Computer Engineering, Ph.D.

Coursework for the B.S. to Ph.D. Degree Plan

• All full-time students who are on-site must enroll in the ECE Department Colloquium course (ECE 6012 or 6112) every semester. All supported students must also enroll each semester in the research seminar class (ECE 6011or 6111) that is appropriate to their area.
• All structured coursework must follow the Appropriate Coursework Standards.
• At least 72 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). Additionally,
  • All of the structured coursework must be at the 6000 level or higher. 
  • At least 9 of the 33 hours in structured course work must be in Computer Engineering core courses.
  • At least 12 of the 33 hours in structured course work must be in Computer Engineering prescribed elective courses.
  • Up to 12 hours of the 33 hours in structured course work can be other ECE courses or non-ECE courses.
  • Non-ECE courses used to satisfy the structured course requirement must be related to the field of study and be approved by the student’s advisor.
  • Non-ECE courses must be at the graduate level (6000 level or higher) unless approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.
  • Enrollment in a dissertation course (ECE8399) is required during the semester the dissertation proposal is defended.

Coursework for the M.S. to Ph.D. Degree Plan

• All full-time students who are on-site must enroll in the ECE Department Colloquium course (ECE 6012 or 6112) every semester. All supported students who are doing research must also enroll each semester in the Graduate Seminar class (ECE 6011 or 6111) that is appropriate to their area.
• 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 structured coursework must be at the 6000 level or higher.
  • At least 6 hours of the 15 hours in structured coursework must be in Computer Engineering core courses (see exemption below).
  • At least 6 hours of the 15 hours in structured coursework must be in Computer Engineering prescribed elective courses (see exemption below).
  • Up to 3 hours of the 15 hours in structured course work can be other ECE courses or non-ECE courses.
  • Non-ECE courses used to satisfy the structured course requirement must be related to the field of study and be approved by the student’s advisor.
  • Non-ECE courses must be at the graduate level (6000 level or higher) unless approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.
  • No credit will be given for any course that is equivalent to a course taken in the student’s undergraduate degree program.
  • Enrollment in a dissertation course (ECE8399) is required during the semester the dissertation proposal is defended.

1. Fulfillment of the Breadth Coursework requirement (only for the B,S, to Ph.D. program).
2. Completion of the Qualifying Exam.
3. Preparation of a written dissertation and an oral defense thereof.
4. Completion of all work above in accordance with the procedures described in the Procedures, Requirements, and Standards.

The number of required courses in the M.S. to Ph.D. program can be reduced to two (selected from the core and prescribed electives) for some Ph.D. students, who meet the following criteria:

• They have an MSEE Non-Thesis degree.
• They have at least 2 years of relevant industrial experience past the Masters.
• Their MSEE specialization area was in the same as their Ph.D. research.

If students decide to change their area of specialty, they must now take the full set of five courses, as other M.S. to Ph.D. students do. (If they change areas and their new advisor feels that they don’t need five courses, they can always petition on a case-by-case basis.) The advisor will be in charge of ensuring that the work experience that the students have is relevant and in a related area to the Ph.D. research topic.

Semester Credit Hour Requirements by Category

The table below shows the semester credit hour requirements for students entering the program.

Semester Credit Hour Requirements by Category

Students will take courses from three categories: required core courses, prescribed electives, and other ECE/non-ECE courses (electives). The required courses and prescribed electives are listed below.

Required Core Courses

• ECE 6373 - Adv Computer Arch Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6356 - Introduction to Machine Learning Credit Hours: 3.00
• ECE 6372 - Advanced Hardware Design Credit Hours: 3.0

Prescribed Elective Courses

• ECE 6346 - Vlsi Design Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6311 - Introduction to Robotics Credit Hours: 3
• ECE 6357 - Introduction to Cybersecurity Credit Hours: 3
• ECE 6360 - Parallel Algorithms for GPUs and Heterogeneous Systems Credit Hours: 3.00
• ECE 6370 - Advanced Digital Design Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6321 - Principles of Internetworking Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 7373 - Adv Topics in Comp Arch Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6328 - Cmos Analog Integrated Circuit Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6336 - Intro to Architecture of RTOS and IoT Credit Hours: 3
• ECE 6332 - Wireless Telecomm Systems Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6331 - Advanced Telecommunications Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6302 - Introductn To Neuroengineering Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6339 - Biophotonics Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6337 - Stochastic Processes in Signal Processing and Data Science Credit Hours: 3
• ECE 6364 - Digital Imag Processing Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6333 - Signal Detec & Est Thry Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6342 - Digital Signal Process Credit Hours: 3.0
• ECE 6466 - Integrted Circ Engr Credit Hours: 4.0
• ECE 6397 - Selected Topics Credit Hours: 3

