PhD in Computer Science at North Carolina A&T State University

PhD in Computer Science at North Carolina A&T State University December 5, 2013 Contents Admission...1 Program Requirements...2 Course Work...2 Advisory Committee...2 Residency and Other Requirements...2 Non-course Requirements...3 Curriculum Guide...4 Existing and new courses (Listing)...5 Electives from other departments (Listing)...6 i

Admission For unconditional admission, an applicant with an M.S. in CS must satisfy the following Overall graduate GPA 3.25 GRE verbal score 450 (150 new scale) and quantitative score 700 (155 new scale) Letters of recommendation from at least 3 people who know the applicant An applicant may be granted provisional admission for the following reasons. Has an M.S. in CS but an overall GPA < 3.25 in their M.S. degree Has a non-cs M.S. and is deficient in background courses yet has completed > 4 CS grad courses with a GPA 3.25 Provisional students must convert to unconditional admission with a 3.25 average on grad coursework at the end of the semester when their 9 th credit of grad coursework is completed A highly qualified applicant with a B.S. in CS from an ABET accredited or highly ranked program, but without a M.S. in CS, may apply for direct admission if they have GPA 3.5 over the last 60 course credit hours of their undergrad degree GRE verbal score of 500 (153 new scale) and quantitative score of 750 (159 new scale) Research experience during the undergraduate program. The decision to recommend direct entry is made by the graduate coordinator with recommendation from 2 faculty members International Students Requirements for international applicants Official transcripts from all international universities along with a certified translation and a course-by-course transcript evaluation by an external agency Verification that the required funds are available for support during pursuit of the Ph.D. Applicants whose native language isn t English demonstrate proficiency in one of these ways TOEFL score of 550 on the paper-based version, 213 on the computer-based version, or 79 on the Internet-based Test (ibt). Complete INTERLINK (the English language program), offered by UNCG A degree from an accredited 4-year US college or university, or complete at least 2 years of full-time study at such an institution. Other documents are required by The Graduate School Official transcripts of all college-level academic work A completed application form and application fee A statement of purpose 1

Program Requirements Course Work 72 credit hours of course work beyond the BS Graded courses: (42 hours) 21 hours at the 8XX level 18 hours are required courses, including core courses, viz., o COMP 755 (Advanced Operating Systems) o COMP-785 (Advanced Design & Analysis of Algorithms) o COMP-892 (Doctoral Supervised Research, prerequisite: COMP-991) as well as 6 hours from 1 of the concentrations listed here and 3 hours from a 2 nd o Security COMP-821 Cloud Computing & Security COMP-823 Secure Social Computing o Artificial Intelligence and Web-Based Software COMP-832 Advanced Biometrics COMP-841 Computational Intelligence COMP-872 Social Semantic Web COMP-881 Advanced Multiagent Systems Non-graded courses (30 hours, to be taken in the order listed) COMP-991 (3hrs) Doctoral Qualifying Exam COMP-993 (3hrs) Doctoral Supervised Teaching (Student teaches 1 class) COMP-994 (3hrs) Doctoral Research Exam (prerequisites include COMP-892 COMP-995 (3hrs) Doctoral Preliminary Exam COMP-997 (18hrs) Doctoral Dissertation COMP-994 has as its prerequisite COMP-892, which in turn has COMP-991 as its prerequisite. COMP-993 exposes students to the Preparing Future Faculty program of the Assoc. of American Colleges and Universities and the Council of Graduate Schools To implement, we ll consult with Beck of Villanova (see his letter, Appendix B) At most 18 credit hours at the M.S. level count toward the Ph.D. At most 6 transfer credit hours count for courses beyond the M.S. (cf. the Grad School) The min qualifications of the Grad School are as follows (where 5 is a stricter version) 1. Cumulative average of B (3.0 on a 4.0 scale) 2. Automatic probation when GPA falls below 3.0 3. May be dropped if not removed from probation after 2 successive full-time terms 4. May not repeat a required course in which a C or above was earned. 5. Earning an F in a required course results in termination 6. All I s must be removed during the next term of enrollment Advisory Committee Has 3 grad faculty from the CS Dept., 1 the student s faculty advisor (chair) Additional members at the discretion of the student and their advisor At least 1 member (possibly from outside the dept.) has already served on a Ph.D. committee Administers the Research Examination, Preliminary Examination, and final oral defense Annually evaluates the student s progress Residency and Other Requirements Students must take 44 hours of class credits on campus Must complete the requirements within 7 years from the date of 1 st enrollment No language requirements, no research requirements (other than those listed below) 2

