Electrical Engineering, PhD

Admission Requirements

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Complete application & payment of application fee ($25 domestic/$75 international) must be completed via the online application found on the How to Apply to UH Graduate School.

While there are no minimum test scores or GPA required for admission, most successful candidates meet the following criteria. We recommend that a lower score in one area be balanced by higher scores in another area.

• A Bachelor of Science (BS) or Master of Science (MS) degree in electrical or computer engineering or closely related field.
• GPA ≥ 3.3/4.0.
• Recommended GRE scores: Verbal of 151, Quantitative of 159, and Analytical Writing of 4.0.
• TOEFL of 92 or IELTS of 7 (Required if applicant does not have a degree from a US institution).
• Three letters of recommendation on official letterhead that includes the mailing address, phone number, and email address of the recommender. Other methods of fulfilling the English language proficiency requirement can be found on the International Graduate Students.

Degree Requirements

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Credit hours required for this degree: 84.0 (BS to PhD) or 54.0 (MS to PhD)

Students entering the program with a BS will follow the coursework requirements for the BS to PhD Degree Plan while those entering with an MS will follow the MS to PhD Degree Plan. The remaining requirements are identical for both programs.

1. Coursework for the BS to PhD Degree Plan
   • All structured coursework must follow the Appropriate Coursework Standards
   • At least 84 semester hours of graduate credit beyond the BS, with at least 33 hours in structured course work, and at least 27 hours of research (ECE8x98) and 12 hours of dissertation (ECE8399). The remaining 12 hours may consist of structured course work or research. Additionally,
     • At least 21 of the 33 hours of structured course work should be 6000 level or higher ECE courses.
     • Non-ECE courses related to the field of study must be approved by the student’s advisor and be at the 6000 level or higher.
     • If structured coursework is chosen for the remaining 12 hours, they should be 6000 level or higher when inside ECE, or 5000 level or higher when outside ECE. No more than 6 hours can be at the 5000 level.
     • Enrollment in a dissertation course (ECE8399) is required during the semester the dissertation proposal is defended.
2. Coursework for the MS to PhD Degree Plan
   • All structured coursework must follow the Appropriate Coursework Standards
   • At least 54 semester hours of graduate credit, of which at least 15 hours should be in structured course work and at least 27 hours in research (ECE8x98) and 12 hours of dissertation (ECE8399). Additionally,
     • All of the 15 hours in coursework must be 6000 level or higher.
     • At least 9 of the 15 hours must be ECE courses. The remaining courses can be taken outside ECE with the approval of the student’s advisor.
     • Enrollment in a dissertation course (ECE8399) is required during the semester the dissertation proposal is defended.
3. Fulfillment of the Breadth Coursework requirement.
4. Completion of the Qualifying Exam.
5. Preparation of a written dissertation and an oral defense thereof.
6. Completion of all work above in accordance with the procedures described in the Procedures, Requirements, and Standards Section.

Academic Policies

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Appropriate Coursework

• Courses used to satisfy structured course requirements must receive a letter grade (i.e., not S, U, or W).
• Some departments other than ECE offer graduate level courses (6000 or above) with similar content to ECE graduate courses. In those situations, ECE graduate students must take the ECE version of the course. If the ECE course in question is not offered around the time of the graduating semester, then the student may be allowed to take the non-ECE version by general petition. Please see related deadlines on the department calendar.
• Graduate credit will not be awarded for both the ECE and non-ECE versions of a course.
• Courses offered by other institutions, such as Rice University/UT Health, etc., may be taken with prior approval from both the student’s advisor and the director of the graduate program if a similar class is not offered at UH. For permission to take a non-UH course, complete a general petition and an inter-institutional form, which are linked in our forms page.
• Courses taken for personal enrichment will not count towards the degree and must be approved by the advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies prior to enrollment. Enrichment hours cannot be used to satisfy minimum enrollment requirements when an assistantship is being received.

Breadth Coursework - PhD only

Student must complete, with a B or better, at least two graduate level courses in Electrical and Computer Engineering outside their area of research. These courses should be selected from the following approved list. Courses completed by the student as an MS candidate, while at UH or elsewhere, will be considered.

• Signal and Image Processing
  • ECE 6342 Digital Signal Processing
  • ECE 6337 Stochastic Processes
  • ECE 6364 Digital Image Processing (requires ECE 6342)
• Applied Electromagnetics and Well-Logging
  •  ECE 6340 Intermediate EM Waves
  • ECE 6351 Microwave Engineering
  • ECE 6352 Antenna Engineering
  • ECE 6382 Engineering Analysis I 
• Electronic Materials and Devices
  •  ECE 6312 Fundamentals of Ferromagnetic Materials and Devices
  • ECE 6346 VLSI Design
  • ECE 6347 Advanced Topics in MOS Devices
  • ECE 6358 Optoelectronics and Photonics: Principles and Applications
  • ECE 6349 Applied Solid State Theory
  • ECE 6323 Optical Fiber Communications 
• Micro- and Nanofabrication
  •  ECE 6309 Microlithography for Micro-and Nano-system Manufacturing 
  •  ECE 6314 Design and Fabrication of Nanoscale Devices
  • ECE 6348 Material Science of Thin Films
  • ECE 6466 Integrated Circuit Engineering 
• Control Systems
  •  ECE 6325 State-Space Control Systems
  • ECE 6335 Digital Control Systems
  • ECE 6394 Control System Component Design 
• Power Systems
  •  ECE 6380 Power Electronics and Electric Drives
  • ECE 6378 Power System Analysis
  • ECE 6397 Smart Grid Technology 
• Computer Engineering
  •  ECE 6370 Advanced Digital Design
  • ECE 6336 Advanced Microprocessor Systems
  • ECE 6373 Advanced Computer Architecture
  • ECE 7373 Advanced Topics in Computer Architecture (requires ECE 6373) 
• Intelligent Systems
  • ECE 6376 Digital Pattern Recognition (requires ECE 6337)
  • ECE 6313 Neural Networks 

