Students may register for their first attempt only after having satisfied the Ph.D. qualifying requirement but must register by the end of their fourth year. For example, a student who entered in fall 2016 must register by August 2020, before the start of classes. Students who fail to register by the end of their fourth year will forego one attempt. Please see the second item below regarding repeat attempts.

Students register by submitting a completed Ph.D. Research Proposal Examination Committee Selection form and abstract of their research proposal to the Graduate Studies Office no later than two weeks prior to the tentative date of the examination.

Three attempts may be taken at the examination. A repeat attempt must take place at least three months after the previous attempt. The proposal exam must be passed before the end of the student’s fifth year. For example, a student who entered in fall 2016 must pass the proposal exam by July 25, 2021. (As per Graduate School regulation, students must advance to candidacy within five years of entry; the proposal is a candidacy requirement.) 

Each examination is conducted by an ad hoc Ph.D. Research Proposal Examination Committee consisting of three full members of the Graduate Faculty. The candidate’s advisor chairs the committee. The second and third members of the committee are selected by the student (with the advisor’s approval). All three proposal committee members must be a regular ECE faculty members or affiliate faculty members; however, only one affiliate faculty member may serve on the proposal committee. For example, if the student's advisor is an affiliate faculty member, the second and third members must be regular ECE faculty members. If the student's advisor is a regular ECE faculty member, then either the second or third committee member may be an affiliate faculty member. For a repeat attempt, the committee consists of the same faculty members who served for the first attempt.

The examination must be scheduled for a two-hour period. It must take place no later than four weeks after the proposal committee has been finalized. The student is responsible for scheduling and room reservation. The student is also responsible for announcing the time and place to the committee and providing a PDF copy of the proposal to all committee members at least one week before the examination. The proposal should contain:

• • motivation for the research,

  • a concise statement of the proposed problem, 

  • an outline of the methodology, and 

  • a careful survey of relevant literature. 

All Electrical and Computer Engineering regular faculty members are allowed to attend the examination, but only committee members may address questions to the examinee. Upon invitation by the chair of the committee, other faculty may be allowed to attend the entire examination. Other members of the department or interested visitors may attend the presentation portion (first 30 minutes) at the discretion of the committee in consultation with the student.

At the examination the student is requested to:

• • give a presentation on the main lines of the proposed Ph.D. research 

  • answer questions from the committee 

Not counting the time devoted to the research proposal presentation, a significant portion of the examination may be devoted to questions assessing the soundness of the proposed research. The remainder of the examination may be given to questions probing the student’s mastery of the fundamentals in his/her proposed field of specialization, taken in a broad sense. 

At the end of the examination, all but the committee members must leave the room for the committee’s deliberations. In order for the student to pass, the committee’s decision must be unanimous.

Upon passing the examination, a finalized copy of the research proposal must be emailed to the Graduate Studies Office for the student’s file.