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Home > Academics > Graduate Programs > Doctoral Program Guide 
 
Doctoral Program Guide
 
Foreword from the Department Chair
 
Your decision to pursue a doctoral degree is the start of an extraordinary intellectual adventure which, I hope, will lead you on the path of significant discoveries. Now is the time to dream up new ideas and to explore what others before you have thought out in their research pursuits. Our faculty will be here to guide you, to light the fires of your imagination, and to shape passion into method. Individualized mentoring and frontier research are the defining features of our doctoral program. On behalf of the faculty, I extend you an enthusiastic welcome, and I wish you success.
 
G. Catalin Roman
 
Foreword from the Doctoral Program Committee
 
Welcome! We look forward to watching you move through our Ph.D. program. Working on your doctorate is a very demanding yet rewarding experience. It's a time when you can focus on a specific research area that interests you and bring new and exciting ideas to that area. We look forward to helping to facilitate your progress through our program. While most of your guidance will come from your research adviser, please come talk to us at any time if you have concerns or questions.
 
Enjoy your stay with us!
 
Jeremy Buhler (director)
 
Weixiong Zhang
 
Table of Contents
  1. Requirements at a glance
  2. Breadth and Coursework Requirements
  3. Teaching Requirements
  4. Milestones
  5. Other Student Responsibilities
  6. A Note on Switching from Master's to Doctoral Status
Requirements at a Glance
 
This guide explains in detail the CSE Department's requirements for obtaining a Ph.D. in either Computer Science or Computer Engineering. The Department implements, and in some cases extends, the requirements imposed by the Graduate School on all students seeking Ph.D. degrees.
 
This guide describes the requirements for Ph.D. students entering the program in spring 2007 or later. Students who plan to obtain the old D.Sc. degree should refer to the D.Sc. program guide for details. D.Sc. or Ph.D. students who joined the program before spring 2007 should check the Doctoral Program Transition Guide to see which of these requirements apply to them.
 
  • Credits
    • The Ph.D. degree requires a minimum of 72 credit units.
    • Take a total of 36 to 48 course credits.
      • Satisfy the doctoral breadth requirements.
      • Take at least 3 units of seminars (CSE 7xxx).
      • Take at least 33 non-seminar course units.
    • Take 24 to 36 units of CSE 699 (doctoral research).
  • Teaching
    • Complete one semester-equivalent of fundamental teaching, including at least 14 hours of group contact.
    • Complete four hours of scholarly communication.
  • Program milestones
    • Passage of oral qualifying examination
    • Portfolio review and admission to candidacy by the CSE faculty
    • Dissertation proposal
    • Dissertation defense
  • Continuing requirements
    • Choose a research adviser.
    • Sign up for and attend the Doctoral Student Research Seminar.
    • Attend the colloquium series.
    • Complete annual reviews of progress.
Breadth and Coursework Requirements
 
The initial part of your doctoral study includes a coursework requirement to ensure that you have sufficient breadth of knowledge to be an active member of a research enterprise in your field. During this time, you also have the opportunity to fill in any gaps in your undergraduate education and to take courses that will help advance your research aims.
 
Table of Breadth Requirements
 
Breadth course requirements are divided into several areas. You must take the specified number of courses from each area, choosing from among the list shown. Where two courses are listed as "X or Y," only one of these two courses may be counted toward the breadth requirement.
 
Some of the courses listed below are 400-level (i.e., part of our undergraduate curriculum). You may count at most three 400-level courses toward your breadth requirements.
 
Note that the Computer Science and Computer Engineering Ph.D. programs have different breadth requirements. Aside from this difference, the two programs share the same requirements and procedures.
 
Computer Science Breadth Requirements
 
THEORY SYSTEMS MACHINES APPLICATIONS
(take 2) (take 2) (take 1) (take 1)
CSE 541T or CSE 441T
CSE 547T		 CSE 522S or CSE 422S
CSE 531S or CSE 431S
CSE 425S 		CSE 560M CSE 511A
CSE 573S or CSE 473S
CSE 530A
CSE 552A or CSE 452A
CSE 405A
 
Computer Engineering Breadth Requirements
 
THEORY SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE
(take 1) (take 2) (take 1)
CSE 541T or CSE 441T
CSE 542T
CSE 547T		 Operating Systems:
CSE 522S or CSE 422S
Compilers:
CSE 531S or CSE 431S
Networking:
CSE 573S or CSE 473S		 CSE 560M
 
HARDWARE DESIGN PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
(take 1) (take 1)  
CSE 462M
CSE 463M
CSE 464M
CSE 465M
CSE 563M
CSE 565M
CSE 566M		 CSE 567M
CSE 577M

  

 
Fulfilling the Breadth Requirements
 
All breadth requirements must be satisfied before you present your dissertation proposal. Additionally, at least four of the six requirements must be satisfied, either by taking courses or by transfers, before you may be considered for the portfolio review.
 
