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Old ICS Requirements for Ph.D. Program

This applies only to students admitted before fall 2006 who do not elect to convert to the new system.


  • Students admitted without an M.S. degree must first satisfy all requirements of the ICS M.S. degree.

  • The "PhD portion" of the program begins upon admission for those admitted with a Masters, or once the student has satisfied all requirements of the ICS M.S. degree (even if that degree has not yet been awarded) for those admitted without a Masters.

  • Students must pass a seminar course ICS 690 in each semester of the "PhD portion" of their program.

  • Each student must pass an overall qualifying examination by the end of the fifth semester of the "PhD portion" of their program. To pass this overall exam, the student must select and pass 8 individual exams drawn from the list of below, with no more than one course in any of the groups:

    1. ICS 611 Compilers
      ICS 612 Operating Systems

    2. ICS 613 Software Engineering

    3. ICS 624 Data bases

    4. ICS 621 Analysis of Algorithms
      ICS 622 System Modeling
      ICS 671 Regression Analysis
      ICS 672 Time Series Analysis
      ICS 673 Multivariate Analysis
      ICS 682 Numeric Computation

    5. ICS 623 Data Security

    6. ICS 641 Theory of Computation

    7. ICS 651 Networks

    8. ICS 606 Agents
      ICS 661 AI
      ICS 663 Pattern Recognition

    9. ICS 664 Human-Computer Interaction
      ICS 665 User Interfaces & Hypermedia
      ICS 667 Advanced HCI Design
      ICS 668 Technology Supported Collaboration

    10. ICS 681 Computer Graphics

    11. ICS 614 Bio-medical Informatics

    12. High Performance Computing

    Students make their own selection of which 8 examinations they wish to take. It is not necessary to take the associated course, though this is advisable since at the graduate level courses on the same subject can vary widely in content. The standard for passing a PhD qualifying examination is higher than that for simply passing the associated final exam in a course. In general an A- is the minimum requirement. It is not always possible to use a course's final examination for the associated PhD qualifying examination, since some graduate courses base their grades on other work in addition to, or instead of, a final examination. In this case the Graduate Chair will arrange for a special PhD qualifier examination.

    Students must notify the graduate chair of their intent to take a qualifying exam in a given semester no later than one month after the first day of classes in that semester. If the exam is in an area in which the student is taking a course, the course instructor should also be notified. The graduate chair will determine the feasibility of offering all of the requested exams by contacting the appropriate faculty, will arrange for the exams to be given at a proctored time late in the semester. If a student declares intent to take an exam and then withdraws within 30 days before the exam, that counts as a failure.

    Retroactive credit for exams previously taken is not allowed.

  • Students prepare a research proposal that includes a literature review in their chosen topic area and a description of research topics to be investigated. This work should be done under the direction of an appropriate faculty advisor. In generall, students should begin the literature review and exploration of research topics before finishing the qualifying examinations. After forming a committee, students take an oral examination covering their general preparation for the research involved, as specified in the General and Graduate Information Catalog.

  • Students then conduct their reseach and write a dissertation under the direction of their advisor. The dissertation must be presented to and approved by a doctoral committee, as specified in the General and Graduate Information Catalog.
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