Program Overview

Introduction to the Doctor of Philosophy in Software Engineering

The Department of Computer Science offers a Doctor of Philosophy in Software Engineering, a doctoral program tailored to the student's interests and goals. The program requires a minimum of 75 semester credit hours beyond the baccalaureate degree.

Objectives

The doctoral program in Software Engineering is designed to provide students with advanced knowledge and skills in software engineering, with the goal of producing highly qualified researchers and professionals in the field. The program is tailored to the student, with adjustments 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, and a GPA of at least 3.5 and 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, with a GPA of at least 3.5 in the last 60 semester credit hours, and GRE revised scores of at least 315, 156, 159, and 4 for the combined, verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing components, respectively.

Application Requirements

In addition to the University's general admission requirements, applicants are required to submit the following materials as part of their application file for holistic admission consideration:

• Three letters of recommendation
• A statement of purpose/essay
• A resume
• Optional supplemental items: GRE Scores

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 include:

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

Dissertation Requirements

A dissertation is required and must be approved by the graduate program. A student must arrange for a dissertation advisor willing to guide this 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.

Faculty

The program faculty includes:

• Professors: Farokh B. Bastani, Sergey Bereg, Ovidiu Daescu, Yvo G. Desmedt, Ding-Zhu Du, Paul Fishwick, Xiaohu Guo, Gopal Gupta, Zygmunt Haas, Kevin Hamlen, Sanda M. Harabagiu, Dung T. Huynh, Jason Jue, Latifur Khan, Andrian Marcus, Neeraj Mittal, Dan I. Moldovan, Sriraam Natarajan, Yu-Chung (Vincent) Ng, Tien Nguyen, Simeon C. Ntafos, Ravi Prakash, Kamil Sarac, Haim Schweitzer, Bhavani Thuraisingham, W. Eric Wong, Weili Wu, I-Ling Yen, Rym Zalila-Wenkstern
• Associate Professors: Feng Chen, Lawrence Chung, Jorge A. Cobb, Vibhav Gogate, Benjamin Raichel, Nicholas Ruozzi
• Assistant Professors: Xinya Du, Emily Kyle Fox, Yunhui Guo, Shuang Hao, Rishabh Iyer, Kangkook Jee, Chung Hwan Kim, Jin Kim, Jessica Ouyang, Yapeng Tian, Shiyi Wei, Yu Xiang, Wei Yang
• Professors Emeriti: R. Chandrasekaran, Ivor P. Page, William J. Pervin, Balaji Raghavachari, Ivan Hal Sudborough, Klaus Truemper, Subbarayan Venkatesan, Kang Zhang
• Professors of Instruction: Ebru Cankaya, John Cole, Richard (Douglas) DeGroot, Timothy (Tim) Farage, Shyam Karrah, Pushpa Kumar, Nhut Nguyen, Greg Ozbirn, Miguel Razo-Razo, Jeyakesavan (Jey) Veerasamy
• Associate Professors of Instruction: Sridhar Alagar, Gordon Arnold, Anjum Chida, Wei Pang Chin, Bhadrachalam Chitturi, Michael Christiansen, Chris I. Davis, Karen Doore, Neeraj Gupta, Khiem Le, Anarag Nagar, Mehra Nouroz Borazjany, Jalal Omer, Mark Paulk, Jason W. Smith, Laurie Thompson, James Willson, Nurcan Yuruk
• Assistant Professors of Instruction: Eric Becker, Scott Dollinger, Serdar Erbatur, Ranran Feng, Omar Hamdy, Gity Karami, Kamran Khan, Karen Mazidi, Richard K. Min, Priya Narayanasami, Brian Ricks, Elmer Salazar, Meghana Satpute, Nidhiben Solanki, Srimathi Srinivasan, Yi Zhao