Program Name : PhD in Computer Science and Engineering

About the Program:

The Ph.D programme in Computer Science and Engineering imparts the knowledge, skills and attitude to do world class research in the area of computer science. Doctorate students are expected to publish their work in leading international journals and conferences pertaining to their area of research. Research programmes leading to M.S/Ph.D. degrees are the main thrust in the institute. These programmes attract students from all corners of the country, in addition to some international students.

The research programmes have a 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 (programming) 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.

Course duration:

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

Eligibility:

All who have completed (or going to complete) BE/B.Tech. or ME/M.Tech. in Engg (any branch including CS/ECE EE/Civil/Inst./Biotech.) or B.Arch. or Master's degree in Science/Maths/IT/ICT/Computer Science or MCA.

Curriculum:

The Breadth Qualifiers consists of two parts, as follows.

Part I: Breadth Course Qualification: It consists of clearing the corresponding courses from both the Foundation and Application areas (see details below)
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.

Foundation Courses

CSC311 Computation Theory (Adv Algorithms & ToC)
CSC315 PoPL with Formal Verification, OOP
CSC318 Principles of Information Security

Application related Courses

CSC335 Computer & Communication Networks
CSC431 Distributed Systems
CSC441 Database Systems
CSC419 Compilers
CSC461 Software Engineering

Additional Notes:

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.
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.

Academics