Each course counted toward the breadth requirements must be passed with a grade of B or above. To avoid trouble at your portfolio review, you should maintain a  GPA of at least 3.6 for your breadth courses, which implies no more than two Bs out of the six required courses.  Although you may be allowed to continue in the program with a lower breadth GPA, the faculty may require you to prove yourself through additional coursework.
 
Note that grades below B are considered "unsatisfactory" by the Engineering School. If you receive such a grade, it is probably wise to at least talk to your course instructor before trying to pass your portfolio review.
 
If you have taken a CSE course at another university and would like to have that course counted toward your breadth requirements, you may do so with the approval of your adviser (which must be documented via a memo to the Doctoral Program Director and the department secretary in charge of student records). Courses used to satisfy breadth should be 400- or 500-level and should be equivalent to a Washington University course that you would otherwise use to satisfy your breadth requirements. Note that your adviser will ask you to get approval from the person who teaches the equivalent course.
 
Important notes: using a course from another institution to satisfy a breadth requirement does not cause the credit to transfer. See the next section for the (considerably stricter) rules on transfer credit. Furthermore, grades received in transferred courses are not factored into either breadth or overall GPA calculations.
 
Other Coursework and Credit Requirements
 
You need a total of 72 credits to satisfy the doctoral program requirements. Of these, at least 36 and at most 48 must be course credits, including any transfer credits. Courses taken for the doctoral breadth requirements fulfill 18 of these credits, leaving a requirement of at least five additional 3-credit courses plus the seminar requirement detailed below.
 
At least 33 of your course credits must be from regular (non-seminar) courses, while at least three course credits must be from research seminars. These seminars, which are typically designated CSE 7xxx, entail both discussion and oral presentation by students of cutting-edge research in a particular area of CSE. Please note that, as a matter of departmental policy, you may only take a given research seminar for one credit per semester, and the credit must be pass/fail, not graded. Some cross-departmental seminars may offer 2- or 3-credit options or the option to take a seminar for a grade, but CSE students are not eligible for these options. Note also that seminars count toward your course credits, not your research credits.
 
Doctoral students may count at most nine credits of 400-level CSE courses toward the graded course credits required for the degree. Also, doctoral students may count at most nine credits of graduate-level independent study (CSE 500 or 600) toward their total course credits.
 
Students who complete a Washington University master's degree in CS or CoE may apply all 30 credits completed for these degrees toward the credits needed for the Ph.D. Note that all MS credits, including those for CSE 599 "Masters Research," are counted as course credits; they cannot be counted as research credits.

Courses taken at Washington University outside the CSE department may be counted toward your total course credit requirement at the discretion of your adviser. Generally, such courses must be relevant to your research area and at 500-level or above.
 
You may transfer no more than 24 total units of coursework, taken either at another institution or in one of Washington University's programs (other than CSE), toward the 72 units required for a Ph.D. degree. As a special exception, students form the University's Medical Scientist Training Program may transfer up to 48 units.

Transfer credit is granted only for work that is an appropriate substitute for what would have otherwise been done as part of our Ph.D. program. More specifically, courses taken at another institution must meet all of the following requirements to be eligible for transfer credit:
  1. The course must be considered "graduate" where it was taught. Essentially, it must be 500-level or above. Exceptions to this rule are possible but rare.
  2. The course must not have been used to satisfy an undergraduate degree requirement. Because this determination is often difficult to make, our usual rule is that you must have had graduate standing when you took the course. Courses taken as part of a master's or doctoral program, a graduate certification program, or as an SNCD (student not candidate for degree) are all eligible.
  3. The Department Chair must approve the transfer after reviewing the course's content.
Even with transfer credit from another institution, you must take at least 9 graded credits of course work, and a minimum of 48 total credits (course and/or research), as a graduate student at Washington University to obtain a CS or CoE Ph.D.
 
You will fulfill your 24-36 non-course credit requirements by taking research credits, in the form of CSE 699 (Doctoral Research). Research credits must be arranged with your research adviser. Prior to being admitted to candidacy, you can take up to 3 research credits per semester. After admission to candidacy, you can take up to 9 research credits per semester.
 
Students funded on department fellowships or research assistantships are typically limited in how many credits they can take per semester at the Department's expense. Please check your appointment letter for details.
 
Maintaining Enrollment
 
Ph.D. students must be either enrolled full-time or registered as a nonresident candidate every semester until graduation. Prior to completing 72 credits, full-time enrollment is achieved by registering for a full 9 credits in a semester, or by registering for 1-8 credits along with the 0-credit CSE 884 (Continuing Student Registration).  Students who wish to register for fewer than 9 credits in a semester and do not want to maintain full-time enrollment, or who will be on leave in a given semester, must register for the 0-credit CSE 886 (Nonresident Candidate).
 
Once you have completed 72 credits, you must register for CSE 884 each semester to maintain your full-time status.
 
