Program Structure and Requirements (with only BSc Degree)
The Direct PhD in CCEN consists of a minimum 72 credit hours, distributed as follows: 12 credit hours of Program Core courses, 24 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 direct PhD in CCEN program are summarized in the table below.
Summary of PhD in Computer and Information Engineering Degree Program Structure and Requirements for candidates with only a Bachelor’s Degree
|
Category
|
Credit hours Required
|
|
Core Courses
|
12
|
|
Technical Electives
|
24
|
|
CCEN 703 PhD Research Seminar I
|
0
|
|
CCEN 704 PhD Research Seminar II
|
0
|
|
CCEN 795 PhD Written Qualifying Exam
|
0
|
|
CCEN 796 PhD Research Proposal Exam
|
0
|
|
PhD Research Dissertation
|
36
|
|
Total
|
72
|
All the courses that the students will take are at PhD level. The students will only be able to attempt CCEN 795 PhD Written Qualifying Exam (WQE) after successfully completing a minimum of 27 credits of formal coursework.
Program Core (12 credit hours)
Students must complete four of the core courses listed below. The ENGR 701 must be one of the selected four courses.
Core Courses
Program Electives (24 credit hours)
Students must complete a minimum of eight technical elective courses from the list below. Subject to the approval of the dissertation Main Advisor, up to two elective courses (6 credit hours) can be taken from another relevant PhD program in KU.
Electives
| CCEN 711 | Energy Harvesting and Interface Circuits for Electronic Systems | 3 |
| CCEN 715 | Memory Centric Computing for Artificial Intelligent | 3 |
| CCEN 733 | High Speed Computer Arithmetic | 3 |
| CCEN 734 | Advanced Computer Architecture | 3 |
| CCEN 741 | Advanced Digital Communications | 3 |
| CCEN 742 | Advanced Concepts in Stochastic Processes, Detection, and Estimation Theory | 3 |
| CCEN 743 | Broadband Communication Systems | 3 |
| CCEN 744 | Optical Wireless Communication Systems | 3 |
| CCEN 745 | Convex Optimization and Reinforcement Learning for Engineering Applications | 3 |
| CCEN 746 | Blockchain Applications, Design, and Systems | 3 |
| CCEN 747 | Native AI for Networks | 3 |
| COSC 737 | Network and Cyber Physical Systems Security | 3 |
| COSC 738 | High Performance Computing | 3 |
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 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
Total Credit Hours: 72