Program Structure and Requirements (with MSc Degree)
Overall Program Structure
The PhD ENGR consists of a minimum 60 credit hours, distributed as follows: 3 credit hours of Program Core courses, 21 credit hours of Program Technical Elective courses, 36 credit hours of Dissertation research and two zero credit PhD Research Seminar courses. The technical background of the student will be assessed by a Written Qualifying Examination (WQE), followed by a Research Proposal Examination (RPE) which the student must successfully complete in order to progress further in the program. The components of the PhD program are summarized in the table below.
| Program Component |
Credit Hours |
| Research Methods in Engineering |
3 |
| PhD Research Seminar I |
0 |
| PhD Research Seminar II |
0 |
| Written Qualifying Examination (WQE) |
0 |
| Research Proposal Examination (RPE) |
0 |
| Program Electives |
21 |
| PhD Research Dissertation |
36 |
| Total |
60 |
Program Requirements
Students seeking the degree of PhD in Engineering must successfully complete a minimum 60 credit hours as specified in the program requirements detailed below, with a minimum CGPA of 3.0. Course selection should be made in consultation with the student’s Main Advisor and must be aligned to the chosen area(s) of research. All courses have a credit rating of three credits each, except the PhD Research Seminar, Written Qualifying Exam, Research Proposal Exam, and the PhD Dissertation.
Program Core (3 credit hours)
Students must complete the core courses listed below.
Core Courses
Program Electives and Concentrations (21 credit hours)
Students must complete a minimum of seven technical elective courses from the list below. At least two of these electives (6 credit hours) must be PhD level courses with a substantial mathematical component, as outlined in the ‘Mathematics Requirements’ section above.
Subject to the approval of the dissertation Main Advisor, up to two elective courses (6 credit hours) can be taken from relevant MSc programs at KU to help the student bridge a knowledge gap that will support his/her research. The student must not have taken the same or similar MSc level courses to satisfy the requirements of his/her Master’s degree. A copy of the student’s MSc transcript must be provided when a request is made to take MSc level courses.
Students wishing to complete a PhD in Engineering with a concentration in a given area, must select at least four (12 credit hours) of the seven technical elective courses from one of the groups listed below. All selected concentration courses must be at PhD level. The concentration will be noted on the student’s diploma and official transcript provided that the student fulfills the following requirements:
- Complete a minimum of four PhD level courses (12 credit hours) from the same concentration; and
- Complete a PhD research dissertation within the domain of the concentration.
The PhD elective courses are listed below under the various engineering concentration fields supported by the program. Students must take into account the above points when choosing their electives.
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Concentration Field Courses
| ECCE 701 | Power System Modelling and Control | 3 |
| ECCE 703 | Embedded Generation Operation and Control | 3 |
| ECCE 706 | Power Quality and FACTS Devices | 3 |
| ECCE 710 | Analysis of Power Systems Over-voltages and Transients | 3 |
| ECCE 711 | Advanced Power System Grounding and Safety | 3 |
| ECCE 714 | Application of Heuristic Optimization Techniques to Power Systems | 3 |
| ECCE 721 | Analog Mixed Signal Design Techniques | 3 |
| ECCE 722 | Numerical Simulation of Circuits and Systems | 3 |
| ECCE 723 | High Speed Communication Circuits | 3 |
| ECCE 731 | Distributed Computing | 3 |
| ECCE 732 | Machine Learning and Applications | 3 |
| ECCE 733 | High Speed Computer Arithmetic | 3 |
| ECCE 734 | Advanced Computer Architecture | 3 |
| ECCE 735 | Advanced Computer Vision Paradigms | 3 |
| ECCE 736 | Advanced Topics LoT and Blockchain | 3 |
| ECCE 737 | Network and Information Security | 3 |
| ECCE 738 | High Performance Computing | 3 |
| ECCE 741 | Advanced Digital Communications | 3 |
| ECCE 742 | Advanced Concepts in Stochastic Processes, Detection, and Estimation Theory | 3 |
| ECCE 743 | Broadband Communication Systems | 3 |
| ECCE 744 | Optical Wireless Communication Systems | 3 |
| ECCE 751 | Discontinuous Control Systems | 3 |
| ECCE 752 | Nonlinear Control | 3 |
| ECCE 753 | Computational Prototyping of Dynamical Systems | 3 |
| ECCE 754 | Computational Prototyping of Partial Differential Equations | 3 |
| ECCE 755 | Cognitive Robotics | 3 |
| ECCE 756 | Robotic Perception | 3 |
| ECCE 762 | Voltage Source Converters | 3 |
| ECCE 772 | Advanced Microsystem Design | 3 |
| ECCE 773 | Photonic Materials and Metamaterials Design for Engineers | 3 |
| ECCE 774 | Advanced Photonic Integrated Circuits | 3 |
| ECCE 778 | Physics and Manufacturability of Advanced Micro and Nano Devices | 3 |
| ECCE 781 | The Physics of Solar Cells | 3 |
| ECCE 794 | Selected Topics in Electrical and Computer Engineering | 3 |
Robotics
Concentration Field Courses
PhD Research Dissertation (minimum 36 credit hours)
Students must complete a PhD Research Dissertation that involves novel, creative, research-oriented work under the direct supervision of at least one full-time faculty advisor from the College, and at least one other full-time faculty who acts as a co-advisor. The Main Advisor of a student who opts for a PhD with a concentration must be a faculty member in the Department offering that particular concentration. The outcome of research should demonstrate the synthesis of information into knowledge in a form that may be used by others. The research findings must be documented in a formal Dissertation and defended successfully in a viva voce examination. Furthermore, the research must lead to publishable quality scholarly journal articles.
Dissertation