Note that, in addition to the above requirements, you must fulfill a residency requirement to complete your doctorate, regardless of whether you are full-time or part-time.
 
Teaching Requirements
 
The skills required to obtain a Ph.D. include not only mastery of core and specialized CSE knowledge but also the ability to communicate this knowledge to others. Teaching skills are especially important if you choose to pursue an academic career, but similar abilities are required in industrial research and many areas of public life. Our Ph.D. programs therefore require you to satisfy two types of teaching requirement as part of obtaining your degree.
 
Fundamental Teaching Requirement
 
The fundamental teaching requirement entails at least one semester's worth of experience as a teacher, co-teacher, or teaching assistant (TA) in a for-credit, non-seminar CSE class, or in CSE 501 or 502, our non-credit "immigration courses" offered to incoming graduate students with a non-CSE background. To count toward the requirement, the TA or teaching position must include a certain number of group contact hours, during which you lead an oral communication with a group of students in the context of the class.
 
Group contact hours may take the form of, e.g., classroom lectures, supervised laboratory exercises, recitation sections, or group review or help sessions.  Activities not involving group contact with students, such as grading, creating assignments, tutoring, responding to email, and one-on-one office hours, may be entailed by the teaching or TA position but do not by themselves satisfy the requirement.
 
The fundamental teaching requirement must be met either by one semester of teaching activity that entails at least fourteen group contact hours, or by two semesters of activity, each of which entails at least seven such hours.  Activities that normally satisfy the full requirement include:
  • teaching or co-teaching a 3-credit graded course, or CSE 501 or 502;
  • serving as a TA for one semester in a position that entails recitation sections, supervised labs, and/or help sessions totaling at least one hour per week.
Activities that normally satisfy half the requirement include:
  • teaching a 1- or 2-credit CSE course (which typically meets once a week for half a semester);
  • serving as a TA for one semester in a position that entails recitation sections, supervised labs, or help sessions totaling at least one hour every two weeks.
The course instructor and the Department determine whether any particular TA activity of the types described above is suitable for the fundamental teaching requirement. Other types of teaching activity may also be counted with prior approval of the Doctoral Program Director.
 
Scholarly Communication Requirement
 
The scholarly communication requirement entails at least four contact hours spent communicating research results (your own or someone else's) orally to an audience of scholars, who may be either your peers or the research community at large. Activities that count toward these hours include:
  • presentation of research results in a talk at an academic conference or workshop, or in an invited talk or tutorial delivered to a scholarly audience;
  • presentation of research results at the Doctoral Student Research Seminar;
  • presentation of a research paper to a group in a graduate seminar or journal club.
Other types of activity may be counted with prior approval of the Doctoral Program Director. However, examinations required by our program, such as the oral qualifying exam, dissertation proposal, or dissertation defense, may not be counted toward this requirement.
 
Documenting Your Teaching
 
You should be prepared to document how you have satisfied the requisite number of hours for the two teaching requirements.  The Graduate School requires such documentation by the time you graduate, using the official Ph.D. Teaching Requirement Form. For each activity satisfying part of a requirement, you should document the date it was performed, the class name/number or other venue, the type of teaching activity, and brief  description of the subject matter, along with the number of hours it satisfied. Time spent in each activity counting toward the scholarly communication requirement should be rounded to the nearest half hour.

If you believe you have satisfied some or all of the teaching requirements before joining our program may apply to transfer in their outside teaching experience. Transfers must be approved as a special exception by the Department Chair and the Dean of the Graduate School. You must both document the activity as described above and supply an official memo, signed by the faculty who supervised you at the time of the outside teaching activity, to verify that you did the work described. Please check with the Graduate Program Director if you want to pursue a teaching transfer.

Teaching documentation is normally submitted along with the Title, Scope, and Procedure Form immediately following the dissertation proposal, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Milestones
 
Your graduate career is marked by a series of milestones achieved on the way to your doctorate. At each milestone, you will demonstrate certain skills and abilities critical to success in CSE research. The CSE faculty have defined these milestones both to give you intermediate targets at which to aim and to give us ways to assess your progress toward the doctorate.
 
A Table of Milestones
 
The following table lists the milestones of the doctoral program and indicates roughly how long it should take you to reach each one. Times are given in years relative to the beginning of your first semester in the program. Note that the indicated times are only approximate, and some variation is natural. For example, a student who enters the program with a CS or CoE master's degree from another university is likely to proceed faster, while a student without an undergraduate CS or CoE degree is likely to proceed more slowly.
 
