Doctor of Philosophy
Department Electrical & Computer Engineering

Wichita State University

Degree Requirements

The PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science is a degree designed mainly for students interested in pursuing an academic and/or industrial research and development career in a specialization offered by the department. This is a joint degree between Electrical & Computer Engineering Department and School of Computing. ECE department offers research opportunities in s Control Systems, Communications & Signal Processing, Energy & Power Systems, and Computer Systems & Architecture.

Admission Requirements

Admission into the EECS PhD program requires the following:

  1. A completed bachelor's or master's degree, with a grade point average of at least 3.250 in electrical engineering, computer science or a related field.
  2. Evidence of ability to carry out independent research and present it in written English is highly desirable.
  3. Two letters of recommendation and a statement of purpose are encouraged.

Each applicant is evaluated individually. GRE is not required. 

Applicants with a bachelor's degree will be admitted if an ECE faculty member evaluates them as exceptional candidate and is willing to be their PhD advisor from the beginning of the program.

 

Program Requirements

In addition to the College of Engineering's PhD requirements, the program requires the following:

Advisor

The student should secure an advisor to supervise their PhD dissertation as early as possible, but no later than the completion of their first academic year in the program.

Degree Requirements

A PhD plan of study should contain a minimum of 72 total credit hours, beyond undergraduate credits, with the following requirements:

  • A minimum of 24 credit hours of EE 976 PhD Dissertation.
  • A minimum of 36 credit hours of coursework, including a maximum of 24 credit hours that can transfer from a master's degree. All these credits should be relevant to EECS (i.e., offered by graduate programs in computer engineering, computer science and/or electrical engineering).
  • Twelve (12) credit hours of additional coursework, EE 976, or combination of both.

Please refer to the respective section of the College of Engineering and Graduate School for their degree requirements.

Qualifying Exam (QE)

The PhD advisory committee, on the request of the advisor, shall conduct the Qualifying Exam (QE) to evaluate the student's research readiness. That is, (s)he has the necessary background and satisfactory performance in the relevant coursework, demonstrated a preliminary understanding of the research literature relevant to their projected dissertation, and has a future-research plan including graduation timeline. The committee must inform the student about the structure of the qualifying exam in advance, e.g., allocated time to present their case for research readiness and Q&A from the committee, and open/closed to public. If the full committee is unavailable, at least three committee members are required to administer the qualifying exam.

The student is graded pass or fail on the qualifying exam based on a simple majority vote of the committee. The committee may require revisions to the plan of study, remedial actions, and/or supplementary assignments regardless of the outcome. If the student fails the qualifying exam, another attempt can be requested. No more than two attempts are permitted. The advisor should report the outcome to the department within three business days of the qualifying exam's conclusion. The student should complete the qualifying exam no later than completion of the initial two academic years in the program.

The student cannot schedule the qualifying exam without an approved plan of study on file and cannot attempt the Dissertation Approval Examination (DAE) without successfully completing the qualifying exam. The advisor, in consultation with the committee, may require the student to retake the qualifying exam should be significant changes from the last successful attempt (e.g., original advisor or committee or dissertation-direction changes).