Qualifying Examination - Ph.D. only

PhD students must pass a qualifying exam (QE), consisting of an oral and/or written component. The exact format of the exam is defined by the research groups and the advisor will inform the student what format is to be used. The qualifying exam is to be administered prior to the fourth long semester for a BS-PhD student and prior to the third long semester for an MS - PhD student. The qualifying exam committee must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies before the QE can take place. Once the QE has taken place, the Chair of the QE committee will inform the student and the Director of Graduate Studies on the outcome of the exam. If a student chooses to change advisors and has completed the qualifying exam, it is up to the new advisor to choose to accept the status or request that the student repeat the exam.

There are currently two exam formats, the General and the Electromagnetics formats. Please ask your advisor which you are to follow.

Grade Point Average and Minimum Performance

The grade point average (GPA) is computed as an average of all courses attempted at the university while enrolled in the graduate program. Graduate students must maintain an overall GPA of 3.0 or better in order to remain in good academic standing.

Should a student’s GPA fall below the minimum, an academic stop will be placed on the student’s record. Students must then seek assistance from their advisor to enroll and to have this stop removed when he GPA is greater than 3.0.

• Minimum Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) for supported students. Students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better in order to remain eligible for tuition fellowships or in-state tuition waivers, when applicable.
• Minimum Cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) for scholarship students. Students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better in order to remain eligible for tuition waivers and scholarships.
• Major Grade Point Average. This average is computed for courses that apply to the degree and must be 3.0 or higher prior to applying for graduation.

Dissertation Guidelines

The Dissertation document is written as part of the PhD degree program. The dissertation should be at such a level as to be a significant contribution to the field of knowledge in electrical and computer engineering, and worthy of publication in one of the recognized professional journals. This section describes the common elements in these documents and specifies any differences.

Here is a summary of the steps a student takes to complete this requirement.

1. Form a Dissertation Committee
2. Write a Proposal and submit it to the Committee for approval and defend the proposal orally
3. Prepare the Dissertation document
4. Defend the Dissertation in a public setting with an announcement filed at least two weeks prior to the defense

More details for each step are provided in the next sections.

Committee

The student should form a Dissertation Committee with the Advisor as chair as soon as the research topic is selected. A Dissertation Committee must consist of at least five members, with

• the advisor as chair,
• at least two additional faculty members from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and
• at least two University of Houston tenure-track faculty member outside this department.

In either case, the advisor can assist the student in forming an appropriate committee. A committee form must be submitted well before the proposal defense is scheduled since the committee must be approved by the Department and Dean’s Office prior to the defense. A student need not be enrolled while requesting to form a committee but must be enrolled when the defense takes place.

Should changes to the committee membership be necessary, the student simply submits an updated committee form listing all committee members. Only the new member(s) have to sign the form, but please complete this at least two weeks prior to defending the proposal or the Dissertation.

Proposal

Once the Dissertation Committee has been formed and approved, the student should prepare and defend a Dissertation Proposal. During the semester where the proposal submission takes place, the student must be enrolled in ECE 8399 (PhD). The Dissertation Committee will approve the proposal by signing the Proposal Form. This form, together with a copy of the proposal document, has to be submitted to the ECE Department by the deadline specified on the semester calendar. The forms for the Dissertation Committee formation and the Dissertation Proposal defense can be obtained from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The proposal document should outline the scope of the research, and it should contain, at least, a statement of the objectives, a review of the relevant literature, and a description of the principal methods to be used. Copies of this proposal should be provided to the members of the Committee.

Since the Committee may request substantial changes in the research objectives, the proposal should be prepared during the early stages of the dissertation research. In no case should a proposal and dissertation defense occur in the same semester.

After the successful defense of the Dissertation Proposal, students should  continue to enroll in ECE 8399 (PhD).

Leveling Courses

Students who do not have a Bachelor of Science in Electrical or Computer Engineering must show competency in four areas:

• Electronic devices
• Circuit theory
• Electromagnetics
• Computers

Students may accomplish this through leveling coursework or by passing a core competency exam. The Graduate Admissions Committee will identify leveling requirements with the assistance of the thesis advisor.

Competence in each area can be demonstrated by passing the following course(s) with a grade of B or better, respectively:

• Electronics (ECE3355)
• Circuit Analysis (ECE2300) and its Laboratory (ECE2100)
• Applied EM Waves (ECE3317)
• Analysis I (ECE3317), Digital Logic (ECE3441), and Microprocessor Systems (ECE4436)

The graduate level courses Microwave engineering (ECE5317) and Computer architecture (ECE5367) may be taken in place of Applied EM Waves (ECE3317) and Microprocessor Systems (ECE4436), respectively, with instructor permission.

Department Academic Policies

Graduate Academic Policies: Cullen College of Engineering  

University of Houston Academic Policies