Milestone Time (years)
Oral Qualifying Examination 1.5-2.0
Admission to Candidacy (faculty review of portfolio) 1.5-2.0
Dissertation Proposal 2.5-3.5
Dissertation Defense 4.5-5.5

 
Some students, for a variety of reasons, are not able to complete the entire process of attaining a Ph.D. degree. You should do your best to understand, at the earliest possible stage in your doctoral program, which steps may be troublesome for you and to work to meet these challenges. At any step in the process, the faculty may raise concerns about your ability to continue and may even ask you to leave the program. This does not mean that you are a failure, only that the faculty strongly believes that continuing with doctoral research is not in your best interest. We have seen, over and over again, that making this determination earlier rather than later is in the best interest of both students and faculty.
 
If a student has a healthy relationship with her research adviser, concerns from the faculty about the student's ability to continue in the program should never come as a surprise. Moreover, the Doctoral Program Committee is responsible for tracking the progress of doctoral students and alerting both student and adviser to any substantive concerns while there is still time to take corrective action.
 
Milestone 1: Oral Qualifying Examination
 
The oral qualifying examination tests your ability to read deeply the literature in your research area, to synthesize and to critically evaluate existing research results, to present these results in a scholarly and professional oral presentation, and to answer orally questions from the faculty about the literature you've read. All of these skills are important for being able to pursue research at the doctoral level.
 
To the extent that the research area for your oral exam is related to your doctoral research area, the time you spend preparing for the exam should help you make progress toward your degree. The exam will also be one of (we hope) many opportunities for you to build confidence in your research and oral presentation skills.
 
Important Note:  if you have completed and orally defended a master's thesis in this department, you may waive the oral qualifying examination.
 
Procedure of the Exam
 
When you are ready to proceed with the oral qualifying examination, you should meet with your adviser to identify a topic for the exam. You and your adviser will then assemble an oral examination committee.
 
Oral exam committee composition: Your committee must include at least three regular (i.e. tenured or tenure-track) CSE faculty members. Your adviser may not serve on this committee and will not be present at the exam. We recommend that the chair of the committee be someone in your research area who can act as advocate for you at the exam, and that at least one committee member be from outside your research area.
 
To provide a starting point in preparing for the exam, you and your adviser, in collaboration with the examining committee, will select three research papers covering different aspects of the area to be examined. As part of your preparation, you are expected to read each assigned paper in depth to understand both the significance of its results and the details of how these results were achieved. However, your preparation should cover the whole area of the exam, not just the selected papers. You will likely need to do significant background reading to understand current work in the area and to place it in its historical context. You should have well-informed opinions about the quality of the work in the selected papers and how their approaches relate to each other and to other work in the area.
 
Your adviser may not work closely with you on exam preparation after the initial choice of papers and committee are complete. Your interactions regarding the exam should be limited to occasional questions and at most one practice talk attended by the adviser. These limits do not preclude giving additional practice talks for other students, including those in your research group. Indeed, we strongly recommend practicing your presentation for other students prior to the exam. A clear, polished, practiced presentation heads off much confusion and makes it easier and much more pleasant for you and the committee to engage in a dialog about the area of your presentation.
 
When you are ready to proceed (in at most about three months), you should prepare a polished, professional, conference-style oral presentation of around 35 minutes that presents an overall view of and direction for work in the area of the exam. Your presentation should include a summary of important ideas from the selected papers, their significance, and how they relate to each other and to other relevant work. However, it is not sufficient to give a talk focused on these papers alone. Rather, you must demonstrate that, having read both the selected papers and other literature, you have synthesized a clear understanding of the current state of research in the area and can propose and defend reasonable directions for further, novel research in it.
 
During and after your presentation, the committee will ask you questions about the substance of the papers and their implications for your research area and your own planned work. Please schedule at least 1.5 hours, and preferably 2 hours, for your exam to allow sufficient time for questions. At the end, the committee will confer in private to determine whether you have passed the exam.
 
There are three possible outcomes to an oral exam:
  • Pass, allowing the student to continue to the next milestone.
  • Fail, asking the student to retake the exam.
  • Fail without the option to retake, effectively asking the student to leave the program.
In the event that you fail the oral examination and are asked to retake it, you should immediately confer with your examining committee to determine the areas in which your performance fell short of the committee's expectations. You should then arrange to retake the exam, using the same research area and starting papers, within one month. Your committee for an exam retake must include at least one member who was present at the previous exam, and at least one new member who was not present.
 
Milestone 2: Admission to Candidacy
 
The second milestone, the portfolio review for admission to doctoral candidacy, assesses whether you have (or will soon achieve) both sufficient breadth in CSE and sufficient ability to carry out independent research to proceed with a research-based dissertation in your area.
 
Before you can be considered for candidacy, you must:
  • pass the oral qualifying examination;
  • satisfy at least four of the six breadth requirements, whether by taking courses or by transfers;
  • take at least nine graded credits of course work while a graduate student at Washington University.
Your major task for admission to candidacy is to prepare a written portfolio demonstrating that you can contribute significantly to original research. A student's portfolio may contain any desired written materials, including selected homeworks, exams, or publications. However, the centerpiece of the portfolio must be a written product of research performed as part of a relationship with your research adviser at Washington University. You must make a substantial contribution both to the research itself and to the composition of this written material.
 
