The aim of the program is to have students produce high quality research. The steps below were designed to try to accomplish this efficiently, while providing students with a reasonably broad training in several areas of Computer Science.
The PhD program proceeds in three phases:
- Phase 1: Complete a Master's degree within the PhD program.
- Phase 2: Gain admission to candidacy.
- Phase 3: Write and defend a dissertation.
During the first phase, students take courses, write a Master's paper, and take an oral Master's exam. In the second phase, students work independently to identify specific research questions of interest, master the relevant literature, and take an oral candidacy exam. And during the third phase, students do independent research and write and defend a dissertation. Throughout the process students document successful research in research publications as well as in their doctoral dissertations.
Computational Mathematics track
Students interested in Computational Mathematics can follow a separate track during the first phase. See the description of Phase 1 for an explanation of how the Computational Math track differs from the standard track.