Computer and Information Science

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) spans a spectrum of topics from (i) materials, devices, circuits, and processors through (ii) control, signal processing, and systems analysis to (iii) software, computation, computer systems, and networking.  The EECS Department at Case Western Reserve supports four synergistic degree programs: Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Systems & Control Engineering. Each degree program leads to the Bachelor of Science degree at the undergraduate level. The department also offers a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science for those students who wish to combine a technical degree with a broad education in the liberal arts. At the graduate level, the department offers the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems & Control Engineering, and Computing & Information Sciences (i.e., computer science). We offer minors in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science (BS and BA), Computer Engineering, Systems & Control Engineering, and also in Computer Gaming, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Electronics.  For supplemental information to this bulletin as well as the latest updates, please visit the EECS Department web site at http://eecs.case.edu.

EECS is at the heart of modern technology.  EECS disciplines are responsible for the devices and microprocessors powering our computers and embedded into everyday devices, from cell phones and tablets to automobiles and airplanes.  Healthcare is increasingly building on EECS technologies: micro/nano systems, electronics/instrumentation, implantable systems, wireless medical devices, surgical robots, imaging, medical informatics, bioinformatics, system biology, and data mining and visualization.  The future of energy will be profoundly impacted by EECS technologies, from smart appliances connected to the Internet, smart buildings that incorporate distributed sensing and control, to the envisioned smart grid that must be controlled, stabilized, and kept secure over an immense network.  EECS drives job creation and starting salaries in our fields are consistently ranked in the top of all college majors.  Our graduates work in cutting-edge companies--from giants to start-ups, in a variety of technology sectors, including computer and internet, healthcare and medical devices, manufacturing and automation, automotive and aerospace, defense, finance, energy, and consulting. 

Each student must satisfy requirements in the following categories:

• Course Work
• Mathematics and Science Requirement
• Research Proposal
• Qualifying Examination
• Dissertation

All programs of study must contain at least 36 hours of courses past the undergraduate degree. All courses must be at the 400-level or higher. Two of the courses must be in a basic science or mathematics. A minimum of 12 hours must be in courses outside the student's thesis area. A student must have attained a minimum 3.25 grade point average (GPA) at the time of graduation. The minimum GPA is calculated based on all courses in the student's Program of Study that carry quality points.

These regulations are in addition to the Academics Regulations of the School of Graduate Studies and the Specific Requirements for the Ph.D. Degree of the Graduate Program in the Case School of Engineering as found in the General Bulletin of Case Western Reserve University.

When applying to this program, please select the CIS (Computing and Information Sciences) option in your application.

Academic Advisor and Research Advisor

Upon arrival each graduate student is assigned an academic advisor from the Computer Science (CS) program faculty, typically the CS graduate representative. By the end of the second semester of study, a Ph.D. student should transfer to a research advisor who may or may not be the same as the academic advisor. Once a research advisor is selected, the research advisor will also serve as the academic advisor, with whom a student consults to ensure that the balance of the Ph.D. course work constitutes a coherent program of study.

If the research advisor is not from the Computer Science program, the student must have an academic advisor from the CS program. The academic advisor may serve as a research co-advisor, if so desired by the student and the research advisor.

Program of Study

Each Ph.D. student must submit a Program of Study detailing his or her course work, Qualifying Examination and dissertation schedules. The Program of Study lists all courses taken beyond the undergraduate degree and shows how these courses satisfy the following course requirements for the Ph.D.:

1. The minimum course requirement beyond the B. S. level is 36 credit hours of courses taken for credit, at least 18 hours of which must be taken at CWRU. The following courses taken for credit will be acceptable:

• All 400, 500, 600 level courses.
• Graduate level courses taken at other institutions approved by the student’s advisor.

The above courses must include the following:

1.1  A minimum of 12 credit hours in the student's dissertation research area.

1.2  A minimum of 6 credit hours in mathematics or basic science.

1.3  A minimum of 12 credit hours of breadth courses that are not in the student's dissertation research area. The courses for items 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 must be disjoint.

1.4  A minimum of 18 credit hours of courses approved by the Computer Science program which can be courses used in item 1.1 and item 1.3. These approved Computer Science courses are listed below.

2. A minimum of 18 credit hours of EECS 701 (Dissertation).

3. The cumulative grade-point average of all CWRU courses on the program of study must be at least 3.25.

4. All Ph.D. students are required to register for and pass EECS 400T, 500T and 600T which are 0 credit hour courses that provide students with teaching experience.

5. All Ph.D. students are required to register for and pass three semesters of "EECS 500: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Colloquium" (a 0 credit hour course) before advancement to candidacy and complete a public presentation of their work.

The Program of Study must be approved by the student's academic advisor and the chair of the EECS Department, and it must be approved before the student advances to candidacy.