The centerpiece of your portfolio may be a research paper (submitted or accepted) or a technical report. You need not be the primary author of this work, but your contribution must be substantial enough that the work can be used as a demonstration of your ability to carry out research and to write clearly about your results.
 
Important Note: if you have completed a master's thesis in the Washington University CSE Department, this thesis may serve as your portfolio's centerpiece.
 
The Faculty Portfolio Review
 
When you and your adviser determine that you should be reviewed for admission to candidacy, you will assemble your portfolio and submit it to the Doctoral Program Director. The portfolio should be submitted by the beginning of the student's fifth semester, though it can (and hopefully will) occur earlier.
 
Your portfolio submission should include a cover letter listing the portfolio's contents, certifying that you have passed or waived your oral qualifying exam, and explaining how you have met the coursework and breadth requirements for candidacy. Here is a standardized sample letter (Word .doc, PDF) that you can edit to produce the final cover letter. Besides the information listed in this letter, you should also provide a copy of your portfolio centerpiece and an (unofficial) copy of your Washington University transcript. A printout from WEBSTAC, the university's online student information system, is fine for the latter.
 
If you are submitting several papers or other written works with your portfolio, please indicate which paper you would like to designate as the centerpiece. Note: if you are not certain which of several papers you should use as your portfolio centerpiece, you may let the Doctoral Program Committee choose among them.
 
The Director will assign your portfolio to a faculty reviewer (not your adviser). When the reviewer has assessed the portfolio, the Director will bring up your case at a meeting of the CSE faculty. At that time, the faculty will review your total package (portfolio, oral qualifier, and grades in breadth courses) and will then vote on whether to admit you to candidacy. The vote is based on whether, in the faculty's opinion, you have demonstrated the knowledge, ability, and creativity needed to conduct high-quality research in CSE.
 
There are three possible outcomes to the vote on admission to candidacy:
  • Admit to candidacy (possibly with conditions) for the Ph.D. degree;
  • Delay any decision and conduct a second review at some later time (usually within six months);
  • Do not admit to candidacy, effectively asking the student to leave the program.
Admission to candidacy may be unconditional or may be conditional on your completing specified additional work. Typically, this work would be intended to remedy a weakness in breadth and would entail demonstrating sufficient mastery in one or more specific courses.
Alternatively, the faculty may reject the portfolio centerpiece and ask for additional work showing evidence of your ability to carry out research.
 
Note: if you are admitted to candidacy before satisfying all doctoral breadth requirements, your admission will be conditional on satisfactory completion of these requirements, as described above, prior to your dissertation proposal.
Milestone 3: Dissertation Proposal
 
The next milestone for the Ph.D. program is determination and proposal of a topic for dissertation research. You should choose your dissertation topic and formulate a plan of research on this topic in consultation with your research adviser. The planned research must be original, novel, and significant enough to warrant publication (typically at least three journal-quality papers' worth of work).
 
When you have selected a research topic, you must describe your research plan as a written dissertation proposal. The proposal, which typically ranges from 15 to 25 pages in length, should include the following pieces:
  • motivation for the planned research;
  • one or more specific aims that you will achieve through your research program;
  • background sufficient for someone educated in CSE (but not necessarily in your area) to understand your specific aims and their significance;
  • a review of existing work related to your research plan, indicating how your planned research is novel;
  • high-level details of the planned research, including challenges, methods, and deliverables, sufficient for an expert in your area to evaluate its technical feasibility;
  • a timeline indicating when you plan to achieve your specific aims and when you plan to complete the dissertation.
A good model for the dissertation proposal is an NSF or NIH grant proposal. Your adviser or any other faculty member can provide examples of such proposals.
 
You must defend your written dissertation proposal in a public oral examination. This examination is conducted before a research advisory committee, which you choose prior to the examination. You should supply each committee member with a copy of the proposal at least 7-10 days prior to the examination.
 
Research advisory committee composition: The committee must include at least four Washington University CSE Department faculty and one faculty member from outside the Department, for a total of five. Your research adviser is typically chair of the committee. At least four committee members must be regular (tenured or tenure-track) faculty. Non-regular faculty -- such as adjunct, research, or emeritus professors -- may serve on a committee, but at most one such member is allowed among the five required five members
 
You may optionally choose a second, non-CSE regular faculty member at this time, thereby completing the six-person committee that will eventually be required for the dissertation defense.
 
Washington University faculty whose primary appointment is in the CSE Department are never considered "outside," even if they have secondary appointments in other departments. Faculty with primary appointments in another department and joint appointments in CSE may be considered "inside" or "outside" at the student's discretion. Faculty without any form of CSE appointment or from another university are always considered "outside."
 
The Dean of the Graduate School has the final say as to whether a particular committee is acceptable.
 
