The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

Ph.D. in CS/SE at UTD

Balaji Raghavachari

Department of Computer Science

University of Texas at Dallas

The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

Admission Requirements

B.S. in Computer Science or its equivalent, with GPA of 3.5 or better

GRE scores of V+Q > 1300, or V+Q+A > 1800

TOEFL scores (for foreign applicants) 3 letters of recommendation Narrative (Statement of purpose)

The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

Degree Requirements

90 credits of approved course work beyond the Bachelor’s degree

Qualifying exams in the 5 core classes of your track

Thesis Proposal Thesis defense and Dissertation

submission

The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

Coursework

5 Core classes from a chosen MS track 5 approved 6000 level CS/SE electives CS 6382: Theory of computation 2 approved 7000/8000 level CS/SE courses Other classes and research/dissertation

hours approved by your adviser Total of 90 hours beyond B.S. degree Up to 45 hours can be transferred from M.S.

degree elsewhere

The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

Qualifying exams

Must pass qualifying exams in the core courses within 3 semesters

Ideally, complete all qualifying exams in the first year of study

Prepare well and pass the exams in the first attempt. Only 2 attempts per class.

Learn to structure your answers well: intuitive explanation followed by a full analysis

The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

Finding an area of study & adviser

Choose an area based on your interests, aptitude, career prospects

You are likely to work in this area for the next 10 years, if not 30-40 years

Don’t decide solely based on who is able to offer an assistantship

Choose a compatible adviser, who is a good match to your working style

The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

Areas of strength in UTD-CS/SE

Networking and Telecommunications– Wireless networks, protocols, optical networks, distributed

systems Software Engineering

– Embedded systems, Verification & testing, Requirements engineering

Intelligent Systems– Artificial intelligence, Computer Vision, Natural language

processing, Expert systems Computer Systems

– Databases, Visual programming, Multimedia systems, Computer security, High performance systems

Algorithms and Applications– Algorithms, Optimization problems, Computational

geometry, Computational biology

The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

Improving the chances of getting an Assistantship

Get good grades Make steady progress Pass qualifying exams Publish papers in reputed conferences

and journals Try to graduate in 4 years Find an adviser who is not over

extended!

The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science

Timeline

Year 1: Coursework, qualifying exams, exploration of research areas

Year 2: Find a research adviser, read papers, identify problems to solve, start working on research

Year 3: Form dissertation committee, complete thesis proposal, start publishing papers

Year 4: Continue publishing papers, write dissertation, defend thesis, look for a job