Graduate Study Manual

The Ph.D. Degree Program

Credit Requirements

Ninety-six hours of credit and a Ph.D. thesis are required. At least 64 hours must be earned in residence. In addition, the student must take the Departmental Ph.D. Qualifying Examination and be admitted to Ph.D. candidacy, and must pass the Preliminary and Final Examinations for the Ph.D. degree.

The 96 hours of credit is divided into three stages of 32 hours each, consisting of 32 hours generally represented by an M.S. degree or equivalent, 32 hours of coursework beyond the M.S. degree, and 32 hours of thesis work for the doctoral thesis.

The First Stage of the Ph.D. Program

The first stage of the Ph.D. degree program requires the completion of 32 hours of credit. The 32 hours are represented by an M.S. degree or equivalent.

All students who are admitted to the ECE Graduate Program with Bachelor's degrees first complete an M.S. thesis and obtain an M.S. degree by fulfilling the requirements listed in the previous section. Students admitted to the ECE Graduate Program with M.S. degrees from elsewhere are considered to have completed the first stage of the Ph.D. degree program.

Admission to Ph.D. Candidacy

Students who seek admission to Ph.D. candidacy must take the Departmental Ph.D. Qualifying Examination. Details of the requirements for admission to Ph.D. candidacy and descriptions of the Qualifying Examination and the admission process may be found in the section titled The Oral Qualifying Examination and Admission to Ph.D. Candidacy.

The Second Stage of the Ph.D. Program

The second stage of the Ph.D. program begins when the student is admitted to Ph.D. candidacy and requires the completion of 32 hours of coursework. No thesis credit hours (ECE 599) or Master's Project hours (ECE 596) may be included in the 32 hours. No more than two hours of ECE 590 (or other seminar courses) and no more than four hours of ECE 597 (or other reading or individual study courses) may be included in the 32 hours. Moreover, no more than one hour of ECE 590 may be taken in any one semester. The 32 hours of credit required in the second stage may include credit in courses taken before admission to Ph.D. candidacy or in courses taken before completion of the M.S. thesis, provided, of course, that the credit in such courses has not been included in the 32 hours required in the first stage. At least 24 of the 32 hours required must be completed in residence.

Any course that offers graduate credit can be used to fulfill the requirements for the Second Stage of the PhD program. The only specific requirement is that the coursework must include three permanent 500 level courses in three different areas. See the section titled Ph.D. Breadth Requirement Courses for a list of the areas and admissible courses within each area. Courses taken during the First Stage of the Ph.D. program may be used to fulfill this breadth requirement. Students are required to achieve a 3.5 GPA in these three courses before being allowed to take their PhD Preliminary exam. Note that this requirement is independent of the 3.25 GPA rule which students must meet to be allowed to take the qualifying examination as part of the Admission to Ph.D. candidacy process. This new breadth requirement applies to graduate students admitted to Ph.D. candidacy during or after the Spring 2008 term. Other students are subject to the course requirement rules in place prior to the new 3.5 GPA breadth requirement rule.

The 32 hours of coursework are chosen in consultation with the Ph.D. thesis advisor to provide additional background knowledge required for successful completion of the doctoral thesis. During this time, the candidate also pursues a program of background reading, literature search, and research on the Ph.D. thesis topic. The candidate also prepares for the Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. degree by writing a thesis proposal.