Procedure of the Exam
 
The exam consists of two parts. First, you must give an oral presentation of about 50 minutes describing the content of your proposal, including its background and motivation, its aims, related work, the research plan itself, and the timeline for completion. This presentation is open to all, so it should be comprehensible to those outside your area of research. Following this presentation and questions from the audience, the research advisory committee examines you privately about details of the research plan and any questions raised by their reading of the proposal. At the end, the committee deliberates privately to determine whether to accept the dissertation proposal. You should schedule at least two hours of time for this examination.
 
The committee may either accept or reject the dissertation proposal. Even if the proposal is accepted, the committee may still recommend changes to the research plan and may require you to provide regular oral and/or written updates on your progress toward the proposal's specific aims.
 
Note that, once you pass your proposal, you should complete a Title, Scope, and Procedure Form and submit it to the Graduate School as soon as possible.  This will necessitate forming your full six-member dissertation examining committee.

Milestone 4: Dissertation Defense
 
At the conclusion of your doctoral research, you will produce a written dissertation describing the work performed. This dissertation must be produced according to the Graduate School's guide. Please see this guide for detailed instructions about formatting and which materials and forms must be submitted to the Graduate School before and after the examination. Note that you must file an Intent to Graduate for the semester in which you defend your dissertation; this filing can be done through the University's online WebSTAC system.
 
The Title, Scope, and Procedure Form

Well before to your dissertation defense, you should arrange to submit a Title, Scope, and Procedure Form to the Graduate School.  This form briefly describes the planned work of the dissertation. The "scope" of your dissertation indicates the specific area of study and the questions to be answered, while the "procedure" briefly describes how you will carry out the work. 

Important Note: you may not schedule the final dissertation defense less than six months from the time the signed Title, Scope, and Procedure Form is received by the Graduate School.

The Title, Scope, and Procedure Form must be signed by your six-member dissertation examining committee and by the department chair. Ideally, you should fill out this form (except for signatures) before your proposal defense and make it available to the department secretary at the time you schedule your proposal, so that the majority of the committee (or the full committee, if already appointed) can sign it immediately upon your passing the proposal defense.
 
You should submit your Teaching Requirement Fulfillment Form at the same time as the Title, Scope, and Procedure Form, unless you have not yet completed the teaching requirement.

Dissertation Oral Examination

The written dissertation must be defended in a final, public oral examination (the "defense"), which uses a procedure similar to that of the proposal examination. The defense is conducted by an examining committee composed of the research advisory committee plus one additional regular faculty member from outside the Washington University CSE Department (for a total of six). At least five members of the examining committee must be regular (i.e. tenured or tenure-track) faculty. Committee members from outside Washington University must be specifically approved by the Dean of the Graduate School.
 
The examining committee may accept or reject the written dissertation and the oral defense. A committee that accepts the written dissertation may still request changes to the document that you should complete before submitting it to the Graduate School.
Other Student Responsibilities and Assessment Procedures
 
Besides the major milestones, you have some continuing responsibilities as part of your participation in the doctoral program. These responsibilities are partly to help the faculty assess your progress and partly to help you better prepare for a career in CSE research.
 
Choosing a Research Adviser
 
Currently, most admissions to our doctoral programs happen because a particular faculty member or research group agrees to fund a student through current or anticipated research grants. In most cases, the faculty member who agrees to fund your doctoral studies immediately becomes your research adviser, with overall responsibility for directing your research program. However, some students are admitted through other mechanisms, such as fellowships or departmental offers, that are not associated with a particular faculty member. These students are responsible for choosing a research adviser once they arrive.
 
A student who is admitted without a research adviser is initially assigned to a faculty member who assumes the traditional responsibilities of an academic adviser: helping you choose courses, providing general guidance in the doctoral program, and representing your interests to the CSE faculty and the university as a whole. This relationship is intended to be temporary, while you arrange for a more permanent research adviser. Once you choose a research adviser, that person both takes over academic advising duties and provides resources and guidance to help you formulate and carry out the research that will enable you to pass your milestones. Ideally, you should choose your research adviser by the end of your first year in the program.
 
Choosing a research adviser is a momentous decision, and you should be as well-informed as possible when making it. A good match of skills, interests, and personality between the student and the research adviser is critical to successful doctoral research. Discussions with individual faculty members, careful review of recently published papers, participation in research seminars, and advice from the academic adviser and from the Doctoral Program Committee are several avenues by which you can determine who your adviser should be.
 
The advising relationship is established and continued by the mutual consent of student and faculty member. Whether or not you arrived with a research adviser already chosen, you have the option at any time to seek a new research adviser. If you feel that switching research (or academic) advisers is in your best interest, the faculty will do what we can to try to make the transition possible, beneficial, and amicable for all involved. Similarly, if the faculty member chooses to end the advising relationship, and you are making acceptable progress toward a Ph.D., we will help you find a new adviser if possible.
 
