Graduate Info
Doctoral Program
The Department encourages qualified students to pursue the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Computer Science. Students with strong undergraduate records and training in computer science are admitted directly to the doctoral program. In addition, students beginning graduate study at The University of Arizona without extensive experience in computer science or a closely related field can first pursue the Master's program. Because of the relationship between the two programs, doing so does not delay the completion of the Ph.D., and it gives students more opportunity to display their qualifications for doctoral work. The Ph.D. curriculum in Computer Science consists of required course work, research, and examinations, culminating in the dissertation and its defense. This program is supervised by the student's doctoral committee, made up of three faculty from Computer Science and two from the minor department.
Program of Study
The specific program of study is designed in consultation with the student's research advisor and doctoral committee. The program's content will vary according to the student's preparation and interests. Required course work consists of 66 units divided into the following components:
Major
The Department of Computer Science classifies its courses into four research areas: Computing Systems, Software Systems, Theory and Algorithms, and Applications. All Ph.D. candidates must complete at least 6 courses from the following core areas; the number of courses they take from these four core areas must follow the distribution 2, 2, 1, 1, but the student can choose from which areas they take 2 courses and from which areas they take 1 course.
Computing Systems
525, Principles of Computer Networking
552, Advanced Operating Systems
553, Principles of Compilation
576, Computer Architecture
Software Systems
520, Principles of Programming Languages
522, Parallel and Distributed Computing
536, Software Engineering
560, Database Systems Implementation
Theory and Algorithms
545, Design and Analysis of Algorithms
573, Theory of Computation
Applications
533, Computer Graphics
537, Computational Geometry
577, Introduction to Computer Vision
In addition, requirements include two Advanced Topic (600 level) courses, two elective courses, and six units of Research Project work (C SC695C taken twice, each time for three units) and 1 colloquium course (C SC695A). Students are expected to complete the course requirements by the end of their second year as a Ph.D. candidate. A minor is also required consisting of 9-12 units of coursework.
Examinations
Doctoral students are required to pass the following examinations:
Qualifying Examination
The qualifying examination must be taken within the first two years of graduate study for students admitted without a Master's degree and within the first year for students admitted with a Master's degree. The Qualifying examination consists of two parts, written and oral. The written qualifier can be waived if the student has obtained at least a 3.5 CGPA in the core classes. The oral qualifier is an oral presentation of the required Research project (C SC695C). The oral presentation will focus on the students understanding of the project and other related topics.
Students are also required to pass a qualifying examination in their minor field, with requirements determined by the minor department.
Comprehensive Examination
This exam is normally given at the end of the student's last semester of doctoral course work, this examination consists of written and oral parts in both the major and minor fields. It is a comprehensive examination, designed to test the depth of the student's knowledge in fundamental areas of the discipline, as well as the student's breadth of preparation in both major and minor subjects. This exam is closed to the public, only the student and his/her committee may be in attendance.
Dissertation Defense
This is an oral examination, before the doctoral committee and public, in defense of the completed dissertation.
Dissertation
The dissertation represents an original and scholarly contribution to the discipline, approved by and defended before the doctoral committee. A minimum of eighteen units of dissertation credit are required. Neither The University of Arizona nor the Department of Computer Science has a foreign language requirement for the Ph.D. degree.
Minor
A minor program typically consists of 12 units of course work. Minor programs are designed by the minor department. The minor area selected and the specific courses must be approved by the doctoral committee. The program also offers an internal minor.