Doctoral Program in Computer Engineering at UTEP

The doctoral program in computer engineering is jointly administered by the Computer Science Department and the Electrical Engineering Department. The following is the proposed revision of the program.

The step by step process to pursue the Ph.D. program

Step 1

-- Student applies to the graduate school for admission to Ph.D. program. (Depending on the background of the student the graduate advisor and the faculty in the CS and/or EE departments go through the application and make recommendation to the program chair who gives his/her recommendation to the Dean of the graduate school. )

Step 2

-- Qualifying Exam (held twice a year in Jan and Sept) Within one year of admission to Ph.D. program a student has to take the qualifiers. He/She has two chances to pass the exam. If he/she does not pass the first time he/she has to take the second attempt the very next semester.

Step 3

-- Course Work 90 credits beyond bachelors, 60 beyond masters out of which 30 is dissertation, 30 from the core courses and 30 from Eng. + Physical Sc. + Maths (It must include EE 3500 and EE3501. ) (Since Oct 95 some changes have been made to the above requirements.)

Step 4

-- Formation of the Doctoral Advisory Committee consisting of the dissertation advisor and 3 faculty out of which one must be outside of EE and CS.

Step 5

-- Comprehensive Exam -- (After all course work is completed) The comprehensive exam will be administerd by the student's Doctoral Advisory Committee prior to the student formally beginning his/her dissertation research. The purpose of this exam is to determine if the student has selected an appropriate research topic and if he/she is adequately prepared for the proposed research. Prior to the date of the exam, as set by the committee, the student will submit to each committee member a written proposal for his/her dissertation research problem so that each member has sufficient time to review it. As a result of the exam the committee may accept, reject, or modify the proposal and may, as well, require the student to complete additional course work, which the committee feels is vital to the student's program of study. Upon satisfactory completion of the exam each student should promptly submit a final program of study to the program director and the graduate school.

Step 6

-- Final thesis defense

Qualifying Examination

The qualifying examination consists of two parts, a basic part and an advanced part. Students need to take exams in five out of the eight topics in the basic part and four out of the fifteen topics in the advanced part. The qualifying examination is held on two days (in 1995 Spring it was be held on Jan 20 and 21, and it will be held on Sept 15 and 18 in Fall 95). The basic part consists of 5 hours and the advanced part consists of 4 hours. Following is a list of the topics with the professors responsible for those topics in parentheses. If no professors are listed you may contact the graduate advisor for further details.

Basic Part (Any 5 out of the following 8)

1. Probability (EE 4384, EE 5300)

2. Digital Logic (EE 2369)

3. Fourier and Laplace transform methods (EE 3352, EE 3353)

4. Electrical Networks (EE 2351, EE 3352)

5. Electronics (EE 3339, EE 3340)

6. Automata and Languages (Kreinovich, Cooke) CS 3350

7. Algorithms and Data Structures (Longpre', Bernat) CS 2302

8. Mathematical Logic (Gelfond, Baral) CS 4320

Advanced Part (Any 4 out of the following 15)

1. Numerical Methods (EE 5301)

2. Operating Systems (EE 4374/CS 4375?/CS 5340?)

3. Data Communications (EE 5330)

4. Microprocessor Systems and architecture (EE 3376, EE 4378, EE 4379)

5. Artificial Intelligence (Gelfond, Baral) (CS 5314)

6. Translation of Programming languages (Cooke, Gates) (CS 4352, CS 5332)

7. Communication Theory (EE 4341, EE 4383)

8. Control Theory (EE 4364)

9. Electromagnetic Theory (EE 3321, EE 3347)

10. Solid state devices (EE 3329, EE 4350)

11. Software Engineering (Cooke, Gates) (CS 4310, CS 4311, CS 5331, EE 3372?))

12. Database Management (Baral, Gelfond) (CS 5322)

13. Theory of Computation (Kreinovich, Longpre') (CS 5315)

14. Algorithms (Longpre', Kreinovich) (CS 5350)

15. Image and Signal Processing

Old qualifying exams from the past years may be checked out from the reserve desk in the library. It is highly recommended that you look these exams over to get an idea of what to expect. You will probably find that the questions are of equivalent difficulty to the kinds of questions that you would encounter on a final exam in a course.

All area questions are graded by the professor that made up those questions. When all questions have been graded, a recommendation will be made by the qualifying exam committee to the faculty (of the Computer Engineering program). The faculty will then meet to discuss the results and to decide upon the outcomes. Students will not be allowed to see their graded qualifying exams. Those students who do not pass the qualifying exam on their first try will be allowed to retake the exam once. At the discretion of the faculty, a student may be asked to repeat only selected portions of the exam.

Course Requirements

There are two required courses and 10 other courses must be taken from the list of core courses.

Required Courses

EE 5300 Advanced Mathematics for Engineers I

Probability, random variables, basic random processes, spectral analysis applications. (prerequisite -- EE 3484 or Math 3300 or equiv.)

EE/CS 5301 Advanced Mathematics for Engineers II

A broad coverage of the field of numerical methods emphasizing computer techniques as they apply to computer engineering.

Core Courses

EE 5302 Linear Systems Analysis

EE/CS 5310 Computer Graphics

EE/CS 5330 Data Communications

EE 5370 Operating Systems

EE 5371 Digital Signal Processing

EE 5372 Image Processing

EE 5374 Advanced Digital System Design I

EE 5357 Advanced Digital System Design II

EE/CENG 5376 Computer Architecture I

EE/CENG 5377 Computer Architecture II

EE/CENG 5378 Advanced VLSI design

CS 5314 Artificial Intelligence I

CS/CENG 5316 Artificial Intelligence II

CS 5315 Theory of Computation

CS 5322 Database Theory

CS 5331 Software Engineering

CS 5332 Compiler Construction

CS 5333 Logic Programming

CS/CENG 5334 Parallel and Concurrent Computing

CS 5340 Expert Systems

Guidelines Related to Registration in Doctoral Courses

(Based on memo dated 1/25/94 from Kenneth Ashworth, Texas Higher education coordinating board, to President and Chancellors of doctoral degree granting universities)

1. Registration in an individual studies, research or similar course shall imply an expected level of effort on the part of the student comparable to that associated with an organized class with the same credit value.

2. A doctoral student shall not be required to register for more than nine credit hours during any long semester or summer, except a doctoral student who is enrolled in nine credit hours of organized classes who is also doing research related to his or her dissertation may be required to register for up to three hours of research or dissertation for a total of twelve credit hours.

3. A doctoral student not on campus who is required to register solely for the purpose of satisfying a continuous enrollment requirement shall be required to register for no more than three credit hours during each term.

4. Only in unusual circumstances shall a doctoral student register for more than 12 semester credit hours in a given semester or summer session and then only if approved in advance by the Dean of the Graduate School or other comparable official.