The Doctoral Student Research Seminar
 
The Department's Graduate Student Association organizes a regular (typically bi-weekly) non-credit seminar in which doctoral students present their ongoing research. This seminar provides a forum for you to show off your work to your peers, an opportunity to practice the skills of talk preparation and presentation, and an occasion for interested faculty to assess your progress in the program.
 
Each student who takes CSE 699 or CSE 888 for at least one semester of a given year must present a talk in the seminar and must attend other seminars in the series. Students who take research credits in the fall semester typically present in spring, while those who take research credits only in spring present the following fall. The talk requirement is waived if the student is presenting a dissertation proposal or defending a dissertation or M.S. thesis in the same year that she becomes eligible to talk in the seminar.
 
The format of the seminar is two half-hour slots. Each slot is devoted to a conference-style presentation by one student, followed by time for questions. Presentations are typically fairly polished (practicing is strongly recommended). Listeners in the seminar provide anonymous feedback to speakers in the form of comment sheets filled out during the seminar. Talks are announced in advance by posted abstract, which should be sent to the seminar organizer(s) about a week in advance of a presentation.
 
Students who are not required to present in a given year may still choose to do so. Participation by M.S. students and advanced undergraduates is also possible, given sufficient space in the schedule.
Colloquium Series
 
Throughout the year, faculty members invite speakers from other universities and from industry to give public colloquia in the department. These talks are extremely important in helping us to stay abreast of developments in our field and in encouraging productive relationships with researchers outside the Department. Some talks also serve as job interviews by applicants for CSE faculty positions.
 
Doctoral students are expected to attend all talks in the colloquium series. You will have the opportunity to hear about exciting research in your field and to find out about areas in which you might want to work. You will also have the opportunity to critically assess presentations, which will help you learn how to present well yourself. Seeing what works and does not work in job talks is especially useful as you yourself begin to think about applying for jobs.
 
The obligation to attend colloquia applies less stringently to part-time students, who may not be in the Department during our usual colloquium times. However, during the residency period, part-timers have the full opportunity and obligation to attend.
 
Annual Review of Progress
 
At the end of each year's spring semester, the Doctoral Program Committee reviews the progress of all students in the CS and CoE doctoral programs. The purpose of this review is to ensure that students are making adequate progress toward their degrees, to identify potential trouble spots early enough to respond, and to maintain a uniform expectation from the faculty as a whole about how quickly students should be moving through the program milestones.
 
All doctoral students are asked to fill out a survey form documenting their progress over the last year and their plans for next year to aid in the annual review (download form as Word .doc or PDF). Your submission to the committee must be discussed with and approved by your adviser. In addition to the survey form, you should feel free to include papers, technical reports, or other documentation of your work.
 
You may also use the annual assessment as an opportunity to raise concerns about your relationship with your adviser or other progress-related issues. You may, if you prefer, raise these issues separately (and, if need be, confidentially) from your adviser-approved submission.
 
Important note: advisers are strongly urged to let the Doctoral Program Committee know as soon as possible if a doctoral student is in danger of being left unadvised and unfunded or is otherwise having difficulty making progress. Please do not wait for the annual review, since losing an adviser can have not only academic but also financial and immigration implications for the student.
 
Academic Integrity
 
We expect doctoral students to maintain a high standard of academic integrity. This standard includes integrity in both your coursework and your research activities. Violations are handled according to the Graduate School's Policy on Academic Integrity, which may be found on their policy page.
 
You are likely already familiar with the basic obligations of academic integrity as they relate to coursework. Broadly, we expect students to behave ethically and not to subvert the evaluation function of our courses. Each course's instructor determines that course's specific integrity policies, including, e.g., acceptable level of collaboration on assignments, guidelines for seeking outside help, and examination procedures. When in doubt, ask the instructor.
 
You may be less familiar with the standards for academic integrity in conducting and publishing research. However, these standards are just as important as those for your classwork, and failure to abide by them can destroy your career. Your research adviser is your guide to what is acceptable in your area, but here is an (incomplete) list of basic guidelines to help you get started.
 
Research Misconduct
 
Your research results, published or unpublished, must be true, complete, and accurate to the best of your knowledge. Falsifying or "fudging" data, rigging experiments to produce a desirable outcome, or representing as correct a proof that you know to be flawed, is unacceptable. You should disclose experimental conditions that could materially affect your results.
 
Plagiarism
 
You may not claim the work of others as your own. Fundamentally, you may not copy or adapt text from another researcher's written work without proper attribution, nor may you claim another's ideas, code, or research results as your own work. You must properly cite others' previous work.
 
Self-Plagiarism
 
You may not attempt to get credit twice for the same research result. Examples include republishing your previously published paper as novel work, or claiming a result from an earlier paper as novel in a later paper. You must properly cite your own previous work.
 
