Chair: Costas Tsatsoulis
2001G Eaton Hall, (785) 864-4486; Fax: (785) 864-3226
Associate Chair for Graduate Studies: Arvin Agah
2001F Eaton Hall, (785) 864-8821
Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies: David Petr
2001C Eaton Hall, (785) 864-8823
Associate Chair for Edwards Campus: Hossein Saiedian
225R Regents Center, (913) 897-8515
Distinguished Professors: Evans, Frost, Gogineni, and Shanmugan
Professors: Allen, Alexander, Demarest, Grzymala-Busse, Minden, Petr, Prescott, Roberts, Rowland, Saiedian, and Tsatsoulis
Professors Emeriti: Ambler, Daugherty, Dean, Moore, Rummer, Schweppe, Talley, Unz, and Wallace
Associate Professors: Agah, Andrews, Brown, Chakrabarti, Hui, Kinnersley, Kong, Miller, Niehaus, Sterbenz, and Stiles
Associate Professor Emeritus: Doemland
Assistant Professors: Blunt, Chen, Clark, Haverkamp, Perrins, Wang, and Zhang
The department offers Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering and in Computer Science; M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Computer Science; and the D.E. degree in Electrical Engineering. In addition to the degrees offered in Lawrence, the department offers an M.S. programs in Computer Science and Information Technology at the Edwards Campus in the Kansas City area.
The department currently has five major areas of emphasis in its Ph.D. program:
Specific plans of study also exist in the M.S. program in similar areas, as well as in the area of Software Engineering at the Edwards Campus in the Kansas City area. Other plans of study can be constructed, in conjunction with a faculty advisor, to fit individual student needs. Class lists and teaching schedules for each area are available in the EECS graduate office or on the department web site www.eecs.ku.edu.
Admission to the department's graduate programs is open to college and university graduates whose previous records indicate an ability to succeed with graduate work in the chosen discipline.
An applicant for the Ph.D. or D.E. program in Electrical Engineering normally presents a B.S. or M.S. in Electrical or Computer Engineering. An applicant for the Ph.D. in Computer Science normally presents a B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science or Computer Engineering. Especially qualified applicants may be admitted directly into one of the Ph.D. programs or the D.E. program without having a degree in the requisite field, which could require completion of a number of deficiency courses at the undergraduate level. Such courses normally do not count toward the graduate degree.
An applicant for the M.S. program in Electrical Engineering or in Computer Engineering normally presents a baccalaureate degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering. An applicant for the M.S. program in Computer Science normally presents a baccalaureate degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering. However, a student with good preparation in some other field of engineering, mathematics, business, or science may qualify for one of the programs by taking appropriate additional undergraduate courses. Such courses normally do not count toward the graduate degree. Lists of specific prerequisite courses for each M.S. program are available in the EECS graduate office or on the department web site at http://www.eecs.ku.edu/current_students/graduate/deficiency_courses.
Applicants for graduate admission should demonstrate evidence of aptitude for graduate work, as shown by suitable performance in undergraduate and (if available) graduate course work, by suitable aptitude test scores on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) (details), and by academic letters of reference. The requirement to take the GRE can be waived where other data are judged by the department to be unusually strong. A non-refundable application fee is required.
Unless the applicant's native language is English or the applicant has received a baccalaureate degree or higher from an accredited U.S. institution of higher education, he or she must meet the department's standard for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) (details). Prospective students who are applying for graduate teaching assistantships (GTAs) must pass the SPEAK test administered by the Applied English Center at the University of Kansas prior to their appointment as graduate teaching assistants.
Applications and all accompanying materials for Fall admission should be received by January 1 for maximum consideration for fellowships and assistantships. For Fall admission, the application deadline is March 1. For Spring admission, the application deadline is October 1.
Requirements for EECS doctoral degree programs include graduate course work approved by the student's doctoral committee, a doctoral qualifying examination, a research skills requirement, a comprehensive examination, a dissertation, and a final oral examination. All doctoral students must also meet Doctoral Degree Requirements in the University of Kansas Graduate Catalog (details).
Within the first semester of entering one of the doctoral programs, the student must select a major advisor and a doctoral committee. This committee guides the student's development of a plan of study, participates in the comprehensive and final examinations, and helps the student select a topic for research leading to the dissertation. Should the student's interest change, the committee membership may be changed accordingly, with the approval of the department's Graduate Studies Committee.
