Advancement to Candidacy
A student is advanced to candidacy after passing the comprehensive exam and successful defense of the dissertation proposal.
Comprehensive Examination
The comprehensive exam is a university requirement for the doctoral degree. In the CS Department, it takes the form of the Research Proficiency Examination (RPE), covering original research performed by the student. The exam consists of a written paper, public oral presentation, and a public question and answer session. Passing the exam is required before a PhD student can prepare and defend a dissertation. Review more about the comprehensive exam on our Research Proficiency Exam page.
Dissertation Proposal
After passing the comprehensive exam and identifying a dissertation research topic, a dissertation committee will be appointed to the student and will take over the role of the advisory committee (see Advising section above). If the research topic has changed since admission, students should change their faculty adviser to the person that will supervise the dissertation. If a new faculty adviser has been identified, submit a ‘change of advisor form’ to the Graduate Advisor (gccs@pdx.edu). Any changes should be properly recorded and processed by the Computer Science office. The proposal:
- Identifies the general research field (e.g. networks) and presents an annotated bibliography of literature relevant to the particular dissertation topic (e.g. verification of network routing protocols).
- Describes the research problem.
- Describes the proposed approach to solving the problem, including specific methods to be tried.
- Gives a timeline for completing the work.
The written proposal will be circulated among the dissertation committee, and upon satisfactory agreement, the student will publicly present the proposal. The presentation begins with an oral talk, then the dissertation committee will question the student privately.
Students satisfactorily progressing are expected to have a dissertation proposal approved by the end of the third year. The abstract and date for the defense must be submitted to the CS Graduate Advisor at least two weeks in advance of the date of the defense.
Dissertation Defense
Under the direction and consultation of the dissertation committee, Ph.D. candidates must complete a dissertation consisting of original research. The student will prepare, revise, and correct a draft of the dissertation as directed by the dissertation committee until it meets the approval. The work is expected to be a quality of merit publication in refereed journals or conferences.
After preparation of the written dissertation, a candidate’s dissertation committee will conduct a dissertation defense. The candidate is expected to prepare an oral presentation on the research methodology and results. The abstract and date for the defense must be submitted to the CS Graduate Advisor at least two weeks in advance of the date of the defense. The final, approved dissertation should be submitted to csoffice@pdx.edu for posting.
PSU has a set of Dissertation Guidelines that describe the format and content requirements for the dissertation.