► Graduate School Rules to apply to this program
Program co-directors: Gita Alaghband (CSE) and Jiban Khuntia (Business School)
Website: engineering.ucdenver.edu/CSISPhD
The Computer Science and Information Systems PhD Computer Science track is awarded from the College of Engineering, Design and Computing. Students interested in the information systems track are referred to CU Denver Business School CSIS PhD program . The CSIS PhD degree is an interdisciplinary program designed to provide an infrastructure for a wide spectrum of research possibilities in the computer science and information systems field by emphasizing the scientific, algorithmic, system design and computing aspects of the field.
Our students work with research centers and researchers from a variety of disciplines, including the CU School of Medicine, chemistry, mathematics, biology, all engineering disciplines, economics, health, and education, in addition to industry and businesses. This distinctive infrastructure supports basic research in both computer science and information systems as well as the demand of computing and IT integration with all other scientific and business fields.
Admission Requirements
For more information regarding the admission requirements for the CSIS PhD, visit engineering.ucdenver.edu/CSISPhD.
Advisor
Upon entering the program, each student chooses an advisor to provide mentoring and guidance throughout the program and work with the student to prepare a program of study. Requests to change advisors must be approved by the program co-directors, and this happens in very rare circumstances.
Computer Science Doctoral Committee
The advisor and four other members form a doctoral committee. The advisor must be a full-time current graduate faculty member in the CSE department. The committee must contain at least one faculty member from the Business School. One committee member may be from outside the CSE department and the information systems faculty.
Program Components
Plan of Study
A list of course work and other requirements for the degree should be prepared with the advisor and then submitted to the director for approval. The successful completion of all work indicated on the plan of study is an important prerequisite for the conferring of the degree. A plan of study should be submitted for approval by the end of the first semester of the program; any future plan updates need to be approved.
CS Preliminary Exam
Students are required to select three out of four core knowledge areas and pass a written exam. The exam must be taken within the first year of the program. Students may take one, two, or all three exams within the first year of their admission. Students may repeat an exam area once. A guide for the exam is available on the department website.
CS Comprehensive Exam
Students will submit a paper to fulfill the Graduate School’s comprehensive exam requirement. The paper should describe an area of research including literature review, problem definition, and possible methodologies/models to study a significant problem in computer science or information systems. The paper will be evaluated by a committee of three CS faculty members. An oral presentation of the paper will be open to the entire CSIS faculty. The committee may adopt additional guidelines to evaluate the paper and presentation. According to Graduate School rules, the comprehensive exam must be completed by the end of the third year in the program. In addition to these requirements, the comprehensive exam must meet the other graduate school requirements.
Dissertation Proposal
A dissertation proposal after the student completes the comprehensive exam is required for the CSIS PhD program. The dissertation proposal will consist of a written proposal detailing the proposed work, advances in the proposed field, partial results, and future work toward completing the student’s dissertation.
Dissertation Completion
Once the dissertation proposal is approved, each student prepares and submits a dissertation. The dissertation is defended before the doctoral committee in a public meeting. Final approval for the dissertation is given by a vote of the dissertation committee after the public defense.
Graduation
Upon completion of all degree requirements including the dissertation defense, the student receives the degree of doctor of philosophy in CSIS from the College of Engineering, Design and Computing.
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