Ph.D. Program Breadth Requirement Courses

Biomedical Imaging, Bioengineering, and Acoustics Integrated Circuits and Systems Communications
ECE 537 - Speech Processing Fundamentals
ECE 545 - Advanced Physical Acoustics
ECE 594 - Mathematical Models of Language
BIOE 504 - Analytical Methods
BIOE 507 - Advanced Instrumentation
 ECE 527 - System-On-Chip Design
ECE 552 - Numerical Circuit Analysis
ECE 560 - VLSI in Signal Processing and Communications
ECE 582 - Physical VLSI Design
ECE 584 - IC Reliability Engineering
ECE 585 - MOS Device Modeling & Design
 ECE 556 - Coding Theory
ECE 559 - Topics in Communications
ECE 561 - Detection and Estimation Theory
ECE 562 - Advanced Digital Communications
ECE 563 - Information Theory
ECE 564 - Advanced Digital Communication
ECE 567 - Communication Network Analysis
Control Systems Electromagnetics, Optics and Remote Sensing Microelectronics and Quantum Electronics
ECE 515 - Control System Theory & Design
ECE 517 - Nonlinear & Adaptive Control
ECE 528 - Analysis of Nonlinear Systems
ECE 553 - Optimum Control Systems
ECE 554 - Sampled-Date Control Systems
ECE 555 - Control of Stochastic Systems
ECE 586 - Topics in Decision and Control
 ECE 520 - Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating Systems
ECE 521 - Analytical Foundations of Electromagnetic Theory
ECE 531 - Theory of Guided Waves
ECE 540 - Computational Electromagnetics
ECE 569 - Coherence, Diffraction and Information
ECE 570 - Nonlinear Optics
ECE 571 - Electromagnetic Waves in Inhomogeneous Media
ECE 577 - Advanced Antenna Theory
ECE 578 - Adv EM Diffraction & Radiation
 ECE 522 - Controlled Fusion Systems, I
ECE 523 - Gaseous Electronics and Plasmas
ECE 532 - Compound Semiconductors and Diode Lasers
ECE 535 - Theory of Semiconductors and Semiconductor Devices
ECE 536 - Integrated Optics and Optoelectronics
ECE 539 - Advanced Theory of Semiconductors & Devices
ECE 572 - Quantum Optoelectronics
ECE 583 - Semiconductor Nanotech Lab
Power and Energy Systems Signal Processing Computer Engineering
ECE 525 - Nuclear-Electrical Energy Conversion
ECE 530 - Analysis Techniques for Large-Scale Electrical Systems
ECE 568 - Modeling and Control of Electromechanical Systems
ECE 573 - Power Systems Operations and Control
ECE 576 - Power System Dynamics and Stability
ECE 588 - Electricity Resource Planning
 ECE 513 - Vector Space Signal Processing
ECE 544 - Topics in Signal Processing
ECE 547 - Topics in Image Processing
ECE 551 - Digital Signal Processing, II
ECE 558 - Digital Imaging
 ECE 511 - Computer Architecture
ECE 512 - Computer Microarchitecture
ECE 533 - Parallel Computer Architecture
ECE 541 - Computer Systems Analysis
ECE 542 - Design of Fault-Tolerant Digital Systems
ECE 543 - Digital System Testing & Design for Testability
General Sciences Robotics and Artificial Intelligence  
ECE 534 - Random Processes
ECE 580 - Optimization by Vector Space Methods

All 500-level courses in Math/Physics/Chemistry/CS/MatSE, excluding 598, individual study, seminar courses and cross-listed courses that appear in other areas of this table.
 ECE 548 - Computer Models of Cognitive Processes
ECE 549 - Computer Vision
ECE 550 - Advanced Robotic Planning
ECE 579 - Computational Complexity
ECE 589 - Robot Control Theory
  

The Doctoral Committee

During the final stages of the development of the thesis proposal, the candidate consults with the Ph.D. thesis advisor regarding the proposed membership of the candidate's doctoral committee. The doctoral committee must satisfy the following conditions:

  1. The committee must include at least four members. A strict majority of the committee must be Graduate Faculty whose primary Department is Electrical and Computer Engineering, and at least half of the committee members must hold the rank of Associate Professor or Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
  2. The committee chair must be an active Member of the ECE Graduate Faculty, or a member of the Graduate Faculty with Affiliate status in ECE.
  3. At least one member must have primary research interests in an area different from that of the candidate.

The Preliminary Examination

The Preliminary Examination for the Ph.D. degree is an oral examination administered by the candidate's doctoral committee. The examination may be taken no earlier than the semester in which the candidate completes the 32 hours of coursework required in the second stage of the Ph.D. program.

The candidate contacts each potential committee member to request that they serve on the proposed doctoral committee and makes arrangements for a suitable time and place for the Preliminary Examination. The candidate must submit the proposed committee list and information regarding the time and place for the examination to the ECE Graduate Advising Office at least three weeks prior to the date chosen for the examination. The Graduate College appoints the doctoral committee upon the recommendation of the Department Head.

The candidate must submit the thesis proposal to the doctoral committee at least one week prior to the Preliminary Examination. The proposal must outline the problem to be studied for the Ph.D. degree, the procedures and methods to be used in attacking the problem, work already completed on the chosen problem, and the additional work proposed to be completed. The proposal also must include a tentative title for the thesis.