The student's doctoral committee consists of a minimum of five Graduate Faculty members and is chaired by the student's major advisor. The advisor and at least two other members of the student's committee should be members of the Graduate Faculty of the EECS department. One member of the committee must be a KU faculty member from outside the EECS Department.
Students admitted to the Ph.D. program in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science with an M.S. degree in their intended field of study must complete 18 semester credit hours of approved course work and a minimum of 18 semester credit hours of doctoral dissertation (EECS 999). The 18 hours of doctoral dissertation can only be taken after the student has passed the Comprehensive Examination. A minimum of 15 of the 18 credit hours of course work must be EECS numbered 700 or higher, excluding Directed Graduate Reading (EECS 801), Master's Thesis (EECS 899), and Post-Master's Research (EECS 998).
Students admitted to one of the department's Ph.D. programs without an M.S. in their intended field of study must complete 42 credit hours of approved course work and a minimum of 18 semester credit hours of doctoral dissertation (EECS 999). The 18 hours of doctoral dissertation can only be taken after the student has passed the Comprehensive Examination. In this case, a minimum of 30 of the 42 credit hours of course work must be EECS courses numbered 700 or higher excluding Directed Graduate Reading (EECS 801), Master's Thesis (EECS 899), and Post-Master's Research (EECS 998). A maximum of 9 credit hours outside the department and a maximum of 6 credit hours numbered between 500-699 may be counted toward the hours required for the degree.
For the D.E. program in Electrical Engineering, at least 96 hours of graduate course work approved by the student's doctoral committee are required. These hours include Master's degree course work in the discipline, 30 hours of doctoral dissertation (EECS 999) taken after the student has passed the Comprehensive Examination, and 12 to 18 hours of industrial internship (EECS 998). Deviations from the course work requirement can be approved by the department's Graduate Studies Committee.
All EECS doctoral students must take at least one semester of EECS Colloquium (EECS 802).
Although there is no transfer credit for graduate classes taken at another institution, waiver of required hours on the basis of graduate work done elsewhere may be allowed, by petition to the department's Graduate Studies Committee.
Each doctoral student must take and pass a doctoral Qualifying Examination (Qual). The Qual will be offered once each year in the Spring Semester. Students failing the exam are allowed to retake it exactly one more time at the first opportunity. After a second fail, a candidate will not be allowed to continue the PhD program in the EECS Department.
Students who are formally accepted into the doctoral program must take their Qual the first semester it is available after having completed 24 course credit hours past their Bachelor's degree (undergraduate courses taken past the Bachelor's in order to correct deficiencies, as well as 899, and 998 do not count towards these 24 course credit hours).
The Ph.D. Qualifying Examination (Qual) is a written examination based on a set of papers which is provided to students eight days in advance. There will generally be one set of papers for each Ph.D. focus area, as defined by the department: Bioinformatics, Communications Systems and Networking, Computer Systems Design, Interactive Intelligent Systems, Radar Systems and Remote Sensing. Students who are not in one of the focus areas must choose the most suitable one in consultation with their advisor. A student who passes the Qual and then decides to do his/her research in a different focus area will not be required to repeat the Qual in the new area. A list of preparation topics for each focus is provided by the department.
The set of technical papers will usually include one paper which is an overview or tutorial paper covering a relatively broad technical area such as one would find in IEEE Proceedings, IEEE Communications, IEEE Network, IEEE Spectrum, ACM Communications, ACM Computing Surveys, or other such publications. The other papers will generally be narrower and deeper within the same area. The format will be a written exam accomplished within a single day. No technical materials will be allowed, and if computers are to be utilized, they will be supplied by the department and will be protected against outside communication.
After passing the Qualifying Examination, each aspirant to the Ph.D. or D.E. degree must complete the research skill requirement before being permitted to take the Comprehensive Examination. Selection of a particular requirement must be approved by the student's doctoral committee. Selection of a non-standard skill requirement must also be approved by the department's graduate committee. The skill requirement options are:
The student must take the doctoral Comprehensive Examination after passing the qualifying examination, completing the research skills requirement, and completing at least two-thirds of the course work requirements for the doctoral degree. The student must complete the comprehensive examination before detailed work on the Ph.D. dissertation or D.E. project begins. Before the examination, the student must submit in writing to the committee a detailed proposal for a possible Ph.D. dissertation or D.E. project. In the comprehensive examination, the student is examined upon the proposal and on knowledge and insight in the field of specialization, and a dissertation committee is formed.
