Electrical Engineering, PhD

The PhD with a major in electrical engineering requires 72 credit hours beyond the bachelor’s degree or 42 credit hours for students entering with a master’s degree.

Required courses, 6–18 hours

Students entering with only a bachelor’s degree will complete 18 hours of required courses. Students entering with a master’s degree will complete 6 hours from the list of required courses not earned with the previous degree.

Required entrepreneurship courses, 9 hours

Prescribed electives, 6 hours

Other electives, 6–18 hours

Students entering with only a bachelor’s degree will complete 18 hours of elective credit. Students entering with a master’s degree will complete 6 hours of elective credit.

Other: individual research, 3–9 hours

Students entering with only a bachelor’s degree will complete 9 hours of individual research. Students entering with a master’s degree will complete 3 hours of individual research.

Dissertation, 12 hours

Additional requirements

In addition to course requirements, PhD students must complete the following.

Residence requirement: consisting of two consecutive terms/semesters of enrollment in at least 9 semester credit hours or three consecutive terms of enrollment in at least 6 semester credit hours.

PhD committee formation: The committee should have at least three members from within the Department of Electrical Engineering, at least one member from outside the department and at least one member from industry.

PhD qualifying requirement: A student shall complete all core courses with a grade of B or better. An oral exam will be conducted by the student’s PhD committee to assure the research readiness of the candidate.

Dissertation proposal defense: An oral presentation of a detailed research plan. The research plan is distributed to the committee well in advance and an examination announcement will be distributed for interested graduate faculty and students.

Dissertation defense: Upon completion, the dissertation is to be distributed to the committee members at least four weeks prior to the final examination date. The candidate will prepare a formal presentation of their dissertation research and results to be defended during an oral exam.