Program Name: PhD in Computer Aided Structural Engineering

About The Program:

The PhD program in Computer Aided Structural Engineering imparts the knowledge and skills towards performing high quality research in the area of Structural Engineering. PhD students are expected to publish their work in leading international journals and conferences pertaining to their area of research.

The program has limited amount of course work, essentially to prepare the student to carry out research, and to develop adequate breadth in the subject area. The main emphasis is on the research work leading to a thesis. This involves delving in depth into a research topic and includes grasping, evaluating and refining ideas, mathematical rigor, problem formulation, literature survey, implementation and performance evaluation. Typically students decide on their research area and faculty advisor within the first year while doing course work. Thereafter, the steps involved are: finishing course work (to build research background and breadth), thesis proposal defense, and thesis defense. Upon clearing the requirements and the acceptance of their thesis proposal, the student works on the thesis, and its successful defense leads to the degree.

Advantages (for the student):

The program offers adequate platform for a student to work on their innovative ideas with self motivation.

Duration:

Flexible (6 semesters minimum; 14 semesters maximum). Typical duration varies between 4-6 years.

Eligibility:

BE/B.Tech or ME/M.Tech in Civil Engineering.

Admission Process:

An all-India examination to test the preparedness of the applicants will be held in May every year. The examination will be held at Hyderabad and a number of major cities in the country depending on the number of applicants from each region. The entrance examination will consist of two papers. Paper I test the general aptitude of the candidate and will consist of objective questions from Mathematics, Programming, and Logical Reasoning. Paper II is the Subject Paper, which tests the candidate's subject knowledge.

Objective:

The aim of the Breadth Qualifiers is to ensure that a PhD student has sufficient breadth in the related areas of the Programme, of which he/she is a student of.

Requirements of Breadth Qualifiers:
The Breadth Qualifiers consists of two parts, as follows.
1.Part I: Breadth Course Qualification: It consists of clearing the corresponding courses from both the Foundation and Application areas (see details below)
2.Part II: Comprehensive Exam: An oral exam meant to test the student’s capacity to do research, problem solving ability.

Part I: Breadth Course Qualification
A student has to take and clear two (2) courses from the Foundations and three (3) courses from the Applications. Satisfactory performance is defined as getting a grade of B or higher in each of these courses.
Students who take an Advanced course instead of the listed course and show satisfactory performance are deemed to have cleared that requirement.

A. Suggested Foundation Courses
Problem Solving with programming
Mathematical Foundations of Solid Mechanics
Structural Dynamics
Finite Element Method

B. Suggested Application related Courses
Numerical Analysis
Earthquake Engineering
Computing Tools
Computer Aided Structural Design
Foundation Design
Advanced Structural Analysis

Additional Notes:
1.For a IIIT-H student who has satisfied the above requirement/s by taking the course in an earlier Programme, will be deemed to have cleared it
2.A student who has done an equivalent course in his earlier institution, would be counselled by his programme (or thesis) advisor. He may then be permitted to take the final exam of the course. The grade requirements are as stated above.

Part II: Comprehensive Exam
This consists of a presentation and an Oral exam based on the work presented. It is meant to assess the student?s capacity to do research and problem solving ability.

A list of problems will be prepared twice a year and offered to PhD candidates. Every student must choose two problems - one from his research area, and one from outside. The student will be allowed a month's time to work on the problem and submit the solution/work done. The student will present the work to a committee, which will then conduct the oral exam of the student.

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