PhD Qualifying Exam (PQE) Guidelines for PhD students

For students who are admitted on or before Spring 2023-24, before attempting the PhD qualifying examination, students must obtain a grade B or above in each of the following UG courses or their equivalent:

• COMP 3511 Operating Systems,
• COMP 3711 Design and Analysis of Algorithms,
• COMP 3721 Theory of Computation.

For students who are admitted on or after Fall 2024-25, before attempting the PhD qualifying examination, students must obtain a grade B or above in 2 out of the 3 of the following UG courses or their equivalent:

• COMP 3511 Operating Systems,
• COMP 3711 Design and Analysis of Algorithms,
• COMP 3721 Theory of Computation.

These UG courses cannot be used for PG course requirement. As retroactive changes are not allowed, all students would need to follow the above guidelines, curriculum and program requirements according to their admission semester of the RPg studies.

Qualifying Exam Guidelines

1. PhD students are required to pass a qualifying examination within the first 22 months after admission, with a maximum of two (2) attempts.
2. The qualifying examination consists of a comprehensive, written critical survey and review of the student's intended research focus, and a public oral examination. The written survey should normally be approximately 25 pages long, and the oral presentation should normally take approximately 30 minutes.
3. The PQE committee must be set up at least six (6) weeks before the date of the qualifying examination. The committee must consist of the supervisor(s) and at least two (2) additional faculty members. A majority of the committee members must be from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Students who would like to find a committee member that is not from CSE (and not a co-supervisor of the student) would be asked to provide justifications. Supervisor of the student would appoint the Chairperson of the examination. If the supervisor did not appoint the chairperson, the department would directly appoint one of the examiners as chairperson. The application would then be reviewed by PG coordinator. The written survey and review paper should be distributed by email to the committee members with copy to and at least two (2) weeks prior to the oral examination. Students would also be asked to fill in an abstract form for uploading the PQE information to the department website, and students would need to submit the filled form to and at least two (2) weeks prior to the oral examination.
4. Committee members from CSE would include faculty from "regular," and "joint appointments," as listed in CSE Faculty.
5. The purpose of the qualifying requirement is to assess the student's understanding of the literature, as well as preparedness to conduct research, in the selected research focus. The written survey and review should identify important research issues in the student's intended research focus. The research focus should be broad enough to contain many potential thesis topics, yet sufficiently narrow that the highly relevant papers number in the tens rather than in the hundreds. The student is required to present and be examined on the survey and review before his/her qualifying examination committee at a public oral examination.
6. The written survey should take a subfield and survey a small number of results in that subfield. It should NOT be a cut-and-paste list of results. Instead it should attempt to integrate research findings within a unified framework and reflect a clear understanding of the area. Suggested topics to cover are, how did the field develop, early results, new techniques, advantages/disadvantages of some approaches compared to others, etc..
7. The survey should not be targeted at specialists who already know the field. It should start off with a clear explanation of basic definition and necessary background, so that a non-specialist in the area, e.g., a faculty member with a good basic knowledge of CS but not expert knowledge of the survey area, can follow the report and presentation.
8. Chairpersons of PQE would need to update and the PQE result within 3 days of the exams.

To schedule a PhD Qualifying Exam, please complete and submit the online form Request to Schedule a PhD Qualifying Exam (ITSC login required).