Non-course Requirements & Non-course Requirements Associated Courses Qualifying Examination Based on core topics & areas where student claims Qualifying Examination, COMP-991 competence Supervised Research, COMP-892 Content defined by the 7XX-level courses listed below Administered during the 1 st week of each semester Research Examination, COMP-994 Students encouraged to take it within 1 year of unconditional acceptance Preliminary Examination, COMP-995 Students may take up to 6 component exams Must pass at least 4 with a score 80% Final Dissertation Defense, COMP-997 Students passing < 4 component exams may retake failed ones at the next offering Grad study terminated for failing to pass 4 component exams in 2 attempts Each component exam covers 1 of the courses listed. Two are COMP-755: Advanced Operating Systems and COMP-785: Advanced Design & Analysis of Algorithms. The other 2 courses are any of the following, here organized under themes Software Engineering COMP-710: Software Specification, Analysis, and Design, COMP-711: Software System Design, Implementation, Verification & Validation COMP-681: Formal Methods Security COMP-725: Software Security Testing COMP-727: Secure Software Engineering COMP-620: Information, Privacy, and Security COMP-621: Web Security COMP-726: Network Security COMP-767: Computer Network Architecture Artificial Intelligence and Web-based Systems COMP-625: Artificial Intelligence COMP-740: Advanced Artificial Intelligence COMP-786: Multiagent Systems Research Examination Demonstrate the ability to perform independent research Similar to the Written Preliminary Exam at NC State Complete the Supervised Research course (COMP-892) before taking this exam The student conducts a literature review, identifies a research problem, produces initial results Evaluated on a submitted written report (accessible to a non-specialist) and oral presentation Advisory committee evaluates the student s performance A student who fails has a 2nd chance at the discretion of their committee Preliminary Examination The students and their advisory committee confirm the dissertation topic A public presentation of the proposed research topic and the estimated time to completion Given 1 semester before the final oral defense The outcome pass, conditional pass, or fail is determined by the advisory committee Specified conditions must be met by a given time Failure to pass this, or to meet the conditions within the set time, results in termination of grad study Final Oral Defense No earlier than 1 semester after the Preliminary Examination Outcome determined by the advisory committee Failure results in termination of grad study 3

Curriculum Guide, Ph.D. in Computer Science at North Carolina A&T State Univ. This assumes that the student has completed a master s degree in CS and has transferred 18 credit hours from the M.S. Fall 1 Spring 1 area required course 3 COMP-991 Doctoral Qualifying Exam 3 non-area required course 3 area required course 3 800 level elective 3 800 level elective 3 Fall 2 Spring 2 COMP-892 Doctoral Supervised 3 COMP-994 Doctoral Research Exam 3 Research COMP-993 Doctoral Supervised 3 800 level elective 3 Teaching 800 level elective 3 800 level elective 3 Fall 3 Spring 3 COMP-995 Doctoral Preliminary 3 COMP-997 Doctoral Dissertation 9 Exam Fall 4 Spring 4 COMP-997 Doctoral Dissertation 9 4

Existing Courses Unless stated otherwise, all courses have Credit 3 (3-0) COMP 700. Independent Study COMP 710. Software Specification, Analysis and Design COMP 711. Software System Design, Implementation, Verification and Validation COMP 712. Software Project Management COMP 713. Social Impacts of Software Systems COMP 714. CASE, Automated Development and Information Engineering COMP 715. Decision Support Systems COMP 716. Object Oriented Programming and Software Reuse COMP 717. Software Fault Tolerance COMP 718. Object Oriented Software Engineering COMP 722 E Commerce COMP 723. Intrusion Detection COMP 724. Security and Multiagent Systems COMP 725. Software Security Testing COMP 726. Network Security COMP 727. Secure Software Engineering COMP 732. Advanced Software Tools COMP 733. Parallel Computing Applications New Courses Unless stated otherwise, all courses have Credit 3 (3-0) The designations of required courses are preceded by asterisks. COMP 821. Cloud Computing and Security COMP 823. Secure Social Computing COMP 829. Topics in Software Assurance COMP 831. Biomedical Computing COMP 832. Advanced Biometrics COMP 833. Genetic & Evolutionary Biometrics COMP 841. Computational Intelligence COMP 863. Compiler Optimization COMP 868. Advanced Data Mining1 COMP 871. Social Network Analysis COMP 740. Advanced Artificial Intelligence COMP 741. Knowledge Representation and Acquisition COMP 742. Automated Reasoning COMP 743. Genetic and Evolutionary Gaming COMP 744. Advanced Game Intelligence and Design COMP 745. Computational Linguistics COMP 747. Computer Vision Methodologies COMP 749. Intelligent Robots COMP 750. Distributed Systems COMP 753. Performance Modeling and Evaluation COMP 755. Advanced Operating Systems COMP 765. Data Mining COMP 767. Computer Network Architecture COMP 768. 1 Advanced Data Mining COMP 770. Computer Organization and Programming for Scientific Computing COMP 780. Semantics of Programming Languages COMP 785. Advanced Design and Analysis of Algorithms COMP 786. Multiagent Systems COMP 872. Social Semantic Web COMP 874. Standards & Technologies for E commerce COMP 875. Security Enhanced Operating Systems COMP 876. Secure Architectures COMP 881. Advanced Multiagent Systems COMP 883. Concurrency Formalisms COMP 884. Emergent Semantics COMP 887. Formal Ontologies COMP 885. Doctoral Special Topics COMP 790. Special Topics in Computer Science *COMP 892. Doctoral Supervised Research *COMP 991. Doctoral Qualifying Exam Credit 3 (0 3) *COMP 993. Doctoral Supervised Teaching *COMP 994 Doctoral Research Exam *COMP 995. Doctoral Preliminary Exam *COMP 997. Doctoral Dissertation Variable Credit (3 9) COMP 999. Continuation of Research Credit 1 (1 1) 1 Note that COMP-868 (Advanced Data Mining) is COMP-768 (Advanced Data Mining) promoted. COMP-768 is to be removed. 5

