Degree requirements
All PhD students are expected to complete at least four graduate courses, two of which must be at the advanced 6000 level. Students who are directly admitted to the PhD program from an undergraduate degree must complete nine courses. CSCI 5010G - Survey of Computer Science Research Topics and Methods and CSCI 5020G - Collaborative Design and Research must be taken in the first year, if they have not been previously taken at the master’s level.
All PhD students must demonstrate a broad knowledge of computer science. This is normally demonstrated through the completion of an appropriate set of courses at the graduate level. To satisfy the breadth requirement, the student must successfully complete courses from the following four fields:
- One course in digital media
- One course in information science
- One course in networks and IT security
- One course in software design
When a student is admitted to the PhD program, the graduate committee of the faculty evaluates the courses from his/her previous degrees to determine which courses count towards the breadth requirement and identify the areas in which an additional course is required. The list of graduate courses offered each year indicates the area covered by each course so students can easily plan to cover the breadth requirement.
Within 18 months of their initial registration in the program, a PhD student must present and defend his or her thesis proposal. The defence takes the form of an oral examination.
Each PhD student must present two public seminars during the course of his/her studies. The first must be held just before the proposal defence and cover the proposed research program. The second seminar must be held just before the thesis defence and cover the results of the research program.
