Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science

The Ph.D. in Computer Science degree is aimed at preparing the student for a career in computer science research. The purpose of the Ph.D. program is to educate students for a career in computer science research. The goal is for the quality of Stevens graduates to be on par with those produced by the best Computer Science departments in the country.

Degree Requirements

The Ph.D. in Computer Science requires 84 credits beyond the bachelor’s degree. A prior master’s degree may be transferred for up to 30 credits without specific course descriptions. The 84 credits may be fulfilled by some combination of:

prior Master's degree
enrollment in classroom courses
enrollment in research courses CS960
At least three courses from the Breadth Requirement
Pass a written exam in the subject of algorithms, which will be offered near the end of Fall and Spring semesters. The written exam consists of earning a grade of B+ or better in CS 601 “Algorithmic Complexity,” which is offered in two versions each academic year: First, as a standalone exam each January, or as a regular doctoral-level course each Spring.

The division of a student’s effort between classroom courses and research participation will vary from case to case, and is a decision that should be made by the student in consultation with and with the approval of the student’s advisor. There is no minimum number of classroom courses for the doctorate degree.

Progress Review

Each student’s progress is reviewed by the entire computer science faculty near the end of the fall and spring semesters. Preparatory to this review, the student must submit a brief progress report describing the student’s progress since the last review, as well as his/her plans for the time up to the next review. After drafting the report, the student must submit it to his/her advisor for approval. Once approved, the report must be submitted to the Computer Science department office.

Students who are doctoral “candidates” must also submit a second, separate, report to the Graduate Academics & Student Success’ office. The definition of the term “candidate” is left to each department, and the Computer Science department defines candidates to be students who have passed the qualifying exam, both written and oral parts. A Doctoral Activity Research Report (DAR) must be submitted to the Office of Graduate Academics & Student Success. It is acceptable to write a single report and submit the DAR to the department as well as to the Office of Graduate Academics & Student Success.

The outcome of the progress review meeting is that a student is placed into one of three categories: good standing, probation, or terminated. A student in good standing is making satisfactory progress toward his/her degree, and is expected to follow through on the plans outlined in his/her progress report. A student on probation is making inadequate progress toward his/her degree. A student on probation will receive a letter from the faculty that explains what remedial actions he/she must take to return to good standing, and by what time each action must be taken. No student will be terminated without spending at least the preceding semester on probation.

Research Seminars

Ph.D. students are required to attend Computer Science seminars and their attendance will be recorded. Students failing to meet this requirement may be put on probation at the discretion of the faculty.

Qualifying Exam

The qualifying exam is an oral examination on a syllabus consisting of research papers, prepared jointly by the student and a committee including the advisor and two tenure-track faculty members. The goal is to establish scholarship in an area of research. The exam needs to be completed by the end of the 4th semester. It consists of a presentation, followed by open- door questions from the audience and a closed-door examination from the committee. The committee can pass, fail, or request re-examination (either written or oral).

Dissertation

Students must complete CS 960 Dissertation/Research (hours and credits to be arranged). The dissertation must demonstrate the student’s mastery of the associated topic area, it must exhibit sound research methodology and it must make a unique and substantial contribution to an area of research.

Thesis Proposal

Students must write and present a thesis proposal, where they lay out an intended course of research for their dissertation. The proposal should contain an explanation of the problem and why it is important, a sketch of the proposed solution, and background information that serves to indicate that the problem is unsolved and what prior or related approaches to this or similar problems have already been investigated. The written proposal must be distributed and read by a committee, comprising the persons that are expected to form the student’s dissertation defense committee. The presentation of the thesis proposal is open to the public and it is followed by open-door questions from the audience and committee and closed- door questions from the committee. The committee can pass, fail, or request additional material from the student. The thesis proposal document must be submitted to the committee at least two weeks before the presentation date. The presentation of the thesis proposal must be announced by email (on the CS-faculty and CS-PHD-students lists) at least one week in advance.