The Preliminary Examination is intended to test the validity of the thesis proposal and the candidate's fitness to carry out the research work proposed. It begins with a short presentation by the candidate, outlining the problem chosen, the procedures and methods to be used, the work already completed, and a proposal for the additional work to be completed for the Ph.D. degree. The committee then questions the candidate regarding the problem, the preliminary results, and the proposed work. The candidate may be asked to clarify matters in the thesis proposal and to defend various aspects of the work already completed or the work being proposed. The committee may suggest alternative methods of attacking the problem or suggest different aspects of the problem as suitable areas for exploration. The committee also may ask questions of a more general nature in order to test the adequacy of the candidate's preparation for the proposed research.

At the conclusion of the examination, the chairman of the committee announces one of four decisions:

  1. The candidate passed the Preliminary Examination and may proceed to independent study and research for the doctoral degree.
  2. The Examination is temporarily adjourned. The candidate must revise the thesis proposal and be examined again within the next six months.
  3. The candidate failed, but may submit a new thesis proposal and take another Preliminary Examination after completing additional coursework, independent study, or research.
  4. The candidate failed and will not be admitted to another examination

The candidate may submit the thesis proposal to the ECE Publications Office for a nonmandatory, informal editorial review. Because the purpose of the informal editorial review is to prepare for a smoother dissertation writing process, not to polish the proposal for the Preliminary Examination, the proposal may be submitted to the Publications Office any time, before or after the examination.

The Third Stage of the Ph.D. Program

Successful completion of 64 hours and passing the Preliminary Examination mark the end of the second stage and the beginning of the third stage of the Ph.D. program. During the third stage, the candidate carries out the research program proposed in the thesis proposal and writes a doctoral thesis requiring a minimum of 32 hours of credit in ECE 599. General requirements for the thesis may be found in the section titled The Thesis. Continuous registration in ECE 599 (except possibly in summer sessions) is required until all the credit requirements for the Ph.D. degree have been met. Credit in ECE 599 earned before passing the Preliminary Examination may be included in the 32 hours required provided that the credit has not been included in the 32 hours required in the first stage.

During the final stages of the thesis research when the thesis is nearing completion, the candidate makes arrangements for a suitable time and place for the Final Examination that is also administered by the candidate's doctoral committee. If the membership of the doctoral committee is modified for any reason, the modified committee membership must also satisfy the requirements stated above. The candidate must submit the proposed committee list and information about the time and place for the examination to the ECE Graduate Advising Office at least three weeks prior to the date chosen for the Final Examination. At least one week prior to the Final Examination, the candidate submits the thesis to the members of the doctoral committee and deposits a copy in the Department Office for review by all the faculty members.

The Final Examination

The Final Examination for the Ph.D. degree is a public oral examination administered by the candidate's doctoral committee. It must take place at least six months (but no later than five years) after the Preliminary Examination.

The examination begins with a presentation by the candidate outlining the problem chosen, the procedures and methods used, and the results obtained. The committee then questions the candidate regarding the thesis work. The candidate may be asked to clarify matters in the thesis and to defend various aspects of the work. Errors and ambiguities in the thesis may be brought to the candidate's attention. At the conclusion of the examination, the chairman of the committee announces one of five decisions:

  1. The candidate passed the Final Examination and the thesis is accepted as submitted. The thesis certificate of approval is signed by all the members of the committee.
  2. The candidate passed the Final Examination but the thesis will be accepted and signed by the committee after various specified corrections and revisions have been made. The candidate must make the necessary changes and submit the thesis to the committee members for their signatures.
  3. The Examination is temporarily adjourned. The candidate must revise the thesis and be examined again within the next six months.
  4. The candidate failed, but may rewrite the thesis and take another Final Examination after completing additional independent study and research.
  5. The candidate failed and will not be admitted to another examination.

Deposit of the Thesis in the Graduate College

When the thesis Certificate of Committee Approval (http://www.grad.uiuc.edu/forms/certificate/CertCommitteeApproval.pdf) form has been signed by all the members of the doctoral committee, the candidate submits the thesis to the ECE Publications Office for format checking. Following format approval, the candidate submits the thesis to the Department Head for approval and then deposits it in the Graduate College. Allow up to 48 hours for obtaining Department Head approval. Details of various requirements to be satisfied are given in the section titled The Thesis. The Ph.D. dissertation must be deposited in the Graduate College no later than one year after passing the Final Examination.

Time Limitations

A candidate for the Ph.D. degree must complete all requirements for that degree within seven calendar years after first registration in the Graduate College. However, students who received the M.S. degree from elsewhere must complete all requirements for the Ph.D. degree within six calendar years after first registration in the Graduate College. Students who receive the M.S. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and whose studies are interrupted immediately thereafter for a substantial period of time also must complete all requirements for the Ph.D. degree within six calendar years after they resume their studies.