There are currently two doctoral programs in the FEEE: Electrical Engineering and Electronics Engineering.

All students of these programs have to participate in original research. Most students enter the program with an undergraduate background in electrical/electronics engineering, telecommunication, computer engineering, physics, or a related discipline. In the first year of the program, the main emphasis is on thesis overview. The program has no specific required courses, but there is a required minimum seminar. Each student’s assigned first-year academic advisor will assist in determining the appropriate seminars. After the midpoint of the first year, each student specify the research direction. We suggest that students speak with all the professors in their areas of interest and chat with their graduate students as part of the decision-making process. After the decision process is complete, students begin participating in a research project under the guidance of their research advisors.

The final stage of the program requires writing a Ph.D. dissertation that should detail the new contributions to knowledge that have resulted from your research. An appointed faculty committee will examine the dissertation and, if it is found acceptable, the student may then present the dissertation at a Final Graduate Committee. In our Faculty, the mean time to completion of the Ph.D. is about 3 years.


A. Graduate Committee

Each student’s course of study and research is directed by a committee of Graduate faculty called a Graduate Committee. The Graduate Committee will be composed of the major professor as chairman who must be a full-time member of Electrical Engineering Program and professors from the student’s major and minor field of interest. 


B. Qualifying Interview

The Electrical Engineering Program requires doctoral students to take a qualifying interview when they apply for the program. 


C. Admission to Candidacy

A student will be admitted to candidacy under the following conditions:
(a) The dissertation topic must have been selected and approved;
(b) The satisfactory completion of seminar as deemed appropriate by the Graduate Committee;
(c) The final defense of dissertation must have been passed.


D. Time Limit

After the student begins the doctoral program, he/she must complete the program within a period of seven years.


E. Publications

Before the student applies the final defense of dissertation, he/she must publish journal/conference papers. The details regarding the quality and quantity of the publication will be available upon request.


F. Dissertation and Defense

The dissertation shall be required of all candidates for the doctorate. The dissertation must show (a) mastery of the technique of research, and (b) a very distinct contribution to the field under investigation and study. The Graduate Committee must approve the dissertation topic, the outline, and the final product.

Following acceptance, the student will conduct an oral defense of the dissertation before a graduate faculty committee. In order to allow careful and thoughtful evaluation and time for clarification and discussion, it is required that the dissertation be given to the committee no less than 10 days prior to the final exam.

After a successful defense by the candidate, the dissertation will be endorsed with the signature of the major advisor, and members of the Committee.