Qualifying Examination

The Computer Science Ph.D. qualifying examination is in the form of an oral exam and a written report, assessing the student’s ability to survey a specific research topic, discuss the state-of-the-art in depth, provide a critical description of the literature, and propose creative ideas on improving the state-of-the-art. The written and oral parts of the exam are administered by a committee consisting of three faculty members. The exam is supplemented by the evaluation of the student’s course performance and the final decision is made in a meeting of faculty affiliated with the CS program.

Students who hold an M.S. degree are required to take the qualifying exam at the start of their 3rd semester, and pass the qualifying exam before the start of their 4th semester in the Ph.D. program. Students who do not hold an M.S. degree are required to take the qualifying exam at the start of their 5th semester, and pass the qualifying exam before the start of their 6th semester in the Ph.D. program.

Committee: The exam will be administered by a committee composed of 3 faculty members, at least 2 of them being faculty members whose primary affiliation is Computer Science.  The student will provide 0 to 3 names as suggested committee members and the CS Graduate Committee will appoint  the  committee, taking into account the student's suggestion and maintenance of the load balance of the faculty. If the student has a research advisor at the time of the exam, then the advisor must be a member of the committee, but cannot serve as the chair of the committee. The CS Graduate Committee will make every effort to include a faculty member outside the research area in the committee.  The committee must be appointed at least 2 months prior to the exam.

Format: The student will select a research area from the following list:

1. Algorithms
2. Artificial Intelligence
3. Biomedical informatics
4. Computer Networks and Distributed Systems
5. Databases and Data Mining
6. Software Engineering

The exam committee will ask the student to write a report that adequately demonstrates the student's ability to perform research in their chosen area of research. Specific examples of this might be a survey of a broad area and/or approaches to a specific problem in the area. This will be followed by an oral examination.

Written Report: The student will submit a written report  on the specific research  problem. The report  has to adequately  describe  the  problem  and justify its  relevance,  identify the challenges  associated  with  the  problem, provide a broad  classification of existing approaches, point out their key differences and trade-offs, identify limitations, and propose solutions for these  limitations. The report  must  be at most 10 pages in length  (11 pt font, single-spaced, single  column,  1"  margins)  and  use illustrative figures,  tables,  and  other visual  material to  communicate key  ideas.  In addition, the report must include a comprehensive list of references.  The written report must be submitted to the exam committee three weeks before the date of the oral exam.

Oral  Exam:   In  the  oral  exam,  the  student  will  answer   questions  by  the committee members  on a specific research problem  chosen by the committee in the selected research area, assessing the  knowledge, technical depth, and broader  vision  of the student on the problem. The committee may also ask questions on the fundamentals of computer science as they relate to the specific research problem. The student may prepare slides in advance that will help answer questions or use the chalk board (or both), but the exam will not be in the format of a presentation. The exam will be one hour in duration. All students who are taking the  exam for  the  first time have to  take their  oral exam in the  week  prior  to the beginning or in the first  two weeks of the Fall semester.

Scoring: Each of the three committee members will prepare a report rating the student's exam performance according to the following criteria:

• Fundamentals: Does the student have broad knowledge of fundamental concepts in computer science that will enable the student to understand and tackle the challenges in the specific research area?
• Knowledge   of  Chosen  Area: Does  the  student have  sufficient technical   depth  and command  of  the  key  challenges   and  the  state-of-the-art in  the  chosen  area  of research?
• Vision: Does the  student demonstrate a solid  understanding of the  relevance  of the problem  in  the  context  of scientific progress  and  societal  needs? Does the student show creativity in innovating their chosen area of research?
• Communication.  Can the   student explain   the   concepts   in   an   accessible   and comprehensible manner and handle questions effectively?
• Overall Score for the Written Report and the Oral Exam.

Possible ratings are 2 (Pass), 1(Retake), or 0 (Fail).

Course Work: The student's performance in all courses taken before the exam will also be considered by the CS program faculty in making a decision.  At the time of the exam, the student must have completed at least two 400-level Computer Science courses with a "B" or above. One of these courses must be EECS 454 (Analysis of Algorithms) or EECS 477 (Advanced Algorithms). The second course must be relevant to their chosen area of research. The relevance of the additional course to the research area is subject to approval by the CS Graduate Studies Committee. The following courses are pre-approved for each area:

• Algorithms: EECS 405, EECS 454, EECS 477
• Artificial Intelligence: EECS 440, EECS 491
• Biomedical Informatics: EECS 458, EECS 459
• Computer Networks and Distributed Systems: EECS 425, EECS 428, EECS 441
• Databases and Data Mining: EECS 405, EECS 433, EECS 435
• Software Engineering: EECS 493

Outcome: The final decision will be made by the CS program faculty based on the committee’s reports and the student’s coursework. The outcome of the exam will be one of Pass (the student advances to candidacy), Retake (the student has to retake the exam once more before the end of the following semester. The Retake decision can be partial, i.e. the student may be asked to retake the oral exam only, rewrite the report only, or take/retake a course), Fail (the student will be separated from the PhD program). The decision will be documented by the CS graduate chair and the student will be sent a notification letter.

