DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
ACADEMICS
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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE ACADEMICS |
The Doctor of Philosophy is regarded as a research degree and is awarded on the basis of accomplishment in a recognized speciality in computer science. Such accomplishment should include scholarly mastery of the field, significant contributions to new knowledge in the field, and written and oral communication skills appropriate for the field.
The requirements for the Ph.D. include the following: passing CIS 8962, the qualifying examination (portfolio defense), and CIS 8964, preliminary examination (area exam); satisfaction of the course requirements; successfully defending a dissertation prospectus; and successfully defending a dissertation. All candidates for doctoral degrees in the department are required to participate in teaching activities at some time during their graduate careers unless waived by the department chair. Aditionally, each doctoral student must complete at least one oral research presentation which is critiqued by at least one faculty member. This can be at the departmental research conference, or any discipline-related conference.
The doctoral student should have completed at least two courses in each of the three areas Software, Systems, and Theory (the core requirement ). These courses are defined in the FSU Master's degree requirements. Equivalent courses taken at other institutions must be approved by the Portfolio Review Committee. Additonally the student shall complete CIS 5935 Introductory Seminar on Research (2).
Students entering the program after earning a master's degree in computer science or related area, must take at least four additional courses beyond those taken for the MS degree, at the 5000 or 6000 level, as advised by the student's major professor and supervisory committee. These courses must be taken at FSU and at least two of these four must be in the CS department. Supervised teaching, supervised research, DIS and courses with prefix CGS do not count towards this requirement.
Students entering the program after earning a bachelor's degree in computer science or related area, must take at least six additional courses beyond the core requirement, at the 5000 or 6000 level, as advised by the student's major professor and supervisory committee. These courses must be taken at FSU and not be part of an MS degree program. At least four of these six courses must be in the CS department. Supervised teaching, supervised research, DIS and courses with prefix CGS do not count towards this requirement.
The student must receive a grade of "B-" or better on all graduate courses taken to satisfy the minimum course requirements of the degree. Once these minimum requirements are met, however, it is permissible to take any subsequent courses on an "S/U" basis.
Once a student has completed thirty (30) semester hours of graduate work or has been awarded the master's degree, the student must be enrolled on The Florida State University Tallahassee campus for a minimum of twenty-four (24) graduate semester hours credit within a continuous 12-month period. The doctoral student must also complete at least twenty-four (24) hours of CIS 6980r Dissertation. A student may enroll in CIS 6980r only after being admitted to candidacy.
As early as is feasible in the student's program, the student should identify an area for dissertation research and secure an informal agreement with a faculty member to serve as the student's major professor. This agreement should include an understanding as to the area and timeline of the dissertation research. This agreement is then made formal by the Department Chair appointing that faculty member to serve in this capacity. In a similar manner the student must secure agreements with, and the Chair must approve, the remaining members of the student's Supervisory Committee: two (2) additional faculty members in the Department; one (1) Representative-at-large who is a member of the graduate faculty in another department. Graduate Studies requires the representative-at-large ensure "that University policies are followed, and that decisions made by the supervisory committee reflect the collective judgment of the committee. Therefore, the graduate faculty representative must be someone who is free of conflicts of interest with other members of the committee." If there are any questions as to the appropriateness of a particular faculty member to serve in this role, the Dean of Graduate Studies should be contacted. In addition, the Chair will appoint a member to serve as Department Representative. All members must hold doctoral directive status. The supervisory committee is responsible for approving an individual program of study, including any additional course requirements, and verifying that the student satisfies the following departmental requirements.
All students admitted to the program, but not yet admitted to candidacy, are required to compile and keep current a portfolio containing information relevant to the student's progress in the program. Required contents of the portfolio, submission dates and guidelines for preparing the portfolio are published by the Department of Computer Science at PhD Portfolio. When all components of the portfolio are complete, the student should register for the portfolio defense (CIS 8962).
The portfolio of any student not yet in candidacy is reviewed annually by the departmental Portfolio Review Committee (PRC). This committee consists of a core that is appointed by the Department Chair, and normally meets in the spring. Feedback to the student on the contents of the portfolio and on progress towards admission to candidacy is provided after each review.
The final review occurs in conjunction with the defense of the portfolio. Thus, when a student and his or her major professor agree the portfolio is complete, the student should register for the Doctoral Qualifying Exam, CIS 8962 (0) for the next semester. If the student is not successful on the first sitting of the Qualifying Exam, a grade of "I" will be assigned. If the second sitting of the exam is also unsuccessful, a grade of "F" is assigned. A student can take the Qualifying Exam at most twice. A student either passes or fails; there is no conditional pass.
The area examination (CIS 8964) covers the student's intended area of research. It has both written and oral parts. Both parts of the examination are conducted by the student's supervisory committee, which may delegate the responsibility to a larger area committee. It is strongly recommended that the student write an area survey paper as part of this exam. The oral part is open to all department faculty having doctoral status who elect to participate. The oral part of the examination is held in an open forum which other students are invited to attend and is followed by a closed session if the committee so desires. Students who do not pass the area exam may be advised to retake it at a later time. A student who changes to a new research area after having previously passed this exam will be required to stand for a further exam over the new area. A student can fail the area exam at most once.
Normal expectations are that the portfolio defense occurs prior to taking the area exam, or at least in the same semester as the area exam. Within two semesters (including summer) of passing the QE, a doctoral student should have taken the area exam.
In order to be advanced to candidacy for the doctoral degree, the student must:
The student must formally propose the research for the dissertation to his or her Supervisory Committee in the form of a prospectus. The prospectus should consist of much of the background work for the dissertation, including:
In addition, as an appendix to the prospectus, publication plans should be presented. The research proposed should make clear any substantial advances in the state of knowledge in computer science, and the publication plans should be designed to affirm the quality and nature of the research. Publication should be in nationally recognized conferences and journals in the field. The prospectus must be successfully defended before the student's supervisory committee in an open meeting.
After completing the research proposed in the prospectus, the student must write a dissertation. The dissertation represents the fulfillment of the proposals made in the prospectus. The dissertation document must comply with all current University standards for style. The dissertation must be successfully defended before the student's committee in an open meeting. The dissertation must be successfully defended within five (5) years of passing the preliminary exam. An electronic version of the dissertation must be submitted to the university as well as the CS webmaster.