Ph.D. Degree in Computer Science

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Degree Requirements

Updated May 2011

These requirements are effective for all students entering the Computer Science Ph.D. program August, 2011 or later until changed by later requirements. The NDSU Graduate School has a set of requirements for all Ph.D. degrees. A Ph.D. student must satisfy those requirements also. If those requirements are changed to conflict with the requirements in this document, the Graduate School requirements prevail.

1. What is acceptable for a student’s program is ultimately determined by a fully approved Plan of Study for that student. After one or two semesters of course work the student should discuss his or her coursework with the research advisor. Once they have agreed on a reasonable set of courses, the rest of the student’s advisory committee, the Department Head representative, and the Graduate Dean also must approve the listed courses. These courses must meet all the criteria given in 2.
2. Two Paths to Ph.D.
   1. Enter our program with an M.S. or near equivalent already
      1. Get 30 hours of transfer credit for the M.S. No additional transfer credit is accepted.
      2. Take 15 - 27 additional didactic hours (5 - 9 courses) including whatever parts of the Ph.D. core (CSci 713, 724, 741, and 765) were not completed in the M.S. At least fifteen of these hours must be 700-level (700 – 789) didactic courses.
      3. This may leave as few as 1 remaining course, if the student and research advisor agree on a 45-credit hour dissertation. However, the Department requires that the student satisfy the depth requirement which includes two courses. The depth area must be taken entirely at NDSU. Two of those courses must be in a depth area (Artificial Intelligence, Bioinformatics, Database/Data Mining, Networking, Operations Research, or Software Engineering). The courses in each depth area are listed in 3 below.
      4. 3 seminars (CSci 790) are required
      5. 30 – 45 credit hours for the dissertation research. The more hours a student and research advisor assign to the dissertation, the more research results are expected.
      6. Pass the Qualifying Examination on the core course textbooks.
      7. Select a research advisor from among the Computer Science faculty
      8. Submit and gain needed approvals for the Plan of Study
      9. Prepare a five to fifteen page research proposal for distribution to the student’s Advisory Committee
      10. Pass the Research Proposal Exam (Grad School’s Preliminary Exam) involving an oral presentation and questions by the student’s Advisory Committee. The Graduate School requires that this examination be scheduled through them at least two weeks in advance.
      11. Prepare a dissertation according to the guidelines available from the NDSU Graduate School web site and acceptable to the student’s research advisor.
      12. Pass the final exam on the dissertation research and coursework given by the student’s Advisory Committee. This examination must be scheduled through the Graduate School at least two weeks in advance. All Advisory Committee members must receive a complete copy of the dissertation at least one week before the final examination.
      13. Submit an acceptable version of the dissertation to the Graduate School and pay all necessary fees as set by the Graduate School.
   2. Enter the program with a B.S. in Computer Science or near equivalent only
      1. A maximum of nine semester credit hours may be transferred. These hours must have received no grade less than a C or equivalent.
      2. Take 42 – 57 credit hours of didactic courses (14 - 19 courses) including the Ph.D. core (CSci 713, 724, 741, and 765). At least fifteen of these hours must be 700-level courses. Any transfer hours credited would reduce this total accordingly.
      3. At least three of those courses must be in one of the depth areas (see 3 below). Another two courses must be in a different depth area. The depth area courses must be taken entirely at NDSU
      4. 3 seminars (CSci 790)
      5. 30 - 45 hours for the dissertation research as agreed with the student’s research advisor.
      6. Pass the qualifying examination based on the core course textbooks
      7. Select a research advisor from among the Computer Science faculty
      8. Submit and gain needed approvals for the Plan of Study
      9. Prepare a five to fifteen page research proposal acceptable to your research advisor.
      10. Pass the Research Proposal Exam given by the student’s Advisory Committee. This examination must be scheduled through the Graduate School at least two weeks in advance. All Advisory Committee members must be given a copy of the research proposal at least one week before the examination.
      11. Prepare the dissertation according to the guidelines available on the NDSU Graduate School web site and acceptable to the research advisor.
      12. Pass the final examination on the dissertation research and coursework given by the student’s Advisory Committee. This examination must be scheduled through the Graduate School at least two weeks in advance. All Advisory Committee members must receive a complete copy of the dissertation at least one week in advance.
      13. Submit an accepted version of the dissertation to the Graduate School and pay the required fees.
3. Depth Areas: Note that the Department does not expect to offer courses in every depth area in every year. The student and advisor must plan carefully to ensure that the appropriate depth courses are taken when they are offered.
   1. Artificial Intelligence
      1. CSci 734: Expert Systems
      2. CSci 735: Neural Networks
   2. Bioinformatics
      1. CSci 732: Introduction to Bioinformatics
      2. CSci 758: Bioinformatics Data Mining
      3. CSci 759: Computational Methods in Bioinformatics
   3. Database/Data Mining
      1. CSci 679: Introduction to Data Mining
      2. CSci 758: Bioinformatics Data Mining
      3. CSci 766: Database System Internals
      4. CSci 779: Advanced Data Mining
   4. Networking
      1. CSci 778: Computer Networks
      2. CSci 669: Network Security
      3. CSci 676: Computer Forensics
      4. CSci 746: Development of Distributed Systems
   5. Operations Research
      1. CSci 760 Dynamic Programming
      2. CSci 761 Integer Programming
      3. CSci 762 Network Flows
      4. CSci 780 Methods of Optimization
      5. CSci 618: Simulation Models
      6. CSci 653: Linear Programming and Network Flows
      7. CSci 654: Operations Research
   6. Software Engineering
      1. CSci 714 Software Planning and Estimation
      2. CSci 715: Software Requirements Definition and Analysis
      3. CSci 716: Software Design
      4. CSci 717: Software Construction
      5. CSci 718: Software Testing and Debugging
      6. CSci 745: Formal Methods for Software Development
      7. CSci 746: Development of Distributed Systems
      8. CSci 747: Software Complexity Metrics