Advancement to Candidacy

A student formally advances to candidacy after passing the Qualifying Examination and finding a faculty member who agrees to be the student's research advisor. The student should advance to candidacy within one semester of passing the Qualifying Examination.

Students should submit documentation, approved by the academic and research advisor(s), to the Chairman of the Graduate Studies Committee of Computer Science to be admitted to candidacy.

Students who have failed to complete the conditions above within the time limit will be separated from the Ph.D. program. Separation may also occur in the event of failure of the student to maintain a satisfactory GPA. A student who has been separated may not undertake further study for credit toward the Ph.D. degree. With the approval of the Department and the Dean of Graduate Studies, such a student may complete a master's degree, may register as a non-degree student or seek admission to the graduate program of another department.

Dissertation Advisory Committee

Each Ph.D. student must form a Dissertation Advisory Committee which consists of at least 4 members of the University faculty. The student's academic advisor serves as the chair of this committee. Both the chair of the committee and at least one other member must be a regular faculty member whose primary affiliation is with the Computer Science program. The committee must also include one member whose primary appointment is not in the Computer Science program.

Dissertation Proposal

The Ph.D. student must write a formal thesis proposal and defend it in an oral presentation to his or her Dissertation Advisory Committee. Normally this is done within a year of advancing to candidacy. A student who fails to defend his or her thesis proposal can attempt to defend it a second time after modifying the thesis proposal, but a second failure will cause the student to be separated from the program.

Dissertation

The student's dissertation must be original research in CS which represents a significant contribution to existing knowledge in the student's research area, a portion of which must be suitable for publication in reputable research journals or selective peer-reviewed conferences. In addition to the written dissertation, the doctoral candidate must pass an oral examination in defense of the dissertation. The Dissertation Advisory Committee is responsible for certifying that the quality and suitability of the material presented in the dissertation meet acceptable scholarly standards. To satisfy requirement 5 of the Program of Study above, if the student has not publicly presented their work at a conference or similar external venue, they must also present the dissertation research in a departmental seminar.

Course List for Program of Study Requirement 1.4

• EECS 405 Data Structures and File Management
• EECS 425 Computer Networks
• EECS 433 Database Systems
• EECS 435 Data Mining
• EECS 439 Web Data Mining
• EECS 440 Machine Learning
• EECS 441 Internet Applications
• EECS 442 Causal Learning from Data
• EECS 444 Computer Security
• EECS 454 Analysis of Algorithms
• EECS 458 Bioinformatics
• EECS 459 Bioinformatics for Systems Biology
• EECS 466 Computer Graphics
• EECS 477 Advanced Algorithms
• EECS 484 Computational Intelligence
• EECS 491 AI: Probabilistic Graphical Models
• EECS 493 Software Engineering
• EECS 496 AI: Sequential Decision Making
• EECS 497 Statistical Natural Language Processing
• EECS 499 Algorithmic Robotics
• EECS 531 Computer Vision

Requirements

• Applicants must have a good academic record, e.g., a B-average or rank in the upper third of his or her graduating class at an institution whose status and programs are readily assessed.
• Applicants must meet all of the undergraduate prerequisites for the proposed field of graduate study.
• Statement of Objectives — Some programs have this built into the application. If not, create your own using "Statement of Objectives" as the heading. The statement should be one to two pages and include your purpose in undertaking graduate work as well as an explanation of your study and research interests as they relate to your undergraduate/graduate study and professional goals.
• Academic Transcripts – You are required to identify all post-secondary educational institutions you have attended on your application form, and to submit an official transcript from each. Admission to the School of Graduate Studies is conditional on final certification of degrees awarded. Note to International Students: Documents in languages other than English must be accompanied by certified translations in English.
• Letters of Recommendation - Three letters of recommendation must be submitted from those individuals sufficiently familiar with you, and who can assess your academic preparation, abilities and accomplishments. Letters should be from your most recent instructors in your proposed field of study. If you have been out of school for several years, one letter may be from your employer, supervisor or other person familiar with your most recent activities.
• Test Scores – Your department will identify required standardized tests. When you fill out forms for these use 1105 as the institutional code for Case Western Reserve University. The School of Graduate Studies will forward all official score reports of standardized tests (GRE, TOEFL, etc.) to the program of interest. The department will inform you which standardized tests are required for your program. International students whose first language is not English must demonstrate English proficiency by taking the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and earn a minimum score of 577 if paper-based, or 90 if Internet-based. The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is also accepted. The minimum acceptable score is 7.0. Some departments may require higher scores. International applicants cannot be admitted without receipt of an acceptable official TOEFL score. The TOEFL is valid for two years after the test date. The GRE is valid for five years after the test date.
• Application Fee - A nonrefundable application fee of $50 is required for each application submitted.