Ph.D. Programme

Ph.D. is a research programme. The dissertation is the centerpiece of the programme. The coursework and qualifiers are there to ensure the necessary breadth in the areas for the student.
The semester wise courses and the planning of Ph.D. study is dependent on the student's background. It is expected that a Ph.D. student takes the relevant courses in first two semesters like the M.S.~by Research students (see above). Thereafter, the steps involved are: research background requirements, breadth qualifying exam, dissertation proposal defense, and dissertation defense.

Minimum course requirements

Students with MTech/ME in CS/ECE:      4 regular courses. All of level 4000 or above.

Others:                                                        8 courses. No more than 2 below 4000 level

No more than 1 project course.

The requirements given above are the absolute minimum that a student must take, whatever his or her background. Students are encouraged to take additional courses to build breadth and depth of knowledge in areas of their choice.

Dissertation and Progress
The Ph.D. degree is based on the dissertation which is expected to be of high academic quality. Procedures to guide the students through the dissertation process and to evaluate them will be adopted by the institute. The details on this is given in the document on the Evaluation of Research Students.

Credits:

A student must register for a total of at least 60 credits of doctoral dissertation to be eligible for the degree.
Externally registered PhD students must register for 4 thesis credits even when they are at their host Institutions. Their fees including the student status fees are at half the normal rates while they are away.

Research Background Requirements:

A doctoral student should take the reading course to build the necessary depth in the broad research topic and complete the Research Background Requirments before the end of 6 semesters.

Breadth Qualifiers:

A Ph.D. student should clear a set of qualifying exams to test his or her breadth of knowledge in Computer Science.  Each student gets a maximum of 2 chances to clear the breadth qualifiers. They must be finished within 6 semesters of joining the programme.

Dissertation Proposal:

A doctoral student is expected to defend his or her dissertation proposal to an appropriate committee.  A student is declared a Ph.D. candidate after this requirement is satisfied. This is expected to be accomplished before the end of 10 semesters.

Dissertation:

The dissertation is the central piece of the requirements of the Doctoral degree.  The dissertation is expected to be supported by accepted publications in conferences and journals of repute.

Academic Performance:

The student should maintain a CGPA of 7.0 in the coursework to become a Ph.D. candidate.

Residency requirements:

• 6 semesters minimum. The maximum duration for a Ph.D. is 14 semesters.
• Fees: Full-Time post-graduate fees during the course work.

Details of the Breadth Qualifiers

Necessary breadth in the related areas must be established in the following areas for the Doctoral programme in Computer Science:

• Programming, Data Structures & Algorithms, Theory of Computation.
• Computer Organization, Architecture & Operating Systems.
• Any two of the following:
  • Artificial Intelligence & NLP
  • Databases & Data Mining
• Computer & Communication Networks
• Computer Graphics, Image Processing & Computer Vision.
• Compilers, Verification, & Theory of Computation.
• Communications & Signal Processing.
• Embedded Systems & VLSI.
• Optimization & Numerical Analysis

The breadth qualifiers will be administered in the first week of January and the first week of July of each year.  Each student gets a maximum of 2 chances to clear each paper.  The qualifiers must be cleared within 5 semesters for students joining after a masters degree in CS/EE and in 6 semesters for others.