Dissertation and Thesis Defense

The department follows the Stevens-wide procedures for the dissertation defense, including committee composition. The defense must be announced at least two weeks in advance on the cs-faculty@stevens.edu and csphd-students@stevens.edu mailing lists as well as a Stevens-wide announcement originating with the Office of Graduate Academics & Student Success. At least one manuscript based on dissertation work must be published on peer-reviewed conference proceedings or journal, at the time of the dissertation defense, and the thesis document must be in the hands of the committee at least four weeks in advance. For more information please refer to the online catalog. The committee can ask major or minor revisions, or fail the student. If major revisions are requested, at least a month of time is required for the student to make the changes and submit an updated dissertation. The amount of time given to the student to make revisions will not exceed 9 months, unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Leave

It is expected that students, once enrolled in the doctoral program, will remain enrolled full-time without interruption until graduation. However, sometimes it is necessary for a student to take a leave for a reason, such as personal difficulty, health, etc. If such a situation arises, the student must petition the faculty in writing for a leave, which, if granted, will last for one semester. To extend the leave, a new petition must be filed. Neither indefinite leave nor excessive repetition of leave is permitted. While the student is on leave, any time limit he/she faces (e.g., completing the qualifying exam within two years) is suspended for the length of the leave.

Exceptions

The faculty reserve the right to make exceptions to any of the rules and procedures described above in order to promote and preserve the health of the doctoral program and to ensure each student’s prompt and effective progress through the program.

Breadth Requirement

Students must complete at least three graduate courses from the courses listed below with an A- and with at least one coming from each category. Additionally, students must pass a written exam in the subject of algorithms, which will be offered near the end of Fall and Spring semesters. The courses and exam must be completed by their 4th semester and students have a maximum of two attempts to pass the algorithms exam (similarly to the older written qualification exams).

Artificial Intelligence

CS 532	3D Computer Vision	3
CS 541	Artificial Intelligence	3
CS 558	Computer Vision	3
CS 559	Machine Learning: Fundamentals and Applications	3
CS 560	Statistical Machine Learning	3
CS 582	Causal Inference	3
CS 583	Deep Learning	3
CS 584	Natural Language Processing	3
CS 589	Text Mining and Information Retrieval	3
CS 598	Visual Information Retrieval	3

Systems, Languages, & Cybersecurity

CS 510	Principles of Programming Languages	3
CS 511	Concurrent Programming	3
CS 516	Compiler Design and Implementation	3
CS 522	Mobile Systems and Applications	3
CS 549	Distributed Systems and Cloud Computing	3
CS 576	Systems Security	4
CS 577	Reverse Engineering and Application Analysis	4
CS 578	Privacy in a Networked World	3
CS 579	Foundations of Cryptography	3
CS 609	Data Management and Exploration on the Web	3
CS 643	Formal Verification of Software	3
CS 665	Forensic Analysis	3
CS 676	Advanced Topics in Systems and Security	3
CS 677	Parallel Programming for Many Core Processors	3
CS 693	Cryptographic Protocols	4

Research Seminars

Ph.D. students are required to attend CS seminars and their attendance will be recorded. Students failing to meet this requirement may be put on probation at the discretion of the faculty.

Qualifying Exam

Thesis Proposal

Dissertation and Thesis Defense

The department follows the Stevens-wide procedures for the dissertation defense, including committee composition. The defense must be announced at least two weeks in advance on the cs-faculty and csphd-students mailing lists as well as a Stevens-wide announcement originating with the Registrar’s office. At least one manuscript based on dissertation work must be published on peer-reviewed conference proceedings or journal, at the time of the dissertation defense, and the thesis document must be in the hands of the committee at least four weeks in advance. For more information please refer to the online catalog. The committee can ask major or minor revisions, or fail the student. If major revisions are requested, at least a month of time is required for the student to make the changes and submit an updated dissertation. The amount of time given to the student to make revisions will not exceed 9 months, unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Leave

Exceptions