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Below is a brief summary of some of the requirements. Students are encouraged to consult the ECSE Graduate Program Handbook and the academic catalog for a full description of requirements and guidelines.
Students pursuing the PhD in ELEC or CSYS need to complete the following:
- 48 credits beyond the master's or 72 credits beyond the bachelor's degree
- Two thirds of total credit hours (excluding thesis credits) at the 6000-level
- No more than 15 4000-level credits
- A minimum of 12 and a maximum of 36 dissertation thesis credits
- One Math elective
- No more than 15 transfer credits
- No more than three credits of Independent Study
- No 1000- or 2000- level courses may be applied towards the degree
- PhD students are also required to take 3 major and 2 minor courses
Doctoral Qualifying Exam (DQE)
Students must take and pass the Doctoral Qualifying Exam (DQE) to be allowed to continue in the doctoral program. The purpose of the exam is to determine the likelihood that the student will complete the doctoral requirements successfully and produce high-quality independent research. The current DQE consists of two parts: 1) the research qualifying exam (RQE); 2) the major/minor course concentration requirements. Anyone taking the RQE in Spring 2024 on, will use the new major/minor areas and courses. For an understanding of the RQE from students who have previously passed the exam, please see a recent session below.
Sample RQE Reports:
Deep Learning for Set Operations and Plug-and-Play Denoising - Christopher Wiedeman
Doctoral Candidacy Exam (DCE)
Each student is also required to pass a Doctoral Candidacy Exam (DCE) to determine whether they are making satisfactory progress on the chosen thesis topic and demonstrate the ability to complete a doctoral dissertation with distinction. The student will form a doctoral committee consisting of no less than four full-time faculty members and will submit to them a written doctoral thesis proposal.
Doctoral Defense
The final step in the doctoral program is a public presentation of the doctoral thesis to the doctoral committee, where the candidate must defend their research results. The defense is typically open to the public, although the ensuing committee deliberation is not.
Finding an Advisor, Advising and Course Registration
All doctoral students must have an official ECSE faculty advisor. Students are welcome to choose a faculty advisor from another department but must have an ECSE professor as a co-advisor.
Students admitted with RA funding are automatically assigned an advisor. Those admitted as TAs or without funding are not necessarily assigned to a specific advisor and may have the flexibility to choose from among the faculty. These students are encouraged to meet with professors in their area of interest as soon as possible after arriving to determine the best research fit. All doctoral students must submit a research advisor form during the first semester of study. This form must be on file no later than October 1 for those entering in the fall and March 1 for those entering in the spring. If a student changes advisors during the course of study, a new form must be filled out and placed on file with the department.
Full-time students must be registered for 12-16 credits each semester until they graduate. The only exception is for TAs and RAs who may register for a minimum of 9, maximum of 16 credits in the semester(s) they are teaching. Part-time students must be continuously registered until they graduate to remain in good standing. Students who need to take a break from their studies for any reason should discuss the possibility of an official leave of absence with the department and the Office of Graduate Education before leaving.
It is the student's responsibility to meet with their advisor to discuss appropriate courses. PhD students may register for dissertation credits as early as the first semester of study. Typically, students register for a combination of course and dissertation credits until all the necessary coursework is complete. Students then register for dissertation credits until the doctoral thesis is complete.
Plan of Study
All doctoral students must file a Plan of Study outlining all course and thesis credits that will be counted for the degree.
Instructions for filing an ECSE plan of study can be found here.
Students should discuss the plan of study with their research advisor early in the program and have an initial plan of study on file with the department by the end of the first semester. The plan of study must be signed by both the student and the advisor and then submitted to the department for approval by the Graduate Program Director. The plan of study may be updated as many times as necessary to reflect any changes in the program. It is the student's responsibility to make sure that an up-to-date plan of study is on file with the department.
Contacts
Please reach out to the department's Office of Graduate Student Services.
- Dr. Melanie Ungar, Graduate Program Administrator
- Professor Rich Radke, Graduate Program Director
- Professor Tong Zhang, Admissions Committee Head
Questions
If you have any questions, please send a message to:
- ungarm2@rpi.edu (first point of contact for all students)
- ecse-gpd@rpi.edu (current and admitted students)
- ecse-admissions@rpi.edu (applicants and prospective students)