A minimum of 30 units of earned graduate credit beyond the Bachelor’s degree is required for the MS degree. Twelve (12) units of graduate course work in Electrical and Computer Engineering are required. As given below, the distribution of the remaining 18 units depends upon whether a student chooses the thesis, project, or courses-only option.

 

Selection of all courses, particularly in the student's major area, is tailored to the student's background via consultation with his/her advisor. Electives are subject to final approval by the Director of Graduate Studies and should be chosen to provide a coherent program.

 

Note: Graduate students may not use more than a total of two ECE 399 and/or 100 level courses for credit toward the MS degree.No courses numbered 99 or lower may be used for credit toward the MS degree

 

The MS thesis must be prepared in a form consistent with the requirements of the Graduate School, as set forth in the Guide for the Preparation of the Master's Thesis. The thesis must be defended orally before a committee composed of the faculty member under whose direction the work was done and at least two other members of the graduate faculty, chosen with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies. One of the graduate faculty members may be from a department other than ECE.

 

For the project option, a written research report is required, which must be approved by the student's advisor and two other members of the graduate faculty, chosen with the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies. The project report is not submitted to the Graduate School. However, a final copy must be submitted to the ECE Department. It need not necessarily be in the form required of a thesis. As required by the Graduate School, a final exam will be given.

 

The Graduate School also requires a final exam for students who choose the courses-only option. The student is not required to generate a written document for the ECE department.

 

Details concerning committee approvals, filing of intention to graduate, and various important deadlines may be found in the Graduate Bulletin, the Director of Graduate Studies Assistant's (DGSA) office, or at www.gradschool.duke.edu/policies_and_forms.

The Graduate School requirements for the Ph.D. degree are as follows:

In ECE, a minimum of 12 graduate courses beyond the Bachelor’s degree are required, distributed as follows:

Newly admitted students coming without an undergraduate EE/ECE background (whether or not they already have an MS degree), in consultation with their initial advisor, will propose a first year curriculum that allocates up to two courses, possibly at the undergraduate level, to fill in the ECE background they may be lacking. This first year curriculum will be reviewed and modified, if necessary, by the Graduate Studies Committee and approved by the DGS before the first day of classes. Note that this requirement does not change the student's total number of units required to graduate.

 

Examinations and Other Requirements:

Successful completion of a Ph.D. requires passing the Qualifying Exam, the Preliminary Exam, and the Final Exam, as described below. Note that the Preliminary and Final examinations must be scheduled while classes at the university are officially in session.

 

PhD Qualifying Process and Examination:

The PhD qualifying process consists of completion of a first-year research project and oral examination. The project is intended to demonstrate the student's ability to assemble and analyze the relevant literature for a given research problem and to make preliminary steps towards his/her own contribution. Selection of an appropriate first-year research topic should be made with the approval of the student's advisor. The project may be started at any time after matriculation. Completion of the project must be accompanied by a written report of approximately 20 pages in length, roughly half of which reviews the field (with appropriate references) and half of which describes the student's own progress to date. Both the report and the oral presentation are expected to be predominantly the student’s own work (without extensive editing assistance, for example), although students are encouraged to practice their presentation before technical audience of their peers. The written project report must be completed and submitted to the examination committee at least fourteen calendar days prior to the date of the oral examination.

 

The oral examination will normally be held before the end of the 14th month from matriculation. The examination committee will consist of four ECE faculty members, including the student's advisor. The three other members of the exam committee will be nominated by the student and approved by the student's advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. All committee members must be on the faculty of the Graduate School. Normally, two faculty members will be from the student's curricular group and one will be from a different curricular group. For the purposes of these assignments, either a faculty member's primary or secondary group affiliation will apply. The proposed exam committee and time should be submitted to the DGS for approval at least 4 weeks prior to the exam date.

 

The oral exam will consist of a 30 minute presentation by the student of his/her research project followed by up to 30 minutes of questions about the work, its context, and relevant literature. In addition, as part of the oral exam, the committee will also question students to assess their general preparation to undertake work in their chosen sub-discipline for a minimum of 30 minutes. The examiners will be mindful of graduate courses already taken, research directions pursued to date, and any specific tentative plans the student may have for future research. The entire oral exam will be limited to 90 minutes. The intent is to assess the student's preparation and potential for graduate level research work in their chosen field. The possible outcomes of the first year exam are "Pass" – the student is qualified to begin work towards the preliminary exam; "Pass with Recommended coursework" – the student is qualified to begin work towards a preliminary exam but certain courses must be taken; and "Fail". A "Pass" or "Pass with Recommended Coursework" outcome requires at least three affirmative votes. Any student failing the qualifying exam on the initial attempt will have one additional attempt at the end of the immediately following semester. Failure of the exam on the second attempt will disqualify the student from further doctoral studies in the Duke ECE program.

 

 

Teaching Assistantship Requirement:

All Ph.D. students must complete two semesters of a Teaching Assistantship (TA) prior to graduation. It is expected that the student will complete this requirement some time during his/her third (3) through eighth (8) semester. Teaching Assistantships will be assigned by the DGS based on the background and interests of the student and the current department needs. Teaching Assistantships are expected to require 10 hours per week on average and may involve such activities as organizing and leading discussion sections, grading homeworks and quizzes, assisting in the development of course materials, supervising laboratory sessions and so forth.

 

Additional Requirements:

In addition to successful completion of the qualifying process and examination, students must have a willing advisor to supervise their research in order to continue in the program. In the event of satisfactory academic performance but difficulty in finding a willing advisor, the DGS will help place students who have completed the qualifying process. Students must demonstrate breadth of general knowledge in ECE through course work as outlined in the degree requirements. For Ph.D. students, a grade of B or better must be obtained in all ECE qualifying courses. These courses need not be completed in the first year, but must be completed prior to the preliminary examination. Note that in order to be certified as making satisfactory progress towards their degree, the Graduate School requires that students must maintain at least a 3.0 (B) cumulative grade point average.

 

Preliminary Exam:

This is an oral examination normally scheduled by a student after he/she has completed most of his/her course work, but prior to the main research of the dissertation. The examination consists of (1) a thesis research proposal presentation and defense and (2) an oral examination of fundamentals in the major field and related work. The length of the examination is at least 90 minutes but no more than 2 hours. The committee that administers this exam is nominated by the student's advisor and is approved by the Director of Graduate Studies and the Dean of the Graduate School at least two months before the exam takes place. The committee must consist of at least five members (including the student's advisor), at least three of which must be graduate ECE faculty members. In addition, as required by the Graduate School, at least one member of the committee must be from another department. In order to successfully complete the preliminary exam, at least four of the five committee members (including the advisor) must vote in favor of a pass.

 

Final Exam:

The final examination is normally administered by the same committee as the preliminary exam, and successful defense of the dissertation requires at least four affirmative votes, including the affirmative vote of the dissertation advisor. A negative vote by the dissertation advisor means that the student fails.

Note: Details concerning important dates and deadlines, filing of intention to graduate, committee approval, and additional details may be found in the Graduate Bulletin or at http://gradschool.duke.edu/academics/degree_reqs/phd_reqs/index.php