Doctoral Programs

EEE offers two doctoral degrees:

• the Eng.Sc.D. degree, administered by Columbia Engineering; and
• the Ph.D. degree, administered by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Doctoral Qualifying Examination and Research Proposal

Doctoral candidates are required to pass a qualifying examination. This examination is offered twice an academic year: once in the Fall and once in the Spring semesters.

Purpose

The qualifying exam evaluates whether doctoral students, after completing two semesters of courses, should continue with PhD research.

Prerequisite

To take the qualifying exam, students need

• To be enrolled in the MS/PhD Program in EEE
• At least 20 credits (two semesters) of coursework (credits from research do not count) and have taken at least two courses taught by EEE faculty members who are not their primary advisors.
• An overall GPA of 3.5 or higher

Format

Students should work with their advisor to select a committee composed of three EEE department members who represent focal areas of the department (energy, water, and material cycles). The PhD advisor may be a committee member.

One week before the exam, each committee member will provide a peer-reviewed research article (not a review paper) that the committee member believes is the intersection between the examinee's research topic and the examiner's area of expertise within EEE.

Students should give a 20-minute, uninterrupted presentation about their research and the three papers, followed by 40 minutes of questions and answers by the exam committee.

Evaluation criteria include the fundamental knowledge of DEEE's focal areas and the presentation's clarity. The evaluation can result in the following grades: Pass or Fail. There are no retakes of the exam.

Thesis Proposal

Students must submit a research proposal and present it to their advisory committee. The student advisory committee consists of at least three faculty members, including the advisor; at least two hold primary appointments in DEEE (with one tenured Full Professor).

A 10-page report (single-spaced) will be submitted to the committee seven days before the exam and used as part of the evaluation.

Students are generally expected to submit their thesis proposal after three semesters of doctoral studies.

The student advisory committee considers the scope of the proposed research, its suitability for doctoral research, and the appropriateness of the research plan.

The outcome of the evaluation of the thesis proposal: Pass, Fail, Conditional Pass (Conditional Pass: students will have to revise the proposal following comments by the members of the advisory committee and present the revised proposal within 6 months).