Program Structure and Requirements (with MSc Degree)
Overall Program Structure
The PhD in ELEN 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 |
| Program Core Course |
3 |
| ENGR 703 PhD Research Seminar I |
0 |
| ENGR 704 PhD Research Seminar II |
0 |
| ELEN 795 Written Qualifying Examination (WQE) |
0 |
| ELEN 796 Research Proposal Examination (RPE) |
0 |
| Program Electives |
21 |
| PhD Research Dissertation |
36 |
| Total |
60 |
All the courses that the students will take are at PhD level.
Program Requirements
Students seeking the degree of PhD in Electrical 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.
Program Electives (21 credit hours)
Students must complete a minimum of seven 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.
The PhD in ELEN elective courses are listed below. Students must take into account the above points when choosing their electives.
Electives
| ELEN 701 | Power System Modelling and Control | 3 |
| ELEN 703 | Embedded Generation Operation and Control | 3 |
| ELEN 706 | Power Quality and FACTS Devices | 3 |
| ELEN 710 | Analysis of Power Systems Over-voltages and Transients | 3 |
| ELEN 711 | Advanced Power System Grounding and Safety | 3 |
| ELEN 714 | Application of Heuristic Optimization Techniques to Power Systems | 3 |
| ELEN 720 | Advanced Electromagnetics | 3 |
| ELEN 721 | Analog Mixed Signal Design Techniques | 3 |
| ELEN 723 | High Speed Communication Circuits | 3 |
| ELEN 751 | Discontinuous Control Systems | 3 |
| ELEN 752 | Nonlinear Control Systems | 3 |
| ELEN 755 | Cognitive Robotics | 3 |
| ELEN 756 | Robotics Perception | 3 |
| ELEN 757 | Control of Robotic Systems | 3 |
| ELEN 762 | Voltage Source Converters | 3 |
| ELEN 763 | Computational Electromagnetics | 3 |
| ELEN 764 | Advanced Antennas | 3 |
| ELEN 765 | Power Distribution Networks Planning, Operation, and Control | 3 |
| ELEN 766 | Microwave Radar Remote Sensing | 3 |
| ELEN 773 | Photonic Materials and Metamaterials Design for Engineers | 3 |
| ELEN 774 | Advanced Photonic Integrated Circuits | 3 |
| ELEN 778 | Physics and Manufacturability of Advanced Micro and Nano Devices | 3 |
| ELEN 781 | The Physics of Solar Cells | 3 |
| ELEN 794 | Selected Topics in Electrical Engineering | 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 Department of Electrical Engineering, and at least another full-time KU faculty who acts as a co-advisor. 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: 60