In computer science, it is common practice to publish a result first in the proceedings of a refereed professional conference, then later to prepare a journal version of the same paper. Standards vary as to how different the conference and journal versions of a paper need to be to avoid self-plagiarism. A good rule of thumb is that the journal paper should have at least 30% new material; however, consult your research adviser for specific cases.
 
Note that it is fine to reuse relatively small chunks of your own explanatory text in your later work.
 
Multiple Submission
 
Most academic journals and conferences have policies prohibiting you from submitting work that is already published or currently under review for another journal or conference. It is a violation of academic integrity to ignore or subvert these policies.
 
Residency Requirement

All Ph.D. students, whether full-time or part-time, must complete all the requirements of their program within seven years of graduate admission. For students transferring from MS to Ph.D. status, the seven-year clock starts at the beginning of MS admission, not when the student switches to a Ph.D. Students at risk of exceeding the seven-year limit must request an extension from the Graduate School; the request should include a timeline indicating when the various milestones toward the Ph.D. will be completed.

All students must also fulfill a one-year residency requirement. Residency is satisfied by registering for 9 credits in each of two consecutive academic semesters at some time in your doctoral career. A full 9 credits must be taken in each semester of residency; it is not sufficient to register for CSE 884 for those semesters. If you transferred to PhD status from a WU CSE Master's Program, semesters spent in that program may be used to satisfy your residency requirement.
 
Residency requires full participation in the life of the Department. For part-time students who work full time, the Department requires that you reduce the amount of time you spend at work by at least 50% during the residency period. You will have a desk and all the other perks and responsibilities of a full-time doctoral student (e.g. attending colloquia) during your residency.
 
Outside Employment and Internships
 
Full-time CSE doctoral students receiving research assistantships are restricted as to what kinds of work they may do outside of their doctoral research. Students receiving research assistantships are expected to dedicate all their energy to making progress toward their degrees and to contribute to the research activities that provide the funding for their support. As such, only limited effort may be directed to income-generating activities within or outside the university, and only if such activities do not interfere with the student's academic pursuits or general university policies on conflict of interest and conflict of commitment.
 
The scope of such efforts is limited to one day per calendar week. If the activity involves grading for the Department, the one-day-per-week limit translates to no more than 8 hours per week on average.   In all cases, the student has an obligation both to keep her adviser and the Department informed about all such extra activities, and to secure the adviser's explicit approval.
 
Doctoral students in some areas of computer science often pursue research internship opportunities during their graduate career.  An internship experience generally involves doing CSE research in an industrial or other non-academic setting. The work, which typically lasts several months, is done under the supervision of the company or lab supporting the internship. Students do not receive graduate assistantship support during their internships; rather, they are paid by their employer.

Any student contemplating an internship should first obtain her adviser's permission. Verify in particular that your adviser approves of your planned absence from your research group! Moreover, you should carefully consider whether the work you will perform for your internship could overlap with work you plan to do for your dissertation. In most cases, your employer holds  intellectual property rights in the work you do while on an internship; hence, you should be careful to avoid unintentionally encumbering your dissertation research.

International students on F-1 visas need a work permit to take an outside internship.  These permits can be obtained through the University's Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS). OISS will treat your internship as co-op experience, which is eligible for Curricular Practical Training but does not count for academic credit. Please note the following rules that apply to F-1 visa holders seeking an internship:
  • You must obtain written approval for the internship from both your adviser and the department chair.
  • You must register for one of the following non-credit co-op courses:
    • E60 ENGR 500S for summer internship
    • E60 ENGR 500A for academic-year interships
  • Academic-year internships must be one full semester, full-time.
Please contact OISS or the Career Center to learn more about how to arrange an internship and the procedures associated with co-op experience.

A Note on Switching from Master's to Doctoral Status
 
If you are a current MS student in our department and are interested in joining one of our doctoral programs, you may follow either the normal application procedure or the following, expedited procedure:
 
  1. You must find a faculty research adviser willing to both advise and fund you for doctoral study. Typically, you should already have a strong working relationship with the adviser, based on, e.g., research done for a master's thesis.
  2. You must fill out the online graduate application for the Engineering School, including the parts specific to CSE.  You do not have to submit transcripts, test scores, or letters of recommendation. You must, however, complete all requested essays.
  3. Your adviser must write a letter to the Department Chair recommending you for doctoral admission, stating that she is willing to advise you, and indicating the source of the your doctoral funding.
  4. Approval of the status change is at the discretion of the department chair.
  5. You will need to complete the necessary Ph.D. enrollment paperwork with the Graduate School, and your enrollment must be approved by the Dean of the Graduate School.
CSE Doctoral Program Committee
Last update: June 28, 2008
For questions or comments regarding information on this page, contact Jeremy Buhler.
 
Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis
One Brookings Drive, Box 1045, St. Louis, Missouri 63130
Office Location: Bryan 509, Phone: (314) 935-6160, Fax: (314) 935-7302
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