Electives from Other Departments No more than 6 credits from the following may be counted among the 42 credit hours But hours from approved 8XX-level electives from other departments count toward the required 21 8XX-level credit hours All courses have a (3-0) profile unless otherwise stated College of Engineering The courses listed below are only from departments that offer Ph.D. Programs. Electrical and Computer Engineering ELEN-720. Theoretical Issues in Computer Engineering ELEN-721. Fault-Tolerant Digital System Design ELEN-723. System Design Using Programmable Logic Devices ELEN-725. Pervasive Computing Systems ELEN-727. Switching and Finite Automata Theory ELEN-749. Digital Communications ELEN-752. Wireless Information Networks ELEN-762. Network Matrices and Graphs ELEN-821. Advanced Computer Organization and Architecture ELEN-822. Error-Correcting Codes ELEN-823. Advanced VLSI Design ELEN-847. Telecommunication Networks ELEN-848. Information Theory ELEN-849. Data Communications ELEN-850. Digital Signal Processing II ELEN-857. Pattern Recognition ELEN-865. Theory of Linear Systems ELEN-866. Discrete Time Systems ELEN-867. Neural Networks Design ELEN-868. Intelligent Methods for Control Systems ELEN-869. Machine Vision for Intelligent-Robotics ELEN-870. Fuzzy Logic with Applications Industrial Engineering INEN-735. Human-Computer Interface INEN-742. Linear Optimization INEN-812. Advanced Ergonomics INEN-813. Cognitive Systems Engineering INEN-814. Advanced Topics in Human-Machine Systems INEN-832. Information Technology Management INEN-841. Integer and Network Optimization INEN-843. Queuing Theory INEN-844. Reliability and Maintenance Computational Science and Engineering CSE-702. Comprehensive Numerical Analysis CSE-703. Data Structures, Software Principles & Programming in Scalable Parallel Computing CSE-704. Computational Modeling and Visualization CSE-803. Advanced High Performance and Scalable Computing CSE-804. Advanced Scientific Visualization CSE-8XX. Quantitative Genetics and Genome Analysis CSE-8XX. Laboratory Methods for Computational Biology CSE-8XX. High Performance Computing Architecture CSE-8XX. High Performance Termination Detection Techniques CSE-8XX. Computational Methods for Text Mining CSE-8XX. Computational Approaches for Knowledge- Based Systems CSE-8XX. Supplier Chain Management Systems CSE-8XX/CHEM-674 Computational Methods in Protein Modeling and Drug Design Mechanical Engineering MEEN-716. Finite Element Methods MEEN-719. Advanced Computer Aided Design MEEN-848. Digital Control of Machines and Processes MEEN-849. Computer Control of Robot Manipulators 6

College of Arts and Sciences All the following courses are from M.S. programs in this college. Mathematics The following are in the M.S. in Applied Mathematics curriculum with specific, non-educational content and not addressing applications to specific disciplines. MATH 709. Discrete Mathematics MATH 712. Numerical Linear Algebra MATH 731. Advanced Numerical Methods MATH 752. Calculus of Variations and Control Theory MATH 765. Optimization Theory and Applications MATH 781. Mathematical and Computational Modeling MATH 782. Scientific Visualization MATH 791. Interdisciplinary Computational Science Team Project I MATH 792. Interdisciplinary Computational Science Team Project II Biology BIOL-700. Environmental Biology BIOL-704. Cell and Molecular Biology Chemistry CHEM-731. Modern Analytical Chemistry CHEM-732. Advanced Analytical Chemistry CHEM-741. Principles of Physical Chemistry I CHEM-742. Principles of Physical Chemistry II Physics: PHYS-745. Computational Physics (2-3) Sociology: The relevant program here is the Joint Master of Social Work (NCA&T and UNCG) SOCI 701. Seminar in Cultural Factors in Communication School of Business and Economics MS Programs The only relevant courses are from the MIS concentration in the Master of Science in Management (MSM) program. Business Administration BUAD 740. Business Process Management & the Digital Firm BUAD 746. E-Business and E-Commerce School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences The relevant courses in this school are spread across several departments and M.S. programs. Agribusiness, Applied Economics and Agriscience Education AGEC 708 Econometrics AGEC 710 Advanced Microeconomic Theory AGED 709 Study and Application of Technological Advances and Best Practices to Agriculture Animal Science ANSC-771. Bioinformatics and Genome Analysis Natural Resources and Environmental Design AGEN-701. Soil and Water Engineering II AGEN-714. Applied Hydrogeology 7