Students who are working towards a Ph.D. degree are required to take the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination. The Ph.D. Qualifying Examination tests the student's ability to think, speak and write. Students have to read and understand three technical papers that define the examination topical area. Students then write a review paper as well as orally present this review to a faculty examining committee. This committee includes 3 faculty from the ECE department whose research focus is in the area the student wants to be tested on. The student has to answer detailed questions from the faculty committee. These questions can be about the review paper and presentation, the reference papers, and obvious undergraduate-level technical background for the material in the review and reference papers.
Unlike other Ph.D. programs, this is not a comprehensive examination or an open-ended examination of what the faculty feel you should know. Instead, it is a focused examination, scoped by the student's choice of reference papers and review paper and presentation. The exam stresses the student's understanding of ECE fundamentals within this scope as well as the students ability to understand and communicate the technical linkages to the topics chosen by the student.
Students must take the Qualifying Examination within the first three semesters of entering the Ph.D./M.S. program. Students who start the program without a M.S. degree must take the exam within the first six semesters of entering the program. If a student leaves for a semester to return to industry, the time clock is stopped and begins the semester upon returning. Upon passing the Qualifying Examination, the student is accepted as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
A student who fails the Qualifying Examination on the first try is required to retake the exam during the following semester. One faculty member from the first examination committee will serve on the second examination committee. A student who fails the examination twice will lose support and must leave the program at the end of that semester.
These three papers provide context to the faculty examining committee regarding your area of focus. They help describe what your work is about and why it matters. They describe the history in this research field and the motivations that are driving this research.
You select these three papers with input from your advisor. The Graduate Student Committee reviews the paper choices, and assigns a 3 faculty examining committee. These papers can include conference papers, journal papers, book chapters, thesis chapters, your own papers or technical reports.
You can choose no more than two papers that may have authors who are currently faculty at Carnegie Mellon. You can choose no more than 1 paper that you have co-authored. The total length of all three papers should not exceed 50 pages.
The Qualifying Examination tests your written communication skills through a short review paper. This paper defines the focus of your Qualifying Examination topic. You should explain your technical area, your work and the relationship between your work to the background provided in the three background papers. This paper should not exceed more than 4 pages and should be in a 2-column format. You are encouraged to use the standard template.
The Qualifying Examination tests your oral communication skills by having you present a short talk during the first 30 minutes of a Qualifying Examination that is scheduled for 3 hours. You should consider this oral presentation to be like a conference presentation, as the 3 faculty in your Qualifying Examination committee are in a research area that is related to the focus of your presentation. The examining faculty will typically ask you questions to help clarify your presentation immediately following your presentation.
Once the clarification question and answers are completed, the examining committee will ask you questions about your research area, the reference papers, your review paper, and electrical and computer engineering fundamentals that relate to your research area.
These question and answer sessions are part of the 3 hour scheduled Qualifying Examination. Following the question/answer session, each of the examining faculty grade your performance. They do not decide if you passed or failed the Qualifying Examination. This pass/fail decision is made at the graduate progress review meeting (held on the Friday of the second week of Qualifying Examinations).