Engineering, PhD: Electrical Engineering

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering offers a PhD with Concentration in Electrical Engineering as part of the PhD in Engineering degree. The PhD is a research-focused degree that allows students to concentrate on a sub-topic of the field and contribute to the advancement of new ideas. Topics currently under study include: lithium-ion batteries, electrified transportation, embedded systems, electromagnetic systems, computer architecture, next generation computing platforms, microelectronic devices and quantum computing, among others.

Learning Objectives

The PhD in Engineering with a concentration in Electrical Engineering prepares graduate students to:

Demonstrate broad knowledge of science, math and engineering.
Exhibit in-depth knowledge of the specific area in which the thesis research will be conducted.
Read, understand, and evaluate professional literature on advanced topics in engineering and applied science.
Write technical reports and project documentation.
Give effective oral presentations on technical topics.
Demonstrate the capability to make fundamental and significant contributions in engineering and applied science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines, along with the tools of research, to perform analysis and synthesis and to visualize potential areas of application.

Degree Requirements

The PhD degree is awarded to students who have:

Satisfied all program requirements
Submitted an acceptable dissertation and
Passed all prescribed examinations (PhD preliminary examination, PhD comprehensive examination, PhD dissertation defense).

Requirements for students entering with a master’s degree (60 credits):

Complete 60 semester hours of PhD credits allocated as follows:
- Complete at least 12 semester hours of coursework.
  - At least 6 hours must be ECE courses.
  - At most 6 hours may be independent Study courses.
  - 12 hours must be numbered 5000 and above.
- Transfer up to 18 credits from the master’s degree.
- Complete 30 semester hours of dissertation research in addition to coursework.

Requirements for students entering without a master’s degree (66 credits):

Complete 66 semester hours of PhD credits allocated as follows:
- Complete at least 36 semester hours of coursework.
  - At least 24 hours must be ECE courses.
  - At most 12 hours may be independent Study courses.
  - 36 hours must be numbered 5000 and above. Cross-listed courses which are offered at the 5000/6000 levels must be taken at the 6000 level.
- Complete 30 semester hours of dissertation research in addition to coursework.

Requirements for all students:

Complete 30 semester hours of dissertation research in addition to coursework.
Have an overall graduate GPA of 3.0 in order to graduate.
Have a grade of B- or better in all courses applied toward the PhD degree.
Pass the preliminary examination, the comprehensive examination, and the final defense of dissertation.

Prior to attempting the comprehensive examination:

The student must pass the preliminary examination.
The student must satisfy requirement 3 above.