must have been conducted while the student was at WPI.
- The student must be one of the authors of the paper and must have contributed substantially to the ideas and research in the paper.
- The paper must have been submitted to a selective peer-reviewed Computer Science venue (e.g., conference or journal).
As part of this requirement, and under either option above, the student must deliver a presentation about the research to the Department (e.g., in a research seminar). The student must notify the Department, through the graduate administrator, of the time and place of this presentation at least one week in advance.
Dissertation Committee
Upon successful completion of the PhD qualifying requirements, the student, with the help of his/her research advisor, forms a Dissertation Committee. The committee consists of the research advisor and three additional members, at least one of whom must be from outside the WPI CS Department. The recommendation is for the outside committee member to be a well-known researcher in the same research area, but from another university or from industry.
Comprehensive Examination
The Comprehensive Examination is designed to test the student's depth of knowledge in three areas of computer science. The Comprehensive Examination and the Dissertation Proposal can be completed in either order. However, the time between passing the examination and acceptance of the proposal should be less than six months.
The areas selected for the Comprehensive Examination must be acceptable to both the student and the committee, and may be suggested by the student. At least one of the areas should be related to the student's dissertation research. However, some attempt should be made to include an area outside the research, to ensure some breadth as well as depth. Typically, one area is directly in line with the student's research area, the second is the broader subfield encompassing the student's work (e.g., "theory," "systems," "databases"), and the third area is outside the student's primary research focus. Many exams will place the most emphasis on the first area, slightly less on the second, and slightly less on the third.
The examination is administered by the student's Dissertation Committee. The student's Dissertation Committee (or its designees) prepares questions for the student, who then has three weeks to prepare written answers (usually spending one week per area). The answers are returned to the committee, which conducts an oral examination of the student based on the questions. The committee may pass the student, fail the student, or require additional work before reconsidering the result. Students may re-take the Comprehensive Examination at most once. The time frame for re-taking the Comprehensive Examination is determined by the Dissertation Committee.
The student may contact the committee members during the exam to ask clarifying questions. Besides contact with the committee members, the student may not discuss the questions or possible answers with any other person during this examination period. The student may use any written material (specifications, books, publications) to answer the questions, as long as all material used is properly cited in the report.
Examination Format and Procedures
The Dissertation Committee may determine the format and exact procedures of the comprehensive examination. For consistency, the Committee may wish to consider the following guidance.
As soon as possible after the end of the written exam, the committee may set a mutually agreed upon 2 hour time for the committee to meet with the student for the final part of the exam. Typically, this will be about a week after the end of the written exam, and should be no more than two weeks later. The student's advisor is responsible for arranging and conducting the meeting.
At the examination meeting, the student may make three brief presentations describing their main findings (about 15 minutes per examination area). The committee members are given the opportunity to ask further questions on the three areas. The committee member who set the questions is usually the one who leads the questioning.
In the cases where non-committee faculty have been asked to contribute to the generation of questions, it is acceptable to invite them to participate in the examination. They are allowed to express their opinions about the quality of both the written and spoken answers in their examination area, but they do not get to vote on the overall result of the examination.
This meeting is normally a closed examination. The result of the examination is usually delivered directly to the student by the advisor, within an hour of the examination meeting, after the committee's deliberations. In addition, a letter recording the result, signed by all the committee members, is sent to the student, with copies for the department's and the advisor's files.
Dissertation Proposal
The Dissertation Proposal is a written document describing the student's proposed work. The Dissertation Proposal should be sufficiently detailed to convince the Dissertation Committee of the student's understanding of the problem domain along with the significance of the proposed work.
To complete this requirement the student makes a public presentation of the proposal immediately followed by private questioning from the Dissertation Committee, which then determines the outcome of the proposal. The committee may accept the proposal, reject the proposal and recommend pursuit of a different topic, or require the student do additional work before reconsidering the proposal. The time frame for the student to do required additional work on the Dissertation Proposal is determined by the Dissertation Committee.
Dissertation Defense
With the approval of the Dissertation Committee, the student schedules a Dissertation Defense. This defense is open to the public and is immediately followed by private questioning from the Dissertation Committee, which then determines the outcome of the Defense. The committee may accept, reject, or require additional work of the student before reconsidering the dissertation. The time frame for the student to do required additional work on the Dissertation is determined by the Dissertation Committee.
All examiners must approve the form and content of the final version of the dissertation. It must meet WPI's Requirements for Theses and Dissertations. For a Doctoral dissertation the title page is signed by the Advisor(s), all members of the Dissertation Committee, and by the Department Head. This is a Computer Science Department requirement. When it has been approved, the dissertation must be submitted electronically.