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Explore the Ph.D. program in Computer Science/Software Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. Learn about admission requirements, degree requirements, coursework, qualifying exams, finding an area of study and adviser, and improving your chances of getting an assistantship. Plan your timeline for completing the program successfully.
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Ph.D. in CS/SE at UTD Balaji Raghavachari Department of Computer Science University of Texas at Dallas
Admission Requirements • B.S. in Computer Science or its equivalent, with GPA of 3.5 or better • GRE scores of V+Q > 1300, or V+Q+A > 1800 • TOEFL scores (for foreign applicants) • 3 letters of recommendation • Narrative (Statement of purpose)
Degree Requirements • 90 credits of approved course work beyond the Bachelor’s degree • Qualifying exams in the 5 core classes of your track • Thesis Proposal • Thesis defense and Dissertation submission
Coursework • 5 Core classes from a chosen MS track • 5 approved 6000 level CS/SE electives • CS 6382: Theory of computation • 2 approved 7000/8000 level CS/SE courses • Other classes and research/dissertation hours approved by your adviser • Total of 90 hours beyond B.S. degree • Up to 45 hours can be transferred from M.S. degree elsewhere
Qualifying exams • Must pass qualifying exams in the core courses within 3 semesters • Ideally, complete all qualifying exams in the first year of study • Prepare well and pass the exams in the first attempt. Only 2 attempts per class. • Learn to structure your answers well: intuitive explanation followed by a full analysis
Finding an area of study & adviser • Choose an area based on your interests, aptitude, career prospects • You are likely to work in this area for the next 10 years, if not 30-40 years • Don’t decide solely based on who is able to offer an assistantship • Choose a compatible adviser, who is a good match to your working style
Areas of strength in UTD-CS/SE • Networking and Telecommunications • Wireless networks, protocols, optical networks, distributed systems • Software Engineering • Embedded systems, Verification & testing, Requirements engineering • Intelligent Systems • Artificial intelligence, Computer Vision, Natural language processing, Expert systems • Computer Systems • Databases, Visual programming, Multimedia systems, Computer security, High performance systems • Algorithms and Applications • Algorithms, Optimization problems, Computational geometry, Computational biology
Improving the chances of getting an Assistantship • Get good grades • Make steady progress • Pass qualifying exams • Publish papers in reputed conferences and journals • Try to graduate in 4 years • Find an adviser who is not over extended!
Timeline • Year 1: Coursework, qualifying exams, exploration of research areas • Year 2: Find a research adviser, read papers, identify problems to solve, start working on research • Year 3: Form dissertation committee, complete thesis proposal, start publishing papers • Year 4: Continue publishing papers, write dissertation, defend thesis, look for a job