• ​Selected Topics:

  • Hardware Verification
  • Machine Learning and Computer Vision
  • Advanced Imaging Techniques

1. Completing the Qualifying Exam.

Ph.D. students must pass a qualifying exam (QE), consisting of an oral and a 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 typically to be administered prior to the fourth long semester for a B.S. - Ph.D. student and prior to the third long semester for a M.S. - Ph.D. student. The qualifying exam committee must be approved by the Director of Ph.D. in Computer Engineering Program before the QE can take place. Once the QE has taken place, the Chair of the QE committee will inform the student and the Graduate Advisor about the outcome of the exam. If a student changes advisors after passing the QE, the Department does not require the student to re-take the QE. However, the new advisor may choose to accept the QE status or request that the student repeat the QE exam.

The Qualifying Exam Committee shall consist of at least three members. At least two of the members shall be faculty members in Computer Engineering disciplines in the ECE Department. At least three members need to be faculty in the ECE Department (regular faculty, instructional faculty, or faculty with a joint appointment). There is no maximum number of committee members. All committee members need to have a Ph.D. or equivalent. The chair of the committee will be one of the committee members from the ECE Department from the Computer Engineering area other than the advisor. The typical format of the exam is that the advisor, in consultation with the other committee members, will assign a small research project to the candidate, who may also receive an initial selection of relevant literature. The project should be assigned no later than the beginning of the semester in which the exam is to take place, and should be designed to test the candidate’s ability to independently conduct research at a level commensurate with their education. The student will give a presentation on the chosen project during the Qualifying Exam and will answer questions by the committee members, to ascertain the student’s level of understanding about the project.

The candidate will prepare an oral presentation of the project results and a written report. The advisor may provide feedback during the preparation of the written report, but the report should be substantially the student’s own work. The report should include a critical review of the relevant literature, a statement of the problem, methods, results, and discussion. The length of the report should be similar to a standard journal paper. The report, copies of the most relevant literature, and a list of courses completed by the candidate should be given to the committee two weeks prior to the oral exam. The oral exam consists of a public presentation of the project, followed by a closed-door oral examination.

The candidate will either pass or fail the exam, and this decision, based on a majority vote of the committee, will be communicated to the candidate immediately after the conclusion of the exam. Failing students may request a second attempt. In that case, the committee will assign additional work, which should be completed (and presented) at the end of the next long semester. Should the student fail the second attempt as well, he/she will be dropped from the ECE department’s Ph.D. in Computer Engineering program. Once the student passes, he/she may proceed with the preparation of the dissertation proposal. 

2. Forming a Dissertation 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. At least three of the members must be faculty whose primary affiliation is ECE. The Committee shall consist of:

• The advisor (from within the ECE Department) as chair.
• At least two faculty members from within the ECE Department in addition to the chair. These members should be from the same general research area as the student.
• At least one member that is from outside the ECE Department. This member can be from outside UH.
• At least one additional member that is either from outside the ECE department, or from within ECE but outside the research area of the student. This committee member can be from outside UH.

Instructional Faculty are allowed to serve on the Committee. They must hold a Ph.D. degree or equivalent. They can also serve as the Chair of the committee, but they must then have an official co-chair who is a regular ECE tenure-track faculty member.

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 needs to submit an updated committee form listing all committee members. Only the new member(s) have to sign the form, but this form needs to be completed at least two weeks prior to defending the proposal or the Dissertation.

3. Defending 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 . The Thesis/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 register continue to enroll in ECE 8399 . The student should adhere to the dissertation submission deadlines posted on the department calendar. 

4. Completing the Dissertation Document

When most of the research has been completed, the student should describe the main results to the committee and describe plans for the contents and structure of the dissertation. A student may request that the members of the committee review and comment on a preliminary version of the dissertation. This procedure is encouraged since it should provide the student with ideas of how to enhance the quality of the dissertation and should facilitate its acceptance.

When preparing the Dissertation, it is critical to follow the guidelines defined by the College of Engineering.

A student should provide the members of the committee with the final version of the dissertation no later than two weeks prior to the dissertation presentation and defense. The student should be aware that he/she may be required to make substantial changes in the dissertation in order to satisfy the requirements of the committee.

5. Defending Dissertation

Each candidate is required to present and defend his/her dissertation at a public meeting and post an announcement with an abstract with the ECE office at least two weeks before defense date. Please check with the ECE Department for further details. The Dissertation Committee will make the final judgment of the acceptance of the defense of the document.

The dissertation announcement is to let the public know that the student has completed successfully his/her research and that he/she is ready for graduation. The announcement must be distributed to all faculty and students. One additional copy must be submitted to the ECE Department for filing.