Program Overview

Doctor of Philosophy in Software Engineering

The Doctor of Philosophy in Software Engineering is a 75 semester credit hour program beyond the baccalaureate degree. The program is tailored to the student, who must arrange a course program with the guidance and approval of a faculty member chosen as their graduate advisor.

Program Faculty

The program faculty includes:

• Professors:
  • Farokh B. Bastani
  • Ovidiu Daescu
  • Gopal Gupta
  • Kevin Hamlen
  • Dung T. Huynh
  • Andrian Marcus
  • Yu-Chung (Vincent) Ng
  • Tien Nguyen
  • Simeon C. Ntafos
  • Kamil Sarac
  • Bhavani Thuraisingham
  • W. Eric Wong
  • Weili Wu
  • I-Ling Yen
• Associate Professors:
  • Lawrence Chung
  • Cong Liu
  • Benjamin Raichel
  • Rym Zalila-Wenkstern
• Assistant Professors:
  • Shuang Hao
  • Shiyi Wei
• Professors Emeriti:
  • Balaji Raghavachari
  • Kang Zhang

Objectives

The Department of Computer Science offers a Doctor of Philosophy in Software Engineering. The doctoral program is designed to be flexible, allowing students to tailor their course program to their interests and goals. Adjustments can be made as the student's interests develop and a specific dissertation topic is chosen.

Admission Requirements

A student may be admitted under one of two possible options:

• Admission Option One:
  • A master's degree in computer science or its equivalent
  • A GPA of at least 3.5
  • GRE revised scores of at least 308, 153, 155, and 4 for the combined, verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing components, respectively
• Admission Option Two:
  • A BS in a related area that includes two semesters of calculus and linear algebra
  • A GPA of at least 3.5 in the last 60 semester credit hours
  • GRE revised scores of at least 315, 156, 159, and 4 for the combined, verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing components, respectively Applicants are admitted on a competitive basis.

Degree Requirements

The University's general degree requirements are discussed on the Graduate Policies and Procedures page. The core requirements for the PhD degree in Software Engineering are the same as those listed on the Master of Science in Software Engineering page. Additionally, students must:

• Pass a qualifying examination
• Complete CS 6382 Theory of Computation with a grade of B or better
• Complete two CS or SE 7000 and above level courses
• Complete sufficient CS electives for a total of at least 75 semester credit hours beyond the baccalaureate degree
• Complete at least 9 semester credit hours of organized advanced Computer Science electives at UT Dallas

Dissertation

A dissertation is required and must be approved by the graduate program. A student must arrange for a dissertation advisor willing to guide their dissertation. The student must have a dissertation supervising committee that consists of no less than four members, of whom at least three must be from the Computer Science faculty. Students must enroll in a minimum of 3 dissertation semester credit hours in the degree plan. The dissertation may be in computer science exclusively or may involve considerable work in an area of application.