Program Overview

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Electrical Engineering, PhD

Overview

The Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Electrical Engineering is a research-based degree that focuses on advancing the state of knowledge in the field. The program is designed to prepare students for careers in research, academia, and industry.

Admission

Requirements for admission include a strong record of scholarship in a completed bachelor's degree program in a field of engineering, mathematical or physical sciences, and fluency in written and spoken English. The University requires all foreign applicants to show English proficiency by achieving a TOEFL score of at least 577 on the paper-based exam or 90 on the internet-based exam. Submission of GRE scores for graduate applications is NOT required.

Registration

Course registration is performed through the Student Information System (SIS). Each semester before registration, students should update any personal information that may have changed by logging into SIS and editing the appropriate information. All registration holds must be lifted in order to successfully complete the registration process.

Advising

Upon admission to the graduate program, each graduate student is assigned an academic advisor to assist in registration as well as planning a program of study. This is a temporary assignment made by the Department Chairperson based on the student's academic and research interests as identified at the time of application.

PhD Degree Program Requirements

In order to successfully complete the PhD Degree Program, a student must satisfy the following requirements:

• Fulfill all PhD course requirements in the chosen major area
• Have an approved Program of Study and complete the CWRU courses in the approved Program of Study with a cumulative grade point average of 3.25 or greater
• Successfully complete the PhD Qualifying Examination
• Successfully complete the PhD Proposal Defense
• Successfully complete and defend the PhD Dissertation
• Fulfill the PhD residency requirement

PhD Candidacy

The final consideration of whether to admit the student to PhD candidacy will be taken by the PhD Qualifying Committee after the student has passed the PhD Qualifier.

PhD Proposal

After passing the Qualifier and being admitted to PhD candidacy, the PhD candidate is required to pass a Dissertation Proposal Exam on a timely basis, generally within one semester after being admitted to candidacy.

The PhD Oral Defense

The student shall provide an announcement containing a title, abstract, date, time and location of the defense to the ECSE Office of Student Affairs for general distribution at least 10 days in advance of the thesis defense.

The PhD Residency Requirements

All PhD students shall fulfill the PhD residency requirements set forth by the Case School of Engineering and the School of Graduate Studies.

PhD Policies

For PhD policies and procedures, please review the School of Graduate Studies section of the General Bulletin.

Program Requirements

Course Requirements and Academic Program

Each Electrical Engineering PhD student is required to have an Academic Program, approved by the academic advisor, Department Chairperson, and Dean of Graduate Studies, that includes a minimum of 36 credit hours of coursework beyond the BS degree.

• A minimum of two courses in mathematics, statistics, or basic science.
• At least six approved courses from the student's major area of study. At least 4 of these courses must be from within the ECSE department.
• Four additional courses that are not listed under the student's major program area.
• A minimum of 18 hours of PhD Dissertation research as noted by enrollment in and successful completion of ECSE 701 Dissertation Ph.D.
• Successful completion of ECSE 400T Graduate Teaching I, ECSE 500T Graduate Teaching II and ECSE 600T Graduate Teaching III.
• Successful completion of the ECSE 500 ECSE Colloquium requirement.

ECSE Colloquium and Presentation Requirement

The PhD program includes a colloquium and public presentation requirement.

1. All PhD students are required to register for and pass ECSE 500 ECSE Colloquium for a total of three semesters of the PhD Program.
2. All PhD students must give a public presentation of their research, in addition to their PhD dissertation defense.

PhD Qualifying Examination

A student shall be admitted to PhD candidacy only after they have passed the PhD Qualifying Examination. The Qualifying Exam is intended to test the students' knowledge in the student's chosen major program area of Electrical Engineering.

• To assess the PhD student's understanding of the fundamental concepts in Electrical Engineering as embodied in the respective graduate curriculum.
• To ensure that the student have the ability to pursue PhD level research, and have mastered the graduate level coursework necessary to succeed as researchers

Full-time PhD students are recommended to take the PhD qualifier before the beginning of their third semester of full-time (or equivalent) enrollment, and must pass the exam within two years of being admitted to the program. To pass the PhD Qualifier, the student must demonstrate their fundamental knowledge and proficiency in Electrical Engineering as follows:

• Students must demonstrate competency in one of the following areas within electrical engineering in which the electrical engineering faculty have established research thrust areas:
  • Circuits and Instrumentation
  • Robotics
  • Micro- and Nano-systems
• To demonstrate competency in one of these areas, the student must do one of the following:
  1. Take the course for that area and pass that course with a grade of A, or
  2. Pass a written exam for that specific area.