The examining committee for the comprehensive examination consists of five or more members of the Graduate Faculty, at least one of whom must be from within the University of Kansas but outside the EECS department, and at least three of whom are in the EECS department. It normally includes the student's doctoral committee. The department's Graduate Office must be notified of the membership of the examination committee three weeks in advance of the examination to ensure that the external member is informed of their responsibilities to the Graduate School. If the student passes the comprehensive examination and then later chooses another substantially different topic for the dissertation, a new proposal must be presented in writing and orally for the approval of the doctoral committee.
The student is expected to complete a Ph.D. dissertation or D.E. project report describing their research results that meets the objectives described in the student's proposal approved by the comprehensive examination examining committee. Following completion of the Ph.D. dissertation or D.E. project report, the candidate is required to defend the dissertation or project report in a final oral examination. The examining committee is once again constituted as in the comprehensive oral examination.
The M.S. degree programs in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Information Technology offer thesis and nonthesis options.
The thesis option for the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Information Technology requires a minimum of 30 student credit hours of approved graduate course work. An M.S. thesis is expected to address an open problem in EECS. After evaluating the current literature related to the problem of interest, students must design, build and evaluate hardware or software systems or system models to prove or disprove their research hypothesis. Completing an M.S. thesis typically takes two or more semesters of effort and produces results that could be published as a paper in a conference or journal in EECS.
The nonthesis option for the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Computer Science requires a minimum of 33 student credit hours of approved graduate course work. Students who choose the nonthesis option must present their understanding of their discipline to the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies during an oral exam scheduled in their last semester.
Central to each degree program is the development of a plan of study by each student (details). The plan for M.S. thesis students must be approved by a committee of three EECS Graduate Faculty members, one of whom serves as the student's advisor. The plan for M.S. nonthesis students must be approved by the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies, and the student's advisor. The plan of study must be developed and submitted to the department graduate office during the first semester of graduate enrollment. The plan describes all course work to be taken and designates the option to be followed. Modifications to the plan must also be approved by the student's committee and submitted to the graduate office.
Selection of courses for the plan of study is flexible. The student may select a set of required courses from one of several pre-defined areas of focus or, working in conjunction with an advisor, customize the course selection to fit individual needs. A current list of the areas of focus and their requirements are available at http://www.eecs.ku.edu/prospective/graduate/focus_areas or the department graduate office. The three EECS Graduate Faculty members (for thesis students) or the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies (for nonthesis students) who approve the plan of study, verify that courses selected meet the guidelines above and are appropriate for the student's M.S. degree program (CS, CoE, EE).
The course work for these three degree programs must include a minimum of 15 semester credit hours of EECS courses numbered 700 or higher, excluding Directed Graduate Reading (EECS 801), Master's Thesis (EECS 899), and Post-Master's Research (EECS 998). A maximum of 9 credit hours outside the department and a maximum of 6 credit hours numbered between 500-699 may be counted toward the hours required for the degree. All plans of study must include at least one semester of EECS Colloquium (EECS 802), which it is recommended to be taken during the student's first semester of M.S. study.
Subject to the general restrictions on M.S. course work, the thesis option requires a minimum of 24 semester credit hours of course work approved in a plan of study, 3 to 6 credit hours of Master's Thesis (EECS 899), and a general oral examination. The thesis advisor is a Graduate Faculty member of the department selected by the student before M.S. thesis work begins.
The general oral examination must be taken in the last semester of the student's program. It is conducted by an examining committee consisting of the thesis advisor and at least two other Graduate Faculty members of the department. The examining committee, selected by the student and their thesis advisor, determines if the written thesis, oral presentation of the research, and general knowledge of the discipline meet the department's standards.
Subject to the general restrictions on M.S. course work, the nonthesis option requires a minimum of 33 semester credit hours of course work approved in a plan of study, and a general oral examination. Master's Thesis (EECS 899) and Post-Master's Research (EECS 998) will not count toward the 33 credit hours required for the degree.
The general oral examination must be taken in the last semester of the student's program. During the oral examination the student is asked to present his or her understanding of their discipline. The examination is conducted by the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies.
